Not totally apples to apples, but wife and I had an award booking MLE-DOH-ORD-RIC. QR and AA. The best we could do included a 5 hour layover at ORD. The last thing we needed after the 14 hour flight from Doha. Booked the ORD-RIC segment separately on UA as it left at a far more reasonable time. Called the Exec Plat line from ORD and let them know we would not be on the last segment. Agent thanked me for freeing up two J seats, and that was the end of it.