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 19, 2019, 7:15 pm
#841
Join Date: Jun 2015
Posts: 84
Have people had better success calling the AU call center to book Qatar business class award tickets? I see 4 seats available on the British website and at least 2 on Qantas, but when I call the US call center, they say they only see 1 seat. Weird thing is that I see 2 seats on the AA website.
May 19, 2019, 8:58 pm
#842
Join Date: Jul 2018
Posts: 183
Have people had better success calling the AU call center to book Qatar business class award tickets? I see 4 seats available on the British website and at least 2 on Qantas, but when I call the US call center, they say they only see 1 seat. Weird thing is that I see 2 seats on the AA website.
May 20, 2019, 12:42 am
#843
Join Date: Feb 2012
Posts: 4,477
I value both the newer and better equipment, and convenient flight timing. What I found unusual in the earlier example it that the poster expended great effort to exclude a Q-Suite containing route. They obviously had different and valid priorities. So it's not an issue to be debated, but rather an observation.
May 20, 2019, 9:01 am
#844
Join Date: Jun 2015
Posts: 84
Thanks, found another routing, but AA is pricing as 2 awards totaling 70k miles. Itinerary is ITM-HND-PEK-DOH-MLE. Is that right? even when I started in PEK, they're still pricing as 2 awards totaling 70k miles.
May 20, 2019, 10:11 am
#845
Join Date: Jul 2018
Posts: 183
That's right, you cannot go via Qatar on that route on one award, try going through Asia.
May 20, 2019, 11:17 am
#846
Join Date: Jun 2017
Programs: B6 Mosaic
Posts: 18
I have a flight from CMB-DOH-BOS in business class booked for a date in October. I am changing the destination of my trip to ZNZ/DAR/JRO due to the travel advisory for Sri Lanka. There is currently no award availability for DOH-BOS in business (Q Suites). If I cancel the current flight, is that availability likely to re-appear? I would immediately re-book the DOH-BOS leg in business class if so.
May 21, 2019, 10:59 am
#849
Join Date: Aug 2012
Programs: AA PLT, SPG Gold
Posts: 2,405
Yes, you should get all of your boarding passes at MSP. And doesn't QR depart from T3 at ORD? Or did that change?
May 21, 2019, 2:28 pm
#850
Moderator: American AAdvantage
Join Date: May 2000
Location: NorCal - SMF area
Programs: AA LT Plat; HH LT Diamond, Maître-plongeur des Muccis
Posts: 62,948
May 21, 2019, 2:34 pm
#851
Join Date: Aug 2012
Programs: AA PLT, SPG Gold
Posts: 2,405
Right, I mean QR will always arrive into T5 like every other int'l arrival at ORD (for now), but the departure terminal changes from day to day? Wow, that's a new one!
May 27, 2019, 6:05 am
#853
Join Date: Jun 2007
Location: Sydney, NSW
Posts: 842
Hi all,
Perhaps a stupid question - but if BA shows availability, does that mean it's bookable using AA now? It seems that BA is shows 355 (?) days ahead, not 330. Not sure if that means I need to wait another 30 odd days, or whether it is bookable over phone using AA points. (If it's the former, decent chance the availability would be gone.)
We are looking at Tokyo to Vienna or Munich (or Rome) next year (June, so it's not open yet but want to be prepared).
Perhaps a stupid question - but if BA shows availability, does that mean it's bookable using AA now? It seems that BA is shows 355 (?) days ahead, not 330. Not sure if that means I need to wait another 30 odd days, or whether it is bookable over phone using AA points. (If it's the former, decent chance the availability would be gone.)
We are looking at Tokyo to Vienna or Munich (or Rome) next year (June, so it's not open yet but want to be prepared).
May 27, 2019, 6:16 am
#854
A FlyerTalk Posting Legend
Join Date: Jan 2002
Posts: 44,581
Hi all,
Perhaps a stupid question - but if BA shows availability, does that mean it's bookable using AA now? It seems that BA is shows 355 (?) days ahead, not 330. Not sure if that means I need to wait another 30 odd days, or whether it is bookable over phone using AA points. (If it's the former, decent chance the availability would be gone.)
We are looking at Tokyo to Vienna or Munich (or Rome) next year (June, so it's not open yet but want to be prepared).
Perhaps a stupid question - but if BA shows availability, does that mean it's bookable using AA now? It seems that BA is shows 355 (?) days ahead, not 330. Not sure if that means I need to wait another 30 odd days, or whether it is bookable over phone using AA points. (If it's the former, decent chance the availability would be gone.)
We are looking at Tokyo to Vienna or Munich (or Rome) next year (June, so it's not open yet but want to be prepared).
Telephone call will to reservatons will not make a difference
Last edited by Dave Noble; May 27, 2019 at 6:23 am