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)
Oct 31, 2018, 9:54 pm
#467
Join Date: Jan 2017
Posts: 790
Booking AMM-DOH-ORD-ATL (all QR, until AA on the last leg) gives me the same error:
- The flight you selected is no longer available. Please modify your request.
First world problems for sure, but I just am kind of determined at this point to get it to price right haha.
Nov 1, 2018, 2:00 am
#468
Join Date: Nov 2018
Location: California
Posts: 12
U.S. to Nairobi in Late September 2019?
My mom and I are hoping to fly from the U.S. to Nairobi on one of Qatar's Qsuite flights in late September 2019. I've been looking at JFK/ORD/IAD/IAH > Doha > NBO on the AA site for the past few weeks and there appears to be plenty of business class availability up until 9/19/19. Unfortunately, there are no Qatar awards of any kind available after the 19th.
The same thing happens every day:
To further complicate things, the 9/19/19 Qatar flights are bookable on the site, but none of the reps can even see these flights, much less book them.
I'm hoping that these are just growing pains since Qatar awards only recently became bookable on the AA site, but I'm starting to worry that Akbar Al Baker's finally starting to make good on his threats to withdraw from Oneworld.
In the meantime, I've put a BA itinerary on hold but I'd really rather not resort to BA, for obvious reasons.
If anyone can offer any insight or suggestions, I'd really appreciate it! Ideally, we'd like to arrive in Nairobi on 9/27 or 9/28.
Thank you!
The same thing happens every day:
- Midnight: Qatar business and economy class saver awards for all of Qatar's U.S. routes appear for 331 days out. (For example, at midnight Pacific Time yesterday (10/31), Qatar flights popped up for 9/27/19.) However, none of these are ever bookable and I keep getting the error message: "The flight you selected is no longer available. Please modify your request."
- Approx. 8 pm: All of these Qatar business and economy class awards disappear from the AA site.
To further complicate things, the 9/19/19 Qatar flights are bookable on the site, but none of the reps can even see these flights, much less book them.
I'm hoping that these are just growing pains since Qatar awards only recently became bookable on the AA site, but I'm starting to worry that Akbar Al Baker's finally starting to make good on his threats to withdraw from Oneworld.
In the meantime, I've put a BA itinerary on hold but I'd really rather not resort to BA, for obvious reasons.
If anyone can offer any insight or suggestions, I'd really appreciate it! Ideally, we'd like to arrive in Nairobi on 9/27 or 9/28.
Thank you!
Nov 1, 2018, 4:46 am
#469
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Feb 2001
Location: RDU <|> MMX
Programs: AA EXP 2MM, SK EBS
Posts: 12,458
My mom and I are hoping to fly from the U.S. to Nairobi on one of Qatar's Qsuite flights in late September 2019. I've been looking at JFK/ORD/IAD/IAH > Doha > NBO on the AA site for the past few weeks and there appears to be plenty of business class availability up until 9/19/19. Unfortunately, there are no Qatar awards of any kind available after the 19th
And this has zero to do with any talk of QR leaving oneworld.
A Sep. 27 arrival into NBO would mean a Wednesday departure from the US, given that you're flexible in gateway cities you should have zero problem finding 2 business award seats (at least for the US-DOH segment), even if you were booking only a few weeks in advance. Again I wouldn't stress and just keep an eye on it.
Nov 1, 2018, 4:58 am
#470
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Feb 2001
Location: RDU <|> MMX
Programs: AA EXP 2MM, SK EBS
Posts: 12,458
I can book AMM-DOH stand alone in Z class for 30,000 miles.
Booking AMM-DOH-ORD-ATL (all QR, until AA on the last leg) gives me the same error:
Booking AMM-DOH-ORD-ATL (all QR, until AA on the last leg) gives me the same error:
- The flight you selected is no longer available. Please modify your request.
If you can put just the AMM-DOH on hold, I would do that, then call AA to add the DOH-ATL, and go from there. At least that gets everything on the same record, see if they can price it correctly. If not, keep everything on hold (even at the F rate), and keep HUCA.
Nov 1, 2018, 5:39 am
#471
A FlyerTalk Posting Legend
Join Date: Jan 2002
Posts: 44,574
I can book AMM-DOH stand alone in Z class for 30,000 miles.
Booking AMM-DOH-ORD-ATL (all QR, until AA on the last leg) gives me the same error:
First world problems for sure, but I just am kind of determined at this point to get it to price right haha.
Booking AMM-DOH-ORD-ATL (all QR, until AA on the last leg) gives me the same error:
- The flight you selected is no longer available. Please modify your request.
First world problems for sure, but I just am kind of determined at this point to get it to price right haha.
AMM-DOH may be available , DOH-ORD may be available, but it is possible that AMM-ORD via DOH is not available
Did you have this issue booking over the phone?
Nov 1, 2018, 5:58 am
#472
Join Date: Jan 2017
Posts: 790
Weird, seems to be some sort of mixture of a married/phantom/aa.com/Z/U glitch or bug.
If you can put just the AMM-DOH on hold, I would do that, then call AA to add the DOH-ATL, and go from there. At least that gets everything on the same record, see if they can price it correctly. If not, keep everything on hold (even at the F rate), and keep HUCA.
If you can put just the AMM-DOH on hold, I would do that, then call AA to add the DOH-ATL, and go from there. At least that gets everything on the same record, see if they can price it correctly. If not, keep everything on hold (even at the F rate), and keep HUCA.
Earlier today I ended up calling in and switching the hold to AMM-DOH on RJ and then DOH-ATL on QR. It's a tougher schedule on the body, but it's straight through and would save me one night of a hotel room in Doha on the connection. Debating if I want to do yet another night in Doha or just go straight through. Again, first world problems.
I really appreciate your attention. I'll post here what happens ultimately.
Last edited by jiaogulan; Nov 1, 2018 at 6:24 am Reason: confusing wording.
Nov 1, 2018, 5:59 am
#473
Join Date: Jan 2017
Posts: 790
Nov 1, 2018, 6:45 am
#474
Join Date: Oct 2004
Location: Anywhere but home
Programs: UA 1K/MM, DL GM/MM, HH Dia, PC Plat, MR Gold, ALL Sil,
Posts: 4,552
Pleased to report multiple QR options in J available from LHR/LGW to BKK on AA.com. I booked one of them and flights were ticketed within 30 minutes, with seats selected on QR.com shortly thereafter. Very pleased QR is now bookable online, and hope more (especially CX) are added soon.
I chose an LGW flight over LHR due to better timing... I won't get the QSuite or good lounge, but the 787 should be almost as good, especially for a day/evening flight.
I chose an LGW flight over LHR due to better timing... I won't get the QSuite or good lounge, but the 787 should be almost as good, especially for a day/evening flight.
Nov 2, 2018, 12:15 am
#475
Join Date: Nov 2018
Location: California
Posts: 12
A Sep. 27 arrival into NBO would mean a Wednesday departure from the US, given that you're flexible in gateway cities you should have zero problem finding 2 business award seats (at least for the US-DOH segment), even if you were booking only a few weeks in advance. Again I wouldn't stress and just keep an eye on it.
Last edited by dcinmb; Nov 2, 2018 at 1:37 am
Nov 3, 2018, 1:45 am
#477
Join Date: Dec 2016
Posts: 639
Hi, does AA display phantom space on QR? I am trying to book NBO-HKG next year in business class (on QR FFP). I can see saver space on AA and go all the way to the payment page, but no availability showing up on QR's FFP. (Nor BA Exec Club).
Nov 7, 2018, 3:11 am
#478
Join Date: Jan 2017
Posts: 790
Weird, seems to be some sort of mixture of a married/phantom/aa.com/Z/U glitch or bug.
If you can put just the AMM-DOH on hold, I would do that, then call AA to add the DOH-ATL, and go from there. At least that gets everything on the same record, see if they can price it correctly. If not, keep everything on hold (even at the F rate), and keep HUCA.
If you can put just the AMM-DOH on hold, I would do that, then call AA to add the DOH-ATL, and go from there. At least that gets everything on the same record, see if they can price it correctly. If not, keep everything on hold (even at the F rate), and keep HUCA.
Called back the next day to try to hold QR AMM-DOH in Gulf First, and DOH-ATL in Business and of course their systems had a total glitch and could not book ANY QR awards. Okay...
Called back just now, could kind of tell I had a sharp person on the line in general, but wasn't expecting much, and I asked to book AMM-DOH-ATL all in QR in Business and she held it all for me for 70K with ZERO issues or huffs and even selected all my seats and gave me my QR record locator.
Anyways, just another +1 for HUCA with this stuff. It may seem futile when you have a string of lackluster agents, but my experience proves it's possible to get Gulf First tag on flights for Business rates.
Nov 7, 2018, 12:06 pm
#479
Join Date: Dec 2004
Posts: 5,631
There was a short period some months ago with reasonable availability on ORD-DOH, even on weekends. It is now back to the usual situation...a few seats are released for some weekdays at the 355-day mark (as seen on ba.com), but by the 330-day mark it's all gone (on aa.com and ba.com). AA wants to send me via LHR, but I'm not that desperate.