My Letter to Qatar Airways

I couldn't sleep last night because I kept thinking of what I was going to say to Qatar Airways about our lousy treatment. I just emailed the following letter...


Dear Sirs;

I flew your airline for the first time on the 14th of July. I was very impressed with the flight attendants. They were very professional, courteous, and always smiling. The food served on each flight was probably some of the best I have had on an airplane. I am a pilot myself, and in my opinion, all the landings made were some of the smoothest I have ever experienced with an airline. After a long flight from Jakarta to Doha via Singapore, the good feelings I had of your airline came to an abrupt end.

We arrived in Doha in good spirits, and with our CONFIRMED RESERVATIONS, we proceeded to the transfer desk to receive our boarding pass to Athens, Greece. After a long wait at the desk, we were told that Qatar Airways had overbooked our flight to Athens. The agent at the desk said that is was of no fault of our own, and that the airline was responsible.

We were then given no other choice but to take another flight to LONDON delaying our arrival time in Athens by more than EIGHT HOURS. Instead of a three hour flight to Athens, we crossed Europe TWICE to get to Athens, not to mention a long wait in the London Heathrow Airport Terminal waiting for our connecting flight. We were seated in the very back row of the airplane next to the toilets when there were several empty seats in Business Class.

Because we arrived in Athens very late, our hotel we had previously booked had cancelled our reservations. We had to walk the streets of Athens after midnight looking for another Hotel. Because we arrived late in Athens, we were unable to make boat reservations for our trip to Santorini. We had a hotel booked for the 16th of July, and had no option but to fly to Santorini to make our reservation time or we would have lost those reservations as well. The additional flight cost us more money than we had planned on spending to get to Santorini. My wife, traveling out of Indonesia for her first time, became so stressed, that she wanted to cancel our vacation and return to Indonesia. In short, because of your airline's mistake, our short and much needed vacation, began a nightmare.

I have traveled all over the world on hundreds of planes, and I have NEVER heard of passengers being bumped from a flight without compensation. For an airline that is ranked the SIXTH best in the world (according to your magazine), and striving to be one of the best airlines in the world, how can you possibly treat your customers this way?? At a MINIMUM, we should have been offered Business Class seats to London as compensation for Qatar Airway's mistake. I have never been so angry in my life for the way we were treated. I was in shock, and still am in shock over the events that passed.

I plan on sharing this letter as a "Letter to the Editor" with every major newspaper around the world along with every website I can find concerning travel. I will wait, however, until I hear a response from Qatar Airways.

Sincereley,

Scott Graham
Jakarta, Indonesia
Z3S26F (reservation change)