I posted a couple of weeks ago about the problems being caused by the political problems in the Gulf and their impact on Qatar Airways ability to fly passengers to and from neighbouring countries. My problem was a Cairo to Bangkok ticket on Qatar.
Qatar Airways in the UK and USA refused to help until 3 days before travel, but others had reported better luck by calling the office in Hong Kong. I tried this on Friday and after initially thinking they could only change flights in September (still a better deal than the US or UK office), they came back and said it would be fine to change my October/November ticket.
They initially offered Middle Eastern Airlines via Beirut as an option, but this comes with either a very long or very short connection. I asked if they could rebook me from Jordan. A minute later and they confirmed that they can (once) rebook me from anywhere in the ‘Levant’ or ‘Middle East’. They rebooked me in about two minutes and reissued the ticket. They recovered my seats too.
My trick was to get to and from Jordan, but as Royal Jordanian has daily flights, Expedia found me a £400 return ticket (in Business for the Tier Points) which connected fairly well – e.g. with enough padding for me to feel OK in case of delays.
My other ticket to Abu Dhabi from Cairo is in the refund queue at QR, but at least the big trip is fixed.
If you are in the same boat, the call to Hong Kong is worth making and be clear what you want before you call.
(Worth noting if you are impact by QR changing your flight to Not Confirmed, you will lose your seats at this point)
You can also call the USA on the 1800 number, on Skype for free from anywhere in the world. The guys and gals in the FLL office are great and across the detail, more so than Doha. CMB office is also amazing. Anyone in reservations team is across it all as well. And also move a lot faster than poor ol’ Doha
@Robbo – the US office, when I called, refused help until 3 days before I am afraid. Only HKG went the extra mile.
Maybe because I am Platinum made a difference? I always call them now if I need to make changes…..
This crazy airline changes flight times which mean connections are missed, they do not answer their phones or emails and just leave people hanging not know what to do
@Simon – I found their Twitter account can often help
The US office helped me last week – took me all of 15 minutes to get rerouted.
Athens is no longer a viable option to reroute from/to, as I am told that they can only reroute within The Lavant.
So, Beirut and Amman, or Larnaca are QR alternative stations.
I had luck with making my needed change face to face at PHL. The agent was very sympathetic to my concerns and as I was checking in for another flight to DOH at the time she insisted that I go to the BA lounge and have breakfast while she worked on a solution. She promised to call me with details before my flight left. True to her word she called twice to update me on options and to explain the new itinerary. I should note that I had attempted several phone calls to both US based and Qatar based phone agents and all refused anything outside -72 hrs.
Thanks for providing the update on your QA situation.