[ytadesse]

I recently bought a round-trip ticket to Malaysia from the US, at the Qatar Airways website. My travel dates are in five months: December and January.
On my way to Malaysia, I only wait in DOHA for a few hours to change planes, no problem there. But on my way back I have a 19-hour stop over (from 1pm to 8am the next day). When booking the flights, I wasn’t enamored with the idea of spending 48 hours to get back to the US, but then I taught: “since a 19-hour stopover gets me a complimentary hotel room, I will at least get to sleep well and not be as tired or jetlagged when I get back home". Looking at the information on their website, I read that if my stop over is over 8 hours, I will be provided a complimentary hotel accommodation. You can check it out on their terms and conditions page, that is what I still read today in clear English. They actually have all kinds of other valuable detailed information such as: if you are a first class you get a 5-star hotel room; otherwise you will get a 3-star one, or about visa requirements for transit passengers, and so on.
To my surprise, when I bought the ticket online, there was no ‘print your hotel voucher’ step as I expected, after I completed the ‘choose your meal’ and ‘select your seats’ steps. When I called the airline’s 800-number, the person I talked to wanted to sell me a hotel room for $125/night. When I declined, she didn’t want to hear anymore, she abruptly interrupted me (not the way you treat somebody who has just shelled out $2,200 mere minutes before the call) and directed me to send my complaints to their ecommerce support email address that she provided me with. At this point I had several strikes against the airline. First the deceptive manner they treated the entire hotel accommodations subject. Leading people to believe one thing and then switching on them after they have made the purchase. I have a firm suspicion that there is no ‘print your hotel voucher’ step on their website for all online customers. They only have arrangement for hotel vouchers if customers buy through a travel agent. That should have been stated in clear on their website. Secondly, the manner the CSR kept interrupting me, gave me a clue on lowering my expectation with this company. Forget the TV ads and the 5-start treatement stuff.
I was therefore positively surprised when a couple of days later I received an e-mail from a Customer Relations Officer, with a real person’s name. Unfortunately the content of the email did not please me. It basically said: “After reviewing your ticket I am afraid that your fare does not qualify for free of charge STPC. However you can choose to purchase this product for USD125 per adult when traveling in Economy Class. “. And it ended with the conspicuous “World's 5-star airline” under her name and title.
What a snobbish response! Because what I am REALLY being told here is that the fare I paid is so cheap, that it does not entitle me to expect basic, equal and reasonable treatment as a human passenger. First of all, I don’t consider my $2,200 that cheap! How dare they as a company take my money, and then treat me like my money stinks. My response is: If you truly are a “5-star” airline, act like it; because right now you are the one who should be ashamed. You deceive your customers into expecting they are buying a service; and when they request that service then you turn around and try to shame them that the ticket you sold them is actually the one for cheapos. You are knowingly misleading people to sell more tickets. Maybe you are not impressed with my ticket price, that’s your right, but you should have been upfront with the services included. This is not even a case of fine prints, it’s out right deception. What should I expect next? Will you tell me at the airport that actually I am not allowed to checked-in 2 bags FOR THIS FARE, or no meals served FOR THIS FARE, or give up my seat if overbooked FOR THIS FARE, etc … There is something called consumer protection in this country if want you to continue doing here. Somebody with legal background should look into this.
What is more important to me here in this forum is that the truth be out there in the court of public opinion. People have a pretty good sense of what’s fair and not, and I want them to consider my experience and judge for themselves.
In the end I will have to get a hotel room, I will compare for good value between the one offered for $125 by the airline and others I can get myself online; I have four months to decide. It’s not the end of the world.
Thank you all that have read my somewhat lengthy complaint about a small squabble over a hotel room. But I beleive we do have to name and shame these companies that do transgress ethical/legal rules we live by in our communities. We have to keep in line those corporations (or some of their leaders) that only look after fattening their bottom line by any means necessary, and we should also want to indirectly reward the good guys: the companies that do act with ethics and whose name is not posted on complaint borads such as this one.

[dc2las]

Originally Posted by ytadesse

You can check it out on their terms and conditions page, that is what I still read today in clear English.

Well, unfortunately, you chose not to read the entire page in clear English (http://www.qatarairways.com/us/en/stop-over.html):

Qatar Airways is pleased to offer a convenient transit hotel accommodation for customers who face extended transit times in Doha, en-route to their final destination.

This service is available on a paid or complimentary basis depending on eligibility.

The type and level of airfare that you pay will govern whether you receive the service free of charge (Complimentary) or for a fee (Paid).

To learn of your entitlement, please contact your local Qatar airways office or a travel agent when making your booking.

It seems to me that you made some assumptions without doing your due diligence and then you weren't happy with the outcome. Upon reading that site, I would have certainly talked to someone from Qatar Airways before proceeding with my reservation to find out whether or not my fare was eligible or not.

[ytadesse]

Thank you very much for your opinion dc2las.

My expectations from Qatar Airways were not unreasonable at all, and that is why I have posted my experience for the public be the judge.

My points against the airline are as follows:

1. The terms and conditions of the airline are not as clear as they could have and should have been. Instead they chose to a make a vague statement on eligibility. Therefore customers can only make REASONABLE assumptions: mine were, (a) I have a 19-hour stopover (which is much greater than the prominently talked about 8 hours), and (b) I am flying Economy therefore I get 3-star accommodation (instead of 5-star for 1st class).


2. At the point of sell, any above mentioned vagueness about sold product/service, should be totally cleared up; i.e. how many bags are checked-in free, and yes weather the passenger is eligible or NOT for a free hotel room on their extended stopover in the airline’s hub city. If they had at least offered to add the hotel room for the additional $125 at some point in the checkout process, it would have been a way of un-hiding the surprise, or disclosing the true cost of the ticket (similar to taxes included/excluded). From their vast experience transporting millions of people every year, the airline could have REASONABLY guessed that any human being on a 45-hour inter-continental trip with a 19-hour stopover will need accommodations, unless that person is a super energetic and healthy young adult trying to save some money. Why not offer to sell the hotel room most people will need (because they are older, not as healthy, flying with kids, etc…) upfront? Because the marketeers at the airline are afraid it will balloon the price ticket a bit too much, and people might cancel the purchase and go shop somewhere else. That’s the unethical part of this whole story.


3. My final point, as indicated in the title of my post, is regarding the self anointed 5-star appellation/rank the airline bestowed itself. I certainly would not have been this outraged if I had bought my ticket on a budget airline. I have flown on these and am a very satisfied customer. However for a company that heavily advertises itself as a 5-star airline, you can reasonably expect certain things such as fair treatment of passengers to be standard practice. You should not worry about fine prints when you deal with a 5-star, you can have REASONABLE expectations and they should MEET or EXCEED those expectations. Otherwise they are just masquerading as a 5-star. By the way, I fly to Africa and the Middle East on a yearly basis, and airlines that fly that part of the world such as Kenyan, Ethiopian, and Emirates do provide complimentary hotel accommodations as a standard service for all of their passengers who have an extended stopover in their respective hub cities.


Note: There are people who accept fighting with companies over fine prints as a fact of life. But they fail to see the big picture; most if not all of these “misunderstandings” could be whipped out if companies were not profiting from them. Companies deal with customers all day, everyday; they have seen it all. People have been there before you arguing the same issue with the same company. Companies keep the vague sentences, the grammatically acrobatic phrases, because they do profit from them. They are like little traps they lay out for some of their customers to fall into, to generate extra cash. They have done the statics, the benefits versus cost analysis; It’s all about the bottom line. Remember the late fees and overdraft fees from banks? We have to punish those who abuse our trust (our REASONABLE expectations), by passing legislation that protect us (as in the case of the banks) and by exposing the truth to the wider public to name and shame the culprits (thank the internet for that).