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Qatar Airways / QR: Redeem AA Miles for Award (master thd)

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Old Nov 19, 2013, 3:20 pm
FlyerTalk Forums Expert How-Tos and Guides
Last edit by: Prospero
Covid-19 Update:
  • 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
link to QR Travel Alerts)

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.
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.
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Qatar Airways / QR: Redeem AA Miles for Award (master thd)

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Old Mar 11, 2022, 5:40 am
  #2101  
 
Join Date: Nov 2001
Location: RDU
Posts: 2,264
Originally Posted by happiest_at_40000
I am not seeing any QR options at all. Whether I go Cairo to the US or Dubai or just from Doha. Dubai and Cairo are all BA. Doha is AA's flight. I havent looked at every single day as that would be really time consuming on AA site but I looked at probably 10-15 days in July & August and another 10-15 days in November & December. Was just wondering are QR flights just sold out through AA or is something else going on?

Thanks
Just for fun, I picked one random date in January 2023, USA-DOH. I see at least 2 business class seats on QR to DOH from 6 gateaways: ORD, ATL, PHL, DFW, BOS, JFK

Could be things are just sold out this summer, and World Cup has definitely impacted inventory in Nov/Dec (WC runs Nov 21-Dec 18).
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Old Mar 11, 2022, 6:11 am
  #2102  
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Join Date: Feb 2001
Location: RDU <|> MMX
Programs: AA EXP 2MM, SK EBS
Posts: 12,483
Originally Posted by happiest_at_40000
I am not seeing any QR options at all. Whether I go Cairo to the US or Dubai or just from Doha. Dubai and Cairo are all BA. Doha is AA's flight. I havent looked at every single day as that would be really time consuming on AA site but I looked at probably 10-15 days in July & August and another 10-15 days in November & December. Was just wondering are QR flights just sold out through AA or is something else going on?

Thanks
So if you're just searching "CAI-XXX" at aa.com (with XXX being your final destination in the US) and expecting aa.com to return any and all possible routings using QR, then you're doing it very wrong.

With pretty much any partner search like this you have to hunt and peck and piece things together one segment at a time. Search just DOH-JFK, then DOH-BOS, then DOH-PHL, and so on until you find something. Then search CAI-DOH on that date to see if that's available too. Rinse and repeat until you can piece together an itinerary.

Just did a dummy search for DOH-ORD, random Tuesday in mid July, on page 2 of the results I found a DOH-IAD-ORD routing availabe in business. Boom, now I know DOH-IAD is available on date X. Then searched CAI-IAD on date X -1 day, and voilà, now I have CAI-DOH-IAD. That was literally the very first random date I picked.
Happy likes this.
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Old Mar 11, 2022, 11:33 am
  #2103  
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Join Date: Dec 2003
Location: Not here; there!
Programs: AA Lifetime Gold
Posts: 29,601
Originally Posted by JJeffrey
Just did a dummy search for DOH-ORD, random Tuesday in mid July, on page 2 of the results I found a DOH-IAD-ORD routing availabe in business. Boom, now I know DOH-IAD is available on date X. Then searched CAI-IAD on date X -1 day, and voilà, now I have CAI-DOH-IAD. That was literally the very first random date I picked.
Are you assuming that there won't be any married-segment-availability issues with QR flights?
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Old Mar 11, 2022, 12:11 pm
  #2104  
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Posts: 12,483
Originally Posted by guv1976
Are you assuming that there won't be any married-segment-availability issues with QR flights?
Yes and no, while married segment issues are always a possibility with QR, it doesn't change the underlying strategy of having to check each and every possibility for best results.
Happy and friedablass like this.
JJeffrey is online now  
Old Mar 11, 2022, 12:35 pm
  #2105  
 
Join Date: Apr 2004
Location: Omaha
Programs: AA Life Plat 4mm, Hilton Diamond
Posts: 1,461
Just put OMA/ORD/DOH/MLE J on hold, like most everybody DOH/MLE in coach - 70k
DOH layover is 8:30pm to 2 am - will we have lounge access in DOH?
Trip isn’t until next January so will keep looking for that leg in J - same situation on the return.
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Old Mar 11, 2022, 1:32 pm
  #2106  
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Posts: 12,483
Originally Posted by kmandrew
Just put OMA/ORD/DOH/MLE J on hold, like most everybody DOH/MLE in coach - 70k
DOH layover is 8:30pm to 2 am - will we have lounge access in DOH?
Trip isn’t until next January so will keep looking for that leg in J - same situation on the return.
On the outbound you'll have access to the QR Silver Business Lounge by virtue of your AA PLT status.

On the return you'll have access to the nicer QR Al-Mourjan Business Lounge by virtue of your DOH-ORD flight in business class.
JJeffrey is online now  
Old Mar 11, 2022, 1:45 pm
  #2107  
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Join Date: May 2015
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Originally Posted by happiest_at_40000
I am not seeing any QR options at all. Whether I go Cairo to the US or Dubai or just from Doha. Dubai and Cairo are all BA. Doha is AA's flight. I havent looked at every single day as that would be really time consuming on AA site but I looked at probably 10-15 days in July & August and another 10-15 days in November & December. Was just wondering are QR flights just sold out through AA or is something else going on?

Thanks
QR blocked out a whole month in Nov/Dec for the world cup and you're likely avout half a year too late for July/August bookings. At this point you'll need to check every single NA gateway, including Canada and hope you get lucky, otherwise it's likely a no-go. Wouldn't get my hopes up about QR releasing anything for the world cup time period either.

Use the calendar search for non-stop availability of individual segments and then see if you can piece them together.
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Old Mar 11, 2022, 2:22 pm
  #2108  
 
Join Date: Jul 2020
Location: So Cal
Programs: AA Platinum
Posts: 2,712
Thanks to all for the suggestions and tips. I will try piecing it together and the calendar search. Really appreciate the help. When you say the calendar search what exactly do you mean though? I have no problem flying to any USA location to get QR in J. I also can go from Cairo, Amman or Dubai, it really doesnt matter.

Any thoughts on why AA is also not letting me find a single QF F seat? I posted on AA QF but no replies. I dont think this is a piece it together, use the calendar search fix. Its like F doesnt exist right now depsite the LAX/SYD flight being an A380. Or maybe its sold out for everyday for the next year.

Thanks for the QR tips..
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Old Mar 11, 2022, 2:47 pm
  #2109  
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Originally Posted by happiest_at_40000
Any thoughts on why AA is also not letting me find a single QF F seat? I posted on AA QF but no replies. I dont think this is a piece it together, use the calendar search fix. Its like F doesnt exist right now depsite the LAX/SYD flight being an A380. Or maybe its sold out for everyday for the next year.
You received lots of replies on this issue in the thread you started on this search a few weeks ago, nothing has changed since then, QF F (and J) award space has always been some of the hardest to find in the AA system. Let's keep this thread on topic to QR.
JJeffrey is online now  
Old Mar 11, 2022, 2:47 pm
  #2110  
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Join Date: Aug 2009
Location: SYD
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Posts: 8,527
Originally Posted by happiest_at_40000

Any thoughts on why AA is also not letting me find a single QF F seat? I posted on AA QF but no replies. I dont think this is a piece it together, use the calendar search fix. Its like F doesnt exist right now depsite the LAX/SYD flight being an A380. Or maybe its sold out for everyday for the next year.

Thanks for the QR tips..
QF hasn't released any F awards on QF11/12 for their own program, let alone AA. Other route J awards are almost non existent. Like many carriers, they want cash.
DiamondMile likes this.
m0hamed is offline  
Old Mar 11, 2022, 7:57 pm
  #2111  
 
Join Date: Jul 2020
Location: So Cal
Programs: AA Platinum
Posts: 2,712
Originally Posted by JJeffrey
You received lots of replies on this issue in the thread you started on this search a few weeks ago, nothing has changed since then, QF F (and J) award space has always been some of the hardest to find in the AA system. Let's keep this thread on topic to QR.
J Jeffrey thank you for reminding me I started that thread. I now have to go read all the replies. Would you believe I have not been getting email alerts to post quotes/new posts, etc on any of my subscribed threads. Completely forgot I began that thread, thank you again for reminding me. Basically I have to go to any thread one by one to see if there is anything new and I forgot that one.

I have tried so many times to reset password, unsubscribe and resubscribe but nothing is working to get me email alerts. Tried a few moderators on PM but no one has been able to fix it.
happiest_at_40000 is offline  
Old Mar 11, 2022, 8:40 pm
  #2112  
 
Join Date: Jul 2020
Location: So Cal
Programs: AA Platinum
Posts: 2,712
Originally Posted by m0hamed
QF hasn't released any F awards on QF11/12 for their own program, let alone AA. Other route J awards are almost non existent. Like many carriers, they want cash.
Darn thats a Bummer. I noticed ya even getting J from SIN/SYD wasnt looking good. Well at least it looks like by properly doing the search I can grab some Q Suites.

I just figured out Calendar search, first time ever using this . Wow does this make it easier to see whats going on and when I can find a 70K Q Suites flight.

Last edited by happiest_at_40000; Mar 11, 2022 at 8:58 pm
happiest_at_40000 is offline  
Old Mar 12, 2022, 8:40 am
  #2113  
 
Join Date: Jun 2003
Location: Seattle WA
Programs: AS 100K, Marriott LT Platinum
Posts: 1,828
Had to cancel an upcoming QR award booked via AA miles. Got the miles back almost instantly. Will I get the taxes and fees back? It said nothing about them during the online cancel process...
Tracer_SEA is offline  
Old Mar 12, 2022, 9:22 am
  #2114  
 
Join Date: Nov 2001
Location: RDU
Posts: 2,264
Originally Posted by Tracer_SEA
Had to cancel an upcoming QR award booked via AA miles. Got the miles back almost instantly. Will I get the taxes and fees back? It said nothing about them during the online cancel process...
Was it coach or business? If business, care to spend a minute on AA.com to put in your routing and see if J awards are available? I think all signs point to QR not immediately putting awards back upon cancellation (if at all), but would be good to have a one-off data point.

And yes, for sure you should get the $$$ back in addition to the miles.
dave_261 is online now  
Old Mar 12, 2022, 9:40 am
  #2115  
 
Join Date: Oct 2015
Location: So Cal
Posts: 937
Originally Posted by Tracer_SEA
Had to cancel an upcoming QR award booked via AA miles. Got the miles back almost instantly. Will I get the taxes and fees back? It said nothing about them during the online cancel process...
Yes you will. You should see it hit your credit card within a couple of days.
brodielayne is offline  


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