Originally Posted by
bluedog44
I found out that you can buy access to (DOH) Qatar's First Class lounge, assuming not over-crowded, but your ticket has to be issued by Qatar Airways, to quote One Mile at a Time, "The other major restriction is that in order to buy access to the Al Safwa First Lounge, your ticket must be issued by Qatar Airways; unfortunately this means that award tickets issued through partner frequent flyer programs wouldn’t be eligible for this."
I booked a J Qatar award and it was around $100 to prebook the Safwa 1st Class Lounge.
I can vouch for the $25 cancelation fee for the award, which I took advantage of. (I also booked and canceled one within 24 hours and didn't get a free cancelation).
I was not refunded the $100 fee for the booking to the Safwa. So probably not a good idea to do that. The terms say non-refundable and indeed that was the case.