Originally Posted by
roknroll
Just a quick update:
This was happening to me multiple times on other routings. CX and BA sites would show Qatar availability but when I called they agent couldn't see it. They would refresh their system and I checked over the course of a week or two on various routings. I was not able to complete the booking online either, as it would give an error message about the credit card at the final step.
Eventually I was able to get it to book over the phone by referencing the in-process booking I had attempted. They were able to see that transaction and process it over the phone. Only then would the availability show up. But if I called fresh from the start before trying to make an online booking they did not see the availability. Not sure why it was this way, but it ended up working.
When you make a booking, the availability is locked for a certain time. For normal online bookings, direct with the airline, it might be just 10-20 minutes, though I can imagine, when you try to book QR through the AM site, AM operates as a TA and that period could easily be a couple of hours, just to give the TA the opportunity to complete the whole, including the payment.
The fact, AM could pickup your stranded booking is a hint for that.
And all that time, the award seats are blocked for others trying to book, which explains, why AM could not get your booking done, when starting fresh. Your attempt did block the availability.