I am due to make my first QR flight in a couple of weeks, departing 29 June LHR-DOH-MNL. Flights are booked in J and I am OW Sapphire (BAEC Silver).

I just called the UK QR number to try and arrange a stop over hotel for my return flight, as the stop over is 8hr10min. I was told that they could not arrange this as there was a flight with a shorter stopover (7hr 40 ish). I pointed out that there was no availability on that earlier flight in J, and that my connection was the shortest I could get. The response was that there was availability in Economy.

I booked this flight as it seemed like the stop over hotel would be a good way to break up the flight. Should I call again and hope for a different agent/response or are the rules really that crazy that they are expecting me to downgrade to get a shorter stop over?