Passengers Endure 14 Hours of 'Screeching' Birds on Qatar Airways Flight

When you buy a business class ticket, you probably expect nice service, delicious food, and an overall comfortable experience. While this should certainly be guaranteed, a Qatar Airways flight from Miami to Doha seemed to have issues delivering this promise.

Unexpected Guests

A passenger who was on a Qatar Airways flight from Miami International Airport (MIA) to Hamad International Airport (DOH) in Doha posted to social media about her experience. In the post, she said she booked the ticket in business class through American Airlines (where she apparently has Executive Platinum status).

The flight she took is unknown, but flight schedules suggest that the user was onboard either Flight QR782 or QR778, both of which offer Qatar's famous Qsuites in business class. The flights are usually operated by an Airbus A350-1000, a Boeing 777-200LR, or sometimes a Boeing 777-300ER.

However as she boarded the flight, she noticed an unusual sound to be heard on an airplane - birds. Not just one or two, but a lot of birds. The user quoted the following:

"Tons of exotic birds are being transported in cargo directed below us. I don’t know how many, but the crew said it was “a lot”. The crew said the hope was that they’d settle down once we reached cruising altitude, but that did not happen. Those birds screamed and squealed for the entire 14 hours. I slept with earplugs, and they still woke me up several times. Not what I expected from this flight."

As the birds were below the cabin in the cargo hold, the crew obviously had no control over the birds' singing. As seen above, the user had been bothered by the birds continuously throughout the flight, waking up multiple times even though she had her ears blocked.

The user then ended the post asking what kind of response American Airlines should return. While several users on social media discussed whether or not Americans should be responsible for this issue (as Qatar was the operator), the original poster updated the situation with another social media post. She quoted the following: 

"For those of you who read my previous post yesterday about the cargo hold full of exotic birds, AA has already responded to my message and credited my account with 25,000 miles as a good-faith gesture. There were a lot of cynics who said they wouldn’t care at all, especially since the flight was operated by another airline. I guess they cared at least a little bit."
 

According to her post, it seems like she, as an Executive Platinum member, was compensated by America for 25,000 AAdvantage miles. AAdvantage miles are usually valued at around 1.5 cents per mile, so this makes the compensation valued approximately $375.

An Interesting Policy

While the birds were at least not actually in the cabin this time, Qatar does have an interesting policy that allows a particular type of animal on board (other than service dogs). The animal in question is the Falcon, and as long as the owners are in economy class, up to six Falcons are allowed to board a single flight.

This is not recent news, and even Etihad and Lufthansa allow Falcons on their flights. A video of a Falcon on board an Etihad flight between Abu Dhabi and Riyadh went viral back in 2019. Link 

These animals are still considered exotic birds, and seem to be allowed on board as owners have immense control over Falcons. The fact that Falcons are considered as quiet birds also seems to add to the reasoning behind it.