Sam Lewis

Did you get any joy with this?

englisha

No, they asked for the fare difference if booked next year. I decided to do nothing with the ticket for now, in the hope they extend their policy to allow changes into next year.

SpeedAdvantage

Wonder if someone has Doha as final destination and will fly in the next two weeks got an offer to refund in full? Talking about non-passport holders of Qatar. I haven't called yet.

realgaga

'Travel restrictions or travel bans imposed by authorities' count as an involuntary change, which qualifies for a cash refund.

JohnAx

QR canceled the return half of my SOF-DOH-LAX-DOH-SOF (in I-class).

Option 1: Ideally I'd choose to book the return for next summer. That might cost me a fare difference, but if it turned out to be too much I'd choose a different option.
But the real show-stopper is that QR's Covid benefits still insist that, although the ticket is now valid for two years, the trip duration is still limited to just one year and that clock will run out too soon.

Option >3<: Voucher for the refund amount. Out of the question since the best I could hope for is about half of the round-trip fare ( thus around US$1400 + 10%) and far less than any one-way biz fare I've ever seen on the route.

Option 2: Award miles at one per penny of the refund, thus perhaps 140,000. Sounded like a lot until I looked at QR's price for LAX-DOH-SOF: 150,500 miles (plus fees?). Since I haven't previously credited miles to QR I'm starting from zero and would have to come up with some extra miles.

So my questions, please:
QR will sell me miles, but won't tell me how much they'll cost until I somehow get the first 1000 miles in my account. So how much do they charge for miles?

Are there significant 'taxes and fees' associated with award bookings?

I saw a post in which a pax was complaining that award bookings weren't given the same access to Q-suite seats as revenue pax, and another post that contradicted that one. Which is correct?

Can I count on finding two seats (E-F arrangement) next June?

*********
Option X: Take the cash refund and book QR using AA miles. Presumably that's only 70,000 AA miles but what are the gotcha's in that path? QR pax no doubt get first dibs, anything else?

Many thanks to the fine people who offer their opinion. And of course links to threads discussing this are very welcome - I promise I did spend considerable time searching already.

Sam Lewis

Yes they gave me an eye watering quote to change my ( cancelled by them) flight to Vietnam that was booked for Sept end to early next year. I too have decided to hang on as long as possible in the hope they may increase the time allowed for rebooking. Thats the first time that Ive seen qatar give a worse deal than BA- who allowed my OH to rebook a flight tto the following year without charges

Wondering what will happen if its not changed as have a flight in Dec to CPT 12th-30th.No leeway to rebook if they cancel that one....

cheltzel

A bit off topic. You may want to check in on this thread as it seems to be an informed discussion on travel restriction to South Africa.

https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/afri...long-time.html

Johnnieboy

I think we have discussed this before. 12 months trip duration is standard across the industry, it's not a QR thing.

I just looked at a dummy one way redemption using qmiles and the fees were c USD25.

Buying 10,000 qmiles would cost c. USD 360.

If you have the AA miles then your best best is just to take the cash refund from QR and book a redemption on the same (or other) flights through AAdvantage. If there is redemption availablity on QR then it will show on AA.

The centre qsuite seats are often blocked to ensure they don't fill up with singles. So after booking, if you are unable to select the seats you want, you would need to call AA in the first instance to see if they can request them for you, or subsequently QR to sort it.

It makes little sense to set up a QR account for just one flight, particularly if the qmiles they will refund to you won't buy you the redemption you want, and if you can already redeem for that same itinerary through another programme.

anabolism

Correct, but airlines can and have made exceptions for unusual circumstances. For example, I have a partly-flown round the world (RTW) ticket issued by AA. Travel was supposed to complete this month, but that's obviously not possible. AA allows the ticket to be rebooked by the end of this year, with all travel complete by the end of next year. In my case, the first flight was in January of this year, so I'd have in effect up to two years from first flight to last. In @JohnAx's situation, where the ticket was purchased and the outbound flown before COVID, I would hope that someone at QR would see that a one year maximum trip duration isn't feasible through no fault of @JohnAx's, and would make an exception. The problem is likely to be getting the issue in front of such a person. If it was me, I'd be trying to work my way up the chain from reservation agent to supervisor to manager, and possibly down the chain by paper letter to a VP if I could find a name, and Akbar Al Baker if not (with the assumption that in either case, such a letter would be handed to a flunky who would then forward to a department head).

anabolism

If you have high status with AA, there are no gotchas other than needing to find award inventory. If you don't have high status, the potential gotcha is that if you make a voluntary change you could be charged change fees or award redeposit fees. I believe AA is waiving those though the end of the year. Oh, and also the potential gotcha that AA has fairly strict routing rules, so you'd want to check that your route qualifies for a single award.

Finding award space for two on QR using AA miles is sometimes hard, sometimes easy, depending on QR's whim. There's a thread devoted to it: Qatar Airways / QR: Redeem AA Miles for Award (master thd).

US48 to Europe is not permitted to transit a third region, so LAX-DOH-SOF would be two awards: US48-Middle East at 70k each for J, and Middle East-Europe at 42,500 each for J. If you're paying for two awards anyway, you could stop off in Doha for as long as you like (assuming entry is permitted by then).

SpeedAdvantage

I called the call center and they want to charge me refund fee even though I'm not allowed to enter Qatar. Could you share to me where can I find this document?

Mrgolfer21

Top of this forum there is a wiki with a link.

https://www.qatarairways.com/content...1.7.6%20v2.pdf

NWplatinum

I’m in the basket of Americans who booked to BKK. Are the BKK flights still operating on the schedule and is there any information about when Americans can enter Thailand?

YYCCL3

Unlikely you'll be able to enter Thailand as a general tourist this year. Either wait patiently until QR updates their policy to allow rebooking into 2021, or seek a refund. Or change your destination to somewhere else. Even Indonesia is backing down on opening Bali to tourists anytime soon. Sorry.

https://loyaltylobby.com/2020/08/13/...r/?omhide=true

NWplatinum

Dont be sorry. Frankly I’d rather go next year when AS is officially in OW alliance so that I can credit to MileagePlan.

What is happening to Americans with flights booked to destinations that they are not allowing you to travel to? Has anyone had a flight cancellation or pause due to the pandemic where they were suppose to travel? Has QR offered to book you for next year?