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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 Jan 25, 2019, 12:33 pm
  #646  
 
Join Date: Sep 2016
Posts: 54
Looking for EU to India flights in Dec, ba.com shows plenty of availability on QR while aa.com shows almost none. Is this normal, that QR releases award capacity to BA but not to AA? Would it be possible to book thru AA phone service even f their website doesn't show availability?
ijakov is offline  
Old Jan 25, 2019, 12:58 pm
  #647  
 
Join Date: Feb 2012
Posts: 4,463
Originally Posted by ijakov
Looking for EU to India flights in Dec, ba.com shows plenty of availability on QR while aa.com shows almost none. Is this normal, that QR releases award capacity to BA but not to AA? Would it be possible to book thru AA phone service even f their website doesn't show availability?
AA may have additional married segment restrictions. Try tacking on extra segments to your route or check nearby departures/destinations to see if you might discover a magic combo.
MaxVO is offline  
Old Jan 25, 2019, 2:10 pm
  #648  
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Join Date: Jan 2002
Posts: 44,422
Originally Posted by ijakov
Looking for EU to India flights in Dec, ba.com shows plenty of availability on QR while aa.com shows almost none. Is this normal, that QR releases award capacity to BA but not to AA? Would it be possible to book thru AA phone service even f their website doesn't show availability?
Best way to check that is to phone and try. If BA is showing it to be available, I suspect that the agent will be able to book it
Dave Noble is offline  
Old Jan 25, 2019, 2:40 pm
  #649  
 
Join Date: Sep 2016
Posts: 54
A brief followup - did call AA and spoke with a rep, but she could not see/pull the inventory shown as available on ba.com.
ijakov is offline  
Old Jan 25, 2019, 3:04 pm
  #650  
 
Join Date: Mar 2007
Posts: 4,912
Originally Posted by ijakov
A brief followup - did call AA and spoke with a rep, but she could not see/pull the inventory shown as available on ba.com.
Try another call center? Sometimes the US ones aren't good at seeing inventory (for Etihad I know this is true, but not sure about Qatar)
olouie is offline  
Old Jan 26, 2019, 2:03 pm
  #651  
 
Join Date: Jun 2008
Posts: 2,172
QR J MCT-MLA - Was I charged correctly?

I can book on AA.COM, but the desired flight combination does not work (I wanted LGW, not LHR), but shows 42,500 miles, includes MCT-DOH QR Z class.

I found the individual flights that have availability - MCT/DOH DOH/LGW LGW/MLA and AA rep agrees that all are available. She tries to book and it comes to 62,500 miles because of the MCT/DOH being in Z class. I did a 'hold' booking on AA.COM and gave her the record locator to prove the 42,500 miles. Still on hold with her; her 2nd call to the help desk.

As an aside, rep alternated reasons of 42,500 vs. 62,500 - one being booking class Z and the other being that LGW/MLA is a separate award.

What is correct? (Note that my AA itinerary states that outbound is MCT/DOH/LGW and my return is LGW/MLA.

Thanks!
lamphs is online now  
Old Jan 26, 2019, 5:01 pm
  #652  
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Join Date: Jan 2002
Posts: 44,422
For MCT-DOH-LGW-MLA, I would be surprised if it was not requiring 2 awards, since QR does not list that as a valid routing from MCT-MLA nor as a valid routing for DOH-
MLA


The itinerary seems to confirm that this is the case - although it describes it as the "return"

The agent or fares department should be able to identify the breakdown of whether it is pricing as a MCT-DOH plus DOH-MLA or as a MCT-LON plus LON-MLA

Might be better just buying a separate LGW-MLA ticket - business class on BA is just economy with an empty adjacent seat, so hardly worth (imo) 20,000 miles - obviously there is the issue of no protection in the case of a missed flight
lamphs likes this.
Dave Noble is offline  
Old Jan 26, 2019, 9:12 pm
  #653  
 
Join Date: Sep 2016
Posts: 11
Originally Posted by jaundicedave
Yea, I've just settled into a routine of running an awardnexus search every morning when I get into work. Hope this is restored at least somewhat soon.
Yeah same. If its restored my hope is to book quickly.
americanyidiot is offline  
Old Jan 26, 2019, 9:49 pm
  #654  
 
Join Date: Aug 2018
Programs: Marriott
Posts: 46
Same here. Fingers crossed we all get the flights we need!
FrustratedinCA is offline  
Old Feb 8, 2019, 9:32 pm
  #655  
 
Join Date: Jan 2013
Posts: 67
Originally Posted by lincoln boy
I've been checking closely when this happened (around 1/10) and it looks like you can still find direct flights from DOH to US in economy not business. Direct flights from US to DOH are not bookable at all.
Has this changed? I don't see any availability for any day from USA to DOH in J. In economy, I see the availability.
jasmians is offline  
Old Feb 9, 2019, 1:42 pm
  #656  
 
Join Date: Apr 2017
Posts: 599
Originally Posted by jasmians
Has this changed? I don't see any availability for any day from USA to DOH in J. In economy, I see the availability.
No change. I check everyday.
lincoln boy is online now  
Old Feb 10, 2019, 4:18 pm
  #657  
 
Join Date: Feb 2017
Posts: 20
Originally Posted by lincoln boy
No change. I check everyday.

Same
deedszilla is offline  
Old Feb 10, 2019, 4:54 pm
  #658  
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Originally Posted by lincoln boy
QR don't even make economy award space available after 12/18 between EU & UK and Asia & Indian continents. .
That certainly has not been my experience in late December and early January. There seemed to be some availability, but I didn't care to complete to ticketing.
GUWonder is offline  
Old Feb 10, 2019, 8:40 pm
  #659  
 
Join Date: Apr 2017
Posts: 599
Originally Posted by GUWonder
That certainly has not been my experience in late December and early January. There seemed to be some availability, but I didn't care to complete to ticketing.
I agree. But there were certain days that had no availability between US and DOH in economy. It looks like at least in economy seats are available now between US and DOH.
lincoln boy is online now  
Old Feb 11, 2019, 12:51 am
  #660  
 
Join Date: Nov 2007
Location: DFW
Programs: Marriott Lifetime Titanium, HH Gold, AA Lifetime Gold, United Silver, BA Gold
Posts: 864
Originally Posted by lincoln boy
I agree. But there were certain days that had no availability between US and DOH in economy. It looks like at least in economy seats are available now between US and DOH.
Economy is widely available (maybe missing 1 - 2 days a month), but Business is totally gone past 1st Nov 2019
DFWsakp is offline  

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