I was excited to try Qatar for the first time, as I had heard good things, however, we had a terrible experience with Qatar at Johannesburg Airport South Africa. Booking reference O4BQTT.
We purchased two tickets from South Africa to Cambodia through the Qatar official website. Our plan was to attend friends' wedding in Cambodia. We had our passports and Cambodia Visa in all in order. When we arrived at check-in, we were told that we would not be allowed to board the plane. Shocked, we ask "why is that"? The staff said that we required a Visa for a connecting flight from Ho Chi Minh city to Sihanoukville and we would not be allowed to board. Horrified, we tried to get more information from the staff, but the lady was incredibly rude and dismissive to us, providing no further information. The person we dealt with was Sunny Masilo, Customer Service Agent. Her service was appalling and she was very rude to us. Nowhere on Qatar website did it mention that we needed a Visa or Transfer Visa for our connecting flight. We booked everything on the official Qatar website. In a panic, we called customer support. The person on the phone struggled with English. We were told we cannot cancel just one ticket or part of the journey, but had to cancel all tickets and the entire journey then rebook. This cost us a small fortune of over R12,000 cancellation fee. We then had to book new flights that were DOUBLE the price, costing us another small fortune.
Overall this was the worst airline experience my partner and myself have ever experienced. It has costs us over R40,000 ($2000, which is a huge amount of money for us) and has left us feeling awful. We are tempted to take legal action against the treatment we received and the money we have lost. I have since lodge a complaint with Qatar, but they have not replied and it has been over 5 business days.
Due to the terrible customer service, rude and dismissive staff, and complete lack of information (that we needed a visa for our connecting flight) we will never use Qatar again and will advise everyone we meet to avoid them.