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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 5, 2019, 3:41 pm
  #601  
A FlyerTalk Posting Legend
 
Join Date: Jan 2002
Posts: 44,420
If QR does not have availability for JNB-DFvia DOH , then the agent cannot book it.
Dave Noble is offline  
Old Jan 5, 2019, 8:54 pm
  #602  
 
Join Date: Aug 2014
Posts: 3,706
Originally Posted by NYCroots
Just to clarify, because I'm hoping to do the same thing on the same flights - you just called up AA to have them change the last leg once the QR 672 flight became available? I'm confusing myself on what's possible pre-booking and what's possible to change post-booking with all this married segment stuff.
To paraphrase AA's change policy, an even exchange to a different date can be done without repricing so long as the cabin classes remain the same and the departing/arrival cities remain the same. Here, IAD-MLE are the departing/arrival cities which remain the same. The change only required switching from QR 674 (later flight in J) to QR 672 (earlier flight in J).
iluvdoco is offline  
Old Jan 5, 2019, 9:08 pm
  #603  
 
Join Date: Feb 2012
Posts: 4,463
Originally Posted by in4tar
...
Is there a way to uncouple these married segments? I called AA and their agent said there is no way, it is what it is. I know I should eventually try a different agent but thought I would ask here first if that is true. If it is - it's more than weird...I mean - with availability existing for more direct routing, they still want to take you the longest way possible??
Both travelers and service providers are known to act irrationally, and travelers perhaps especially so. If something is currently scarce, we have an unconcious bias to assume that it must be more desirable. And the airlines instinctively assume that whatever travelers currently want must be automatically bad for their bottom line.
Now imagine if the herd of travel bloggers all come out next month with trip reviews like this: I went on insane zigzag award trip, hit 5 Admiral Clubs, stuffed myself silly with free booze and trail mix in each of them -- and it was phenomenal. Thank you AA for stupidly making such convoluted itin's possible. I bet all award segments will become unmarried overnight.
Happy and in4tar like this.
MaxVO is offline  
Old Jan 6, 2019, 12:08 am
  #604  
A FlyerTalk Posting Legend
 
Join Date: Jan 2002
Posts: 44,420
Originally Posted by MaxVO
Both travelers and service providers are known to act irrationally, and travelers perhaps especially so. If something is currently scarce, we have an unconcious bias to assume that it must be more desirable. And the airlines instinctively assume that whatever travelers currently want must be automatically bad for their bottom line.
Now imagine if the herd of travel bloggers all come out next month with trip reviews like this: I went on insane zigzag award trip, hit 5 Admiral Clubs, stuffed myself silly with free booze and trail mix in each of them -- and it was phenomenal. Thank you AA for stupidly making such convoluted itin's possible. I bet all award segments will become unmarried overnight.
No - the airline will put more stringent routing rules in place on its fares
Dave Noble is offline  
Old Jan 7, 2019, 7:03 pm
  #605  
 
Join Date: Dec 2007
Location: ABE
Programs: AA G, UA, HH G
Posts: 141
Originally Posted by isabeloh
Pleased to report my missing JNB-DOH, DOH-PHL legs were reinstated, same flights, same times, even the same seats. 25th Anniversary Trip to Kruger/Cape Town back on! Thanks and Happy New Year.
So I may have spoken too soon? Checked tonight and those 2 legs are missing - AGAIN. I called customer service and they state they show cancelled by Qatar due to "invalid tickets". The rep and the help desk worked on this for over 30 minutes and realized that QR is showing our original ticket #'s on their end - before a schedule change had me re-ticketed - and not the most recent ticket numbers. He said their liaison would send a message to QR asking them to not cancel these again but he honestly didn't sound hopeful and said he'd never sen this happen before. It's been recommended I reach out the QR with the new ticket #'s and ask them to stop canceling these because they're valid. I haven't had the best luck previously calling QR, so any recommendations on the best way to do this? Phone vs email vs...? Thanks.

Last edited by isabeloh; Jan 8, 2019 at 2:19 am Reason: Corrected to an actual question
isabeloh is offline  
Old Jan 8, 2019, 5:23 am
  #606  
 
Join Date: Dec 2007
Location: ABE
Programs: AA G, UA, HH G
Posts: 141
Originally Posted by isabeloh
So I may have spoken too soon? Checked tonight and those 2 legs are missing - AGAIN. I called customer service and they state they show cancelled by Qatar due to "invalid tickets". The rep and the help desk worked on this for over 30 minutes and realized that QR is showing our original ticket #'s on their end - before a schedule change had me re-ticketed - and not the most recent ticket numbers. He said their liaison would send a message to QR asking them to not cancel these again but he honestly didn't sound hopeful and said he'd never sen this happen before. It's been recommended I reach out the QR with the new ticket #'s and ask them to stop canceling these because they're valid. I haven't had the best luck previously calling QR, so any recommendations on the best way to do this? Phone vs email vs...? Thanks.
I did just check QR's website via Manage My Booking and the AA rep is correct - the wrong, original ticket numbers are still attached to this PNR.
isabeloh is offline  
Old Jan 8, 2019, 8:30 am
  #607  
 
Join Date: Jan 2019
Location: Albuquerque
Posts: 64
Edit: I did find a few routings with business availability in late August-early November and also the spring so it doesn’t seem like everything is gone. Yesterday there was almost daily availability for Nov/Dec 2019 on BA, QF and AA for most US gateways-Doha which has now vanished. Phone reps are not able to see it either. Non US segments as well as economy segments can still be booked but either there is a glitch hiding availability or QR just pulled all premium availability to and from the US for Nov/Dec.

I was going to book MLE-DOH-LAX today. Have been scouting availability for the past couple months using QF, BA and AA sites. Yesterday there was quite a bit of availability in business through several US gateways that I had searched (LAX, ORD, DFW, JFK etc) for late Nov early Dec. This morning I went to book the flight and there is nothing. I’ve searched a ton of days with the above airports for next fall/winter and can’t find a single premium Qatar ticket between Doha and the US in either direction. Not sure what is going on but all Qatar premium availability to and from the US seems to be gone. Maybe it’s just a glitch and it will be back later?

AA site does show some Qatar premium routes but they all fail when you click through to book.

Last edited by Lobonomnom; Jan 8, 2019 at 2:33 pm Reason: adding new information
Lobonomnom is offline  
Old Jan 8, 2019, 10:57 pm
  #608  
 
Join Date: Dec 2017
Posts: 137
Originally Posted by Lobonomnom
Edit: I did find a few routings with business availability in late August-early November and also the spring so it doesnt seem like everything is gone. Yesterday there was almost daily availability for Nov/Dec 2019 on BA, QF and AA for most US gateways-Doha which has now vanished. Phone reps are not able to see it either. Non US segments as well as economy segments can still be booked but either there is a glitch hiding availability or QR just pulled all premium availability to and from the US for Nov/Dec.

I was going to book MLE-DOH-LAX today. Have been scouting availability for the past couple months using QF, BA and AA sites. Yesterday there was quite a bit of availability in business through several US gateways that I had searched (LAX, ORD, DFW, JFK etc) for late Nov early Dec. This morning I went to book the flight and there is nothing. Ive searched a ton of days with the above airports for next fall/winter and cant find a single premium Qatar ticket between Doha and the US in either direction. Not sure what is going on but all Qatar premium availability to and from the US seems to be gone. Maybe its just a glitch and it will be back later?

AA site does show some Qatar premium routes but they all fail when you click through to book.
I just searched and found this myself, as well. Do you know if this sudden disappearance of QR premium inventory has happened before, and if so, was it then restored afterwards?
pennystinkard is offline  
Old Jan 9, 2019, 7:09 am
  #609  
 
Join Date: Aug 2009
Location: Columbia, MD
Programs: US Airways DM Silver, United Mileage Plus
Posts: 212


I did a random search for USA-DOH-IND, and this is what I came up with it...couldn't go to the last screen as I don't have the miles needed, but it appears there is QR premium inventory available and bookable even? Are the issues being reported happening due to the married segment availability restriction imposed by AA recently?
mrwise is offline  
Old Jan 9, 2019, 8:28 am
  #610  
 
Join Date: Dec 2004
Posts: 5,624
Originally Posted by pennystinkard
I just searched and found this myself, as well. Do you know if this sudden disappearance of QR premium inventory has happened before, and if so, was it then restored afterwards?
Yes, this has happened before. Obviously it was restored afterwards, because there was abundant availability at the 330-day mark even a couple of days ago. All of that has now disappeared again. There is no way to know how long this will last.
SeeBuyFly is offline  
Old Jan 9, 2019, 9:40 am
  #611  
 
Join Date: Apr 2001
Location: Austin
Posts: 4,629
Originally Posted by pennystinkard
I just searched and found this myself, as well. Do you know if this sudden disappearance of QR premium inventory has happened before, and if so, was it then restored afterwards?
Yes and yes but not on a known schedule or timeline. I've seen it change back in a day and also a couple of months on some routes.
millionmiler is offline  
Old Jan 9, 2019, 11:07 am
  #612  
 
Join Date: Jan 2019
Location: Albuquerque
Posts: 64
Yeah I sifted through all 41 pages of this thread and it looks like it has happened previously. US-Doha premium class availability still exists in the spring and early fall of 2019. There was substantial availability all throughout November until the 331 day mark the first week of December on AA's site up until two nights ago. There was premium availability beyond that on the the BA site. It looks like QR removed all premium class inventory after November 3 2019 on all US-Doha routes in both directions. I called AA, both US and Singapore (Etihad method) call centers and neither could find any availability. I'm trying to book 12/5 MLE-DOH-DFW-ABQ with Qsuites but will just book Etihad J instead to make sure I have a ticket back and will change the routing if Qsuite availability returns.
Lobonomnom is offline  
Old Jan 9, 2019, 4:52 pm
  #613  
 
Join Date: Nov 2018
Posts: 41
I noticed that when searching on QF, the "from" box doesn't recognize Doha, but recognizes it in the "to" field. The way around that I found is to search multi-city and enter Doha as origin on the second leg. Is everyone doing this when searching for Doha outbound flights?

Also, it sucks to see that there is no availability beyond fall. This was going to be my first time using AA for international premium cabins. Hoping to book Qsuites in January. Please let it happen QR
AboutTreeFiddy is offline  
Old Jan 10, 2019, 9:15 am
  #614  
 
Join Date: Feb 2010
Location: ORD
Programs: AA, UAL, Starwoods
Posts: 18
I had no problem booking one way ORD-DOH-SIN in J for Dec. 1 using AA reward for 2 tickets. It showed up on the AA site on Saturday morning at the 331 day mark as the DOH-SIN segment is on Dec. 2. I was able to hold the itinerary on the web.
I called AA and had them book the tickets rather than doing it on the web as I was using miles from two accounts and needed them to link the record locators. No problem. Got my QR record locators and called QR to get my seats EF on Qsuites .
Bigmamma is offline  
Old Jan 10, 2019, 12:27 pm
  #615  
 
Join Date: Dec 2004
Posts: 5,624
Originally Posted by Bigmamma
I had no problem booking one way ORD-DOH-SIN in J for Dec. 1 using AA reward for 2 tickets.
Yes, J on the ORD-DOH flight was available when booking opened on Jan 4 for Dec 1. Since then, all Nov/Dec nonstop J availability has completely vanished in both directions.

Oct and earlier nonstops are still available in J on some dates; and it is still possible to go via LHR in Nov/Dec. Plus, nonstop economy is available..
SeeBuyFly is offline  

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