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

Dec 31, 20, 10:02 am - Wikipost

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Last edit by: Mwenenzi
Wiki Link

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:

Quote:

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 cannot check QR availability on aa.com. You must check QR availability elsewhere, and then call AA on the phone to book the award. (There is no booking fee.)~~

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. ="1"% (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 / Doha Hamad International Airport, lounges as follows:

Qatar Airways Al Safwa Lounge (not a oneworld lounge): only accessible to those flying First Class on Qatar or oneworld airlines (not oneworld Emeralds flying other lower classes of service)

Qatar Airways Al Mourjan 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 for qualifying passengers on BA, CX, RJ, UL.

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

The archived posts from 2017 can be found here.

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Mar 5, 19, 8:53 pm

#691

jmj9905

Join Date: Dec 2003

Location: Charlottesville, Va. USA

Posts: 1,569

Thanks Lobonomnom for this information. I will check aa in a couple of days.

Mar 5, 19, 9:02 pm

#692

PHX_Flyer

Join Date: Jan 2017

Location: PHX

Programs: AA EXP, Hyatt Something-ist, Bombay Sapphire

Posts: 63

All four QR segments (minus AC leg and my skipped leg, obviously) posted to my account this morning. Flown on 2/23 thru 2/26, all posted on 3/5. Nice bump to EQD and EQM!

Mar 6, 19, 8:37 am

#693

americanyidiot

Join Date: Sep 2016

Posts: 11

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lobonomnom

BA search engine is showing up to four seats of QSuite availability almost daily on US-Doha routes starting 2/1/2020. AA search currently only shows space until 1/30/2020. Based on this it looks like QR is only withholding award inventory during the holiday season 11/1-1/31. Perhaps they will open up the inventory at a later date but for those that are interested in flying Qsuites, it looks like the inventory is there for February and beyond

Nice spot, thanks. I feel like this happened last year and they opened availability around April, can't quite remember though. Hoping that's the case this year.

Mar 6, 19, 11:01 am

#694

PANK KP

Join Date: Apr 2011

Location: DFW

Programs: AA Exec Plat, 3MM; Marriott Gold; Hyatt Platinum; Priority Club Platinum Elite

Posts: 24

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dad to Rei

Quick follow up, my outbound flights posted this AM, just shy of 2 weeks post flight.

As my follow up: My Feb 7 & 8 flights along with my Feb 25 & 26 flights all posted on March 5. So almost 30 days for the outbound to post and a week for the return to post.

Mar 6, 19, 11:57 am

#695

JJeffrey

Join Date: Feb 2001

Location: RDU <|> MMX

Programs: AA EXP 2MM, SK EBS

Posts: 6,963

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dad to Rei

Quick follow up, my outbound flights posted this AM, just shy of 2 weeks post flight.

Quote:

Originally Posted by PHX_Flyer

All four QR segments (minus AC leg and my skipped leg, obviously) posted to my account this morning. Flown on 2/23 thru 2/26, all posted on 3/5. Nice bump to EQD and EQM!

Quote:

Originally Posted by PANK KP

As my follow up: My Feb 7 & 8 flights along with my Feb 25 & 26 flights all posted on March 5. So almost 30 days for the outbound to post and a week for the return to post.

Yep, and my flights on 2/16 posted on 3/5 as well.

Based on this last round it seems like QR waited for the month to close before sending a giant data dump of all the flights to credit to AA on 3/5.

Mar 6, 19, 6:13 pm

#696

Dad to Rei

Join Date: Feb 2003

Location: PHL

Programs: HH Diamond, AA EXP

Posts: 516

Quote:

Originally Posted by JJeffrey

Yep, and my flights on 2/16 posted on 3/5 as well.

Based on this last round it seems like QR waited for the month to close before sending a giant data dump of all the flights to credit to AA on 3/5.

That sure is what it looks like. I am guessing now my 3/3 return won't post until 4/5.

That's kind of annoying, but at least the flights are posting.

Mar 11, 19, 9:09 pm

#697

interactfx

Join Date: Aug 2009

Location: www.firstclassgiraffe.com

Programs: AA - Platinum Pro, AAirpass; Hilton Diamond; Bonvoy Gold

Posts: 50

Phantom Award Seats

Please delete post

Last edited by interactfx; Mar 11, 19 at 10:24 pm

Mar 12, 19, 6:14 pm

#698

coolbeans202

Join Date: Jun 2004

Location: Washington, DC

Programs: UA Plat 1MM, HH Diamond, MR Gold

Posts: 1,123

Are there now fuel surcharges when booking QR award seats through AA? I'm looking at booking my in-laws from PHX to CPT sometime in October and I'm seeing "carrier imposed fees" of $303 per ticket on QR. I didn't think there were, but I don't really follow AA that closely so maybe something has changed? I'm just searching through AA.com...

Mar 12, 19, 6:23 pm

#699

Dave Noble

A FlyerTalk Posting Legend

Join Date: Jan 2002

Posts: 41,406

Quote:

Originally Posted by coolbeans202

How much are the taxes that have been quoted by AA for the award travel?

Mar 12, 19, 6:59 pm

#700

Beltway2A

Join Date: Apr 2017

Location: DCA

Programs: Marriott GLD; Hilton GLD; Free Agent (former AA PLT/US GLD)

Posts: 1,311

Quote:

Originally Posted by coolbeans202

What class of service? And what dates did you see QR availability? I was unable to replicate this on AA.com, but I'm calculating approximately $131 in taxes and government-imposed fees RT on a revenue fare for this route in J.

Last edited by Beltway2A; Mar 12, 19 at 8:27 pm

Mar 12, 19, 7:03 pm

#701

JJeffrey

Join Date: Feb 2001

Location: RDU <|> MMX

Programs: AA EXP 2MM, SK EBS

Posts: 6,963

Quote:

Originally Posted by coolbeans202

Just looked at a dummy booking in economy for PHX-JFK-DOH-CPT and the taxes/fees were $19...

Mar 12, 19, 7:18 pm

#702

Lobonomnom

Join Date: Jan 2019

Location: Albuquerque

Posts: 64

Quote:

Originally Posted by coolbeans202

Are you sure you don’t have a flight with a BA segment mixed in?

I’m not able to replicate your finding. When I search, I find Y for 80k AA + ~$80 rt or J for 150k + ~$80 rt. Approximately $15 in taxes there and $65 back.

There is a JNB-DOH flight as well and occasionally the search results will return CPT-JNB-DOH with the CPT-JNB flight being a BA ticket and will charge ~$150 in fuel surcharges.

Mar 13, 19, 12:07 pm

#703

coolbeans202

Join Date: Jun 2004

Location: Washington, DC

Programs: UA Plat 1MM, HH Diamond, MR Gold

Posts: 1,123

I swear I'm not delusional! I just went back and the fees are ~$30 for two people. I wish I had taken a screen shot. I had pulled up several options with BA and saw those fuel surcharges, which I was expecting, but then pulled up the QR flights and the charges were even higher.

Ok I think I see what's happening. I guess you can't hit the back button and select different flights? I had first selected BA, then clicked back and changed the date and selected a QR option. But it still shows the price for the BA option. I hadn't clicked all the way through to the "review and pay" screen where it would show me that I was still on the BA selection. My apologies for the false alarm!

Mar 13, 19, 12:17 pm

#704

n8onUA

Join Date: Aug 2007

Programs: UA 1K, Hyatt Diamond, Starwood Gold, Marriott Gold

Posts: 206

Upgrade AA economy award ticket on QA at airport?

QA offers paid economy passengers the opportunity to upgrade to business at check in and at airport.

Does anybody know if I book an AA economy award ticket on QA if the QA check in agents will let me pay for an upgrade at the airport as well?

Thx!

Mar 13, 19, 5:07 pm

#705

pennystinkard

Join Date: Dec 2017

Posts: 125

Trying to book QSuites flights with AA miles from Europe - SIN for this summer (late July/early August), but currently can't find any availability on QR at all from DOH - SIN and on the return (searched through AA). I'd thought this leg was one of the easier ones to snag QSuites awards on, since I'd checked a couple months back and availability was wide open. Is this another instance of AA/QR pulling award inventory completely on this leg, or can I hope for availability to show up at some point?

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