I made a stupid mistake. Why was it so hard for the airline to fix?
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Qatar Airways. Nary a day goes by when the airline doesn’t win an award. On board and online, it trumpets its eight consecutive win as the ‘World’s Best Airline’ from Skytrax. In fact, we gave it ‘Best Business Class Seat and Service’ in our very own Travel and Loyalty Awards last year.
The airline’s place in the market is hard to dispute. The now eight-year old Qsuite remains one of the best, if not the best, business class suites. Qatar Airways is already lining up the ‘Next Gen’ version which is likely to break cover sometime in 2026 or 2027.
On the ground, an extensive network of lounges frequently offer a la carte dining for business class passengers, something offered by very few carriers.
It’s a similar story on board, with Diptyque amenities and polished in-flight service that’s always professional, if not a little robotic. A turndown service is available whilst meals are truly dine-on-demand: on my recent flight I had my dinner at ‘breakfast time’ and crew didn’t bat an eyelid.
The rollout of a caviar service in business class is impressive. It may only be available on 13 routes, but that’s 13 more than pretty much any other airline. Meanwhile, the airline’s roll-out of ultrafast Starlink satellite connectivity on the 777 fleet has outpaced its targets.
Having just flown Qatar Airways to Australasia and back – a lot of flying, even for me – I am still a big fan. Except ….
When things go wrong
When things go right, they really go right. But as soon as there’s a problem things start to fall apart.
In our case, I had accidentally booked my brother’s tickets under the name ‘Alex Jones’ rather than ‘Alexander Jones’, his full name and that printed in his passport.
Obviously, this was entirely my fault. I should have known better. I’ve literally known him all my life!
It wasn’t until we got to the check-in desk at Heathrow that we realised there was a problem, after the Qatar Airways agent highlighted the issue. Fortunately, after 10 minutes or so and a couple of phone calls she said it wasn’t an issue and that she could print a boarding pass with his full name. Phew.
Worried about his return flight (which was booked on a separate ticket), we phoned Qatar Airways Privilege Club whilst on holiday to sort the issue. Unfortunately, it was not so simple.
We were repeatedly told that correcting the name was not possible on Avios redemptions and that the only option would be to cancel the ticket and try to rebook, in the hope that the business class seat would reappear in the Avios pool. I had no doubt that this was a risky strategy.
Why is this Qatar’s policy? My research shows that even a standard cash ticket only allows a name correction of three letters of less; going from Alex to Alexander is an additional five characters.
Clearly, however, it is technically possible given the check-in agent was able to do it at Heathrow. Taking a risk, my brother decided to leave it and try and do the same on his return flight from Brisbane.
Doing nothing proved to be a mistake: the check-in agent insisted they were unable to do anything and that it simply was not possible. She even tried calling internally, only to be told nothing could be done. His only hope was to call the Privilege Club line again. Over the course of around two hours, they both tried to gain approval for what, in theory, should be a simple change.
With just an hour before check-in closed, he tried calling the Privilege Club line again. This time, after pleading his case, he was told to send photos of his passport and driving licence to a particular email and call again when he had done so – no promises made.
With just five minutes to spare, he was told it had been accepted. All he had to do was pay the name correction fee (around £50) and the ticket was reissued.
Hallelujah – but why did it have to be so painful? If it was possible all along, why make it such an arduous process?
Computer says yes
Qatar Airways is far from alone, of course. Airlines are notorious for making notionally simple things complicated – sometimes because ageing IT infrastructure literally prevents it and sometimes simply because of inertia.
Yet Qatar Airways did appear to be particularly difficult here. The same issue with Qantas, for example, was easily (if slowly!) resolved via a single telephone call, for free. I asked other major global airlines what their policies are:
- Austrian Airlines, Brussels Airlines, Lufthansa and SWISS publish a helpful guide confirming that name corrections for nicknames are permitted (such as Bill to William) and, presumably, Alex to Alexander.
- United Airlines allows name corrections when limited to a few letters on a case-by-case basis. However, they confirmed going from Alex to Alexander and Bill to William would both be permitted.
- Virgin Atlantic’s policy allows free name corrections in the case of spelling mistakes or if you have legally changed your name. They confirmed Alex to Alexander would also be permitted.
Even easyJet, a low cost airline, told me that “We apply common sense in using discretion to rectify mistakes such as shortened names free of charge.”
Customer support is just as crucial to the customer experience as seating, food and service; sometimes more so. It is when paying passengers are most stressed that a touch of humanity can go a long way in fostering loyalty.
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