Nov 19, 2013, 3:20 pm
Last edit by: Prospero
Covid-19 Update:
For further information on AA awards see:
HELP DESK: MileSAAver / SAAver Award Availability - Help, Assistance & Discussion
and
AA oneworld and Other Airline Partner Award information, rules (2015 on)
N.B. Upgrades on QR book into fares not granted EQD/EQM by AA. If you're upgraded on QR, be prepared for pushback from some AA agents. You may have to submit a formal request with accompanying documentation reflecting you purchased an eligible fare class.
NOTE:AA has removed most EY and QR award access from aa.com due to a glitch booking these:
If you experience difficulties with the AA reservations system, you may be able to book by calling AA Australia (+61 2-9101-1948 ) then press 4 - or the New Zealand number (+64 09-308-4014) as an alternative - although the call center is actually in Suva, Fiji (South African agency Mindpearl) - as they can often see the inventory more reliably, and you can book.
NOTE: USA Canada travel on QR will earn EQ miles etc. in accordance with the fare class purchased.
Links:
Link to AA.com Qatar miles earning etc.
AA miles earning on QR changed 1 May 2016 (Link):
Minimum miles guarantee applies.
Checking QR award availability:
You can check QR availability on AA's site, BA's site, QF's site, www.awardnexus.com (which pulls from BA and/or QF), or the KVS tool. (A certain number of searches are free to FlyerTalk members at AwardNexus; click the "more signup options" link under the green Purchase button to sign up as a FlyerTalk member.)
When checking QR award availability, you have to check each segment individually. Both BA and QF can generate very misleading information if you try to check QR award availability all the way through [xxx-(DOH)-yyy] in one step. Be aware AA can only book 330 days out, even if you see availability farther out.
Awards on QR may not be visible to AA agents if a multi-segment itinerary is requested; broken into individual segments will generally reveal availability, however.
As well, AA Australia or New Zealand (actually MindPearl in Fiji) can often see and book AA awards on QR US-based ones might not be able to.
From danger: For AA awards, Economy is X, Business is U, First is Z. NOTE: Those with Z (First) awards may see "Z (Business Class)" shown on the QR website; this is a known glitch.
As well, QR sells intra gulf two class service as First and Economy, as AA does domestically. This can cause some issues with a Business flight including a Gulf "First" flight potentially incurring an F award redemption.
From hotelmotel: "Got my QR PNR from AA. Popped over to QR and selected seats." (AAdvantage award.)
Days of the week: To/from the USA, especially in business class, Qatar often only offers awards seats for Mon..Thu departures, not Fri..Sun departures. So makes sure you check different parts of the week, and not just always weekends (if you're not finding anything on weekends).
NOTE: At DOH / Hamad International Airport, lounges as follows:
Qatar Airways Al Safwa First Lounge (not a oneworld lounge): only accessible to those flying First Class on Qatar or oneworld airlines and QRPC Platniums flying in ticketed Business (not oneworld Emeralds flying other lower classes of service)
Qatar Airways Al Mourjan Business Lounge (not a oneworld lounge): only accessible to those flying Business Class on Qatar or oneworld (not oneworld Sapphire flying lower classes of service)
Oryx Lounge: Third party lounge.
Qatar Airways HIA First Class Lounge (oneworld lounge): First Class ticketed customers, Emerald members, as well as their accompanying guests, travelling on Qatar Airways and other oneworld member flights.
Qatar Airways HIA Business Class Lounge (oneworld lounge): First and Business Class ticketed customers, Emerald and Sapphire members, as well as their accompanying guests, travelling on Qatar Airways and other oneworld member flights.
Arrivals Lounges (not oneworld lounges): only accessible to those arriving in First or Business Class on Qatar Airways (not oneworld Sapphire flying other oneworld airlines or other classes of service)
See FT: QR Lounges at HIA
Selecting Qatar Airways Seats
If you want to assign a seat after booking an award, you should first try the Qatar website or app. If you experience issues, please try a partner site like Royal Jordanian, Malaysia Airlines, or Sri-Lankan. You can also reach out to the QR Twitter team to fix your record in order to be able to select seats on their own site.
- Sapphire+ status pax are temporarily allowed to use the Al Mourjan Business Lounge
- Only tickets issued on QR 157 stock are eligible for the Extending Our Commitment (EOC) rebooking policy
For further information on AA awards see:
HELP DESK: MileSAAver / SAAver Award Availability - Help, Assistance & Discussion
and
AA oneworld and Other Airline Partner Award information, rules (2015 on)
N.B. Upgrades on QR book into fares not granted EQD/EQM by AA. If you're upgraded on QR, be prepared for pushback from some AA agents. You may have to submit a formal request with accompanying documentation reflecting you purchased an eligible fare class.
NOTE:AA has removed most EY and QR award access from aa.com due to a glitch booking these:
From One Mile at a Time (link)
Bottom Line
For the time being you’ll have to call American if you want to ticket AAdvantage awards on Etihad & Qatar that aren’t for travel to & from the US or Canada. It makes sense that American took these awards “offline,” and now it also makes sense why so many passengers have been having issues with checked bags on awards.
Bottom Line
For the time being you’ll have to call American if you want to ticket AAdvantage awards on Etihad & Qatar that aren’t for travel to & from the US or Canada. It makes sense that American took these awards “offline,” and now it also makes sense why so many passengers have been having issues with checked bags on awards.
NOTE: USA Canada travel on QR will earn EQ miles etc. in accordance with the fare class purchased.
Links:
Link to AA.com Qatar miles earning etc.
AA miles earning on QR changed 1 May 2016 (Link):
Minimum miles guarantee applies.
Checking QR award availability:
You can check QR availability on AA's site, BA's site, QF's site, www.awardnexus.com (which pulls from BA and/or QF), or the KVS tool. (A certain number of searches are free to FlyerTalk members at AwardNexus; click the "more signup options" link under the green Purchase button to sign up as a FlyerTalk member.)
When checking QR award availability, you have to check each segment individually. Both BA and QF can generate very misleading information if you try to check QR award availability all the way through [xxx-(DOH)-yyy] in one step. Be aware AA can only book 330 days out, even if you see availability farther out.
Awards on QR may not be visible to AA agents if a multi-segment itinerary is requested; broken into individual segments will generally reveal availability, however.
As well, AA Australia or New Zealand (actually MindPearl in Fiji) can often see and book AA awards on QR US-based ones might not be able to.
From danger: For AA awards, Economy is X, Business is U, First is Z. NOTE: Those with Z (First) awards may see "Z (Business Class)" shown on the QR website; this is a known glitch.
As well, QR sells intra gulf two class service as First and Economy, as AA does domestically. This can cause some issues with a Business flight including a Gulf "First" flight potentially incurring an F award redemption.
From hotelmotel: "Got my QR PNR from AA. Popped over to QR and selected seats." (AAdvantage award.)
Days of the week: To/from the USA, especially in business class, Qatar often only offers awards seats for Mon..Thu departures, not Fri..Sun departures. So makes sure you check different parts of the week, and not just always weekends (if you're not finding anything on weekends).
NOTE: At DOH / Hamad International Airport, lounges as follows:
Qatar Airways Al Safwa First Lounge (not a oneworld lounge): only accessible to those flying First Class on Qatar or oneworld airlines and QRPC Platniums flying in ticketed Business (not oneworld Emeralds flying other lower classes of service)
Qatar Airways Al Mourjan Business Lounge (not a oneworld lounge): only accessible to those flying Business Class on Qatar or oneworld (not oneworld Sapphire flying lower classes of service)
Oryx Lounge: Third party lounge.
Qatar Airways HIA First Class Lounge (oneworld lounge): First Class ticketed customers, Emerald members, as well as their accompanying guests, travelling on Qatar Airways and other oneworld member flights.
Qatar Airways HIA Business Class Lounge (oneworld lounge): First and Business Class ticketed customers, Emerald and Sapphire members, as well as their accompanying guests, travelling on Qatar Airways and other oneworld member flights.
Arrivals Lounges (not oneworld lounges): only accessible to those arriving in First or Business Class on Qatar Airways (not oneworld Sapphire flying other oneworld airlines or other classes of service)
See FT: QR Lounges at HIA
Selecting Qatar Airways Seats
If you want to assign a seat after booking an award, you should first try the Qatar website or app. If you experience issues, please try a partner site like Royal Jordanian, Malaysia Airlines, or Sri-Lankan. You can also reach out to the QR Twitter team to fix your record in order to be able to select seats on their own site.
Qatar Airways / QR: Redeem AA Miles for Award (master thd)
May 24, 2021, 3:53 pm
#1576
Join Date: Nov 2007
Programs: Marriott Bonvoy Platinum, Hilton Honors Diamond, Delta Gold
Posts: 4,349
Do you know if I am able to do this for more than one leg? I just want to make sure I understand it correctly before I call AA up and don't know what I'm talking about. Planning on putting the CONUS to DOH on hold and then adding a DOH-MLE segment that I find as well as HNL- to my CONUS departure. That should still be all good aslong as I have them all identified for the CSR to find?
Jun 8, 2021, 2:01 pm
#1577
Join Date: Jul 2016
Location: DC
Programs: AA PPRO, HH Diamond, National EE
Posts: 603
Follow-up. I found Saver space LAX-DOH-MLE can I add a web special economy to it or can I not combine web specials to other awards? I know I can call and ask but I feel like I get better information from the forum before arguing with a CSR about it.
Jun 8, 2021, 2:12 pm
#1578
Join Date: Aug 2007
Location: NYC
Programs: AA EXP/OWE, Marriott Ambassador
Posts: 880
Are you talking about adding a web special economy to an existing booking? This might not be possible to "link" but they can "note" in your file that you're connected like they did with my wife and I's recent JFK-DOH-MLE trip.
Jun 8, 2021, 2:25 pm
#1579
Join Date: Jul 2016
Location: DC
Programs: AA PPRO, HH Diamond, National EE
Posts: 603
I'm going to have the LAX-DOH-MLE on QR put on hold, then call up and try to add the HNL-LAX leg onto it. The HNL-LAX is a web special which I understand can't be changed after I book it only cancelled. Trying to verify if I can still do that or if I need to find a SAAVER fare to add to the other SAAVER fare.
Jun 8, 2021, 6:28 pm
#1580
Join Date: Nov 2007
Programs: Marriott Bonvoy Platinum, Hilton Honors Diamond, Delta Gold
Posts: 4,349
I'm going to have the LAX-DOH-MLE on QR put on hold, then call up and try to add the HNL-LAX leg onto it. The HNL-LAX is a web special which I understand can't be changed after I book it only cancelled. Trying to verify if I can still do that or if I need to find a SAAVER fare to add to the other SAAVER fare.
Jun 8, 2021, 9:01 pm
#1581
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Feb 2001
Location: RDU <|> MMX
Programs: AA EXP 2MM, SK EBS
Posts: 12,483
I'm going to have the LAX-DOH-MLE on QR put on hold, then call up and try to add the HNL-LAX leg onto it. The HNL-LAX is a web special which I understand can't be changed after I book it only cancelled. Trying to verify if I can still do that or if I need to find a SAAVER fare to add to the other SAAVER fare.
Jun 9, 2021, 12:26 am
#1582
Join Date: Jul 2016
Location: DC
Programs: AA PPRO, HH Diamond, National EE
Posts: 603
The biggest issue is AA’s crappy idea of not having the actual awards annotated and easily identifiable. Now you have to guess with the dynamic pricing.
Jun 11, 2021, 5:03 pm
#1584
Join Date: Jul 2001
Programs: AA EP
Posts: 2,203
You either have your terms mixed up or are trying to combine a paid ticket with this QR flight. Or are talking a paid itinerary? Or somehow have a BA segment (s) in there. There are no carrier imposed fees on QR
Last edited by AAExecPlatFlier; Jun 11, 2021 at 8:13 pm
Jun 11, 2021, 10:12 pm
#1585
Join Date: Jun 2011
Posts: 3,528
No, I was searching for miles and only looking for non-stops. I tried two different browsers and both showed the same results, but now the fees are back down so hopefully it was just a bug.
Jun 17, 2021, 10:38 pm
#1586
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Dallas, TX USA
Posts: 2,118
A friend and I are traveling on QR SEZ-DOH-DFW next month on separate Economy award tickets issued
by AA.The friend is AA Platinum (oneworld Sapphire) and I am AA Gold (oneworld Ruby). My friend was able
to reserve very good seats on both flights using the MH website, but since I don't have Platinum/Sapphire
status I could not reserve seats. Just curious if anybody here has been in that situation and whether Qatar
might "link" our reservations so that I can get advance seat reservations near my friend. Failing that, can
anybody here give a rough estimate of how much it will cost to reserve seats in advance? We are passing
through Doha on our way to the Seychelles and I am hoping that there is a walk-up help desk in the transit
area or in the Al Mourjan Lounge that can help us with this.
by AA.The friend is AA Platinum (oneworld Sapphire) and I am AA Gold (oneworld Ruby). My friend was able
to reserve very good seats on both flights using the MH website, but since I don't have Platinum/Sapphire
status I could not reserve seats. Just curious if anybody here has been in that situation and whether Qatar
might "link" our reservations so that I can get advance seat reservations near my friend. Failing that, can
anybody here give a rough estimate of how much it will cost to reserve seats in advance? We are passing
through Doha on our way to the Seychelles and I am hoping that there is a walk-up help desk in the transit
area or in the Al Mourjan Lounge that can help us with this.
Jun 18, 2021, 5:40 am
#1587
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Feb 2001
Location: RDU <|> MMX
Programs: AA EXP 2MM, SK EBS
Posts: 12,483
A friend and I are traveling on QR SEZ-DOH-DFW next month on separate Economy award tickets issued
by AA.The friend is AA Platinum (oneworld Sapphire) and I am AA Gold (oneworld Ruby). My friend was able
to reserve very good seats on both flights using the MH website, but since I don't have Platinum/Sapphire
status I could not reserve seats. Just curious if anybody here has been in that situation and whether Qatar
might "link" our reservations so that I can get advance seat reservations near my friend. Failing that, can
anybody here give a rough estimate of how much it will cost to reserve seats in advance? We are passing
through Doha on our way to the Seychelles and I am hoping that there is a walk-up help desk in the transit
area or in the Al Mourjan Lounge that can help us with this.
by AA.The friend is AA Platinum (oneworld Sapphire) and I am AA Gold (oneworld Ruby). My friend was able
to reserve very good seats on both flights using the MH website, but since I don't have Platinum/Sapphire
status I could not reserve seats. Just curious if anybody here has been in that situation and whether Qatar
might "link" our reservations so that I can get advance seat reservations near my friend. Failing that, can
anybody here give a rough estimate of how much it will cost to reserve seats in advance? We are passing
through Doha on our way to the Seychelles and I am hoping that there is a walk-up help desk in the transit
area or in the Al Mourjan Lounge that can help us with this.
Failing that, can you not pull up your record on the QR website and see what options may be available for purchasing a better seat assignment?
No access to Al-Mourjan on an economy ticket, btw.
Jun 18, 2021, 7:53 am
#1588
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Dallas, TX USA
Posts: 2,118
You just need to get your friend to call QR, tell them he's flying with a companion and see if they can get you seated next to him. You might also search/ask over on the QR forum if there's an official policy on elite seating benefits on separate records.
Failing that, can you not pull up your record on the QR website and see what options may be available for purchasing a better seat assignment?
No access to Al-Mourjan on an economy ticket, btw.
Failing that, can you not pull up your record on the QR website and see what options may be available for purchasing a better seat assignment?
No access to Al-Mourjan on an economy ticket, btw.
There is a known issue for AA award bookings on the QR website that you can't get past a pop-up box asking for contact info that never "takes". When I view my reservation on the MH website it doesn't offer me the chance to pay to reserve seats.
We are both flying QR Business on the way to the Seychelles so should have Al Mourjan access then.
Last edited by dogcanyon; Jun 18, 2021 at 8:28 am
Jun 18, 2021, 7:56 am
#1589
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Aug 2012
Location: KHOU/KIAH
Programs: AA EXP | Marriott Bonvoy Titanium| Hyatt Globalist
Posts: 11,252
To add to the point by JJeffrey above, OW Sapphire will not get you access to the Al Mourjan lounge.
There is a separate lounge, however.
There is a separate lounge, however.
Jun 18, 2021, 8:56 am
#1590
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Dallas, TX USA
Posts: 2,118
To add to the point by JJeffrey above, OW Sapphire will not get you access to the Al Mourjan lounge.
There is a separate lounge, however.
There is a separate lounge, however.
Covid-19 Update:
- Sapphire+ status pax are temporarily allowed to use the Al Mourjan Business Lounge