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Well, as you can see, I am not only gonna ridicule companies in my Blog – I also like to document the good things they do. Let me tell you about the little thing that happened to me the other day.
Small disclaimer first: I am already a fan of Qatar Airways. Whenever I can, I fly with them – IMHO they’re simply the best airline based in the Middle East, and that, yes, includes Emirates too. New fleet of planes, smiley staff, amazing First Class on the long distances, and the food, even in Economy, simply two classes better than anything I’ve ever tasted on the plane.
The other day, I was booked on QR 8 AM flight to Dubai. My luck – that was the day when that Bangladeshi plane imploded and the Dubai Airport was shut down. I was already checked in when the news broke, sitting in the Lounge. Within minutes, Qatar Airways personnel was switching people on Abu Dhabi flight which was about to take off. Unfortunately, they could only do it for people without the luggage checked in. My luck again – I NEVER check-in stuff on my Dubai flights – hand luggage is enough for a couple of days, but this time I had the boots…. Well that’s a different story…
Anyway, I came back to the passport control, left the airport and went to Qatar Airways office nearby. Within minutes, they were able to book me on the next Abu Dhabi flight, but now the bag was the problem. I had to go back to checking, and get the boarding pass cancelled and the beg unloaded… Messy, even in much more advanced airports, don’t you think? Qatar Airways guy assured me that he already informed the ground staff and everything will be fine…
Skeptical, I went back to the airport, and yes – they were already informed, and in 10 minutes or less, there was my new boarding pass, my bag re-stickered and checked in! All that followed with smiles and great hospitality!
It is relatively easy to buy the bunch of new airplanes, smile at people and ask them weather they like chicken or beef – you can only really tell if the airline is any good in a crises situation. In this case, whole Qatar Airways ground staff deserves 10 out of 10!
And yes, my bag DID show up in Abu Dhabi… Together with them boots.
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And juuuust as I wrote this all, thinking to post it when I get back to Doha, I’ve boarded QR 111 on Thursday evening, 7PM… 7:20, still sitting in the plane on the tarmac, pilot Luca announces that Doha airport is too busy, so we can’t take off….. 7:45 pilot Luca announces that one of the engines fails to start, he’s calling for the ground staff …. To cut this part short, 8:30 pilot Luca gives up, and we’re unloaded…
Friendly and visibly relieved crew informs all passengers to go to the transfer desk…
And this is where the mayhem begins…
First of all, Dubai Airport is always busy, so there are hundreds of people already at the transfer desk, so when our, already frustrated, group joins, there’s mess, yelling, nervousness. Dubai Aiport staff tries to do their best, but there’s just too many people to be handled at once.
15 minutes later, Qatar Airways representative finally arrives. Person with the name tag “Ali”… To quote one other famous flier, Ali doesn’t look like someone you could give a drawing of a small sheep to take care of… Unfortunately, this impression proves to be completely true…
Arrogantly ignoring the crowd, Ali finds it very important to strike conversations and share jokes with a small group of Qatari youngsters, collecting ONLY their boarding passes, re-booking only them and ignoring all of us others cuing or attempting to ask him what is going on… In a worst racist fashion, unfortunately seen so often in this part of the world, Qataris get sorted out first, then us Europeans, and then everyone else… Mess, nervousness, people pushing and yelling at each other, in short one hell of the night.
In the end, the airline actually did everything right – all Doha bound passengers were loaded on 11 PM flight, which was reasonably fast, and all people having connections transferred to other carriers… But the bad taste remained, all thanks to Ali..
If there’s a point to this story, I guess it is that only the small things matter, and one or two persons make a whole world of difference in crisis situations such as these.
Both of these situations were not Qatar Airways’s fault – Dubai Airport closure on Monday, and engine malfunction of Thursday. In both cases, Airline itself did the right thing, and did it promptly. But, everyone dealing with Qatar Airways ground staff on Monday left Doha Airport pleased that he or she was handled professionally, while every single one of passengers stranded on Thursday cursed Qatar Airways for hours, thanks only to Ali’s ignorance and indifference.
Had QA have a nice person and not Ali-The-Numb-Nut in Dubai to greet passengers taken off the flight, tell us what’s going on and assure us that we will be on 11 PM flight, everything would be perfect and Qatar Airways would have hundreds of satisfied clients telling stories to their families and friends worldwide… Like this, even those gourmet little sandwiches left a very, very bad taste in everyone’s mouth…
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