From Manchester to....where??

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From Manchester to nowhere...

So goodbye Qatar airways. Never flying with you again.....and we haven't even set off!Lying, incompetence and rudeness appears to be your raisin d'etre and that's before we even get into our flight not taking off! We made it onto the plane and they then announced they were having problems with the electrics and needed to reset them.

And we waited....and they brought drinks round and gave them to everyone but us. So I asked and I did eventually get one. And later they said the first reset hadn't worked so they were trying again. When that didn't work they said we should get off the plane while they reset the whole thing and we 'obviously' needed to get off for security reasons....obviously? It hadn't been obvious why they hadn't checked the electrics before we got on never mind that we need to get off at this juncture.

So we all stood up ready....a few minutes later they remembered to tell us to take all out belongings with us and then we waited again before they finally did let us off. Back in the terminal we waited and announcements became more and more sparse. The 16:30 one came at 16:45....not much difference but while you're waiting....it's very annoying. Eventually we were told that we would all be going on a flight later that night.....too late for many people to catch their connection.....including us.

Anyone going to Bangkok received envious glances as they were taken away separately as if they were departing soon. We later found out that they'd been taken to a hotel so the envy ball should have been in their court. And we waited and the flight came up on the board saying it was at a different gate-no announcement to tell us so word spread and we moved. Boarding started 30 minutes before the scheduled departure time but only for those booked on the original flight. So they started boarding at 7pm.

Much later they asked for the people who were only travelling to Doha, I.e. Not connecting from there. And by this time two policemen had turned up. Well done Qatar airways....you make people irate and actually call the police before anything happened. Were you aware that your incompetence would eventually lead to some very angry people? I suspect so. And we waited and were told nothing.

One guy who raised his voice a tad was taken aside by a copper and told to not shout. But still they told us nothing. People were getting frustrated and eventually some patronising numpty came on the tannoy and told us to calm down. That was the kindling for far more shouting, including from Claire and I. The only copper I've ever shouted at before is my sister so this was a new high for me! The 'calm down' announcer eventually scuttled off while one of the coppers decided that someone standing behind him on a ledge was probably likely to jump up the three foot she would have needed to do to punch him in the back of the head.

And a beardy chap came down and apologised and said everything would be sorted soon. And apologised that we hadn't been given food vouchers but all the concession shops were closed. And we were assured that EVERYONE would get on the flight.... And he went up to our original gate saying he would return....and we never saw him again. Apparently the reason it was taking so long was that only one person knew how to rebook people onto flights. No explanation was made as to why they were still sorting this when they had known five hours earlier that we were to join the flight.

So we waited some more and received no further information.

Then we noticed people coming back from our original gate and they weren't the ones that were only going to Doha. So we ventured up there and there were TWO people allocating seats. And we were booked on the next flight and got on board after telling other people to do the same. No announcement was ever made and I wonder if this was because, we found out later, that twenty people wouldn't fit on the flight....remember the EVERYONE from earlier? And we eventually took off at 22.30, 8 1/2 hours late and the people who were originally booked on the later flight set off 3 hours late. We were told that our onward transfers would be sorted by the time we got to Doha.

Ha!!

Like fools, we believed them. We were met at the airport, fair enough, and then taken to the incompetence counters. I walked up to the counter and was ignored. When I complained about this I was told that they hadn't been told about our cancelled flight and needed to rebook us. And they didn't really know what they were doing.

And then they told us they would get us to Ho Chi Minh 24 hours late meaning we would miss most of the second day of our tour as we'd already missed the first. Claire said this wasn't good enough so they found flights that would get us there 2 hours and 45 minutes earlier flying via Kuala Lumpar. Not brilliant but a bit better.

And it took them a lot longer to sort that-nearly two hours after we arrived at Doha we were taken to a hotel. We also heard staff telling passengers that they were not entitled to compensation which again is a complete lie as it is the law! And so to the hotel in Doha, Safir Hotel. Very nice and we were given a buffet lunch which we ate loads of as we didn't know when we'd get fed again.

So what do you do when you've been awake all night and you get a comfy hotel to rest in....yes, you go for a walk in extreme desert heat! With a camera each and no water or money for a drink we set off in the blistering heat to try and find the waterfront....and we did! Doha is a sandy busy built up place but it was quite nice down by the harbour.

You can't get a bonus visit to a new country and not have a little look now can you? The famous souq was 99% shut when we got there but hey, we had no money anyway. Somehow we made it back to the hotel, had a 45 minute sleep and a shower before putting back on the same sweaty clothes I've had on for a day or two now. Nice.

And now we are back at the airport hoping everything goes smoothly with our next two flights. We have to make sure in KL that our luggage is being checked all the way through 'just in case' as he wasn't 100% sure in Doha earlier..... So the first part of our holiday is ruined. Qatar airways you are appalling. Get stuffed!

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