sickmint79

i appear unable to make this bookable. it is BKK-DOH on a 2-class 787 in business then DOH-AMM on a 2-class 787 which QR refers to as first. bird info here: https://www.seatguru.com/airlines/Qa.../fleetinfo.php

when i choose it, choose myself as passenger, and get to this screen, hitting continue brings me back to the search results.

i called AA and after 90 min on hold got to someone, and when they did BKK-DOH the only flights they saw for DOH-AMM free were economy.

i put DOH-AMM on hold online (30k) in first on one of these flights (the only class as it is "business first" basically) and gave her the record locator to try and extend. this did nothing to solve the problem.

while the AA reward engine is showing me this business + first flight, no engine appears able to book it. the website will simply not work for me. the agent seemed stuck as well.

for the agent, apparently it is deciding BKK-DOH in biz = 40k for itinerary and mileage, then the DOH-AMM is at the same class of service or below. but there is no business to pick from, and the below is economy. that QR happens to call the same class business on some routes and first on another seems to be breaking the engine.

there's no way for me to "overpay" 50k for the first leg to then have access to first on leg2, because the first leg simply has no first class.

i can do that by actually flying first class on a different plane; the a380 makes this available. i haven't tried to book this but assume it would go through just fine.


while i'd prefer the a380, the time here sucks. if access to fancy foods on fancy flights, it's dinner/lunch i'm going for. i expect the 2am flight to have limited late night options, and basically never find breakfast options appealing if other meals are available. i assume the first class lounge on the ground at this early in the morning (5:15-8:50am) to be limited to breakfast options as well.

the original itinerary would have lunch/evening meals throughout, including the first class lounge and probably access to one of the rooms to sleep. i'm happy to pay 40 or 50k for it. however it seems the only way i can do it is by breaking up the flights into completely separate itineraries, which would cost 40k for flight 1 and 30 for flight 2.

so my options seem to be:
1. book exactly what i want in 2 itineraries for 70k even though it should be 30k
2. book a380 first with meh food experience and meh breakfast/first experience
3. book a380 first and a long layover for nice/longer food experience + make a day trip poking into doha
- i have poked around here on a longer layover like 8 years ago, just visited souq waqif and had dinner really
- my semi-claim-to-fame would be kart racing all around the world, although i no longer travel w/my helmet and even the longest layover option would be cutting it too close to flights for any kart tracks here due to opening times
- open ideas for legitimately interesting things to see or do in doha ???
4. some magic that would allow me to book what i want for 40k as expected - any ideas FT?

JJeffrey

As annoying as it is the first thing I'd do is just HUCA a few times.

These "First class but really business" intra Middle East flights have always caused problems with both aa.com and phone reservations, some agents just don't know what they're doing or don't have experience with them, etc.