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

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 youll have to call American if you want to ticket AAdvantage awards on Etihad & Qatar that arent 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)

Old Sep 14, 2018, 5:16 pm
  #391  
 
Join Date: Jul 2014
Location: AUS
Programs: Marriott Platinum
Posts: 51
Originally Posted by shimps1
How do I go about selecting seats on an AAdvantage award, flown by AR? I have the AA PNR, but how would I get the reservation info for QR flights? My wife and I would like to use the double bed feature of the new QSuites.
You should have the ticket number (13 digits) on your confirmation email from AA. You can use that on the Qatar website to manage your booking. I had to call Qatar to request the double bed seats as I could not change it online. I booked separate flights using both of our accounts so the AA rep was not able to select the middle seats as they are reserved for couples or groups. But calling in I was able to move both seats to the double beds.
84Horn is offline  
Old Sep 14, 2018, 7:49 pm
  #392  
 
Join Date: Sep 2009
Location: Global
Posts: 5,977
Originally Posted by swingaling
Put me down as another person whos having trouble getting QR to credit miles to my AA account. Recently flew 4 QR segments as part of an AA ticket (001 stock). Two QR segments posted, but the other two did not. AA asked me to submit a copy of the ticket and boarding passes. Hoping that does the trick.

FWIW, I dont have a QRPC account, just an AA account and my AA FFN was on all BPs.
Hope it works out. Please report back.

Don't be surprised if AA comes back and says the flights were credited to your (non-existent) QR account.
Global321 is offline  
Old Sep 15, 2018, 9:11 pm
  #393  
 
Join Date: Oct 2010
Location: ATLien
Programs: Hub Captive Club
Posts: 125
I've got an interesting situation I'm wondering if anyone has seen before?

Keeping it simple I'm booking for myself and the in-laws, two (2) business class seats each on back-to-back days from the USA to JNB via DOH. I'm looking for something the back-end of the week of August 19th, 2019. I understand I'm outside of the 331 day window but BA/Qantas/Asia miles have all shown the same availability with 2 to 4 seats on most all QSuite flights roughly 355-ish days out on QR over the last month I've been watching trends.

It seemed oddly consistent but now that I'm close to entering the window and pulling the trigger, I've noticed that all USA-DOH award segments in either business OR economy class from 8/16/19-9/2/19 aren't available from ANY USA gateway to DOH. I can go DOH to the USA during this time, but not eastbound. Also available is pretty much anything that doesn't involve USA to DOH such as the segment from DOH to either JNB or CPT and back or the European flights to DOH...it's just the USA-DOH segments that dropped off the face of the earth for a little over a week and is almost like a part of the spreadsheet someone loaded into the system wasn't there. You look ahead a bit more into the future and as of 9/2/19 the original pattern of availability starts again.

Any clues? Am I just losing my mind?
spin2nd is offline  
Old Sep 15, 2018, 11:27 pm
  #394  
 
Join Date: Jun 2010
Posts: 100
Originally Posted by spin2nd
It seemed oddly consistent but now that I'm close to entering the window and pulling the trigger, I've noticed that all USA-DOH award segments in either business OR economy class from 8/16/19-9/2/19 aren't available from ANY USA gateway to DOH. I can go DOH to the USA during this time, but not eastbound. Also available is pretty much anything that doesn't involve USA to DOH such as the segment from DOH to either JNB or CPT and back or the European flights to DOH...it's just the USA-DOH segments that dropped off the face of the earth for a little over a week and is almost like a part of the spreadsheet someone loaded into the system wasn't there. You look ahead a bit more into the future and as of 9/2/19 the original pattern of availability starts again.
Hi Spin2nd,

I, along with someone else upthread, also noticed the exact same thing for the 06/20-07/07 time frame. I believe the only conclusion, either here or on one of the Reddit threads, was that QR just hasn't released the inventory for that time. It's interesting that both durations are 17 days. Coincidence? Fortunately for us, we were able to move around our dates a bit and it was fine.
sriirvine is offline  
Old Sep 16, 2018, 12:33 pm
  #395  
 
Join Date: Oct 2010
Location: ATLien
Programs: Hub Captive Club
Posts: 125
That is an interesting coincidence. Id feel better that it might show up later if both directions were missing but the fact that the only thing absent globally seems to be ex USA to DOH. That being said, your June/July window now appears to have plenty of availability (I only checked ORD, fyi) when was the last time you looked? Just trying to gauge when those dates may open up.
spin2nd is offline  
Old Sep 16, 2018, 1:23 pm
  #396  
 
Join Date: Apr 2010
Location: ORD
Programs: AA, UA, GE
Posts: 5,115
Originally Posted by spin2nd
That is an interesting coincidence. Id feel better that it might show up later if both directions were missing but the fact that the only thing absent globally seems to be ex USA to DOH. That being said, your June/July window now appears to have plenty of availability (I only checked ORD, fyi) when was the last time you looked? Just trying to gauge when those dates may open up.
It was pretty recent. I had been looking to book a qr award in that time period and I was checking back from time to time. As I recall my last check was about two weeks ago and there was no ORD-DOH J availability fot the last 10 -14 days of July
cheltzel is offline  
Old Sep 24, 2018, 11:02 am
  #397  
 
Join Date: Feb 2017
Location: FAT
Posts: 146
I had been looking for a DOH-JNB/CPT flight end of April/early May but after I couldn't find one for a couple weeks I found availability to SEZ and decided I'm spending a few days in the Seychelles before heading to South Africa. Life is tough sometimes Called AA last week at the US number and the rep was great, no issues. Showed as confirmed with QR the next day and the day after that AA completed ticketing. I went for the LAX-DOH route so there won't be q-suites for me but maybe next time!
49penguins is offline  
Old Sep 28, 2018, 5:35 am
  #398  
 
Join Date: May 2006
Programs: Aeromexico Platinum and AA Exec Platinum
Posts: 212
At about the 330 day mark I was able to get 2 business class seats from JFK DOH. There were no business seats for DOH CPT so I took ecocomy. The flights are early May. I keep checking but have never seen even 1 seat in business become available on that flight. Should I keep looking daily? Any advice?
betonic is offline  
Old Sep 28, 2018, 5:54 am
  #399  
FlyerTalk Evangelist
 
Join Date: Feb 2001
Location: RDU <|> MMX
Programs: AA EXP 2MM, SK EBS
Posts: 12,361
Originally Posted by betonic
At about the 330 day mark I was able to get 2 business class seats from JFK DOH. There were no business seats for DOH CPT so I took ecocomy. The flights are early May. I keep checking but have never seen even 1 seat in business become available on that flight. Should I keep looking daily? Any advice?
No one has a crystal ball here that can tell you exactly if/when business seats will open up. May is still a long way off, so I certainly wouldn't give up hope. Checking everyday might be a bit much, but if it were me I would look once or twice a week when I had a free minute on the computer.
JJeffrey is offline  
Old Sep 28, 2018, 10:51 am
  #400  
 
Join Date: Sep 2016
Posts: 54
Hi all, anyone with experience with booking DOH-AKL flights in Dec/Jan holiday season? I will be looking for 3 J seats for Dec 2019, is it realistic to hope to find it?

Right now, ba.com shows tons of availability in Feb-May period and some in summer 2019, but I am hearing qr availability comes and goes and comes back inconsistently...
ijakov is offline  
Old Sep 29, 2018, 3:40 pm
  #401  
 
Join Date: Sep 2013
Posts: 875
Something is definitely off for US-DOH availability in late Aug / early Sept. I can see tons of LHR-DOH, but zero from the US-DOH
coltonatx is offline  
Old Sep 29, 2018, 10:15 pm
  #402  
 
Join Date: Oct 2010
Location: ATLien
Programs: Hub Captive Club
Posts: 125
Originally Posted by coltonatx
Something is definitely off for US-DOH availability in late Aug / early Sept. I can see tons of LHR-DOH, but zero from the US-DOH
That's exactly what I noticed and was speaking of earlier in the thread. It's like someone messed up loading a spreadsheet in the system... N.America-DOH basically doesn't exist in that time period which is somewhat hilarious b/c everything is loaded fine DOH-N.America.
spin2nd is offline  
Old Sep 29, 2018, 11:26 pm
  #403  
 
Join Date: Jul 2016
Posts: 222
Originally Posted by spin2nd
That's exactly what I noticed and was speaking of earlier in the thread. It's like someone messed up loading a spreadsheet in the system... N.America-DOH basically doesn't exist in that time period which is somewhat hilarious b/c everything is loaded fine DOH-N.America.
That's really not how it works... They have revenue management algorithms that prerdict what seats they think they can sell. During late August/early Sept there is a rise in tourism to Doha and there is generally a global rise in flight demand during this time and now since QR has completely rebranded themselves as a global Doha hub based carrier their system is predicting that they will not have excess inventory for award seats during this period..as far a business class they are also really trying to drive revenue through paid based upgrades. Whether this holds true remains to be seen. Qatar's reconfiguration of their schedule as a Doha based connection airline should be incredibly evident if you have flown through Doha lately. Most flights all arrive in the late evening and depart in the early morning. Despite a new hugely large airport with tons of gates you will see during their busy time more than half the flights (even on many wide body airplanes) being serviced by bus and stairs to the aircraft. It's quite a sight to be seen with dozens of Airbus 350s and Boeing 777s all lined up on the taxi ways and penalty boxes parked in 'W' formations with stairs leading up to each.
FleyeSkyHigh is offline  
Old Sep 30, 2018, 11:38 am
  #404  
 
Join Date: Oct 2010
Location: ATLien
Programs: Hub Captive Club
Posts: 125
Originally Posted by FleyeSkyHigh
That's really not how it works... They have revenue management algorithms that prerdict what seats they think they can sell. During late August/early Sept there is a rise in tourism to Doha and there is generally a global rise in flight demand during this time and now since QR has completely rebranded themselves as a global Doha hub based carrier their system is predicting that they will not have excess inventory for award seats during this period..as far a business class they are also really trying to drive revenue through paid based upgrades. Whether this holds true remains to be seen. Qatar's reconfiguration of their schedule as a Doha based connection airline should be incredibly evident if you have flown through Doha lately. Most flights all arrive in the late evening and depart in the early morning. Despite a new hugely large airport with tons of gates you will see during their busy time more than half the flights (even on many wide body airplanes) being serviced by bus and stairs to the aircraft. It's quite a sight to be seen with dozens of Airbus 350s and Boeing 777s all lined up on the taxi ways and penalty boxes parked in 'W' formations with stairs leading up to each.
I understand how revenue management *should* work, however, all awards at all levels from ONLY N.America-DOH are unavailable. If they really think there is a huge travel flux out of N.America to DOH or even points beyond right when everyone starts back to schools and family travel typically plummets then more power to them, I hope they're right. Every single other award they offer I can see didn't change. Pick any global destination they offer from any origin and they're there, just not eastbound N.America-DOH (but you can go westbound DOH-N.America) They're pretty predictable for the next 355 days of visibility other than this window. Revenue flights also haven't changed patterns either, if it were a demand thing I think we'd see some fluctuation.

I'm relatively confident (...errr, cautiously optimistic?) during a future update they'll show back up; but for now I've booked an alternate award on a different carrier with full expectation of cancelling it.
spin2nd is offline  
Old Oct 1, 2018, 5:26 am
  #405  
 
Join Date: Apr 2001
Location: Austin
Posts: 4,629
Originally Posted by FleyeSkyHigh
That's really not how it works... They have revenue management algorithms that prerdict what seats they think they can sell.
That's not how it works either. Award seats not are not ONLY allocated based on predicted seats that would otherwise go unsold. The award release strategies also vary greatly from airline to airline.
millionmiler is offline  

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