Keeping this slightly vague but just flew with Qatar on a short international flight into Doha.
We had preselected our seats as Aisle and Window in the hope that the middle seat would be free. No such luck it was a full flight.
We got to our seat and a female passenger wearing a niqab was sat in the window seat. We tried to explain that she was in the wrong seat but she didnt appear to understand English (not her issue, I dont speak Arabic). After a couple of minutes a member of the crew comes up and asks to see the boarding passes.
The woman shows her pass which has the middle seat and then the crew member said that she cannot sit next to a man for religious reasons.
My wife said but we specifically chose the seats we wanted. The woman offered me the option of the window seat but that still meant my wife would be in the middle seat and I always choose the aisle when flying economy as I am 6ft+
The crew member asked us to take the middle seat/ aisle until boarding was complete to see if she could move the woman.
As mentioned it was a full flight and a senior member of Qatar staff came on board the plane and started to discuss the issue with the woman. After a few minutes it was clear that she was not going to back down.
i figured at this point the flight could be delayed if this went on for much longer so i said to the senior staff member that we would stay as we are.
The stupid thing is that if this woman had called for a member of crew when we boarded and explained the situation then we would have agreed to the swap. It was the fact that she took a seat that was not hers and forced the issue.
Two things occur to me from this:
1. What would have happened if I had been travelling with a male business colleague and not my wife?
2. Given this is a sensitive cultural issue for some people, why dont Qatar have a procedure in place for this at check-in / seat selection?
We had preselected our seats as Aisle and Window in the hope that the middle seat would be free. No such luck it was a full flight.
We got to our seat and a female passenger wearing a niqab was sat in the window seat. We tried to explain that she was in the wrong seat but she didnt appear to understand English (not her issue, I dont speak Arabic). After a couple of minutes a member of the crew comes up and asks to see the boarding passes.
The woman shows her pass which has the middle seat and then the crew member said that she cannot sit next to a man for religious reasons.
My wife said but we specifically chose the seats we wanted. The woman offered me the option of the window seat but that still meant my wife would be in the middle seat and I always choose the aisle when flying economy as I am 6ft+
The crew member asked us to take the middle seat/ aisle until boarding was complete to see if she could move the woman.
As mentioned it was a full flight and a senior member of Qatar staff came on board the plane and started to discuss the issue with the woman. After a few minutes it was clear that she was not going to back down.
i figured at this point the flight could be delayed if this went on for much longer so i said to the senior staff member that we would stay as we are.
The stupid thing is that if this woman had called for a member of crew when we boarded and explained the situation then we would have agreed to the swap. It was the fact that she took a seat that was not hers and forced the issue.
Two things occur to me from this:
1. What would have happened if I had been travelling with a male business colleague and not my wife?
2. Given this is a sensitive cultural issue for some people, why dont Qatar have a procedure in place for this at check-in / seat selection?