mohammadmoghimi

I have the following link on top of qatarairways.com's landing page. They talk about free date/route/destination changes.
https://www.qatarairways.com/en-us/t...onfidence.html

My questions is whether free date changes include fare difference as well? If this is the case, should I book the cheapest dates and the change them to my desired dates?
The other question is that qatar doesn't fly to my local airport (Seattle) so they offer an alaska segment to connect to one of their US destinations. Does the free date changes apply to the Alaska portion as well?

Thanks in advance.

nomiiiii

Free date change is only on Qatar flights afaik.
And yes, free date change is without charging you any extra money. I did something similar - booked the cheapest flight to Chicago (ORD), got a free date change to my desired date, and then booked my own alaskaair.com ticket leaving 5-6 hours after landing in Chicago (alaska airlines has free cancellation right now, so to be safe I also booked a second flight for the next day which I will cancel once I know we will land on time and I won't miss the first flight)

ISTFlyer

This thread has all the information you need.
Covid-19: Book with Confidence QR Policy

Unfortunately booking the cheapest dates and changing your ticket later on might not work on all cases, here is a sum-up of your options during both involuntary and voluntary changes.

During involuntary situations: ( Your flight has been cancelled, there has been a schedule change, etc... )

- The fare difference would be waived for your desired dates.
- QR would be rebooking you on an AA/AS segment to SEA appropriately on your desired dates
- Not your case but you would be able to change your destinations according to the 500 mile/same region policy.

During voluntary situations:

- The fare difference would not be waived. You would be responsible for any difference in fare.
- QR would still be able to rebook you on AA/AS to SEA but you would need the same fare bucket for that leg as well. Otherwise, a fare difference would be collected.
- No destination changes are permitted.

kq747

According to my reading of the Oct 1 version (which I think is still the current version), you should be able to book cheaper dates and then immediately change to different dates

ISTFlyer

The third bulletpoint in the Amend Travel Date section on the 28 Oct update clearly states that if not in the same RBD, collect difference in fare, taxes, fees, surcharges.

The 28 Oct version is available at the WIKI of the BwC thread.

kq747

Sorry I should have specified that you would need to find same RBD on desired date to avoid fare difference but it can be done immediately after booking

ISTFlyer

Yes, that’s true. Although fare increases within RBD buckets are not that common.

brunos

My understanding is that all you need is to find availability in the same RBD. SAy the fare bucket "I".
But there can be many fares within that I bucket. The OP might have purchased a very cheap I****** fare, but he can change it to another date as long as there is some I availability, even if the cheaper I fare available on that date I##### is more expensive.

It could be that QR new pricing policy will have only one fare per RBD.

ISTFlyer

Yes, your understanding is correct. A passenger could change a cheap I****** fare to an expensive I###### fare without paying any fare difference.
However, I was mentioning that this is not common with QR; during high-season, instead of creating new fares, they auto-block the cheaper fares instead. At least this is the situation on the routes I fly.