I’m British, and we’re not a particularly litigious country (yet) but oh, Qatar Airways riled me so much with their poor customer service that I decided to start legal action against them. One letter solved it all. Here’s the story, and how you can do it yourself in a fit of petty rage.
In 2022 we booked a flight from London to Jarkarta and picked Qatar, despite them being a more expensive option. They’re a certified 5-star airline and they’re supposed to be good, right? Wrong.
A few weeks before departure, Qatar changed the flight times, which buggered up our whole schedule, so I asked for a refund or to rebook the flights.
The timings were 2hrs 30 different from the original – if it’s three hours, they have to refund you anyway if you’re not happy with the change. But since it was quite a big change regardless, I thought I’d ask, and the nice customer service chat person said I could have a full refund. Yes, FULL. This turned out to be a lie.
This started a complaint saga that lasted almost a YEAR before it was resolved.
Believe it or not I don’t actually like to complain. Usually the poor sods at the other end of the customer service line are not at fault, and they’re usually overworked, underpaid and not terribly happy. I know because I used to work in a call centre, in a previous life that I’d rather forget.
Nevertheless in this instance, whether I was entitled to a refund or not, they should not have told me I’d definitely get back everything I had paid. If they hadn’t said that, we probably would have made it work and got the flight anyway. They might have been poorly trained or just having a bad day, but this mistake cost me a lot of moolah, and I wanted it back.
This, by the way, is why it’s always a good idea to use online chat instead of calling them. You then have a complete transcript of everything that was said, including when the customer service agent tells you the wrong thing. You might need that transcript in court, as you hold it aloft, victoriously (but I’m getting ahead of myself here). Sure, they record the calls, but good luck getting the recording out of them.
How to SUE AN AIRLINE IN A SMALL CLAIMS COURT
I feel like one of those benches you see on the US: Who Do I Sue? Or 1-800-EVIL-LAWYER (please don’t dial that, it’s probably a real number)
Back to the story. After being promised a full refund and receiving an amount that was about £590/$700 short, understandably I went back onto the online chat with a big dose of WTF. I wasn’t rude, I wasn’t horrible to them… I just said hey, your other agent promised me a full refund and I didn’t get it. They agreed I had been told the wrong thing and said I should raise a formal complaint. Sigh. So I did.
I used Resolver, which is a free service in the UK and it usually works pretty well. Most big companies are aware of it and respond via its infrastructure. But oh no, not Qatar. What they did instead was studiously avoid every single email – all eight of them, with increasing escalations. All ignored.
I could make excuses for them. The World Cup was on. They were very busy. Whatever – there’s no excuse for ignoring several chat sessions and eight emails over a period of 9 months.
I think their technique is to hope that you eventually give up and go away. Not me. Like a seagull mugging toddlers outside a fish and chip shop, I refused to be put off. It was time to wheel out the Small Claims Court threat for the first time ever in my travel life.
Note: I’m in the UK so I used British law. Feel free to do the same with whatever the equivalent is in your country. Similar Small Claims Courts exist in most States.
I wrote a letter (yes, it has to be an actual physical letter… hello last century!) helpfully titled ‘Letter Before Court Claim’. I gave the reference number and an explanation of what had happened, and attached copies of the online chat(s). Apparently, by law, you have to include the following paragraphs if you want to serve notice of a small claim:
“To avoid taking court action, I am willing to use Alternative Dispute Resolution to resolve this problem.
If I do not receive a satisfactory response from you within 14 days of the date of this letter, I intend to issue proceedings against you in the county court without further notice. This may increase your liability for costs.
I refer you to the Practice Direction on pre-action conduct under the Civil Procedure Rules, and in particular to paragraph 13-16 which sets out the sanctions the court may impose if you fail to comply with the Practice Direction.”
Signed…. hacked off me.
Next job was to find out where to send it. You can’t send a UK court claim to Qatar (the country). Well, you could, but good luck with that. It has to be a UK address that the company has. Lo and behold, they have an office in London. Here’s the address in case you need to use it. I sent my letter via signed for/recorded delivery:
Qatar Airways
10 Conduit Street
LONDON W1S 2QR
To my amazement, Qatar Airways paid up days after receiving my letter. By this time, it had been about a year since the original booking. I was happy to finally get the refund but massively unimpressed with the way they dealt with my complaint.
Tips When Complaining to Airlines After They Ignore You
If you’re going to launch into a similar complaint yourself, bear in mind the following rules about taking things to small claims courts (these are UK specific but very similar rules apply to USA courts too)
- Usually you have to show that you’ve exhausted the company’s standard complaint procedure first
- You’ll need evidence (I had the online chat transcript) otherwise it’s your word against theirs
- You’ve got to give them notice (in this case, 14 days) and be open to mediation or alternative dispute resolution. In other words, show you tried to work it all out first, because you’re nice like that
- Small Claims Courts will charge a small fee to take your claim to them, and they have a cap on the amount you can claim. If you’re suing them for something huge, like negligence, then this isn’t the right avenue
Would I fly with Qatar again? Maybe – but only if I was almost certain that I wouldn’t need to change or refund my flight. Whenever I experience their actual service on a flight, I’ll come back and link to it here. Happy sueing!
