AA/Qatar Drama
May 19, 2022, 7:53 am
#46
Join Date: May 2005
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Ha, that's great. Well done. Want to handle my situation? 
The comical thing about my flight was after getting it sorted out five days ago, there was a plane swap this morning as our first class seats disappeared into Q Suites. No emails etc. Quickly called the EP line (no wait since it was 11 pm CT 
) and had us moved to the 9 pm departure where there was first class cabin. Also bought us a couple more hours in the sun, which was a plus.
) and had us moved to the 9 pm departure where there was first class cabin. Also bought us a couple more hours in the sun, which was a plus.
May 19, 2022, 7:56 am
#47
Join Date: Oct 2005
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that said we all know the perils of milesaver or any other aadvantage redemption, which is of course, a different story.
May 19, 2022, 7:56 am
#48
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The OP has been moved to another flight - one that is only 5 minutes different in departure time with an airline which they partner and codeshare with; it seems the most logical flight to rebook onto and provides minimal disruption to the passenger's scheduled travel
How is the passenger being left high and dry with being rebooked to a flight 5 minutes earlier than originally booked?
How is the passenger being left high and dry with being rebooked to a flight 5 minutes earlier than originally booked?
May 19, 2022, 8:01 am
#49
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Yes, but their recourse is a refund or an alternate QR flight with space, not carte blanche to pick any other QR flight without availability.
May 19, 2022, 8:03 am
#50
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Was your experience based on paid (revenue) ticket or award ticket?
IME when QR cancels a flight their system will run auto rebook moving customers to the next best available flight in comparable cabin (if available) or a lower class of service. Nothing more. If you do not like what the system rebooked you on you either have to find U space on a different flight and have AA re-ticket you on that flight. QR absolutely refuses to manually touch award reservations issued by partner airlines unless something goes pear shaped on day of flight. When I was in a similar situation, I had AA submit a request with the QR liaison and despite having 6 open seats on DOH-MLE three hours before departure QR still refused to release any saver availability. QR liaison desk is non-existent. AA called and emailed them on my behalf multiple times and never heard a single word.
My advice to the OP if they do not want to fly AA120 is to look at every single airport that QR flies in the US and if you find saver availability on any of those flights AA will force award space on the domestic sector on the flights you prefer. Let's say there is award space on MIA-DOH and you want to fly the 777 flight from JFK-MIA and there are revenue seats available AA will get you booked on that flight in J. This is what we did when our ATL-DOH flight got canceled but we found award space on IAH-DOH.
IME when QR cancels a flight their system will run auto rebook moving customers to the next best available flight in comparable cabin (if available) or a lower class of service. Nothing more. If you do not like what the system rebooked you on you either have to find U space on a different flight and have AA re-ticket you on that flight. QR absolutely refuses to manually touch award reservations issued by partner airlines unless something goes pear shaped on day of flight. When I was in a similar situation, I had AA submit a request with the QR liaison and despite having 6 open seats on DOH-MLE three hours before departure QR still refused to release any saver availability. QR liaison desk is non-existent. AA called and emailed them on my behalf multiple times and never heard a single word.
My advice to the OP if they do not want to fly AA120 is to look at every single airport that QR flies in the US and if you find saver availability on any of those flights AA will force award space on the domestic sector on the flights you prefer. Let's say there is award space on MIA-DOH and you want to fly the 777 flight from JFK-MIA and there are revenue seats available AA will get you booked on that flight in J. This is what we did when our ATL-DOH flight got canceled but we found award space on IAH-DOH.
Perhaps the best advice at this point is if flying on QR is what you want, steer clear of the JFK route and select any other U.S. gateway where there is not an easy swap to an AA flight.
May 19, 2022, 8:04 am
#51
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For a change like this, QR wouldn't need to touch the 001 ticket itself; the ticket is what covers QR for the travel from A to B in a specific fare bucket, it doesn't specify the exact flight. QR could easily have rebooked the passenger onto another QR flight on the same day, putting them into the same inventory (even overselling that inventory if needed since it's their own flight they're dealing with), without having to reissue the 001 ticket. Technically, QR would revalidate the QR coupon on the 001 ticket, which they definitely can do in advance of the flight. This DL page for travel agencies (of all places) has a decent explanation of the process, and how the operating carrier would go about revalidating a ticket—when you see "Delta", read it as "QR", and when you see "agency", read it as "AA", and you'll have the exact situation here.
Ultimately, either QR chose not to move the OP, or they may have chosen to do so and AA decided that it would move the passenger to its own metal anyway and reissued the ticket. QR are limited by what they can do within the scope of revalidation, but since AA own the ticket, they can do pretty much whatever they want to it. At this point, since AA have done what they've done, I don't think the OP will have much of a route to get back on QR metal unless award inventory opens up on a suitable flight.
Ultimately, either QR chose not to move the OP, or they may have chosen to do so and AA decided that it would move the passenger to its own metal anyway and reissued the ticket. QR are limited by what they can do within the scope of revalidation, but since AA own the ticket, they can do pretty much whatever they want to it. At this point, since AA have done what they've done, I don't think the OP will have much of a route to get back on QR metal unless award inventory opens up on a suitable flight.
In my previous experiences, advance schedule changes have always been kicked back to the marketing carrier. I guess it is possible for the operating carrier to change it, albeit they probably don't want to by policy?
May 19, 2022, 8:04 am
#52
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Only thing I can think of - and I think it would be very unlikely - is that QR can see my AA number and see that I buy a lot of paid J tickets on them and that makes them more willing to play ball.
Last edited by PresRDC; May 19, 2022 at 8:10 am
May 19, 2022, 8:35 am
#53
Join Date: Nov 2011
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[/QUOTE]I’ll let you know when I make it back to Boston tomorrow evening in one piece.
Right after I did this, DOH-LHR-BOS (Q Suites then BA F) opened up. Put it on hold then quickly called up to get on that combo versus DOH-JFK with a longish layover at the FL. Would rather break up the trek at the CCR / and walk off the international segment in Boston versus JFK.
Again, not my experience. In my experience, AA will figure out how to make it happen.
Only thing I can think of - and I think it would be very unlikely - is that QR can see my AA number and see that I buy a lot of paid J tickets on them and that makes them more willing to play ball.
Only thing I can think of - and I think it would be very unlikely - is that QR can see my AA number and see that I buy a lot of paid J tickets on them and that makes them more willing to play ball.
May 19, 2022, 9:17 am
#54
Join Date: Feb 2002
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For a change like this, QR wouldn't need to touch the 001 ticket itself; the ticket is what covers QR for the travel from A to B in a specific fare bucket, it doesn't specify the exact flight. QR could easily have rebooked the passenger onto another QR flight on the same day, putting them into the same inventory (even overselling that inventory if needed since it's their own flight they're dealing with), without having to reissue the 001 ticket. Technically, QR would revalidate the QR coupon on the 001 ticket, which they definitely can do in advance of the flight. This DL page for travel agencies (of all places) has a decent explanation of the process, and how the operating carrier would go about revalidating a ticket—when you see "Delta", read it as "QR", and when you see "agency", read it as "AA", and you'll have the exact situation here.
Ultimately, either QR chose not to move the OP, or they may have chosen to do so and AA decided that it would move the passenger to its own metal anyway and reissued the ticket. QR are limited by what they can do within the scope of revalidation, but since AA own the ticket, they can do pretty much whatever they want to it. At this point, since AA have done what they've done, I don't think the OP will have much of a route to get back on QR metal unless award inventory opens up on a suitable flight.
Ultimately, either QR chose not to move the OP, or they may have chosen to do so and AA decided that it would move the passenger to its own metal anyway and reissued the ticket. QR are limited by what they can do within the scope of revalidation, but since AA own the ticket, they can do pretty much whatever they want to it. At this point, since AA have done what they've done, I don't think the OP will have much of a route to get back on QR metal unless award inventory opens up on a suitable flight.
May 19, 2022, 9:46 am
#55
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This is OT for this thread, but that page is intended for travel agencies dealing with DL; the part I felt was relevant was specifically the description on the page of how revalidation works, and the fact that it doesn't require a ticket reissue. There's a lot more going on on that page which isn't relevant to this specific situation (in this case, the page isn't saying that any ticket issued on any other airline's stock will not get revalidated, it's saying that one of the most common causes of a ticket being unable to be revalidated is that the ticket is issued on an airline's stock that DL cannot revalidate—QR can definitely revalidate AA issued tickets issued on AA stock, so this isn't relevant here).
May 19, 2022, 10:36 am
#56
Original Poster
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The nuance here is AA's new JFK-DOH flight. I hazard the guess it's not happening in a vacuum, i.e. there has certainly been discussion between QR and AA with respect to AA's introduction of a direct flight in this market. Particularly with pretty much the exact flight times.
I'm not saying QR won't sometimes reaccommodate on their own flights & it's always worth trying. But I don't think the OP is going to get very far, particularly with a JFK flight. And AA likely wanting people those flights full.
If potentially being switched to AA's flight is a hard stop for anyone, going forward they should have a backup plan in place in case of this, or unfortunately be prepared to cancel their flights. (But keep in mind there was no guarantee with QR that it won't happen again or that you wouldn't end up on a non-QSuite 359 flight at the last minute anyway.)
I completely get the OP's disappointment. Sometimes the trip excitement is as much about the flight as it is about the destination. Am glad though at least for now, he still has his flight back in QSuites to look forward to.
I'm not saying QR won't sometimes reaccommodate on their own flights & it's always worth trying. But I don't think the OP is going to get very far, particularly with a JFK flight. And AA likely wanting people those flights full.
If potentially being switched to AA's flight is a hard stop for anyone, going forward they should have a backup plan in place in case of this, or unfortunately be prepared to cancel their flights. (But keep in mind there was no guarantee with QR that it won't happen again or that you wouldn't end up on a non-QSuite 359 flight at the last minute anyway.)
I completely get the OP's disappointment. Sometimes the trip excitement is as much about the flight as it is about the destination. Am glad though at least for now, he still has his flight back in QSuites to look forward to.
May 19, 2022, 10:41 am
#57
Join Date: Sep 2020
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Posts: 33
Weird thing DO happened. Just checked my flight again because I just booked another flight out of JFK to Nepal ( with QR) so figure to have a look at my old booking. My original 1am Friday flight that got swapped from QR to AA got changed back to QR on a 9:55 pm Thursday flight!! 3 hours ahead which is fine!. But always NO email notification when they changed my flight! I will suggested everyone to check on their booking from time to time 
May 19, 2022, 10:42 am
#58
Original Poster
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So after two phone calls to Qatar and 3 phone calls to American, this morning I woke and saw another schedule change. I’m now on QR702 departing 21:55hrs on the evening of June 16th.
Happy Camper again. Shows that with some persistence you can sometimes get the desired result.
Fantastic. Same here! I’m super thrilled about this. Just hoping a true window seat opens up as they have me in 2J at present.
Happy Camper again. Shows that with some persistence you can sometimes get the desired result.
Weird thing DO happened. Just checked my flight again because I just booked another flight out of JFK to Nepal ( with QR) so figure to have a look at my old booking. My original 1am Friday flight that got swapped from QR to AA got changed back to QR on a 9:55 pm Thursday flight!! 3 hours ahead which is fine!. But always NO email notification when they changed my flight! I will suggested everyone to check on their booking from time to time
Last edited by Microwave; May 19, 2022 at 10:49 am Reason: Merged consecutive posts for readability
May 19, 2022, 11:04 am
#60
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