A flight attendant stole a passenger’s phone. The airline acknowledged it, fired the crewmember, and covered the replacement cost of the device. But the passenger feels they’re being shortchanged. Are they?
According to the customer they were flying Qatar Airways business class from Doha to Singapore on March 28th. During the 8 hour and 15 minute flight they got up to use the lavatory. When they returned to their seat they realized they’d left their phone behind.
Qatar Airways Business Class Lavatory
They returned to the lavatory, but it was in use. A flight attendant exited the lav. The phone was gone. The passenger later tracked their phone to the crew’s hotel, and to the Philippines. They reported the incident to Qatar Airways. Usually an airline, or any company, won’t share this level of detail but the customer says that the theft was acknowledged and they were informed that the flight attendant was fired.
A few days later, their Security Investigations Manager reached out to confirm that the incident had been reviewed, they identified the crew member responsible, and he was dismissed from his position.
Qatar Airways Business Class Lavatory
The airline took “weeks” to contact the customer and they were reimbursed $722 as replacement cost of the phone. The customer has two complaints (besides Qatar taking too long to pay up):
- The airline characterized hte issue as “unattended personal belongings” rather than “theft”
- And wouldn’t reimburse for the time, effort and inconvenience associated with losing a phone
They feel that the airline should be more generous because they’re a business class passenger.
This wasn’t just any flight — this was Business Class with a supposedly world-leading airline. I switched to Qatar Airways after years of loyalty to Singapore Airlines, and this whole experience has been a massive letdown.
The first mistake was probably taking the phone with them to the lavatory. People don’t think about the germs their phones pick up in everyday life! I actually use a UV light box to sanitize my phone. Do you really want to be touching the device coming out of an airplane lavatory? That place is a bigger germ farm than that monkey in Outbreak.
I’m surprised that the flight attendant would pocket the phone. People do dumb things. $700 isn’t worth stealing, except in California before last year’s Proposition 36. And I’m surprised it was so easy to get an admission from the airline.
Still, they were correct to say that the customer left their belongings unattended. They left the phone behind in the bathroom. And it does not matter how it’s characterized – the airline is providing compensation. If you want a customer service gesture on top of the $722, ask for some miles, but Qatar isn’t going to cover the value of lost business meetings dealing with the phone. Those meetings couldn’t have been all that valuable if you blew them off to handle the phone! If these were multimillion dollar meetings, you’d just get a new phone and move on.
Singapore
While this passenger criticizes Qatar Airways here, it seems like they actually did more than I’d have expected and more than most here. And it sounds like the criticism is largely about a lack of obsequiousness by their customer care representatives – failing to acknowledge the customer’s importance as a business class passenger, or lean into just how much suffering the loss of their phone had caused.
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