OR Tambo Qatar Airways Customer Service

I am writing regarding a distressing experience I encountered with two of your employees during a recent flight (flight QR 1378 Johannesburg to Doha on Sunday the 18th of Aug). As a first-time traveler with Qatar Airways, my experience has left me deeply dissatisfied and disheartened.

I purchased my Qatar Airways ticket through Flight Centre, and the itinerary provided included a link to your website for baggage allowance information. Following the instructions, I referred to the provided link, which goes to the Qatar official website, which stated that the baggage allowance depends on the flight and booking class and that a single piece of checked baggage should weigh no more than 32kg. Operating under this guidance, I packed a single piece of luggage weighing 28kg.

Upon arrival at the web check-in counters to drop off my luggage, I was informed by a staff member that I would be required to pay for overweight baggage. This came as a complete surprise since the guidelines I reviewed made no mention of a 2x23kg baggage allowance- my flight centre itinerary didn’t state this and neither did my confirmation pass that I got after checking in online. The staff member directed me to speak with a flight controller for further clarification. After waiting approximately 15 minutes, I was met by a man whose name I did not catch, Unfortunately, this individual was not only unhelpful but also extremely rude and dismissive. He responded to my simple inquiry with a hostile tone and showed no interest in a) assisting me or b) actually hearing what I was trying to explain. He not only talked AT me, his inability to provide any guidance on where the correct baggage information could be found on the website only added to my frustration. Subsequently, he passed me on to Puleng Mqosini, who I was led to believe was a supervisor but later discovered was the Cargo Customer Services Agent, after waiting an additional 30 minutes, Puleng arrived and exhibited a similar dismissive attitude. She repeatedly interrupted me, insisting on the 2x23kg baggage allowance without addressing my concern about the clarity of the information on the Qatar Airways website. On my phone i went to the baggage allowance page to show her that the website doesn’t state the 2x23kg allowance and seek assistance, she also was unable to locate the specific details herself. Rather than addressing the issue, she grew increasingly hostile, and said, verbatim, ‘it’s not the airlines duty to tell customers what the baggage allowance is’ and said i again said that’s not my expectation, the expectation I have as a paying customer is for the website to be accurate source of information and she literally shut me down and said it’s either i pay or I don’t fly and then storming off in the middle of our conversation. When I requested her full name to follow up with customer service, she refused to provide it, citing policy reasons, she just said her name is Puleng.

I would like to acknowledge that the other staff members I encountered, particularly those at the web check-in counter, were professional, empathetic, and did their best to assist me despite the circumstances. However, the behavior exhibited by the flight controller and Puleng Mqosini was entirely unacceptable. This experience with Qatar Airways, especially as a first time customer,as I always opt for Emirates, this encounter has left a sour taste and has severely tarnished my perception of your airline. Traveling can already be a stressful experience, and the dismissive and hostile treatment I received only exacerbated that stress and was quite frankly upsetting- no where did I speak out of turn, call them names and anything of the sort- yet they felt very comfortable with their hostility and dismissive attitudes. The customer service standards that were being upheld by these 2 employees in particular, especially as they are meant to be the customers point of reference, i doesn’t align with the level of service the airline claims to provide. Additionally, I recommend that the baggage allowance information on your website be made clearer to avoid future misunderstandings as I still do not know where that particular piece of information is located on the website.