FUNDS TAKEN BUT NO BUSINESS CLASS FLIGHTS - BE AWARE

We booked flights from Cape Town (RSA) to Male (Maldives) on 7 July to fly out on 8 July(last minute booking) - early Thursday morning (8 July) I tried to upgrade our tickets Business class we didn't want to sit cooped up next to other people during the current covid situation. The transaction failed at my first and 2nd attempt. My 3rd attempt went through and funds were deducted from my account immediately. The Qatar page continued to load however, nothing happened. Our tickets were also not upgraded. I proceeded to the Qatar flight control counter at CPT airport to which they told me that the business class seats are already fully booked and they cannot help me. The lady(Sarah) was very friendly however, she couldn't resolve the matter, nor could she find anyone to resolve this. We stood there for over 2 HOURS!!!!! My boyfriend and I then needed to make decision - 1. Miss our flight or 2. Take our flight and fly economy.

We chose option number 2. We flew out in economy. Lisa booked us through and we ended up to be the last people on the flight - they had already called out our names to board our flight.

Today(11 July 2021), I contacted the Qatar whatsapp line, just to be told that a refund will take 28 - 40 DAYS to reach my account!!!!! Not even a "sorry for the inconvenience" - Nada, zilch, NOTHING!!! and in return I need to wait 28+ days for R12,610 to be returned to my account. The person on the chat directed me to their "write a complaint" section WHICH ISN'T WORKING - HOW CONVENIENT!!! I tried to call their UAE lines from Skype but skype isn't allowing me to dial any numbers to talk to them in "english" on the keypad and we're in the Maldives and unable to phone to other countries.

I am appalled at the service received from Qatar on this matter and really hope this does not happen to anyone else!!!! Be careful. The don't care for their customers.