Originally Posted by aj411

Qatar and AA seem to be at an impass on our reservation and seat assignments so thought I'd come here to see if there is an approach that has worked for others with same or similar type of reservation involving a code share.

We've flown Qatar ORD>DOH several times but previously it was either booked directly through QR or booked through AA but as a QR labeled flight.
Our new reservation is listed as AA 8126 operated by QR in Business. Unlike other code-shares I've had, when you look up the reservation on the Qatar website, it also shows the AA flight number. Not the QR flight number. There is no option to change seats online either on AA or QR.
Neither AA nor QR operators seem to be able to assign the middle EF pairs. QR operator couldn't even find the QR flight number - they tried to tell me it was an AA flight at first (it is ticketed). Since AA doesn't' fly to DOH (except maybe this odd week), that was our first hurdle.
So after much searching, the QR operator said he couldn't assign seats since it was an AA flight. AA can't see those seats as available which doesn't surprise me since we've never been able to book those with AA.
Qatar operator sadi the best he could offer was to ask at check at the airport to see if they could assign the seats. I would think they would be gone by then but with travel in October of this covid year, maybe not?

Is there a possibility that they aren't assigning these center seats as part of covid protocol? Is the code share what is messing this up? Thoughts?

I'm not sure if it makes any difference but I am AA EXP/Oneworld Emerald and my husband is AA PlatPro/Oneworld Sapphire.

Afterthought - will this codeshare mess impact our lounge access in Doha? We are flying business on Qatar but if they see it as an AA flight, would that restrict Al Mourjan lounge access?

TIA