Data point to add. May be useful to someone so being a good forum citizen :-)
- Had held a reservation for next November earlier this week: RST>ORD>DOH>HKT. 2 people in business (all except RST>ORD which is single class).
- Background - I have Executive platinum status, my husband has none. These required two rewards per person since we are not going the aa-prescribed route but no issue putting them into a single PNR
- Booked today. Went to two PNR (one for each traveler) because of where we had the miles located. AA agent linked the records but I don't find that very reliable so planned to double check later with both AA and Qatar. This really isn't a big deal for us as long as each person is on one locator for the whole trip. No opportunity for an upgrade for us here so that isn't a concern either. FYI, we have had good luck with Qatar staff in ORD finding our luggage and through checking it for us on separate PNR but it is a hassle that is best avoided.
- I requested the Qatar record locators at booking and got them.
- Flights appeared "on request" in AA.com immediately after call.
- Immediately I went out to Qatarairways.com and the booking numbers were recognized. Couldn't book the Qsuites (they were blocked). I'm guessing from what I read here that was because my husband and I were on different locator numbers.
- Called Qatar within minutes, gave her the Qatar locators and asked about getting the middle seats. I did mention I was emerald but that didn't matter or could already see that in the record. The agent happily put us in 3E and 3F on the ORD flight and the seats we wanted on the non-Qsuite flight.
- Went back to AA.com and the new seats already appeared and the ticket was now listed as "ticketed". Fastest I've seen that happen!
An interesting side note: while my seats were on hold, I was looking for other possible routes. Before, during and now(I was curious), the flights continue to show 2 available business class seats
For what it is worth,
AJ