Business Class Passenger Claims Qatar Airways Flight Attendant Stole $600 Out Of Her Designer Handbag As She Slept

A passenger on a Qatar Airways flight from San Francisco to Kolkata, India flying via the airline’s hub in Doha, claims a flight attendant stole $600 out of her designer handbag as she lay sleeping in her QSuite Business Class bed.

According to a new lawsuit filed in a California district court, the passenger flew on Qatar Airways flight QR738 from San Francisco to Doha on February 26, 2025—a 15-hour flight that departs at 3:55 p.m. and doesn’t land in Qatar until 5:30 p.m. the following day.

The passenger, who has asked for her identity to be protected, boarded the state-of-the-art Airbus A350-1000 aircraft with $4,100 in US dollar bills in her ‘designer handbag’, which she set down in the private area of her enclosed QSuite.

During the flight, the passenger snuggled up under her plush blanket to get some much-needed rest, but when she woke up, she noticed that her handbag was no longer where she had placed it.

The passenger says she immediately alerted one of the crew members and then went on the hunt throughout the plane in an attempt to find to bag.

As she walked down the aisle she noticed a lavatory door that was partially open and peaked inside. Her handbag was on the floor of the lavatory along with a Qatar Airways flight attendant.

After reclaiming her bag, the passenger checked to make sure nothing was missing but discovered that one of the envelopes containing dollar bills had been tampered with. $600 was missing from the envelope and the flight attendant who was in possession of the bag became the immediate suspect.

But despite the fact that the passenger immediately alerted a senior crew member, she claims that the suspect was allowed to continue working the remainder of the flight and no action was taken to try to get the missing cash returned to her.

Once in Kolkata, however, things took a sinister turn when the passenger started to receive Facebook Messenger and Instagam messages from people claiming to know the flight attendant.

These messages “expressed a wish for bad things” to happen to the passenger, as well as her son, and caused the passenger “extreme fear, anxiety and concern for the safety and security of herself and her family.”

The lawsuit accuses Qatar Airways of failing to take timely action to discipline the flight attendant and for failing to protect her identity and privacy. The suit also claims that Qatar Airwas has failed to compensate her for the alleged theft committed by one of its employees.

The passenger is suing Qatar Airways for breach of contract, negligence, intentional infliction of emotional distress and intentional tort. The lawsuit says Qatar Airways should have done more to investigate her accusations against the flight attendant and failed to take remedial action to ensure she enjoyed her experience.

Matt’s take

Unfortunately, cases of in-flight theft are not unheard of, especially in Asia, where criminals will book flights so that they can go on the hunt for designer handbags and rifle through them while their owner is sleeping or otherwise distracted.

In rare cases, flight attendants have also been implicated, although it’s hard to ascertain just how prevalant this problem is.

Of course, Business Class cabins often feel like a safe space and passengers frequently leave out expensive items without much thought that they could fall prey to a common criminal.

Interestingly, the latest iteration of Qatar Airways’ long-haul Business Class seat dubbed QSuite Next Gen has a lockable drawer so that passengers can hide away valuable items for the duration of the flight.