Maxima

The only thing better about QR is their economy seating in the 777s, 9 across rather than the 10 in EK and EY

martinbkk

And my mentioning its similarity was not to trivialise it either, maybe add a little impression, which admittedly came from an outside source but one I would trust for such a comment.

It leaves me with something of a quandary. I would happily boycott them but to do so would really mean going elsewhere to work. I use them most months and they are the only airline that flies DOH-BKK with times that work. Coupled with the fact my tickets are paid by the company and they will only use QR, its in the contract!

From all I've heard, not a huge amount admittedly, they seem to be shedding western European staff for more compliant nationalities. Further, and without wishing to tar all with the same brush, it seems that many stories involving abusive, arrogant and obnoxious supervisors and managers point to them being of Indian origin. What gives.

flares

sorry

Maxima

The guy mentioned as being responsible for monitoring all personnel is Sri Lanka

martinbkk

Indeed!

OriginalSunshine

I try to avoid QR.
I boycott GulpAir after narrowly avoiding crashing three times (aborted landings) in Bahrain on the same flight (one of which had the wheels touching the runway with fire engines and ambulances chasing after us only for a massive engine surge and landing abort) and then having to fly to Saudi to refuel. I still shove as I write and it was 3 years ago.
Emirates economy is ok. emirates business is rubbish, and the bc staff are hopeless (chattering away in the galley at night, rude etc)
OmanAir is pretty good in comparison and great compared to what it used to be 5 years ago. Lots of direct flights from Muscat.

sicklyman

I stick to Etihad. So far so good. Gulf have shown me the most abysmal customer service I've ever had from a national airline. Never fly them again.

soukie

Shocking article but I am not surprised about anything in Doha. I first visited Doha in 1992 and arrived at the very old airport - the customs still used chalk on bags then to show it had been checked and rifled through most people's suitcases, particularly females. The entry and exit procedures were terrible and you always expected some problem to appear that would stop you entering or leaving the Country. I remember feeling very happy every time I left Doha in those days and still do; the quote by a migrant worker to the deportee "Why are you sad? You're leaving Qatar!" is so true.... Unfortunately I am flying with Qatar Air next week but will now make every effort to avoid them in future. This article confirms that new technology is aiding modern day slavery. I hope the article gets more coverage and I will be sharing it with all my facebook friends who often use the airline. Qatar may have lots of new buildings etc and some good PR companies to enhance the image of anything Doha but the mentality hasn't changed one bit.

Alexa

I believe everything in that article is true...and most likely even worse.
Am I boycotting QA ? Well, my first gut feeling says I should.
But then I would have to boycott every single thing here in Qatar.
And most likely in many other places.
Is that a valid excuse ? Probably not.
But I have made the choice to be here , I know what is going on. I can;t change it.
What I can do is to be as respectful, nice and helpful to people as possible.
At some point in time the whole shaky tower is going to collapse, that much is for sure.
I intend to watch from afar.

shiva

This

scrubbedexpat141

Flown with them once, to 'Nam and back. Quite good.

Much of a muchness any operator nowadays. Emirates are my choice because A: it's convenient and B: the entertainment system is ****ing brilliant. I don't enjoy flying and that selection of shit to watch and listen to is quality.

Will avoid them from now on.

flood2

I believe it to be fairly accurate.

One of my technicians stayed in an apartment building that had QA female crew living in. He said that they had to swipe in and out of the accommodation and had to be in (even on days off ) early each night

soukie

I know some people who work for Gulf Arabs that have to log in and out of work using finger print technology so that they can't fiddle their hours etc. Swipe cards can be used by others to log you in and out. Maybe Qatar Air would be interested

Myusernamewastaken

How do we know that there are not more to the stories? There could be some other real reasons behind and that it's just easier to say thay they broke some company rules of cerfew for example.

Millsyisland

Frankly the entire region is rife with stories like this and you can't boycott everything. Yes I know that's a very selfish and uncaring stance, but still valid to a certain extent?