ExitGates

I was super excited to book a trip home from Australia on Qatar. Found availability from ADL>DOH>LAX which if went as planned, would give us a chance to fly QSuites & nonQ. I used Asia Miles for the booking since we had a lot of expiring miles. The beauty when booking this was a 20 hour layover in DOH giving us time to see the city and stretch our legs between these 2-16 hour flights. With recent schedule changes, that 20 hour layover shrunk to 3 hours in the wee hours of the morning in DOH. Not much time to recover from flight #1, and not a great time to even enjoy the lounge. I've tried via Cathay/AsiaMiles on WhatsApp to get them to change the 2nd flight a day later, but since it doesn't have award availability, they have not been able to help me. Trying to work with them on WhatsApp sucks!
I'd love to hear from more experienced folks on two things.. 1. Anything I haven't thought have to change this to something closer to what we originally booked? 2. If we fly the updated schedule, can we enjoyably survive these back to back 16+ hour flights? 3. bonus Q: any chance of trying on the day of the flight to extend our connection in DOH from 3 hours to 27 hours?
Still grateful to have something confirmed as it seems like there is currently very little award availability out there! Thanks

lifeonthego_k

Hi, what happened to your ticket in the end?

I'm in a similar situation, where my 18hr stopover has been boiled down to 2.5hrs. My original flight was cancelled by QR and I was rebooked on another flight with only a 2.5hr transit. I twice raised a request with Asiamiles' 'Flight Disruption' team, only to hear that Qatar Airways had rejected putting me on my preferred alternative which kept my original transit time in Doha. Seems like I don't have much of an option now - either cancel the award ticket or fly on the new dates.

Toh Woo Kim

I am of the opposite to you guys. Managed to redeem KUL-DOH-BUD. KUL-DOH leg flight was changed to a later flight and now my layover went from 3hr to 21hr, and arriving Budapest 1 day later than planned

Spoke to Asiamiles CS and what they can do is put a note in case QR release more awards availability (highly unlikely)

EDIT
My flights are in September

lifeonthego_k

Oh man! If booked directly with QR, the airline is flexible in terms of re-booking, if a flight has been cancelled by them (talking form personal experience), but seems like when booked via partners they aren't flexible at all - they give you one alternative and that's it.

My flight is in early Oct.

littlevoices

My experience not that long ago was that I had a MLE-DOH-MAN leg booked with Asia Miles in June 2022. QR changed the MLE-DOH leg from 8pm to 10am, and I had to accept it as all that AsiaMiles would offer me were flights with redemption availability (I must admit I didn't push that hard), which meant rather than an overnight 20 hour layover I had a 2.5 hour one (as they also put all the flights on the same day, where previously a same day connection wasn't possible).

I would observe the following, which is why I accepted my flight change:
1. Doha/Qatar still needs pre-flight PCR testing and other restrictions like downloading their App, getting a SIM, to enter the state. This makes it less attractive (right now) for a stopover (I presume it will go by the world cup time in December 2022, not sure when your flights are exactly)
2. Honestly I find that QR flights are so nice in general, and its so easy to sleep, that doing 16 hours of flights back-to-back isn't tiring, and in some ways is preferable to get to your destination/new timezone quicker
3. The QR lounge in Doha is nice, but two hours is enough time, bearing in mind QR flights tend to be arriving in time, to see the lounge, to have some food, and then head out. You don't really need that many more hours unless you like sitting there drinking champagne and nibbling food. The wifi isn't super :P

The only disadvantage is that I am a fan of Doha's Islamic Art Museum is definitely worth a stopover at least once, and the city's hotels can be pretty nice and good value for either points or cash

lifeonthego_k

Thanks for the insights. Agree, QR's business cabin is great and while I've previously done consecutive long haul sectors with them I thought this would be a good opportunity to see the city, especially The Museum of Islamic Art, which was closed the last time I decided to take QR's stopover package. While it is closed for renovations now, their website does say it will open in Fall 2022. This might also be the last time I travel via Doha as a QR Gold member (status finally expires in Dec '22 after all the Covid related extensions!), so would have been nice to have the complementary Al-Maha arrival and departure services (really speeds up immigration!)

db07mufan

I'm in a similar pickle, they moved my DOH-KUL a day after and I don't have enough leave days to get an extra day off work. Asked them to change but they insist on only being able to change with seat availibility.

lifeonthego_k

oh no! Seems like you'd be better off taking unpaid leave?!

I wonder if anyone has had some success stories in escalating within AsiaMiles and getting their preferred alternative flying dates. Perhaps status with Marco Polo would help...