Had a multi city business class ticket via Doha. Flew JFK to DOH to BLR in February with no problems. Return was supposed to be COK to DOH to JFK on March 18, but things got messy when Qatar Airways operations stopped.
The flight still showed as scheduled in the system even though everything was grounded. Chat through the QR app and WhatsApp actually worked pretty well, agents responded quickly each time.
The issue was the free rebooking window. First it only covered flights up to March 10, then later moved to March 15. The return flight on March 18 was just outside that window and they wouldn’t make an exception.
Tried asking about rerouting to Cathay Pacific, which is on their Tier 1 partner list. They said it could only happen once the flight is officially covered by the disruption window and usually within 48 hours of cancellation.
Ended up not waiting. Booked Cathay Pacific from BLR to NYC independently and requested a refund for the unused Qatar return segment. Since it was considered involuntary, they waived penalties and refunded about half the ticket for one adult and an infant.
Big lesson from the whole situation: if things start collapsing operationally, waiting for the airline to sort it out might mean losing all the remaining seats on alternative carriers.
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