BabyBearNewYork

Hi, I have a bit of a strange issue. Just booked an AA issued ticket - DEL-JFK (on AA) on the outward leg and DFW-DOH-BOM (on Qatar) on the return leg, in business class, on Expedia. Seat allocations for DEL-JFK and DOH-BOM went thru without a problem. However, as DFW-DOH is marketed as an AA codeshare on Qatar metal, Expedia said I had to call the airline directly for a seat booking.

Called Qatar Airways and was told I had to pay $95 for a seat booking which I found ridiculous. They said that since it was a discounted Biz fare in I, I would have to pay. I then called AA and the story got even weirder. The AA rep told me that yes, I would have to pay but only $50, and it was an Expedia service fee, nothing to do with Qatar! I then called Expedia who denied charging any such fee and said this was a problem arising from the codeshare. The Expedia rep then talked offline with Qatar and came back to say she had spoken to them and asked for seat 3A for me and it should be sorted out in 72 hours.

At this point, if I do not hear back in 72 hours, I'll just call AA and pay the $50. It sucks to pay for a seat in Biz but its also a 15 hour flight in Qsuites and I'd like one of the solo seats up front. Just seems so strange to get no less than three different stories on why I can't seem to get a seat allocation, or what the fees are! Qatar experts- has this happened to you? And what's the next step?

littlevoices

I'm not sure about the codeshare, but it is true that discounted business class seats on Qatar have a seat selection fee. Expedia should have really highlighted this during the booking process (another reason to book direct with the airlines), but I am presuming it is complex as likely you/they don't know the underlying fare class when booking a codeshare.

I would honestly say there is no such thing as a bad QSuites seat, so I'm not sure if its worth the money - but seems to be in your case. In this case it seems likely you should pay the fee and then complain to Expedia that it wasn't disclosed at booking point, but I wouldn't have that much hope you'd get the money back.

Note, here is the announcement about fares being unbundled, though there have been numerous changes since, but you can see discounted business class fares have a seat fee:
https://www.qatarairways.com/content...klet_Trade.pdf
https://onemileatatime.com/news/qata...s-class-fares/

BabyBearNewYork

Thanks so much. My fare bucket on the DFW-DOH leg is I, so according to the link posted, I do qualify for free seat selection. I'll call Qatar again and point this out. Let's see if I get anywhere.

BabyBearNewYork

New story du jour: I printed out my confirmation from QR's website and it also shows Fare Code I (same as what AA shows), which is eligible for advance seat selection. I tried calling QR in Doha. Got a nice agent who told me that the entire DFW-DOH flight has been blocked for advance seat bookings and it will only open up for seat allocation 24-72 hours before the flight! I asked her if I had booked a pure QR flight, would that still be the case and she said yes! She agreed with me that my QR fare code was normally eligible for advance seat selection.

At this point, I think its time to concede defeat. Every time I call, its a different story. I guess, bottom line, all the QSuites are good and even if I get a middle one, its OK.

pythonisman

Can you try plugging your Airline Booking Reference/PNR into either Royal Air Maroc's website or Royal Jordanian's tool? They sometimes allow you to select seats where you're eligible, but there is something preventing you doing it directly.

Note you'll need/want to check something like ExpertFlyer so you don't try to pick seats which are already allocated, as they don't always show the seats as already picked, and can throw an error.

Edit: responding to:
This is definitely somewhat true, for some weird reason that I don't understand. Our upcoming flight to Doha (on Saturday) is still showing almost the entire cabin blocked bar the seats already allocated; when the aircraft changed there were very few seats to select from.

This seems to be because QR will block the centre quad seats unless you're travelling as a group of 4, but even then it's not a hard and fast rule.
As a couple I was able to choose middle seats on a Q Suite quad flight, but only in some rows.

If you don't have ExpertFlyer, and post the date/flight number I can take a look at what the airline's booking system says which could go some way to helping.

BabyBearNewYork

Thanks so much. The flight is on Aug 8th, DFW-DOH. The flight numbers are AA8130 / QR 730. Supposed to be on an A350-900 (Qsuites).

I tried both RAM and RJ. Both could not locate the PNR (both AA and QR).

pythonisman

So that flight is (currently) operated by an A350-1000 with QSuites. The seat map is pretty open with only 1 window seat 'taken' at the moment (and 17 remaining available to choose) (see below)

If you're getting an issue finding the PNR, my guess is you're looking at an expedia reference number rather than the Airline booking reference. (They may only give you an AA PNR, rather than a QR one; but AA should be able to give you that if you have theirs)

I haven't booked with Expedia for nearly 10 years, but at the time I got a long number confirmation from Expedia, but at the top of the email which had the e-ticket numbers, it had the text "CONFIRMED" in green, then the airline PNR below/next to that.

I don't want you to post it (or send it to me) but see if there are other 6 character references in the expedia email, perhaps, or at worst case, try and get in touch and ask them for it? (They may give you the AA one and then you may need to get AA to give you the QR one, which is a bit of a pain!

BabyBearNewYork

They gave me both the AA and QR PNR's. Have tried them both. I can see the ability to select seats on the other legs but the DFW-DOH leg has the option grayed out. Very frustrating.

LX53

Hello all,

I am booked on a DOH-GRU in a couple of months on QR metal, but marketed by LA in a premium business fare. The LATAM fare is fully flexible and includes seat selection, but I can (of course) only select the seats from the QR website. When I add OWS or OWE FF numbers to the booking, QR applies only a discount to the seat selection, but does not allow it for free (which is the craziest part since I feel they should either fully recognize the OW status as it is QR metal or not at all since it is a LA ticket, but not something in between!!). I've tried calling QR a few times and every time I have gotten a different reason for why the seats are chargeable, none of which were very convincing. I did some reading on QR ancillaries and can't seem to find anything that confirms that I should have to pay in this case.
Does anyone know what the actual policy is in this case?

Thanks!!

KingCanute

In my experience advance seat selection on codeshares across different alliances is usually tricky, or not possible.

I would call Latam as that is who your contract is with. They may have a quota or some other way to resolve QR not seeing the seat eligibility of your ticket. But their trade website says:

"On codeshare flights marketed by LATAM, seats must be booked every time a customer requests so. Only in the case of system limitations for pre-booking a seat in any cabin (e.g. a seat is booked but not confirmed), the agent must instruct the customer to book the seat directly with the operating carrier at the time of check in at the airport. Important: Seats and other ancillaries are not available for sale on codeshare flights"

That is not entirely clear to me but you may be a victim of the aforementioned "system limitations" or non availability of ancillaries.

Oneworld status may also be a red herring here as you are not ticketed by a oneworld airline. QR's website says "oneworld benefits are available only to passengers on scheduled flights that are both marketed and operated by a oneworld member airline (marketed means there that must be a oneworld member airline's flight number on your ticket)".

If Latam can't resolve this you are probably left with accepting QRs unexpected offer of a discount or waiting until check in.