iPhone | iPad
Android
Huawei
The firms along with several researchers and industry bodies signed an open letter claiming that Europe was already becoming less competitive and risked falling further behind in the age of AI
KT APPDOWNLOAD
Offloaded passenger to sue Qatar Airways
DUBAI — A passenger has decided to sue Qatar Airways after he was allegedly offloaded from his flight on August 10 last year because his seat was given to another passenger.
The airline has countered that the passenger refused to pay for excess hand baggage.
Muhammed Kassim Shaji said he will push through with the filing of a legal case against Qatar Airways after he was denied to board his scheduled flight on August 10 bound for Thiruvananthapuram, India.
In his letter of complaint sent to the Customer Relations Department of Qatar Airways in Doha, Shaji claimed that on the date of his supposed departure to India, an airline official at the Dubai International Airport (DIA) refused him access to travel without providing him with any explanation despite the fact that his two pieces of luggage had already been checked in.
"During the actual boarding, I saw two passengers arguing with an airline official. I was standing at the end of the queue. Next thing I knew, the official approached me, asking for my boarding pass. When I asked him who he was, he said he's the airport duty officer of Qatar Airways. He examined my boarding pass, marked it, gave me another pass and told me that I cannot travel on that flight. Before I could say anything more, he disappeared," Shaji narrated.
A reply sent by Qatar Airways to P. Vijayakumar, legal counsel of the passenger, and signed by the airline's Customer Relations Manager, Pascual San Juan, Jr., noted that as per their records, Shaji had a total of 43kg of hand baggage at the boarding gate whereas the allowance is only 7kg.
"Despite the advisory signs at the check-in counters, Shaji reported with some undeclared hand baggage at the boarding gate. Hence our staff at boarding gate advised Shaji to pay the excess baggage, which he refused," San Juan explained.
He added that "the airlines reserves the right to refuse to carry baggage in excess of the free baggage allowance unless the applicable excess baggage charges are paid for. As Shaji refused to pay the excess baggage charges, the flight was released without him in order to avoid delay and inconvenience to the other passengers on board."
Shaji, however, contested the result of Qatar Airways' investigation, saying it was "totally false, baseless, and without common sense".
"I strongly object to the discrimination towards me. How can a passenger possibly carry 43kg of hand baggage? I am not a first-time traveller and I am well aware of their baggage rule. I checked in with two luggage, weighing a total of 43kg. I carried a trolley bag, which the check-in counter allowed me to hand-carry. I bought some chocolates and other small items at Duty Free, which I believe did not weigh more than 4kg," Shaji retorted.
Lawyer Vijayakumar mentioned in his initial communication with Qatar Airways, that as a result of Shaji's delay, he had to wait for five hours for his luggage to be returned, had to spend Dh700 on hotel stay, caused anxiety to his relatives waiting in India, and lost Rs200, 000 on a lost property transaction.
Qatar Airways, meanwhile, replied that their "response was based on a careful investigation of (Shaji's) complaint and we have no further comments to add to our previous communication."
Shaji said he will continue to pursue the case in court.
More news from World
Since the release of ChatGPT in 2022, the use of AI has spread rapidly, raising concerns about fuelling misinformation, fake news and infringement of copyrighted material
The move puts Alibaba in direct competition with global players such as OpenAI, which has also shown interest in text-to-video technology
Stolen material was also sent to media organisations, say agencies
Influential Teamsters union says it won't endorse a presidential candidate in 2024
Across the world's largest cities, WRI estimates the longest heatwave each year could last 16.3 days on average under a 1.5°C scenario, but 24.5 days at 3°C
The move aims at taming record immigration levels that pushed country's population past 41 million earlier this year
Wickremesinghe, Premadasa, and Dissanayake are the main contenders for the post