Qatar Airways CEO Appointed Oneworld Chairman

Love this guy. Not the typical politically correct weak ceo who says things as they are

Often says things as they aren't.

Al Baker > Discount Dougie

I wonder if he will push to being back things like through checking bags and providing protection for separate PNRs on one world carriers?

It doesn't seem like providing that benefit would have that great of a cost to the carriers.

And it's hugely helpful if you're combining business and personal travel. Business pays for the long haul flights, and I tack on additional award flights or cheap flights to visit somewhere else.

Wish more CEOs were like Al Baker.

No american run airline will have a complimentary word to say about any foreign run/owned airline. THEY ARE PURE AND SIMPLE JEALOUS. All the typical airline passenger has to do is fly one american airline in one direction and the return a foreign one. Figure it out which one is superior. American run airline do not know the meaning and definition of Service.

Not a good move.

Qatar is in cahoots with Iran and terrorist organizations all while trying to be “friends” with the west.

I refuse to fly Qatar

I'm bit concerned he will convince the alliance to become more stingy with releasing premium award seats including his own carrier and also devaluations galore (which their own program already did!)

@Sharon - Happy to hear. More seats for those of us who enjoy flying the best airline in the world.

Women are treated 2nd class in Qatar

Women must get permission from the man to do activities. Only men can initiate divorce.

If you are a guy, you can not be LGBTQ in Qatar either.

Freedom of speech- forget about that in Qatar.

Sure, go ahead and support Qatar if you enjoy abusing human rights, enjoy!!

Grindr works just fine in Doha and in Jeddah. @Sharon engagement, travel, understanding is as much a part of the solution as boycott. I learned these things from my gay Saudi boyfriend.

I love seeing Mr. Al Baker in this role, he is definitely bombastic as the norm and not the exception. The other member carriers of OneWorld need to be more like Qatar Airways and less like “Mickey Mouse” airlines they are devolving into trying to mimic Spirit and Frontier. The one stop connectivity offered via Doha is valuable for many trips. I can’t wait for my next Qatar flight and hopefully I would be afforded a chance to visit Doha again on my way around the world.

Arab

Arab airlines provide the best service. Maybe he can teach BA/AA a thing or 2

@Sharon, no gives a Flying F. about whether or not you fly Qatar Airways. We won't fly Spirit airline just to please you.
Many of us are extremely happy to fly the best business class airline in the world especially if that pisses you off

@Sharon. I'm gay and I've been in Qatar and it was OK. Yes, you are right its not great and there is discrimination. But if you have watched the news recently, it isn't great being black in America so are you boycotting the US?

Does this mean I can finally choose seat assignments on my Qatar Business "Classic" flight as I should be able to with Emerald Status? lol

Qatar's website is a joke with broken links, not recognizing OneWorld status, selecting seats where a paywall is supposed to exist but errors out, said seats assigned without payment and then stripped away, updated traveler information isn't saved (passport info, DOB, KTN, etc.).

Here's to hoping he has nothing to do with the OneWorld website and it's UI.

Quite a huge difference in management philosophies: Joyce has an LCC background and has taken QANTAS downmarket in small but incremental steps whereas Al Baker is about being top dog in product and service excellence, no matter what class you fly at Qatar Airways. If Al Baker can shame, poke, prod and berate his fellow CEOs into making their own airlines just a bit better, then his appointment will be a success. As an aussie who's flown QANTAS since 1983, I know which foreign airline I prefer when travelling out of Australia!

He’s Chairman, not God. The CEO is the operational decision maker so everyone relax. All I’d say to Al Bakr is get rid on of your painful 777 and cancel the 777x - THE worst passenger experience of any aircraft. Loud, poor atmospherics and always configured cramped…..just what you want on long and ultra long haul…..Not!!.

If it hadn’t been for his self-defeating devaluation of discounted business class, I’d have said it was a good idea. That decision as well as QR’s somewhat pointless frequent flyer program makes me question some of his decisions, as they affect premium fare passengers and frequent flyers. We will see how things work out.

As a goodbye message, Joyce announced that as of next year Qantas will only pay 1% agent commissions instead of the present 5%. That means agents would need to charge booking fees here.

Everyone - seriously - the guy likes to be referred to as "Your Excellency" but he doesn't run the *government* of Qatar. He runs an airline, and he's good at it. Try not to conflate Qatar Airlines with the government of Qatar?

The first move he should do is kick Qantas out of one world.

Now a down market carrier that slashed travel agent commissions and part of a country that wants to be closed forever and not open to the rest of the world.

Qantas should join the closedworld alliance instead.

Will shake up all those losers at ONEWORLD!!!

Main thing about Qatar that sucks has to be the great lounges in Qatar for non-QR Sapphire/Emerald members.

Hopefully He will be more assertive in Growing ONEWORLD in areas where they lack a significant presence. Qatar Airways is a very deserving Five Star Airline but Doha will never match Dubai in terms of a travellers appeal. ONEWORLD needs shaking up and hopefully this change in Leadership will see a New Direction and Growth for the Alliance.

@DenB® and @flyinryan : very well said - thank you 🙂

I flew Qatar quite a few times. Never disappointed. Not in coach. Not in business. Service consistently better than on AA, BA and above all Iberia 😉

The guy can be loud and direct? fantastic, let's hope he has something to prove and will deliver. We are paying guests so I suppose we deserve respect, good food and a great service.

Interesting move in any case...

He fired most senior pilots from the company he is basically making all the employees slave , so if you guys like the customer service that is because you guys like to have slaves. Grow up. We need to ban qatar airways if you care about employees rather than service.

Sir how can i cotect you i want to cotect u regrading my brother Syed Mateen Ahmed job he was working in qatir airway but unfortunately he loss his job during qator suadi conflict. Respected sir he is with his 3 kidz and he is so financially broken plz do something for his job we all will be always grateful to you
Regards
His sister
Rabia

Sir, are you commenting from inside your can? If so, we can have someone let you out so you don't suffocate.