Does Qatar Airways have a no-show fee in case a passenger misses a flight (assuming the passenger only purchased a flight ticket and nothing else)?

score:3

Accepted answer

Up leveling the question a bit: Yes airlines will try to charge you extra for NOT using a service you have already fully paid for.

Example: I was flying BOS-> LON, LON->FRA, FRA->BOS. I couldn't take the LON->FRA leg and cancelled it. United charged me a $250 cancellation fee for NOT taking a flight segment that was already paid for and that was worth maybe $100.

This practice makes really not much sense. Going back to the beer analogy: it's like going to a bar, buying a beer, paying for it and then getting fined if you don't actually drink the beer.

Of course, most passengers really don't want to pay that so the airlines can only get away with it if they have some means to enforce the payment. These typically are

  1. Cancelling any remaining legs on the ticket (which was my problem).
  2. If applicable: withholding any residual value of the ticket, i.e. refunds, travel credit, etc.
  3. Revoking status, miles and/or privileges for frequent flyers.
  4. In rare occasions actually suing a passenger. There were a few lawsuits involving "hidden city ticketing" but so far no court has sided with the airlines: "If you are making bizarre pricing rules you can't complain about passengers trying to take advantage of them".

So if this is the last leg of your ticket and the residual value (if any) on the ticket is smaller than the no-show fee, you really don't need to pay anything.

Upvote:4

If you read further in the linked pages, specifically the 'Changes (Reissuance)' and 'Cancel & Refund' sections, it's clear that the No-show fee is not some sort of extra fee but is for when you want to make a change or get a refund. In particular see the tables in 'Cancel & Refund'.

As an aside, I don't believe 'accomodation' refers to a hotel in this case but to your spot on the plane.

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