[blangdon]

I think this divides into two separate issues. One is whether they could have technically accommodated me and made the flight. Having boarded the same flight last night, and seen that the boarding time didn't commence till 23:00, with approximately half of the passengers arriving in the last 20 minutes, I think they could have. I had checked in online and just needed to drop my bags. I notice that women are treated much less courteously than men (and have seen this in Indonesia and Singapore as well as at JFK by Qatari staff) Last night I was challenged as to whether I belonged in the business class line (and I did).

The second issue is that when a passenger has a serious problem, what is Qatar's policy as to how the passenger will be treated and assisted? On prior occasions, I have received help, of a courteous and efficient manner. But on this occasion, I felt I was overtly blown off and that further, the manager was modelling very poor customer services practices to her subordinates. This was reinforced last night when I was informed by the same JFK check-in staff that it was not Qatar's "policy" to verify silver privilege numbers within the booking. I think it will be a long time before I elect to travel with them again, particularly to the US.