lowfareair

The confusing thing about this route for me is not necessarily the economics of it, but the economics combined with them just a week ago saying they have to halt some European flights due to the 787 delivery delays makes me wonder why DOH isn't launching in October 2022 instead. This is 2ish airplanes needed for a route, so potentially 2 daily European routes or 3-4 less than daily European routes they are sacrificing for this. Yes, Europe doesn't usually take a 77W, but they can upgauge a 772 to 77W and domino effect until a 788/789 becomes available for Europe.

Unless the main purpose is political (e.g. Qatari gov't wants more airlines there and traded a favor to AA to get it launched), I don't understand why AA thinks they'll make more money here than Europe next summer.

towsonattorney

I managed to book AA ticket DCA-JFK-DOH-MLE/MLE-DOH-IAD for $2700 rt pp early July in business class.
All segments on QR metal other than DCA-JFK & JFK-DOH.
Looking on JFK-DOH on 777-300ER and there are only 5 seats blocked (including 2 of us on AA).
I wanted to ask the community a couple of questions:
(1) Why does this flight exist?
(2) Should I be concerned this will be cancelled?
(3) How can I find my fare code on AA online?
All input from community helpful.

VFR

1. AA has connectivity on both ends with JetBlue in New York and Qatar Airways in Doha. They have been quite successful with JFK-DEL and DOH is a good connection point to India (among other places).
2. It's new, so it could be cancelled if loads are terrible (see routes like SEA-LHR). However, I'd expect it to last at least the summer, and since you have a revenue ticket you could be rebooked on QR quite easily.
3. Copy the following hyperlink, open your reservation in your web browser, and paste the hyperlink in the address bar: https://www.aa.com/reservation/print...raryReceipt.do

TCTahiti

The World Cup is in Qatar in Nov-Dec 2022.

I would imagine this route wouldn't get dropped before then.

golfer20

I actually had a discussion the other day - I think the *only* reason for this route is to capitalize on big World Cup fares, with some residual demand afterwards. QR is already at 3 times daily on JFK - DOH.

jerry a. laska

Some discussion after the route was announced:
https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/amer...doh-route.html

platbrownguy

Not responsive to any of your queries but... most of these JFK-DOH flights in early July have 2 seats available in F to upgrade if you have the SWUs or miles. Would be worth it to me if nothing else for the FFD in JFK and the better bedding stuff in F for the long flight.

Penguinmoon

I've booked two flights where I could have used SWU to upgrade to F on AA metal, but stayed with QR in biz Q-suite.

ORDflyer92

Q-suite is by far the superior product so makes sense.

IADCAflyer

AA will have fun doing this - route of this length requires two aircraft. Where they gonna get the lift for this?

towsonattorney

unfortunately or fortunately I booked the flight for 2700 pp to the Maldives not with points, so we will see if there’s an attractive cash offer.

platbrownguy

Why unfortunately?

Because you booked with cash, you are eligible to upgrade to F using miles or SWUs. If you provide your dates, I'm sure one of us would check availability for you. Or just call AA. It's called a mileage upgrade.

2700 is a decent price for J RT to MLE, we paid around that for a J RT in Q Suites from YUL to MLE.

davecraze

I am an AA loyalist and I have been looking at this route for paid trip in biz (4 passengers) to dubai in December. this nyc to Doha segment is more expensive than nyc to Doha on Qatar for like every date that I would consider flying. I love that AA is doing this but I just understand the pricing.

Always Flyin

Take them off the domestic routes they have been flying.

dc10forlife

If you haven't tried Qatar's business class, I think you will find that it beats AA's offering in every category with the exception of pre-flight customer service. I would not hesitate to fly Qatar again.

It appears that AA does not want to compete on Qatar with price. On product AA loses. So I'm not sure how AA is going to fill these planes outside of the increased demand for travel to Qatar for the world cup.