********** trip to Turkey

The experience that we had with your airlines was horrific and mortified! Upon our departure in Cape Town, firstly we were not allowed to board as we did not have a PCR test done. Although your website is very inexplicit, it stated that if one is fully vaccinated, you would not have to comply with pre-departure requirements. Although we had a rapid test done earlier that morning with a negative result, we were still requested to do a PCR test. We had to scramble like animals up and down to get a rapid PCR test when the labs were closed at the airport and merely beg for mercy to have them assist us. We had to pay an amount of R1400.00 to get the test done. We got the results and were able to board the flight.

When we reached Doha we were fine. We specifically asked the Qatar consultant at the desk if anything changed regarding restrictions and if we were allowed to enter Turkey and they advised that we will be fine to enter as we are the last flight that will be allowed into the Country. When we landed in Turkey, our names was on a red list. We were called out of the line and humiliated like we were two *********s infront of everyone because we were from South Africa. We were taken by Police/Security to do a PCR test. After it was done, the said they don’t need the results as they weren’t interested in it. We were told the the world became aware that Turkey closed its boarders to South Africans at 11pm on Friday evening while we were on our flight to Doha and Qatar airlines were well aware of this. Your airlines SHOULD NOT HAVE LET US BOARD THE PLANE TO TURKEY. You should have notified us when we arrived in Doha. But yet you allowed us to board and land in a foreign Country that treated us like animals. We weren’t allowed to leave a room for hours until we begged them to leave because we had to eat something and try to contact our family back home because everyone was worried sick about us. We found a lodging communal area and again, we had to PAY to have a bed to sleep on, R1400.00. Qatar airlines did not even offer to assist us with food or accommodation and then booked us flights back home but the worst possible times. So now we already R2400.00 out of pocket each due to your airlines being extremely *********** about the entire situation as well as travelled to and from Turkey and wasted money and time by travelling and not fulfilling our actual purpose in the first place.Had you not allowed us to leave South Africa, we could have saved our ticket money and all other expenses that we had to incur. Our new flight out of had to be 2:10am and was rescheduled while on-route to Doha from Turkey , it was rescheduled 7 hours later and we had a whopping 23Hour layover with no place to sleep, no luggage for a change of clothes and we had to stay in the same clothing for 4 days!

We would like you to take a moment and get back to us with a solution as we have now lost out on thousands of rands without enjoying our trip. Either consider giving us a refund, a voucher to rebook new tickets or any compensation that will benefit us due to your airlines being *********** and misinformed.