Yes, flyDubai has started charging a credit card surcharge for flight reservations on flydubai.com. Ironically, this fee is listed as “optional extra” in the booking confirmation which is quite laughable.

I hope the authorities take note of this act and do what needs to be done about it.

I have attempted to call them over 10 times now and they come up with all sorts of excuses. Please provide a solution.

The company:

I had made an online reservation with the “world’s leading airline” Etihad Airways to visit Pakistan to attend a friend’s wedding party travelling from Doha. Unfortunately the celebrations were postponed and I ended up calling Etihad office in Doha to request for a cancellation. Here’s how the conversation went:

Me: Hi – I would like to cancel a reservation
Agent: Ok Sir, what is the ticket number or booking reference?

Me: The ticket number is 123456789
Agent: Ok got it. Mr. XYZ, are you sure you want to cancel this??

Me: Yes I am sure. Please cancel it. The cancellation charge is just QR150, correct?
Agent: Let me check for you Sir. … can I put you on hold?

[ put on hold, and the music is terribly loud that I have move the handset away from my ears ]

[ 3 mins have passed ]

Agent: Sir, thank you for your hold..
Me: No problems
Agent: Sir , the total charge is QR230.

Me: 230? How so? While making the reservation it was clearly indicated that the booking penalty is only QR150.

Agent: Sir, yes it is QR150 but additional QR80 is service charge.
Me: Why was I not informed about the service charge at the time of booking by the online system??

Agent: Let me check….

[put on hold and having to near the terrible inaudible loud music]

[ 2 mins passed]

Agent: Sir, thank you for your hold. The total penalty is QR230. 150 for cancellation and 80 for service charge.

Me: [ thinking its no good talking to the agent as she is going to keep repeating the same] Just cancel my booking please.
.
.
.
.
I hung up and decided everyone should know about this before making another booking online with Etihad!!

I am attaching the penalty details here for reference. Etihad just lost a loyal customer thanks to this!

Penalties:

1 – PSGR P1 ADT RULES DISPLAY
FARE COMPONENT 1 ADT DOHLHE EY EOWQA9 PU 1 S
FCL: EOWQA9 TRF: 901 RULE: WBQA BK: E
PTC: ADT-ADULT FTC: XOX-ONE WAY SPECIAL EXCURSION
PE.PENALTIES
BASE FARE
BETWEEN DOH AND PAKISTAN FOR EOWQA9 TYPE FARES

CHANGES

CHARGE QAR 150 FOR REISSUE/REVALIDATION.
WAIVED FOR ILLNESS OR DEATH OF PASSENGER OR FAMILY
MEMBER.
NOTE -
1 CHANGE FREE AND ANY
SUBSEQUENT DATE CHANGE PERMITTED AT THE ABOVE
CHARGE.
—
CHANGE FEES MUST BE CODED AS XP IN THE TAX FIELD.
—————————————
*TY*
>
CANCELLATIONS

CHARGE QAR 150 FOR CANCEL/REFUND.
WAIVED FOR ILLNESS OR DEATH OF PASSENGER OR FAMILY
MEMBER.
NOTE -
THE ABOVE CHARGE APPLIES FOR UNUSED TICKETS.
—
OFFICIAL DOCUMENTATION REQUIRED IN THE CASE OF
DEATH OR ILLNESS OF PASSENGER/FAMILY MEMBER
———————————————–
PASSENGER WILL BE TREATED AS NO SHOW IF ANY CHANGE
/CANCEL REQUEST IS MADE WITHIN 12HOURS BEFORE
DEPARTURE OF FLIGHT/AFTER DEPARTURE OF THE FLIGHT.
CANCELLATIONS PERMITTED FOR CANCEL/REFUND.
NOTE -
REFUND PERMITTED FOR PARTIALLY USED TICKETS
AFTER DEDUCTING ONE WAY.
—
CHARGE QAR 150 FOR NO-SHOW.
WAIVED FOR ILLNESS OR DEATH OF PASSENGER OR FAMILY
MEMBER.
NOTE -
>
NO SHOW CHARGE IS NOT APPLICABLE FOR INFANT
WITHOUT A SEAT.
——–
OFFICIAL DOCUMENTATION REQUIRED IN THE CASE OF
DEATH OR ILLNESS OF PASSENGER/FAMILY MEMBER
———————————————–
PASSENGER WILL BE TREATED AS NO SHOW IF ANY CHANGE
/CANCEL REQUEST IS MADE WITHIN 12HOURS BEFORE
DEPARTURE OF FLIGHT/AFTER DEPARTURE OF THE FLIGHT.
*TY*
>

Surcharges:

1 – PSGR P1 ADT RULES DISPLAY
FARE COMPONENT 1 ADT DOHLHE EY EOWQA9 PU 1 S
FCL: EOWQA9 TRF: 901 RULE: WBQA BK: E
PTC: ADT-ADULT FTC: XOX-ONE WAY SPECIAL EXCURSION
SU.SURCHARGES
BASE FARE
BETWEEN QATAR AND AREA 3

IF INFANT UNDER 02 WITHOUT A SEAT.
ORIGINATING QATAR -
A FUEL SURCHARGE OF USD 9.62 FARE COMPONENT WILL BE
ADDED TO THE APPLICABLE FARE.

ORIGINATING AREA 3 -
A SURCHARGE OF USD 6.50 FARE COMPONENT WILL BE ADDED
TO THE APPLICABLE FARE FOR TRAVEL.

OTHERWISE
ORIGINATING QATAR -
A SURCHARGE OF USD 13.50 FARE COMPONENT WILL BE ADDED
TO THE APPLICABLE FARE PER ADULT/CHILD/INFANT FOR
>
TRAVEL

ORIGINATING AREA 3 -
A SURCHARGE OF USD 6.50 FARE COMPONENT WILL BE ADDED
TO THE APPLICABLE FARE PER ADULT/CHILD/INFANT FOR
TRAVEL.
*TY*
>

The driver demonstrated a very unprofessional behavior, dressed very shabbily (quite rare though!) and showed no sense of safe driving ethics. He was not careful while passing the speed breakers and went speeding on them with the normal speed, leaving a sense of fear. Soon she noticed that he is driving extremely fast and did not maintain any distance with the vehicles ahead of him and always would come close to hitting them, applied instant brakes at signals giving her huge jerks. Twice she had to ask him to drive slowly and twice he assured her of it but never complied. This made her fret badly but left her with no choice except for tolerating him. What was more annoying was that he would always take longer cuts even though when she would guide him on the shorter ones. During the ride, he was even conversing loudly on his personal calls whilst maintaining the high speed.

She reached the destination slightly late to the schedule and vowed never to take a taxi again; this wonderful notion became more strong after she was charged with a fare from International City to Al Qusais of 65 Dhs making her wonder she might have been led on a longer route !! She could not note the taxi number down unfortunately.

I really hope RTA steps up driver education and carries out random checks to maintain quality of Dubai taxis.

On a positive note, kudos to the airport authorities for stopping the process of security scanning luggage and people as you enter the check-in area. This was pointless as everyone is scanned again after the immigration procedures are done.

I had a call of nature and stood up to go to the lavatory which just got available and was besides my last-row seat on a Boeing 777 aircraft. To my surprise, the stewardess simply denied me access physically blocking me and uttering “Not allowed, use the other in the front”. I complied in shock thinking what could be the reason for her behavior considering the very same lavatory was used a few moments earlier by another fellow passenger…

After doing some poking around looking for clues, I found out that that it was the staff lavatory that I was denied access to. Fair enough. But considering Qatar Airways prides itself as “having 5-star ranking for service”, the stewardess could simply have informed me about this instead of the above. And considering the passenger before me was allowed to use the same lavatory, it just doesn’t get settle in with me.

Perhaps it was not the stewardess error but that of Qatar Airways itself for not putting a sign that clearly marks the access area…

Editor’s note: Title of page changed to “Qatar Airways – access denied to lavatory” from the original “Qatar Airways – rude stewardess”

We travelled with my 1 1/2 year old son. Usually, when travelling with so called high class airlines, they’re providing infant meals and toys, but due to the number of children travelling during that time, they didnt offer any infant meal. Well, without infant meal its fine, we have our own anyway, but, what’s shocking is they also didnt offer infant seatbelt. Well, we’re hearing some staff talking that there’s a lot of children and infants thats why they didn’t offer infant seatbelt. Its surprising. How come they weren’t prepared? I mean, aren’t they checking how many childrens/infant are travelling? Arent they checking how many of the passengers need special assistance? Maybe its acceptable from low class or budget airlines, but from a so called world class one.