To
The Respected Chairman, CEO, & Senior Management of Qatar Airways,
Doha, Qatar
Kind Attn : His Excellency. Ali Shareef Al Emadi
Kind Attn : Respected. Mr Akbar Ali Baker
At the outset, I wish to introduce myself, my name is Mr Jitendra Pariani, 54 years from Mumbai, India and me and my family have been privilege Burgundy members of Qatar Airways loyalty program, for quite some time now.
This an important issue that I would like to bring to your notice.
My son, Mr Aryan Pariani, age 20, (Qatar Airways privilege Burgundy Memb no:[protected], has been studying computer science at Georgia institute of Technology at Atlanta, USA since the last 3 years.
My son Aryan, age 20 years, was diagnosed with severe to profound hearing loss in both the ears at age of 4, but despite his physical disability, he worked really hard in his academics and was able to get admission to a prestigious university in the USA through his sheer hardwork and dedication.
Aryan had not visited home(Mumbai) in more than a year, due to the Covid-19 pandemic.So we booked his ticket on Qatar Airways website, on my Citibank visa credit card, to fly from Atlanta to Mumbai on 11th December 2021 on the Qatar Airways flight path, as per details below :
Passenger Name : Mr Aryan Jitendra Pariani
Confirmation No : KXWG63
1)Atlanta to Boston QR 3868
Dec 11, 5.33 pm EST
(Operated by JetBlue Airways in Code-sharing with QR)
2) Boston to Doha-QR 744
Dec 12 ; 10.00pm(EST)
3)Doha to Mumbai_QR 556
Dec 12 ; 8.40 pm (Doha time)
Arrival in Mumbai at 2.30 am
My son Aryan Pariani boarded the first flight on time from ATL. But he was made to wait in the aircraft for more than 2 hours before they finally took off. As a result, they missed the next connecting flight BOS- DOH and hence the entire trip was messed up.
Surprisingly, the layover time was more or less same as the delay in departure of the first flight!!!
He along with some other passengers reached the gate at BOS around 15 min before departure. He pleaded with the QR staff to allow them to board. But the staff cited SOP issues and did not help.He again vehemently pleaded with the staff to let him board as it was not his fault that they were delayed and of course the Qatar staff at Boston ought to have been aware of this! They were rudely informed by the gate staff that is not their problem.The QR staff also rudely told him that they will be offloading his luggage.My son, all of 20 years old, panicked and started frantically calling us.Here we were sleepless trying to call QR staff in Boston & India, without any avail, once the call-center in India picked up the phone but they had no clue whatsoever about this delay and flight missing.
My son was then given tickets 24 hours later to fly out from Boston the next day, that is 12th Dec, at 10pm. An entire day wasted due to no fault of theirs. Their bags went ahead to Doha according to the information given by Qatar staff at the boarding gate in BOS.
The hotel near Bos airport provided by QR was a lousy hotel called Avid & No food coupons were provided to the By-now hungry & tired Aryan.By the time he reached the hotel it was already 11:30 pm local time.
My son Aryan had left his apartment in ATL at 12:30 pm, and he was by now fatigued and ready to collapse. He wasted another hour ordering and eating food (by Uber Eats)and by the time he slept it was post midnight...only to be told that check out time was 11am the next day, 12 th Dec. But by 12 pm, they realised that they had to go to the Logan intl airport to trace their bags which were supposed to come back to Boston for them to pick up and redo the check-in process.
My son was afraid and more stressed since he had taken his RTPCR test about 50 odd hours before the first flight. Now that an entire day had been added to his flight, the test window would expire. Aryan had done the required RTPCR test for international travel at 11.05 am on 9th Dec, keeping in mind the time frame of 72 hours before his first flight out (from ATL).
However, due to the change in travel schedule on account of the delay by the first flight, the 72 hour time window expired by the time he had to board the new flight out from Boston.
Being a Sunday, my son and we from India had a harrowing time calling various testing centres around the hotel where he had been put up, trying to find one that would agree to do the rtpcr test once again for him. Often, he had to speak to a bot. We, his parents, tried calling from our end in India, paying international call charges of course. We were faced with the same problems. Either we encountered the bots again or the centers didn't test non- MA residents.
Before panicking, we decided to check with Qatar Airways about the SOP in such a situation. The SUVIDHA staff at Mumbai international airport advised us to check with Qatar Airways since Mumbai airport would not have any issues with the consequences of a delayed flight schedule. The issue, if any, would arise with the Qatar counters at BOS and DOH.
Qatar Airways call centres were useless, keeping us on hold for 30 mins listening to recorded messages on the loop, until we gave up. So there was NO HELP AT ALL from the concerned (or should I say "unconcerned") airline. Had they helped us with the SOP in case of delays and missed flights, my son and the others would have rested easy instead of running around from pillar to post trying to find out what to do and what not to do
Finally, my son found out that the airport had a testing facility too at Terminal C. Once again, calls to the airport testing center also elicited no response. My son and us and the other passengers have had a harrowing time, totally fatigued and not slept at all since the past two days.
There was no ground staff to help him in such a situation & At the airport, Aryan was again in for a rude shock.His bags were nowhere to be found.
He was in a quandary as to what was to be done next, with Nobody to guide and advise.
Passengers were running between terminals C and E like headless chickens looking for suitcases or for a testing center that was open.
With nobody to help (besides the inputs from friends' contacts) my son was ready to go back to Atlanta and skip coming home altogether!
The Qatar office at the airport (Logan intl) was operational but the staff were "unavailable for meeting with passengers" until the official opening hours for check-in would start, namely, until 6 pm nobody had a clue as to what was the right thing to be done and where or if at all they would find their bags at BOS airport.
Effectively, nearly two days went by with so much stress and anxiety. My son and a few others whose test windows had expired by then opted to take the test again PAYING 250$ at the airport, which conveniently is not covered by any insurance. These people didn't want to risk any further delays.
My son had an exam the next day, within a few hours of landing. After such a rough ride he was ready to collapse and to give up. Productive hours he would have spent studying were gone due to the apathy by Qatar Airways. Customer care ought to be renamed as "Customer, we DON'T care". You cannot treat your loyal passengers like chaff. There are other Airlines one can choose to fly on. Doubtless, after this experience, we will think twice before opting for Qatar.
In a nutshell:
Sleep, peace, precious time gone!
250$ additional expense that could have been avoided had someone from Qatar Airways bothered to explain to the passengers that they wouldn't need to take a test again.
Extra expense traveling by Uber to locate nearby testing centres in BOS that could help them take a test for free(covered by insurance) … All of these trips by my son were in vain.
My son has spent 24 hours in wasteful, pointless stress and running around, time that he was to spend studying for his University's final exam. He is so tired, he will have no time to study for the exam now and may well fare poorly in his exam thanks to your callousness! If my son does badly in his exam that, too, should be on your conscience. You are messing with students' careers.
Attitude of ground staff was supercilious to say the least! Have had similar experiences with Qatar staff at Mumbai airport and Newark airport in the past. We pay good money to buy tickets with any airline company. We expect a courteous and helpful attitude at the very least, not cold, callous apathy.
By right, the Qatar staff should have waived the necessity to take a test again at the nth hour, but having no solid response from the US staff nor the customer care calls that nobody responded to, my son didn't want to risk anything and took the test again for 250$ at the Logan intl airport.
My son Aryan and we, his parents, have had such a harrowing and stressful experience since last two days.All due to no fault of ours.
Also we had to incur expenses of more than 850 US dollars, in getting food, conveyance, frequent international calls since last 2 days and getting an additional PCR test at Boston airport for an exorbitant amount of 250 US dollars, all due to the delay by the airline.The stress & torture that we have gone through is of course, priceless 🙏
In short, Qatar Airways has totally ignored their US customer service commitments in which they promise to do a number of services, which in our case has been disregarded.
Qatar Airways is a royal institution/ airline which we respected till now .Qatar Airways has to take full moral responsibility of this extreme duress and torture suffered by my son(who I mentioned has hearing disability) & us, his parents, who have spent two sleepless worried nights and days, trying to get our son home safely.Courtesy and Professional Service requires that the airline, Qatar Airways compensate us for the above expenditure(and morally, much more) incurred by my son and us.As regards to the torture and stress suffered by us, that is the least that the airline ought to do.
Please take the feedback that when the airline itself gives travel connections(like in this case, which we booked on Qatar Airways website by my credit card)...in case there is a delay from their codesharing partners, in this case from JetBlue, They (Qatar Airways) should have a proper helpline system to facilitate their stranded passengers and guide them through the baggage and other procedures.
Hope that this will be a wake-up call for the airline which we recommended and admired, just two days ago.
Thanks and Regards,
On behalf of Aryan Pariani who is presently in the Qatar airways flight between Boston & Doha
His parents
Jitendra Pariani
Geeta Pariani
Mobile no :
0091- [protected]/[protected]
Email address : [protected]@gmail.com
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People, which provide most of their time at their houses, love to read the stories about the care of parents to their children. However,
Mr Aryan Jitendra Pariani, as a passenger, not as a son, had, likely, the adult ticket for his travel with the Qatar airways and the code share Jetblue carrier from the Hartsfield-Jackson airport, Atlanta, USA, where the first operating air carrier delayed take off on 2 hours, according to your story.
The term "rude" is not equal to "psychopath". It must be argued by the participant, not by his father, before the decision maker. The decision maker on the decision on the "rude behavior" of the unidentified staff member of the airport is not CEO of the Qatar airways, who holds his office in the Qatar Emirate, thousand miles away from Atlanta county.
It is not clear, what was " fault of theirs", where the "fault" had started.
Such description of the casual delay in the air services is happening often due to lack of knowledge of the passenger in the full text of the issuing documents, the ticket including, of the Qatar airways, where the Qatar airways states their phone numbers for the assistance during the ground operations of the the flight.
As to the collapse of Mr Aryan Jitendra Pariani, which was emphesized in the text, the air carrier, which operates the international flight has to refuse the passenger to board, if the health status of the passenger represent clear danger to other passengers or to the time schedule of the crew at the check in point of the flight (from the registration desk till the doors). The practice of carriers of former Soviet states is different.
The reasons of the charge of 250US$ is not seen from the complaint.
It is understood that the long distance flight on the route from the US Hartsfield-Jackson airport to the airport of India represent distress for the passenger.
But the text of the complaint gives a reason to conclude that story was incurred by the mistakes of passenger Mr Aryan Jitendra Pariani, particulary his refusal to read all conditions of the travel for 60 minutes prior to the light, to note necessary phone numbers from the notifications of the Qatar airways rather than a breach of the contractual obligations number KXWG63 of the Qatar airways within the circumstances.
Nevertheless, if the Author considers his rights were violated, he can appeal to the nearest county court or to the district court for the restoration of his rights or for the compensation according to the rules of such court.