qatar airways

Meghan Law, who is an NHS nurse, has expressed her anger after her teenage son Alix Dawson was not allowed to board the Qatar Airways plane for Phuket, Thailand

A mum has blasted Qatar Airways after her 13-year-old son was denied boarding their flight for Thailand.

Meghan Law said there was “no justification” for her experience at Edinburgh Airport, which threatened to derail her £3,000 family holiday. Check-in staff, though, told Meghan there was a “luggage sticker mark” on Alix Dawson’s passport, which they said constituted “damage”.

The mum was ordered to go to Glasgow Airport — around 50 miles away — for a new emergency document. Scrambling to salvage her family’s holiday, Meghan contacted TUI, who she had booked the trip with, for their advice. The tour operator found no issues with the passport and put them on the next available flight to Thailand.

But Meghan, 33, has now vowed to never use Qatar Airways again. The NHS nurse, who has two kids, said: “If I hadn’t booked through TUI and booked it myself, we just wouldn’t have been able to go on holiday. One way from Glasgow on the same day of travel would’ve been £2,800. There’s no way I would’ve been able to pay that.

“I’d never had an experience like that at any other airport. There was no justification for it. I’ll never fly with Qatar again. It ruined the start of the trip – it was so stressful.”

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Meghan, who lives in Aberdeen, has now returned from her two-week holiday, but wants to raise awareness of her experience. HM Passport Office classes a passport as damaged for several reasons, including if details are indecipherable, if there are missing or detached pages and if there is a chemical or ink spillage on any page.

But Meghan said Alix’s document had neither of these issues, and had previously been accepted dozens of times at airports. She continued: “I said I’ve used this umpteen times. No one’s ever mentioned any damage on it before. There were no rips or stains, I don’t know what she was trying to imply. I was really shocked.

“She told me that I need to get an emergency passport from Glasgow Airport. Then she said actually it’s not your passport that’s the problem, it’s your child’s, Alix.

“What they were trying to say was that the luggage check-in stickers that had been stuck on one of the pages [and] had damaged the page. But it wasn’t even on the photo page.

“There were no rips, it was just where the sticker marks had been. They said we couldn’t travel with it. I knew there were no issues with their passports. We’d probably travelled over a dozen times with those passports. We were just left in the airport with no help and no advice.”

The Mirror has contacted Qatar Airways for comment.

The airline said Andy would need to pay almost four times the price of his ticket if he wanted the bag on the plane

A man was charged over a thousand pounds – to take one extra suitcase on his Qatar Airways flight. Andy Donovan, 23, planned a trip to Kingsbury, Melbourne, for six months to play cricket over the Australian summer.

He booked a Cathay Pacific flight, which included a transfer in Hong Kong. But he switched his ticket that morning for a Qatar Airways flight to Melbourne, via Doha, Qatar, when he saw the ‘super typhoon Ragasa’ was headed for Hong Kong.

The flight, on September 22, cost him £312.28 to book. Andy’s bag allowance changed with his flights and was reduced to one bag of checked luggage, rather than two, as his Cathay Pacific flight had been. As Andy needed two suitcases – one for his possessions and a second for cricket kit – he attempted to buy an extra bag on the Qatar Airways website but claims it kept crashing.

So he resolved to pay at the airport – until, to his horror, he was charged £1,103.72 for his additional 25kg bag. Andy, a marketing executive, from Exeter, Devon, said: “I thought I could pay for the extra luggage in person – I knew it might be more, but I didn’t think it would be that much. It was several times the cost of the actual ticket, it didn’t make any sense.

“I was in shock. I had no choice but to pay it because I needed my kit. It’s personalised to me for my specifications so I couldn’t just replace it.

“They charge you per kilo you’re over the limit, and I had a whole extra 25kg bag. I wasn’t offered to buy a whole extra bag at the airport.”

Andy said it wasn’t explained to him how the charge was calculated but he paid it so he could still fly. Qatar Airways’ website states that within six hours of departure, per additional kg of luggage, there is a $60 (approx £44.60) charge. Andy plays for the Philippines national cricket team.

His younger sister, Katherine Donovan, 21, also plays for that team and he claims she had taken the same flight a week earlier, with two bags, with no issues. But ahead of Andy’s departure, dad Barry Donovan, 81, a retired pilot, was the one who spotted news of the typhoon near Hong Kong the day of the flight.

To avoid his son being stuck in Hong Kong airport, he advised Andy switch to a flight which transferred elsewhere, which he was allowed to do because Barry had privileges as an ex-employee of Cathay Pacific. On the day of the flight, Andy instead got a ticket for a Qatar Airways flight to Melbourne, via Doha, Qatar.

Andy had to call Barry for a loan to cover the costs – as he had no choice to pay if he still wanted to fly. Barry compared the policy to “extortion” and feels “someone should go to jail for this”. Barry said: “We got the tickets sorted for Andy, but nowhere on the tickets was the luggage restriction mentioned.

“He tried to book an extra bag online but couldn’t. When he rang me from the airport, I told him to just pay whatever they charged, and we’d sort the money later. But when he told me what that was, I couldn’t believe what they charged him.”

“£1,100 is totally unacceptable. It’s extortion – ‘give us the money, or you don’t travel at all’.”

Barry says both he and Andy have attempted to contact Qatar Airways but have not received a response. Barry added: “How many other people have they done this to? It’s just not right.”

Qatar Airways has been approached for comment.

The clip, featuring a Qatar Airways wide-body aircraft, was filmed at Madrid–Barajas Airport in Spain. The zoomed-in footage, filmed from a terminal window, shows the ground staff member outside the plane’s rear door.

A baggage handler was caught on camera hurling luggage in scenes have left social media users divided.

The zoomed-in footage, filmed from a terminal window, shows the ground staff member outside the plane’s rear door. He can be seen catching items tossed by a colleague and flinging them on.

The clip, featuring a Qatar Airways wide-body aircraft, was filmed at Madrid–Barajas Airport in Spain. The video-taker joked: “I’ll put this bottle of wine in the suitcase, I don’t think it’ll break…”

Social media users were quick to react to the clip. “This video should reach his company so they can see how well this man works,” one said.

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Raquel questioned: “Is that what we pay for checked baggage for?” While Mónica vented: “This only happens in Spain. I’ve never seen luggage treated so badly anywhere else, it’s unbelievable. Almost every time we come back from a trip, the suitcases arrive wrecked.”

Analú said: “Honestly, that’s a disgrace. I’m sure there are plenty of unemployed people who would be happy to do that job properly.”

But not everyone was convinced the baggage handler was in the wrong.

“For those who’ve never flown or even seen a plane and criticise without knowing: they’re just taking out the blankets to clean the cabin, it’s not luggage,” one commenter pointed out.

Pablo added: “Suitcases aren’t unloaded at the passenger doors.” And Nicolás concluded: “Honestly, I think he’s doing everything right – he’s very efficient at his job.”

Madrid–Barajas Airport and Qatar Airways have been approached for comment.

The incident is not the only aviation-related outrage to ruffle feathers. Declan Minogue and his wife Claire Minogue, 61, were travelling back from Faro to Dublin Airport on 21 July after seven relaxing nights in Portugal. The 63-year-old felt a bit of hunger coming on, so he decided to order the £5.90 Hot Ham and Cheese Panini from a flight attendant.

However, it was not the hunger-busting snack he had hoped for. Decland claims he was ‘stunned’ to open it up and discover just one piece of ham and the ‘tiniest bit of cheese’ with no butter. Despite polishing off the ‘bland’ sandwich that he compared to ‘something out of Oliver Twist,’ Declan claims he was forced to buy more food when he landed because he was still hungry.

Taking to social media, the dad-of-two shared a photo of the sandwich captioned ‘shocking and insulting’.

Declan who lives in Lusk, Dublin, Ireland, said: “It was the worst airplane food ever. It was a massive rip off. I was shocked when I saw it. I got it and I opened it and couldn’t believe it so I took a picture. It had two slices of ham and the tiniest bit of cheese and the cheese was like butter. There was no substance to it. I was stunned.”