QR / Qatar Airways: Earn & Redeem AA Miles, Award (master thd)

Feb 11, 19, 3:12 am - Wikipost

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Wiki Link

link to QR Travel Alerts)[/quote]

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.

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. (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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Aug 29, 18, 9:52 pm

#361

Dave Noble

FlyerTalk Evangelist

Join Date: Jan 2002

Posts: 38,552

Quote:

Originally Posted by mak101

Thanks, I will try to get seat on qatar. Should I call AA to get Qatart PNR#?

If you use the AA record locator on the Qantas Manage booking tool, it will probably give you the booking information and the Amadeus record locator

Aug 30, 18, 7:56 am

#362

Dettmann1

Join Date: Mar 2008

Location: ATL

Programs: HY DIA, HI Gold, M Plat, SPG Gold, AC Plat

Posts: 94

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dave Noble

If you use the AA record locator on the Qantas Manage booking tool, it will probably give you the booking information and the Amadeus record locator

Thanks for this tip. This worked exactly as described!

Sep 1, 18, 2:50 pm

#363

hightide

Join Date: Nov 2010

Location: Indonesia

Programs: IHG Platinum

Posts: 863

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dave Noble

You said that it was done as an exchange due to the flight cancellation - when AA done as an exchange, no fare difference is charged nor taxe difference charged or refunded

I did get the difference in taxes refunded after asking.

Sep 1, 18, 2:57 pm

#364

hightide

Join Date: Nov 2010

Location: Indonesia

Programs: IHG Platinum

Posts: 863

Quote:

Originally Posted by LukeO9

As a side note, business class flights out of CGK are notoriously discounted by a range of superior carriers, thereby often rendering AAwards for such sectors wasteful.

Yes, that's true. I booked an economy class award ticket for CGK-KEF as 75,000 AA miles for J is not worth it for me.
Even Y tickets from CGK-Europe are usually quite reasonable, I can almost always find under US$650 return and I tend to buy a cash fare; however, this time I'm just flying to Europe one way hence cash fare is not as cheap.

Sep 2, 18, 11:32 pm

#365

49penguins

Join Date: Feb 2017

Location: FAT

Posts: 27

Looking to get to JNB or CPT anywhere from 5/1 to 5/5 from DOH in biz with AA miles. Saw 3 spots in biz on Sat 5/4 when I searched yesterday evening (for the first time, I just started looking) so I thought it was nbd and went to dinner, came back and they were gone and I haven't seen them again. (After some searching I found out Mon 4/29 will be when SA National Day is observed and Wed 5/1 is Labor Day so entirely possible I screwed myself over picking this week.) Does QR availability still come and go at the 8 month mark or I am I just too late to this party having missed the 330 mark?

Last edited by 49penguins; Sep 3, 18 at 12:18 am

Sep 4, 18, 11:26 am

#366

84Horn

Join Date: Jul 2014

Location: AUS

Programs: Marriott Platinum

Posts: 44

Many thanks to all who participate in this thread. I searched on BA website and found availability in May 2019 on flight from IAD to Doha and then on to MLE. I was able to call AA and feed individual segments, including AUS-DFW-IAD where AA showed availability. Rep was able to book exact flights. Because I booked one flight from my account and one from my wife's, we could not be booked into the double bed seats. I could not get through to AA due to high volume of calls to get PNR but was able to use the Eticket number and last name to find the flights and get PNR on Qatar website. I called Qatar today and was able to get moved to the double bed seats in row 3. Now I just have to find a way home!

Sep 5, 18, 2:43 pm

#367

dante60093

Join Date: Dec 2009

Location: ORD

Programs: AA LT PLT 3.0 MM, UA Silver, Hilton Diamond, Hyatt Plat, IHG Plat, SPG Plat MR Plat NatlExec,Hrtz 5*

Posts: 90

Got biz seats for 3 for July-Aug 2019 ORD-DOH-JNB-DOH-ORD using AA miles, (450K total plus $225) after finding availability on BA website and then feeding flight segments to AA agent. .

GTITAN likes this.

Sep 5, 18, 4:59 pm

#368

49penguins

Join Date: Feb 2017

Location: FAT

Posts: 27

Quote:

Originally Posted by dante60093

Got biz seats for 3 for July-Aug 2019 ORD-DOH-JNB-DOH-ORD using AA miles, (450K total plus $225) after finding availability on BA website and then feeding flight segments to AA agent. .

Have you been searching for a couple weeks or were the seats loaded from the beginning of when you started searching?

Sep 5, 18, 5:31 pm

#369

dante60093

Join Date: Dec 2009

Location: ORD

Programs: AA LT PLT 3.0 MM, UA Silver, Hilton Diamond, Hyatt Plat, IHG Plat, SPG Plat MR Plat NatlExec,Hrtz 5*

Posts: 90

Been searching for a while. Availability appeared quite suddenly.

Sep 6, 18, 1:54 pm

#370

49penguins

Join Date: Feb 2017

Location: FAT

Posts: 27

Quote:

Originally Posted by dante60093

Been searching for a while. Availability appeared quite suddenly.

Awesome. Thanks for sharing, I'll stay on the hunt for my own flights just in case!

Sep 6, 18, 1:56 pm

#371

SeeBuyFly

Join Date: Nov 2010

Posts: 3,499

Quote:

Originally Posted by dante60093

Been searching for a while. Availability appeared quite suddenly.

Although if you think about it, availability always appears suddenly.

Sep 6, 18, 4:35 pm

#372

dante60093

Join Date: Dec 2009

Location: ORD

Programs: AA LT PLT 3.0 MM, UA Silver, Hilton Diamond, Hyatt Plat, IHG Plat, SPG Plat MR Plat NatlExec,Hrtz 5*

Posts: 90

Quote:

Originally Posted by SeeBuyFly

Although if you think about it, availability always appears suddenly.

Very true SeeBuyFly. I guess I just did not expect to see the QR availability ........having had a long dry spell of searching, I fully anticipated seeing nothing other than the familiar BA options.

Sep 6, 18, 5:11 pm

#373

dante60093

Join Date: Dec 2009

Location: ORD

Programs: AA LT PLT 3.0 MM, UA Silver, Hilton Diamond, Hyatt Plat, IHG Plat, SPG Plat MR Plat NatlExec,Hrtz 5*

Posts: 90

Quote:

Originally Posted by 49penguins

Awesome. Thanks for sharing, I'll stay on the hunt for my own flights just in case!

49penguins I am sure you will get your flights. Persistence helps.

49penguins likes this.

Sep 8, 18, 1:07 am

#374

pennystinkard

Join Date: Dec 2017

Posts: 88

New to booking QR with AA miles. I’m searching for availability on BA (JFK - DOH) but can’t seem to find any QR results, whether I’m searching two months out, or right at the end of the calendar in August 2019. Am I missing some option? I have definitely seen partner award availability on BA before.

Also, if I’m searching for award availability for December 2018 (dates are flexible within the whole month) on a QSuites flight from JFK - DOH, am I completely out of luck? Is it too late by this point?

Sep 9, 18, 12:11 pm

#375

dante60093

Join Date: Dec 2009

Location: ORD

Programs: AA LT PLT 3.0 MM, UA Silver, Hilton Diamond, Hyatt Plat, IHG Plat, SPG Plat MR Plat NatlExec,Hrtz 5*

Posts: 90

Quote:

Originally Posted by pennystinkard

What you described is pretty much the way I did my search but as I indicated earlier there were many days with no QR availability ( I was looking for 3 Biz seats but would check for 2 and 1 as well). I am sure others have more experience and will chime in with additional suggestions.

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