Qatar Airways Cancellation Policy

How to Cancel Your Qatar Airways Flight – A Complete Guide to The Qatar Airways Cancellation Policy and Refund Policy

Air travel is not all that hunky dory all the time, like the superfluously joyful and spirit-lifting staff shown in Hollywood movies. Yes, there are times when everything falls into the right place at the right time. But more often, the opposite happens. Cancelations, delays and reschedules due to changes in plans or issues from the airlines can cause serious headaches, bringing about more pain than pleasure. And as if that is not enough, add to it the woes of waiting till eternity for a refund. Booking an air ticket without knowing the cancelation and refund rules is the worst kind of mess you could ever get yourself into. That is why, having knowledge of an airline’s cancellation policy before purchasing the ticket is very very important.

The Qatar Airways Cancellation policy is a well-prepared blueprint designed to bring the highest level of customer satisfaction. The policy addresses all the common issues faced by passengers when their travel plans change and prescribes appropriate measures to solve those issues. The entire policy has beenoutlinedin this article.

The Qatar Airways Cancellation Policy

ThoughQatar Airways aims for the best with its well-drafted Cancellation Policy, it cannot be dubbed, as per industry standards, the most customer-friendly approach in terms of refund rules and regulations. A clear hint of rigidity can be observed in the cancelation terms and conditions. Some rules are quite strict as compared to similar guidelines issued by other airlines. The policy stresses more on no-shows, cancellation fees and refund fees. It also talks more about refunds than anything else. All of these and more will bediscussed exhaustively in the following sections.

But before that,it is essential to have a brief understanding of the Qatar Airways fares and vouchers, ticket types andcancelation terms associated with them. Find everything you need to know about them below.

Qatar Airways Ticket Classes and Fare Families

Qatar Airways has three ticketing classes – Economy, Business and First Class. Both Economy and Business classes include four fare types each while the First Class offers only one fare type. Qatar Airways refers to them as fare families. All these fare types offer different levels of flexibility and benefits and provide various combinations of useful products and services. These fare types are designed keeping diverse passenger needs in mind. Here is a class-wise detailed description of the Qatar Airways fare families along with the terms and conditions associated with their cancelations and refunds.

1. i. Economy Class: Qatar Airways offers four types of fares in the Economy Class, which are Lite, Classic, Convenience and Comfort. The Economy Lite is the entry-level fare that doesn’t allow any refund to the original mode of payment. Economy Classic is relatively more flexible which allows passengers to get a full refund for an extra payment. Full refunds can also be obtained for Economy Convenience fares for an additional payment. However, refundability is built-in for the Economy Comfort tickets, and passengers can receive full refunds on them to their original forms of payment without making any additional payment.
2. ii. Business Class: The Qatar Airways Business Class also offers four types of fares with various levels of flexibility. Full refunds can be obtained on the Business Lite, Business Classic and Business Comfort fares for additional payments. However, the Business Elite is a fully refundable fare which allows passengers to receive full refunds to their original forms of payment without any extra charge.
3. iii. First Class: The First Class offers only one fare type which is First Class Elite. This is a fully refundable fare which allows passengers to get a full refund of the amounts paid without making any additional payment.

Refundable Tickets:

For refundable fares, Qatar Airways pays back the ticket holders full or parts of the fare subject to applicability, andfull taxes and surcharges to the original modes of payment.The airlineoffers fully refundable fares allowing passengers to obtain full cash refunds after deductions of cancellation fees (if applicable) to the original forms of payment after flight cancelations. The Economy Comfort, Business Elite and First Class Elite are fully refundable fares. But the terms and conditions of the Qatar Airways Cancellation policy also allow passengers to add refundability to the other non-refundable fares such as Economy Classic, Economy Convenience, Business Lite, Business Classic and Business Comfort for an additional amount of payment.

Non-Refundable Tickets:

For non-refundable tickets, Qatar Airways doesn’t refund its passengers the fare, either in part or full, and the taxes and surcharges. However, if refunds of surcharges are mandated by law in any country or state, supporting documents must be submitted by passengers for approval from Qatar Airways and such refunds should be in accordance with the applicable fare rules. The Qatar Airways Economy Classic, Economy Convenience, Business Lite, Business Classic and Business Comfort fares are non-refundable fares to which refundability could be added for an additional payment, whereas, Economy Lite is completely non-refundable with no scope for adding refundability. For non-refundable tickets vouchers are issued after deduction of non-refundable taxes, cancellation fees and no-show fees where applicable.

Qatar Airways Voucher

Qatar Airways allows passengers to exchange both their refundable and non-refundable tickets for travel vouchers if they decide to cancel their reservations due to changes in plans. For passengers with refundable tickets, the choice of accepting vouchers instead of receiving refunds can be made during the submission of refund requests after cancelations of flights. Passengers who choose to receive the value of their canceled tickets in the form of vouchers, get 10% more value if their tickets were originally booked online through the official website or the mobile app. The terms and conditions associated with Qatar Airways vouchers are given below.

1. i. Only unutilized tickets purchased on the official Qatar Airways website or the mobile app can be exchanged for a voucher with 10% more value than their canceled tickets.
2. ii. Passengers with Economy Lite tickets aren’t allowed to receive refunds in the form of vouchers.
3. iii. No-show fees, if applicable, are deducted from the value of canceled tickets before the issuance of vouchers.
4. iv. Non-refundable taxes are deducted from the value of canceled tickets before the issuance of vouchers.
5. v. Vouchers can be used for future flight bookings up to one year from their dates of issuance.
6. vi. Vouchers can be requested anytime until the validity of the ticket expires or, in other words, as long as the ticket is valid.
7. vii. Vouchers can be requested only for unutilized tickets, not for tickets that have been partially used.
8. viii. Vouchers can’t be issued against reissued tickets.
9. ix. Passengers with tickets that have been purchased with Vouchers cannot request vouchers.
10. x. Once a voucher is redeemed by a passenger to book a flight, the remaining balance, if any, can’t be refunded.
11. xi. Passengers can request vouchers only for direct Qatar Airways and its codeshare flights.
12. xii. If passengers make refund requests for bookings that were made by using vouchers, a refund fee may be applicable depending on the fare rules applicable to the purchased tickets.
13. xiii. In case a passenger finds his voucher no longer serving his purpose, he can request a refund by contacting Qatar Airways directly. A refund fee is collected in such cases before the refund is processed. Also, the additional 10% value added at the time of voucher issuance is taken back before the refund is made.

Award Tickets

Qatar Airways allows its passengers to become Privilege Club members and accumulate Avios points through frequent air travel. The Avios points accumulated over time can be redeemed to book award tickets which can also be canceled like normal reservations if travel plans change. As per the Qatar Airways Award Ticket Cancellation policy, passengers are eligible to get all the redeemed Avios points back to their Privilege Club accounts if they cancel their award tickets at least 3 hours or more prior to scheduled departure. There are various membership tiers for the Privilege Club members such as platinum, gold, silver and burgundy. Applicability of cancellation and refund fees depends on these membership tiers. The award ticket cancellation policy rules and guidelines will be discussed many times throughout this article.

The Qatar Airways Cancellation Policy Guidelines

Find a brief point-wise summary of the guidelines, rules and the terms and conditions of Qatar Airways Cancellation policy here.

1. i. The rules of the Qatar Airways Cancellation policy allow passengers to cancel their reservations anytime up to 3 hours before scheduled departure and obtain full refunds on their refundable tickets.
2. ii. For non-refundable tickets, refunds of the fares and surcharges are not permitted. Values of the canceled tickets are refunded in the form of travel vouchers in such cases minus the applicable cancellation fees, service fees and non-refundable taxes.
3. iii. As per the rules of the Qatar Airways Cancelation Policy, surcharges can be refunded to the original forms of payment even in case of non-refundable tickets if it is required by local laws and government regulations.
4. iv. Qatar Airways offers fully refundable fares as well as fares where refundability can be attached for additional payments. The fare and ticket types have been discussed in detail in the previous section.
5. v. The Economy Lite is a fully non-refundable fare on which a refund is not allowed for extra payment.
6. vi. Qatar Airways gives passengers with refundable tickets the option to choose between refunds and travel vouchers. Passengers are allowed to exchange their tickets for travel vouchers with 10% more value anytime within the validity period if their tickets are purchased online either through the official website or the mobile app.
7. vii. As per the rules of the Qatar Airways Cancellation policy, passengers are also eligible to submit their vouchers anytime and request a refund if they no longer have plans for travel in the immediate future. A refund fee is deducted in such cases while the 10% additional value added during voucher issuance is taken back.
8. viii. Qatar Airways considers all cancellations within 3 hours of scheduled departure and immediately after it as no-shows. The airline charges a no-show fee if a passenger fails to cancel his flight at least 3 hours or more before departure and/or misses his flight.
9. ix. Qatar Airways also charges cancellation fees where applicable as per fare rules. The cancellation fee varies between $25 and $200 depending on routes and the timing of the cancelation. Sometimes, both no-show fees and cancellation fees are charged in certain situations.
10. x. If a passenger is denied boarding due to his failure to furnish legal documents mandated by government regulations such as a valid Visa or a Passport and he subsequently misses his flight, he is charged both the no-show fee and the applicable cancellation fee as per the rules of the Qatar Airways Cancellation policy.
11. xi. Under the refund rules of the Qatar Airways Cancellation policy, passengers are eligible to get back all their redeemed Avios points to their Privilege Club membership accounts after cancelation of their award tickets.
12. xii. Platinum and Gold members are not charged any cancellation or refund fees if they cancel their award tickets a minimum of 3 hours or more before scheduled departure. Silver and Burgandy members and the immediate family members of the Platinum and Gold members are charged a cancellation fee between $25 and $100 for getting back their Avios points depending on the timing of their award ticket cancelations.
13. xiii. If award tickets are canceled within 3 hours of the scheduled departure or immediately after it, all redeemed Avios points are forfeited. If both Avios and cash were used to purchase the award tickets, both are forfeited. Only the taxes paid are returned to the original forms of payment.
14. xiv. As per the rules of the Qatar Airways Cancellation policy, passengers are eligible to obtain full refunds if their flights are significantly delayed and they choose to cancel their flights, not being happy with the alternative travel plan offered by Qatar Airways.
15. xv. Qatar Airways is, most probably, the only airline that approves requests for full refunds even if the flights are delayed or canceled due to extraordinary circumstances beyond its control such as a natural calamity, political unrest or war.
16. xvi. If a passenger misses his flight due to the fault of Qatar Airways, the no-show fee will not be applied in such a situation. But before the fee is waived, proper verification of the situation will be conducted.
17. xvii. If a ticket is finally canceled after being reissued or exchanged multiple times, the highest penalty among cancellation fees, refund fees, reissue fees or no-show fees (if applicable) will apply.
18. xviii. As per the rules of the Qatar Airways Cancellation policy, if a child or an infant accompanying an adult occupies a seat, he will be charged the same no-show fee and cancellation fee, where applicable, as the adult after the flight is canceled. The cancellation policy offers no discount on penalties for children and infants. However, if the child or infant doesn’t occupy a seat, no penalty is charged.

How to Cancel Qatar Airways Flight?

When travel plans change, a flight cancelation may not be the only option a passenger has. Switching or rescheduling flights are other available alternatives that are worth considering. However, there are situations when nothing else works. To face such difficult and unforeseeable situations, it is essential to have a deep and thorough understanding of the various methods of flight cancelations. This section talks about how to cancel a Qatar Airways flight with minimum hassle. Both the online and offline processes have been discussed here for passengers’ knowledge.

Online Flight Cancelation through Website or Mobile App

The most painless way to cancel an air ticket these days is to do it online through the official website of the airline from the comfort of one’s home or office. And the best part is, being a self-service, the online flight cancelation process doesn’t attract any additional service fee from the airline. Passengers can simply login to the official website and cancel their reservations in a few easy steps. Here’s how you can cancel your Qatar Airways flight online step-by-step.

1. i. First, type the URL of the Qatar Airways official website, www.qatarairways.com , on your browser and press enter. On the home page, there is a rectangular box with four menu tabs attached to the hero image from below. The four menu tabs are ‘Book a Flight,’ ‘Qatar Stopover,’ ‘Manage/Check-in,’ and ‘Flight Status.’
2. ii. Click on the ‘Manage/Check-in’ tab. This would offer two options to passengers – ‘Manage Booking’ and ‘Check In.’ Select ‘Manage Booking.’
3. iii. Enter your booking reference number and last name in the designated boxes and click on the maroon ‘Retrieve Booking’ button on the right.
4. iv. This would redirect you to a new trip details page with all information about your upcoming flights and trips.
5. v. Select the flight you want to cancel. There are change and cancel buttons on the page. Click on ‘Cancel flight/Refund ticket’ after selecting the flight.
6. vi. Submit your cancelation request by following the prompts.
7. vii. If you are eligible for a refund as per fare terms, your refund will be issued to the original payment method as per the rules of the Qatar Airways flight Cancellation policy after your booking is canceled. If you are eligible for a voucher, it will be issued immediately after cancelation is confirmed.

Passengers can also cancel their reservations online through the Qatar Airways mobile app. The process of cancelation is more or less the same.

Flight Cancelation via Phone Call

Passengers can also cancel their reservations via phone call by dialing the toll-free contact numbers, +1- 800-988-6128and +1-888-261-0054. Here, they can talk to a Qatar Airways representative live, provide him details like booking reference numbers and ticket numbers and submit their cancelation and refund requests over phone calls. However, passengers have to pay an additional service of $25 over and above the cancellation fee to get their reservations canceled via phone calls.

Offline Flight Cancelations at the Airports and Ticket Offices

Qatar Airways allows passengers to cancel their flights from airports and their Ticket Offices in different cities. Although service is prompt at these facilities, passengers are charged a service fee of $25 over and above the applicable cancellation fees if they cancel their reservations through them.

Qatar Airways Avios Cancellation Policy

Qatar Airways rewards passengers, who frequently fly with the airline and become Privilege Club members, with Avios points that can be accumulated over time and redeemed to purchase flight tickets with numerous added benefits. The award tickets purchased by redemption of accrued Avios points can be canceled as per the terms and conditions of the Qatar Airways Avios Cancellation Policy. Here are the rules that apply to award ticket cancelations and refunds.

1. i. Passengers who cancel their award tickets get all their redeemed Avios points back to their membership accounts.
2. ii. For award ticket bookings where both Avios and cash have been used, Avios are redeposited to the membership accounts, whereas, the cash is refunded to the original forms of payment.
3. iii. All airport and government taxes are refunded.
4. iv. The cancellation and refund fees applied depend on the membership tiers of the ticketed passengers and vary according to the timing of cancelation.
5. v. If the award ticket is canceled more than 24 hours before the scheduled departure, there is no refund or cancellation fee for the Platinum and Gold members. But, a cancellation fee of $25 applies to the Silver and Burgundy members and the family members and guests of the Platinum and Gold members.
6. vi. The rule remains the same as above if the flight is canceled between 24 hours and 3 hours from scheduled departure except that the cancellation or refund fee becomes $100 in such case.
7. vii. Cancelation within 3 hours of scheduled departure and immediately after it is considered a no-show by Qatar Airways. Therefore, for any award ticket cancelation made during this period, all redeemed Avios points are forfeited. If both Avios and cash were used, both are forfeited. Only the airport and government taxes collected are refunded.

Qatar Airways No Show Policy

No-shows are situations where passengers fail to cancel their reservations a minimum of 3 hours before departure and miss their flights somehow due to various reasons. No-shows lead to a loss of business for an airline. Therefore, most of them deal with it very strictly. Likewise, Qatar Airways has a rigid no-show policy which clearly mentions the reasons that could lead to a no-show for better customer awareness. Knowledge of the reasons behind a no-show could help passengers avoid such a situation by staying prepared in advance. Here they are.

1. i. A passenger is denied boarding due to his failure to furnish documents mandated by government regulations at the time of check-in. The document could be a passport, valid Visa, or identification proof.
2. ii. A passenger fails to turn up before the gates are closed unless the delay is due to a connecting flight operated by Qatar Airways which is delayed.
3. iii. A passenger fails to cancel or reschedule his flight at least 3 hours before scheduled departure or a travel agent or a booking office fails to cancel the reservation by the cut-off time despite being instructed to do so by the passenger.
4. iv. Any cancelation or re-booking made within 3 hours before scheduled departure or immediately after it is treated as invalid which leads to a no-show.

If any of the above-mentioned case scenarios occur, Qatar Airways charges a no-show fee from the passenger. The following guidelines have been provided by Qatar Airways in regard to the no-show fees.

1. i. All no-show fees collected are non-refundable.
2. ii. In case of a no-show, where a no-show fee and a cancellation fee are both applicable as per the rule of the Qatar Airways cancellation policy, only one fee among the two (whichever is higher) is charged.
3. iii. If a passenger is denied boarding due to his inability to present the required legal documents like the passport and/or visa during check-in, both no-show and cancellation fees are deducted from his funds.

Please note that if a passenger becomes a no-show for his first outbound flight, all segments down the line associated with that itinerary, are canceled barring a few exceptions where government-specified regulations apply. For award ticket cancelations, all redeemed points are forfeited in case of no-shows. If both Avios points and cash were used for ticket bookings, both are forfeited in case of no-shows.

Qatar Airways Cancellation Fee

Qatar Airways charges cancellation fees on select fares for both outbound and inbound travel. The Qatar Airways Cancellation Fee varies between $25 and $200 depending on routes. Sometimes, an applicable no-show fee is deducted along with the cancellation fee before the issuance of refunds or travel vouchers. Qatar Airways also collects a refund fee from passengers if they exchange their vouchers for a full refund at any stage by contacting customer care. Additionally, passengers are charged a non-refundable service fee of a minimum of $25 if they change or cancel their reservations via phone calls, at airports or through any of the Qatar Airways Ticket Offices. For cancellation of award tickets a cancellation or refund fee between $25 and $100 is charged depending on the membership tiers of the ticketed passengers.

The Qatar Airways Refund Policy

The Qatar Airways Refund Policy is a comprehensive strategy that deals with refunds and return of values in the form of vouchers and points for both voluntary and involuntary flight cancelations. The policy responds to passengers’ needs in the most ethical manner through customer-friendly guidelines and rules. Here are the key points of the refund policy and the terms and conditions for a refund or the return of value.

1. i. Qatar Airways offers both refundable and non-refundable fares. Full refunds of the amounts paid are made to the original modes of payment for refundable fares, while for the non-refundable tickets, no part of the fare and surcharges are refunded. Passengers are issued travel vouchers in such cases for future use.
2. ii. For non-refundable tickets, if the surcharges are required to be refunded as per mandates issued by local governments in a state or a country, passengers must submit the supporting documents to Qatar Airways and wait for approval. It should be noted that such refunds are only made in accordance with the respective fare rules.
3. iii. If a non-refundable ticket is reissued as a refundable ticket, the base fare and surcharges of the original fare remain non-refundable and the additional amount is refunded.
4. iv. As per the rules of the Qatar Airways Cancellation policy, refund requests are entertained even for non-refundable tickets in some unavoidable situations which are as follows.

   (a) The Passenger has a confirmed Qatar Airways flight ticket, but his flight is significantly delayed by Qatar Airways due to various reasons and the passenger decides to cancel hisreservation, refusing to accept other switching or rescheduling options provided by the airline.

   (b) The ticketed passenger or one of his close relatives falls seriously ill before scheduled departure. Refunds are approved in such cases subject to the submission of medical certificates.

   (c) The flight fails to take off due to extraordinary circumstances such as inclement weather, natural calamity, political unrest or war. The rules of the Qatar Airways Commercial policy are enforced in such cases which act as the basis for issuance of refunds.

   (d) The passenger has a confirmed Qatar Airways ticket, but his Visa is either refused by the Qatar Immigration authority or is still under process at the time of departure.

   (e) The passenger paid for a refundable fare but was issued a non-refundable ticket due to a system or printing error.

   (f) Passenger has booked his ticket online through the website or mobile app, but it turns out that he is blacklisted by Qatar Airways due to an earlier incident. All his booking expenses are refunded in full to the original mode of payment.

5. v. All unused Qatar Airways tickets are valid for a refund or issuance of vouchers up to 12 months from their date of issuance. For partially used tickets, the validity period is up to 12 months from the date of the first uplift.
6. vi. Refunds of both refundable and non-refundable tickets are allowed even beyond the validity period of 12 months in the following situations.

   (a) When court orders or regulatory requirements from local governments or authorities override the terms and conditions of the Qatar Airways Flight Cancellation policy, finance officials in the local Qatar Airways ticket offices are authorized to process refunds without any further approval subject to the receival of supporting documents or orders.

   (b) If the ticketed passenger dies, his legal heirs are issued full refunds even if the request is made after the validity of the ticket hasexpired. Such refund requests should be processed through the local Qatar Airways Ticket Offices.

7. vii. Qatar Airwaysuses highly technology-induced systems and processes for bookings, cancelations and refunds. It gives passengers the flexibility to claim and obtain refunds from countries outside the Point of Sale (POS). But there are countries that prohibit tickets purchased in their territories to be refunded in other countries. Qatar Airways complies with the country-specific rules in such cases.
8. viii. Before departure, for fully unutilized tickets, the amounts paid during bookings are refunded including the refundable taxes and surcharges. Non-refundable taxes and applicable cancellation and service fees are deducted before the issuance of refunds.
9. ix. Qatar Airways offers some fares that allow refunds on partially-flown ticketsafter departure of the first flights. For partially utilized tickets, the refund amounts are equal to the amounts paid minus the one-way fare applicable on travel between the two locations where the journey was undertaken and the applicable cancellation fees.
10. x. If the applicable one way fare between the two points where the travel was undertaken, plus the applicable cancellation fees together exceeds the actual base fare paid by the passenger for the entire journey, the base fare paid becomes non-refundable, while all taxes for the unutilized part of the ticket are refunded to the original form of payment minus the surcharges.
11. xi. For partially utilized tickets, no refunds are allowed if tickets are used beyond the point of turnaround.
12. xii. For partially utilized tickets, no refunds are permitted if tickets are used out of sequence.
13. xiii. Non-refundable taxes remain non-refundable for both unutilized and partially-used tickets.
14. xiv. As per the rules of the Qatar AirwaysCancellation policy, refunds or vouchers are issued only if flights are canceled a minimum of 3 hours or more before scheduled departure. Cancelations within 3 hours or immediately after departure are treated as no-shows and a non-refundable no-show fee becomes applicable. Conditions and guidelines for no-shows have been discussed elaborately in previous sections.
15. xv. Passengers are eligible, as per the terms and conditions of the Qatar Airways Refund policy, to get their redeemed Avios points back to their Privilege Club membership accounts if they cancel their award tickets.
16. xvi. If both Avios and cash were used to purchase award tickets, the Avios points are redeposited to the passengers’ accounts and the cash is refunded after cancelations.
17. xvii. In case of no-shows, all redeemed Avios points are forfeited. If both cash and Avios were used, both are forfeited. Only the airport and government taxes are refunded.
18. xviii. The rules of the Qatar Airways Cancellation policy allow passengers to choose and request travel vouchers irrespective of the tickets they have purchased. If the tickets were purchased online through the website or mobile app, the issued vouchers consist of 10% more value than the canceled tickets.
19. xix. If passengers decide not to use their travel vouchers or don’t find them useful anymore, they can submit the vouchers to Qatar Airways and request a refund by contacting them directly. The terms and conditions associated with travel vouchers have been talked about at the beginning of this article.
20. xx. Passengers who purchased their tickets from travel agencies aren’t allowed to request a refund or exchange their tickets for travel vouchers online. They must return to the travel agencies fora refund or voucher in such cases.

How to get an online ticket refund from Qatar Airways?

Passengers can request a refund online at the time of canceling their flights. The process has been already discussed in the previous sections. But refund requests can also be made directly, especially, in situations when their flights have been canceled by Qatar Airways. Here’s another way of requesting an online refund or exchanging the ticket for a travel voucher. Follow the steps if your travel plans have changed either due to personal reasons or due to flight disruptions.

1. i. Visit the homepage of the official Qatar Airways website and click on ‘Help’ which is on the header menu bar right beside the search option.
2. ii. A new page would open up with the heading, “How can we help?” There are options written on four rectangular boxes.
3. iii. Select and click on the first option which is ‘Refund & travel voucher.’
4. iv. Enter your booking reference number and last name in the designated boxes before clicking on the maroon ‘Retrieve Booking’ button.
5. v. Select the flight you want to cancel or get a refund for. Click on ‘Cancel flight/Refund ticket.’
6. vi. Here, you’ll have the option to select a full refund or exchange your ticket for a travel voucher. If you purchased your ticket online through the website or mobile app, your travel voucher would consist of 10% more value than your canceled ticket.

If you purchased your ticket from a travel agency, a request for a refund or a travel voucher cannot be made in the process described above. You must contact the travel agency for a refund in such a case.