QATAR AIRWAYS PRIVILEGE CLUB???

Qatar Airways Privilege Club has a knack for making its members feel UNPRIVILEGED!

Just a few minutes ago I was on the phone with my boss who is travelling with her son tonight. We applied for a ticket upgrade from economy to first class for her son and even purchased additional miles to make the upgrade. All the while, after sending them the upgrade form by fax, the ticket has not been processed when we made a follow-up. No one bothered to send an email nor call to inform that the upgrade request was not granted because they needed the same signature as the one on her id. Upon calling them up, that's the only time we learned about it. Repeatedly, I asked if once we send the form with the same signature they will process the ticket and if we need to pick it up from a ticketing office or they will send by email. They said they will send by email within 10 minutes after receiving the fax.

After sending the fax twice and then via email, I called up Qatar Airways again and explained to the Rep who took my call that I am calling regarding the ticket upgrade and that we have sent by fax and by email the form with the signature they are asking for. The Rep immediately said that they will send the ticket by email. I stayed on the phone until she confirmed that the ticket has been sent to my boss' email and to mine as well. After a few minutes, I called up again and another Rep answered. Again, I narrated that we have sent by fax twice and by email once the upgrade form with the Arabic signature and I just wanted to make sure that the ticket bearing the reference number which shows First Class has already been sent by email. Again, I stayed on the phone until the ticket has been sent. All in all, the ticket has been sent twice bearing the booking reference which I checked on Qatar Airways website showing that the booking is under First Class. To my surprise, my boss called me up from the Airport and she said that the ticket has not been upgraded because Qatar Airways is claiming that the signature should be the Arabic signature. And I told her we sent the form thrice (twice thru fax and once by email). Afterwhich, I called up Qatar Airways twice and stated the case and they readily sent the eticket. There was no ECONOMY written on it and the booking reference was checked against the booking reference on the window of Qatar Airways' website and it bears 1st class. Aside from that, the situation has been explained twice to two different agents who answered back by saying that "we are sending you now the ticket."

Where is customer service? How come that at the airport upon check-in the guy handling the check-in said that they have a message in their system saying that the signatures don't match and they need the signature on ID. That issue was ages ago. We have resolved the matter and we have proof that they have received the fax twice.

What differentiates a GOLD member from the rest and from those who are not Privilege Club Members? They are still treated as less privileged and unprivileged.

I know this is already long but I am venting out my annoyance over the situation before I write the letter of complaint to Qatar Airways Management wherein I will be enclosing all the documents even the print out of the booking reference window at the time the ticket was issued.

Is there no way for Qatar Airways to serve its "privilege club members" with the rightful customer service right down from the booking stage itself? If there's already a problem with the request, how come no email was even sent if not a phone call made to inform about the problem? I believe that even if the official carrier of this country is them, they still owe it to the public to render quality service and upgraded system. What are those edifices for if the customer service itself at booking stage is nil? It is not when clients call that the business is made. It is right after when the call has been made or request has been sent that any institution proves its worth on customer service.