It is not normal but this is what Qatar rules are, because it is on a Weight-Based system. Such crazy numbers were reported in the past when this issue happened. The more astonishing part is, this issue is NOT NEW. It first came up Many Years Ago, Several Years Before Covid.

The issue at one point was fixed. I pulled up the email from AA in March 2022 for travel on QR in October, 2022, the checked bags info were at the bottom like this:

1st bag 2nd bag
No charge No charge

Maximum dimensions: 62 inches or 158 centimeters calculated as (length + width + height)
Maximum weight: 70 pounds or 32 kilograms
Bag information Checked bags
Bag fees apply at each Check-in location. Additional allowances and/or discounts may apply. Bag and optional fees If your flight is operated by a partner airline, see the other airline’s website for carry-on and checked bag policies. *Online payment available beginning 24 hours (and up to 4 hours) before departure

So unfortunately somehow the issue comes back for unknown reasons. Though it can definitely be said, IT IS AA's ISSUE that its antiquated IT system caused that.

Your whole post was about how bad QR and how wonderful AA was

For the QR staff, you turned up to check in with a ticket with zero baggage allowance. This is not anything that QR was in a position to fix since tx. The staff were disinterested, as they should be. ( whether they were also uninterested is another matter ) . The agensts saved you wasting even time byt not pandering to demands for QR contacts since the contact you had was with AA

The agents simply took position that you had no luggage allowace and that if you wanted to check luggage in you needed to pay - alternatively was up to you to get AA to fix the issue that it created

The only airline that was causing a problem was AA by not correctly issuing a ticket

Excess baggage fees are notoriously expensive

If you had purchased a ticket from QR and there was an issue with the ticket, then QR would have been in a position to assist - of course it is also very unlikely that it would have had any problems with issuing a ticket for travel on QR and so the problem would not have existed in the 1st place

The AA rep who chatted with you had Zero clue on what is the issue. You probably would get better result by calling and explain it to the phone agent, ask the agent to see the bag allowance section.

An F ticket does NOT give you free checked bag in all airlines - each airline has its own policy not to mention in QR system, partner award ticket is at the Very Bottom of the Totem Pole. You will be the first to be bumped if they need to unload some passengers. Happened many times and being reported on the net here and elsewhere. You are second class citizen in QR's eyes.

I haven't seen it mentioned but the first thing I would do with QR reservations made with AAdvantage miles is to check the QR reservation directly. I always asked for the QR reservation # in the past but AA is helpful now in adding it to your AA reservation. I watch this directly most of the time after booking because it is the first place to see schedule changes
If you look at QR directly, it will have your baggage allowance - then you know everything that QR sees. Baggage allowance, booking code, etc

This!

People just keep thinking about "common sense" for their own convenience, without any thought / consideration, on how the staff of the ME3 could be punished harshly if they are found not following the strict rules.

Put you in their positions, if you bend the rules, because of "common sense" to serve the customer, but the customer's ticket is issued without free checked bag - then if such "assistance" be discovered, the person may lose his job. That is the very possible consequence. Would you bend the rule if you know the consequence would be, you being sent out the door?!

Sometimes I do feel we the Americans do have the mentality of entitlement, hardly think from the other side's angle and be more considerate when all circumstances are taken into consideration.

The other bad habit we have, is generalization. When that backfires, the first thing we do, is not to look at WHY this happens, different from my "years and gazillions of flights in premium cabins", but immediately having an prejudice on the staff who "refuses to help me".

You dont ever think you are literally asking those folks to risk being punished just to help you out for a mistake caused by AA and also by you who fail to check the conditions of your ticket!

The whole thing of this thread is NOT necessarily serving the purpose to warn people, but more of ranting on how badly you were treated by Qatar (the outstation staff who even have less power to do anything) and on how ridiculous it is, that an F ticket does not have checked bag allowance because "all your previous F flights did not have this issue."

Well, now you learn something - Qatar indeed can have F ticket does not have free checked bag, unless specifically included, on the partner award...

Curious if the OP had paid the $1500 checked bag fees so they could fly, how much luck they would have had in getting reimbursed by AA because this was a mistake on their end.

Unfortunately AA seems to have no idea how to fix this issue, other than cancelling the ticket and rebooking. Called just now and agent said help desk told her to advise me to reach out to Qatar :confused:
Explaining that AA as the issuing carrier needs to show the baggage allowance from their end fell on deaf ears.

You may want to do some googling on this, because this issue is not new, also happened to AA issued tickets on flying EY. It can be fixed but rather convoluted process IIRC. Bloggers wrote about this at the time the issues were rampant. If you were able to unearth those info then armed with such, call AA again.

Reread OP's first post. He did not pay but canceled the AA award. At the end they flew another program's award tickets in J.

They can waive the charge.

Hwever that's usually beyond the capacity of QR frontline staff, that are absolutely useless/forced to be rigid when common sense things occur. I got into an argument with the GAs in DOH who kept trying to put me in 2A when the lounge agent had reissued me a BP in 2F. Ended up boarding with a 2A BP only to *surprise!* find someone in 2A. Then I went to 2F and the FAs were confused, resulting in me having to deboard, wait for a while and then end up in 2F. Brilliant waste of everyone's time.

Basic Econ passengers in F on AA (upgraded as a companion) have boarding passes that say Group 9, First Class. Common sense says that you board with F. QR would make you board with Group 9.

Reading through this forum, it sounds like it is a known glitch for AA. The compounding problem is that we expect airport agents to be able to work miracles -- and they often do in the u.S. In foreign countries, I've found that the airport staff have far less leeway in resolving problems. They have to do whatever the computer says.

Even though, we criticize the inflight service on US carriers. The airport staff are usually solid at handling issues.

Agreed. While it opens doors to shenanigans, which we all hate, AA airport staff (especially the Admirals club AAngels) are able to help us by using common sense or being flexible. I've flown PHX-LAX-JFK-CLT due to IROPS as it was the fastest way to get there, the club agent thought I was nuts, but understood and allowed me to do it as it was the only way I could make my meeting the next day in CLT. Such help is largely non-existent on QR.

That said, QR is worse than any other airline I've flown (sample size > 70) in terms of flexibility.

actually I don't agree. I took then from bkk to doh to lax in first and business and FA are so anemic that I was quite underwhelmed. FA have nothing in common, they are from different countries and work like untuned orchestra. On the other hand Singapore airlines in business was a plus. Luckily i credot singapore airlines to Alaska account.

You might consider reaching out to the AA Twitter team and linking to this thread as the situation you are looking to avoid . . .

Something I learned from this thread: that baggage allowance is part of the reservation record. In all my years of flying (and reading FT), I've never run into this. I always assumed it was based on the operating carrier's policy in combination with the fare class of the ticket, not with anything specific in the reservation (other than fare class). I do think that errors with this occur more than most of us realize, and that in most cases, common sense and experience is applied to the situation by the check-in staff such that we're never aware of it.

This was a big ugly issue with EY awards using AA miles a few years back. The awards were being issued (by AA) without baggage "endorsements". The seasoned AA reps knew how to 'fix' this, but many had no clue. Whenever I book partner awards, I look up my award reservation on the website of the airline I'm flying to make sure it shows everything as it should (including my baggage allowance, ticket #, seat #) ... of which I keep a physical copy with me in case of any surprises at the airport.

I just looked up various AA, BA and QR tickets I have on BER-DOH-BKK vv. as well as BER-DOH-MLE vv.
Cash tickets show proper baggage allowance. My BA award tickets show a mix of 'two pieces' (for a C+F mix) and '40kg'. Those awards typically also include additional carriers.
My AA awards show no luggage allowance on the QR app and the AA confirmation shows free carry-on only.
I guess I should reach out to AA as well, but we should be fine with the OneWorld luggage benefits alone on our trips. Thank you for the heads-up!

In the past I never had issues checking in numerous pieces of luggage at BKK (with BKK-DOH in F connecting to BER in C), even though the AA award did not show a luggage allowance.
Earlier this year EVA was doing the math, but since we came in a few kg beneath the generous limit we didn't have to pay - it took the better part of 15 minutes, though.