Amit’s e-world

I came home on a Qatar Airways flight that had a stopover at Doha. As an aside, Doha and infact all Middle East airports seem to be great places to shop (duty free). I couldn’t quite believe (for the low prices that I got the ticket for) that the in-flight experience from London to Doha was extraordinarily better than any of the international flights I have been on (….not too many, just Air France and BA). The on-demand video collection was quite outstanding. Watched 3 movies: Casino Royale, Lage Raho Munnabhai and Khosla ka Ghosla. The games collection was also good.The in-flight service was also quite good with toffees being served before takeoff, and hot tissues at frequent intervals. 

However, in the latter half of the journey from Doha to Mumbai (thankfully the shorter half), the aircraft did not even have individual video screens. The earphone that I was given was faulty and so were the two replacements that I was offered after it. Miraculously, all of them had the same fault in that the lower pin was damaged. A lady sitting behind me who asked for water was refused on grounds that meals would be served shortly. The air-hostesses (to be fair some of them) looked as if they had been asked to serve at gunpoint and often ignored "Excuse me" calls from travellers on the pretext that they weren’t hearing it.

Clearly, this was a problem of inconsistency that could have emanated from inconsistent hiring practices or inconsistent training. Something that can not be afforded at least in the airlines industry as it spans across geographies. So the million dollar question is whether I would book a flight again with Qatar, and the answer is Yes, but only if it is the cheapest.