My complaint:
I traveled to Tanzania in October ’22 and in order to secure a visa I was advised to book a round-trip ticket. So, in following with the advice I booked a ticket leaving Fresno CA to Tanzania from October 14 with a round-trip returning on November 14. Once I arrived I received an offer to stay for another month and travel to Kenya. However, in order to do so I would have to cancel the flight returning home from Tanzania in exchange book another flight leaving Tanzania on Nov 14 traveling to Kenya. I immediately made several attempts to reschedule this flight online but I received an error code. Unable to settle the matter online I made multiple calls via the number on the site. Unfortunately I was disconnected many times and even when I managed to reach someone the only response I received was Please contact your travel agent for a refund. To my chagrin not only was I unable to speak with a person having called numerous times I was mostly directed to chat with an AI bot and still the response was the same contact your agent for a refund. This was extremely confusing to me since I made the reservations through the AARP website so in fact I was my own agent. Additionally, of the few times someone answered they were short and would allow me to discuss the issue. And sadly, this could have easily been resolved since I only wanted to change the flight to a later date. It is clear to me that they thought that I wanted a refund so rather than taking the time to listen to my issue they hastily brushed me off. In the end, I had to book a flight with another airline to return home and after returning home I filed a complaint with the Better Business Bureau. Now after receiving the complaint Qatar Airlines are now telling me that I was a no show therefore I am only entitled to $139.96. When the truth is I was never once given a chance to make my case so I don’t understand how I could be a no show. I also don’t understand how these companies can quickly take a customers money but it is nearly impossible to be refunded even when they are to blame. Furthermore, I am a disabled army veteran who lives on a fixed income meaning I don’t have extra money to give away. Ultimately this was a trip that I had carefully planned out and saved up for quite some time and its disheartening to come home feeling like I was scammed. I guess moving forward I will purchase my tickets directly from the airport to avoid being cheated in the future.
Any assistance you can offer will be greatly appreciated.
Respectfully,
Margaret Charles
Suggested solution:
I would like to receive the full partial refund as I was not at fault.
