We traveled for a month despite disruptions, here's how it went:
My wife, toddler son and I had a highly anticipated travel scheduled to Indonesia, months before the war has happened. We were exhilarated as we traveled with Qatar before and praised them for how they've treated our kid on board.
here's everything in detail
- Outbound, desperate attempts, eventually success -
Fast forward, the war broke loose and we were shaken and expecting our flight from Frankfurt to Jakarta to be canceled which was on the 14th of march. It eventually got canceled, and we reached out to the support for at least 18 hours, desperately trying to get it rerouted, in the edge of giving up.
** note: The travel was for my wife to finally bid farewell to her mother whom passed last year as she couldn't. Culturally it was important to pray with the whole family 1 year after a family member passed. The travel was urgent for her peace of mind. So we didn't just let it slide.
Eventually, we got through with a number we've found here on reddit. the call was answered after just 15 minutes, the support very patient and helpful. We handed all information and verified like they needed, we got rerouted over a different airline on the exact same date and time.
Thai Airways and Garuda Indonesia.
considering the prices, they didn't hesitate.
even tho my phone connection shut us off in the midst of it, the support finalized the booking and sent us the information over email. The seats we paid for also got refunded.
We we're flying for a 1 month stay in Indonesia.
The flight was a hassle as we had a 1 hour and 25 minutes layover at 2 airports, Bangkok and Singapore, even having our luggage lost at the Singapore airport because they couldn't load it on Garuda Indonesia on time. So we didn't have clothes for a few days until it was brought to us. ( Thanks Garuda ), Qatar Airlines ofc didn't play any role there. But we made it.
26 days forward.
- return canceled, but easily settled -
As the situation didn't settle, our return was canceled as well. With the connection issues of an European sim card in a foreign country, because we used OPT verification over SMS, it took a while to get access to our account. We couldn't get through over the chat, thus resorted to calling again with the same number with a foreign call app, which...worked out
We got rebooked into what they called a SPECIAL FLIGHT. It changed the departure time now and then but actually was legit. We entered out plane at Jakarta to Doha, long flight, many empty rows my wife slept on.
Here again, the remarkable service giving us care packs and some distractions ( drawing and playing set ) for our toddler making the travel way easier. The plane appeared to he their most modern one as well.
Despite some turbulence due to the weather, we landed in Doha. The airport immediately appeared more empty to us. At some parts however, very operational. Most shops were closed around our gate so we just waited for the last flight to FRA to board us.
it was way fuller, just like it used to be. The flight attendants showed so much personality on this one, even joking around, a pleasant change and really needed is dense situations and a long haul. This flight was really smooth.
Eaten up by Jetlag, we landed back home.
End note:
Qatar Airways went out of their way for us. It makes us consider flying with the again for our next travels. Maybe, we were just lucky. But they've helped immensely throughout this whole situation.