A passenger wants to know what sort of compensation they should receive after buying a full fare business class ticket to travel Qatar Airways from Miami to Doha, experiencing a lovely flight in most ways, but finding their rest disturbed by “exotic birds being transported in cargo directed below us.”
[T]he crew said it was “a lot”. The crew said the hope was that they’d settle down once we reached cruising altitude, but that did not happen. Those birds screamed and squawked the entire 14 hours. I slept with earplugs, and they still woke me up several times. Not what I expected from this flight.
They booked an American Airlines codeshare for travel on Qatar. They wondered what American would give them. It was a Qatar-operated flight, even though they bought the ticket from American and it had an American flight number. Codeshares are confusing! Qatar is the responsible party. They are great in the air, but terrible when things do not go well.
I suppose it’s actually great that the birds were traveling as cargo, rather than in the cabin. Here’s a group of falcons boarding a flight. This is far more common than you might think. And no these do not appear to be emotional support falcons.
Folks two dudes just boarded my plane with emotional support falcons pic.twitter.com/lHABg8A7La
— The Tajikistahn Dahn (@DonnieDoesWorld) March 29, 2019
Several years ago a Saudi prince bought actual tickets for his falcons. In other words, each one had their own seat. These were not emotional support falcons hitching a ride for free. And there were 80 of them on the aircraft.
Falcons fly in the Mideast all the time. Each airline in the region has their own falcon policy. Here’s Qatar’s policy for falcons in the cabin. It happens often enough they need to publish a policy, and limits.
Occasionally falcons they take up the whole cabin, such as this flight in 2014:
They’re certainly important animals in the culture, which I learned handling one in a falconry lesson at Al Maha Desert Resort.
If you buy a falcon a ticket then the airline allows the falcon to bring one dead animal on the plane because they’re permitted one carrion. When the whole plane is taken up by falcons, common practice is for the inflight movie to be Angry Birds.
Permitted one carrion!
Be honest, Gary. How many years have you waited to make that pun?
Brilliant and awful.
What if the carrion won’t fit in the overhead compartment?
If I had a bird of prey, such as a falcon, I would name it “Flip” so my guests could be greeted by “Flip, the bird.”
Interesting. I was on that flight and on occasion heard the birds. They had moved me from 5K to 1A giving some weird reason. Now I am glad they did move me.
Your travel dollars are moral/economic votes!
not-so-magic carpet rides, religious intolerance, and indifference toward terrorism and human rights, are great reasons to avoid the Gulf Coast carriers.
Instead, spend your dollars with countries that share your basic values.
I guess that makes Qatar a falcon-good airline.
“….they’re permitted one carrion.”
Heh, heh, heh….. Now THAT’S the sort of writing we enjoy from our foremost expert in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel 🙂
Thanks for the laugh, Gary!
Okay, you’ve redeemed yourself with this one:
“If you buy a falcon a ticket then the airline allows the falcon to bring one dead animal on the plane because they’re permitted one carrion.”
But do the falcons get wings for flying on the airline?
Is chicken catch-A-tore for the meal?
Is the dessert Custard
Is it too Cheep to sit in Economy?
Your pun was nice for a Sunday morning.
Over 40 years ago, at the Hilton Al-Ain, housekeeping staff were warned to treat the California Sikh guest “nicely” even though his two falcons were messing up the room. Eventually, the falcons would be sold for $30K each locally.
On a road trip to Abu Dhabi (from Al-Ain), my colleague pointed out a very, very large structure, almost “palace-like” in dimensions. It was an indoor a/c facility to train a prince’s falcons. “Diamond as Big as the Ritz” came to my mind.
Mercifully, we don’t have to share the cabin with robotic camel jockeys that arrived in the same country several years later.
Regards.
Sorry, Gary. I find your puns a bit hawkward.
I think I’d hesitate to fly Qatar any day as a single woman traveller. That episode with the Australian women who were strip searched with no evidence because foetal remains were allegedly found in a bin in the women’s restroom was unconscionable.
I’ve transited through Doha on the only time I’ve flown Qatar…and honestly there are so many security guards ” assessing” the women travellers especially if they are without a man. It was outright creepy.
I’d say go with Emirates or Etihad anyday if you need to..
Plus while Qatar Q Suite business class is good, the economy seats are more uncomfortable than Emirates. Trust me.
Now I finally get the meaning of the Kansas smash hit ” Carrion my wayward son “
Is it European or African? Wait. That’s no a swallow.
Hey I do love a good falcon.
The falcons were voicing their disappointment when they realized it was not United catering the carrion. With optional maggots.
Fly me to the moon, Gary!!! What are the Grand-Children going to complain about when they go space truckin?
This article is worth the clickbait, and clueless customer & Airlines.
Well Done!
Hey Mike, Qatar has one of the best, if not the best airlines in the world. Tell us you never fly internationally without telling us..
In the same vein:
At a rally today someone threw a beer at Trump.
He’s OK.
It was a draft so he easily dodged it.
There’s always a I Hate Trump person that has to interject their opinion in totally out of context.
Can’t you guys ever clam down?
That was absolutely shocking and the pun was hilarious. 😀
I am puzzled:
Why in the world do birds require Qatar to do their flying for them?
It makes one wonder whether at level off if the flight attendants hawked promotional items like custom carrion. I would not be surprised if the cabin had a “no bird dogging” light. Just saying!