Qatar refund timeline (recent experience)
Unfortunately due to logistical problems we had to cancel all our flights with Qatar. They couldn't offer a better flight alternative. We booked several tickets in December 2025, March and April to 2026 from Europe to Asia. All except one was booked with Klarna. The other was with credit card. We booked directly on the Qatar website.
My experience with them has been satisfactory under the circumstances. Once all the tickets were cancelled, we had pretty much within 24-48 hours communication to say it has been accepted and approved and getting full refund. The time when we get our money back was guaranteed within 28 working days from the date of the approval which was 29 April 2026. The credit card was refunded within 5 working days. The klarna ones took around 2.5 weeks. I called the call centre twice just to check and they have been nothing but polite and helpful. Depending which times you rang it can take a while but I always get someone on the line. Granted they can't help to speed up but they have been reassuring and polite and understanding. Similarly I always get an email update from Qatar with regards to the refund process and the time they will communicate (8 days, 5 days) and they do.
Yes I do wish I can get my money earlier as we had to rebook all our flights again with another airline. We really like Qatar Airways and it was a shame they were not able to offer what we needed with regards to flying (it's not due to the Middle East situation but rather for us to get to our local airport). We would fly again next time but I thought it would be useful to let others now it has not been 100% disaster with regards to refund by Qatar Airways and the people who are working 24/7 trying to do their best and perhaps it's not quite up to scratch in some aspects. I got my money completely in full within the promised time.