I want to book a flight Barcelona-Melbourne with Qatar Airways for a 15 year old girl travelling alone. I’m only keen to buy the flight if I can get the unaccompanied minors service, as she is not used to travel alone and it’s a long trip.
I would like to book the flight via Virginaustralia.com, as I have enough velocity points get a free economy flight. I’m finding Qatar Airways reword seats flights available, but the problem is that Qatar is telling me that the only way to get the unaccompanied minors service is if I book the flight directly with them. Which to me doesn’t make sense as they are partner airlines… And I could perfectly book an adult ticket using my velocity points, but not the minor service…
Can anyone help me? is there any way to complain to Qatar or escalate the topic? is there a way to convert my velocity points into avios to then book the flight on their website directly?
thanks,
Paula
Hi @paula_13_14
Welcome to the Point Hacks community!
I can’t answer every one of your questions but I’ll do my best to answer what I can:
Is there a way to complain to Qatar? My first port-of-call would be the Contact Us page of Qatar’s website, or you could send an email to Qatar Airways Customer Care at tell-us@qatarairways.com.qa
Is there a way to convert Velocity points to Avios? Unfortunately, no.
As for your statement that it doesn’t make sense because Virgin and Qatar are partner airlines, I’m afraid that this doesn’t mean that the benefits are totally seamless in every way. The partnership would be governed by a contract or Memorandum of Understanding between the two airlines. If the unaccompanied minors service is not covered in that contract, then the partnership would not extend to that service. It doesn’t come as a surprise to me that you’d have to go through Qatar directly (sorry).
Please let us know how you go!