[O.Hammad]

I'm very frustrated with Qatar Airways. They lost my bag and after more than two months I received a ridicules compensation offer. It’s not the fact that they lost my bag is what’s upsetting me; It’s how oblivious they are to the major inconvenience they caused me and how negligent they are dealing with my situation. Qatar Airways customer service is extremely bad and uncooperative. I won’t be flying with them again and will do my best to make sure everybody I know knows about them.

Here's what happened:

I'm a Canadian citizen working in Erbil, Iraq. Last November it was time for me to take my overdue holidays and I decided to go to Thailand for two months. In an effort to indulge myself and persuaded by their ads which claim to be a five stars airline, I chose Qatar Airways. BIG MISTAKE!!!

Flight # QR 447:
I should've guessed the level of service by the time I boarded the plane but it was a two hours flight so I didn't give it much thought. The plane was the worst plane I flew in years! I recently flew with Mideast, Turkish, and Royal Jordanian and all had better equipment.

Flight QR 612 Nov 21:
Plane was much better, service was the regular you expect on long flights like this one (nothing special), But the landing in Bangkok scared us, almost all passengers around me gasped as it was a bit rough.
I had two bags with me and only one came while the other was lost (I had all my clothes in it!) so I went through the airport process thinking that it would arrive on a later flight. My final destination was Phuket not Bangkok so I had to stay in Bangkok which was on my own expense; I was offered nothing by Qatar Airlines. I kept calling and trying to find out where's my bag and what is happening but the customer service was so uncooperative and frustrating, They wouldn't even answer simple question like where was my bag last scanned, all I got from them was "We don't know"…. Who should know then?!!!

I decided not to wait for them any longer since I was two days late for my kickboxing training in Phuket so I gave them my contact information, filled a compensation form detailing my lost items in that bag (which was all my clothes) and flew to Phuket that night.
I called and emailed them many times asking about my bag and I got nothing for weeks! Finally I started receiving emails apologizing for the delay and that they had a found a bag that can be mine but it wasn't. I informed them that it wasn't my bag and waited again for them to reply which took weeks also! The only time they replied within a reasonable amount of time is when I threatened to send a registered letter to the CEO of Qatar Airways (people suggested that online as others were frustrated with Qatar Airways customer service too) But the reply that I got was UNBELIEVABLE! They informed me that Qatar Airways has the authorization to go ahead and issue me a compensation cheque for my bag, The very generous amount of 182$ !!!!!! And when I asked why so very much they told me that the compensation is based on weight! If I was carrying fruits and vegetables it would've cost more! 182$ can barely buy me a new empty bag!

Back in Erbil:
Trying to figure out what to do, I decided to contact Qatar Airways in Erbil hoping to find someone who can help me. The agent I spoke to asked me to forward the last email I received including the settlement form which I did immediately. He called me later that day and told me that I should fill the form, sign it and send it to him so I told him that I won’t settle for 182$ and he assured me that I will get me a fair compensation. When I went back to the office, I read the form and it was a complete liability release for Qatar airways from any responsibility towards my case and by signing I forfeit any rights for future demands! I emailed the agent and told him that I can’t sign a form like that on the hope that Qatar airline will be fair to me when they were not in the first place….. Still waiting to hear from him! I guess he was trying to score points with Qatar airways by tricking me into signing the release form!

That’s the kind of staff Qatar airways hires I guess!