Qatar Airways Avios flight wrong cancellation email

[RBF]

Hi all

I had to cancel & rebook a QR Avios flight to CPT in J Class for a different date. First, the agent (who seemed to be in call centre in India) was very rude about it & tried to charge me $275, she claimed she has never heard of the $25 cancellation fee & when I asked to speak to someone else she just ended the call. This agent asked for my Privilege Club account password when taking my details, something I found a bit odd. Anyway, I was able to contact them again via the live chat & the new agent apologised & confirmed the cancellation fee was $25 for Avios flights. I then rebooked for a different date but starting my journey in HEL rather LHR (which didn’t have any availability in J Class).

Today I received an email saying that I’ve also cancelled the new flight, which I didn’t & immediately rang QR who confirmed the Avios booking was still live & said that the cancellation team must have confused the previously cancelled flight for the new flight when sending the email. They gave me guarantee that I was still on the flight by resending the confirmation. However, I feel really uneasy to travel at the weekend in case they have really cancelled me and it’s not showing yet (it does take a day or two sometimes as when I cancelled the first one I could still view it for a few days after). The flight was really difficult to find (I searched most major European cities as it was fairly short notice and only for 65000 Avios one way (HEL – DOH is on AY)).

So my question is, if I travel to Helsinki (on BA) & find I’m not on the DOH flight & have to pay for a full fare in J Class on the day (I absolutely have to travel on that date), will my insurance cover me for the cost of a new full fare flight? I have confirmation today from QR that I am still listed as being on the flight (despite the email saying I’ve cancelled – which I’ve not) & as of this evening QR is showing I’m on the flight. Has anybody else ever experienced this?

[John]

RBF wrote:

will my insurance cover me for the cost of a new full fare flight?

This is a question for your insurer.

[JDB]

@RBF – it’s not something an insurer would generally cover, but if they did they would expect you to claim from the airline first and on departure from HEL you have normal EC261 rights.

[BA Flyer IHG Stayer]

If you have a confirmation number surely the new flights are showing in your QR account allowing you to select seats etc and showing a ticket number?

You can also check using the QANTAS MMB as well as Finnair

[QwertyKnowsBest]

This agent asked for my Privilege Club account password when taking my details, something I found a bit odd. Anyway,

Presumably you have changed your password? If not do so then check your ticket as @BAFlyer advises.

[Numpty]

Don’t underestimate Qatar’s ability to muck this up! I’d get in touch with them again and double confirm it’s all sorted. I had a QR flight rebooked a few time due to covid cancellations. Booking showed in account all ok, could choose my seats etc. all ok but no online checkin, which was ok as it was end of covid and my destination had strict entry requirements. At the check in desk after going through the whole check in process without issue, we were then told she couldn’t issue our boarding passes as there was an error in the booking and that it showed I’d already flown on a different flight (!), well one of us, my OH (on same booking) hadn’t yet flown. Was then told to leave the desk as she couldn’t fix it, and maybe I could get a flight for the next day. Got it all fixed myself on the phone, luckily we’d turned up 3 hrs early. So, make sure you have spoken to someone competent at QR and its all ok, don’t put any faith in their online systems, that you have a booking reference or that you can choose your seats – it doesn’t seem to mean anything with QR. Not trying to dramatise this or cause concern, but this was my experience, and the shoulder shrugging of the check in staff was incredible. So don’t leave to chance and hope its all ok, double check on phone.

[RBF]

Thank you all for the helpful advice, I followed them & changed my password & checked on Qatar & Finnair MMB, everything is still showing as normal as of now, I’ll keep checking everyday & get both airlines to send me confirmation again by tomorrow.

@Numpty – I know exactly what you mean, QR is a very temperamental airline even when you’ve paid the full fare, so I wouldn’t put anything beyond them. I just hope I don’t get to Helsinki and can’t board the aircraft and with 2x bags of 32kgs, I’ll have to buy a full J flight. I wonder why some people think the insurance won’t reimburse me in that case?

[RBF]

UPDATE:

QR has confirmed the booking is indeed cancelled and charged me $25 for it but it wasn’t me who cancelled it. The agent said that it was cancelled by one if their agents though she couldn’t find the request for the cancellation, she also said there’s nothing she could do about the $25 but will start an investigation. I am not hopeful at all anything will come of it, so what are my options?

She also said that she could see I asked for confirmation yesterday. This is really bad, how can an airline just do this? I’m scared to rebook with them again. Good thing my BA flight to Helsinki was booked with Avios too, I very nearly bought this leg with cash to save some my Avios, thanked goodness I didn’t but I now feel stranded and there are no more J Class Avios flight on such short notice!

[NorthernLass]

Do you have a record of this conversation (or better still, an email)? I would say that if they’re admitting they cancelled your flight, some EU261 rights may well come into play (as departing ex-EU), though you would probably have a fight on your hands to get QR to comply.

[RBF]

@NorthernLass Yesterday I received an email at 11.55am saying a request to cancel the flight had been received, so I immediately rang them to explain that I didn’t cancel the flight and at 12.02pm an email was sent from them saying the flight is still live and confirmed, so my booking remained. Today at 12.49pm I received an email again saying the flight was cancelled by me, I rang and this time they said the flight is really cancelled but the agent said she could see I had queried the cancellation yesterday, which I said to her was evidence that I hadn’t tried to cancel.

I have just tried to log into my Privilege Club account with the correct password and it was locked but I’ve unlocked it via an OTP. Last time I cancelled an Avios flight on QR, the Avios points were recredited within an hour, it’s been nearly 3 hours since they cancelled the flight and no Avios has been reimbursed yet. Plus, I have a hotel booked in Helsinki airport overnight the day before the flight, not sure if this is even refundable as I got an online deal.