Yesterday morning ba.com started showing Qatar Airways award space online. Why is this important?
I am assuming this should be the same award space available to redemptions with American miles, so this is a great way to check Qatar Airways award space without calling the AAdvantage center. I wrote about Qatar Airways award space with AA miles here.
It’s all easier to check some trends, so so far what I have seen:
– QR space is available to a lot of North American gateaways during non-peak dates (holiday, etc.)
– Usually, 4 business class seats are released on this routes, mostly on weekdays: Monday/Tuesday/Wednesday:
Wow, it’s an all business class flight?
– On the Europe flights where First Class is offered, Qatar allots two first class award seats:
Qatar Airways space to Paris
– Economy class award space is a bit more scarce and all over the place and sometimes it glitches, as the engine sometimes says economy class is not operated (see above screnshots)
– Space is not bookable and if you try to click through with most awards it’ll will say that the space is not available, although I did manage to get awards to price.
Error
– You can see breakdown of taxes and fees which do include YQ when Avios allows bookings.Remember that with AA you do not have to pay the YQ (Carrier imposed Surcharge)
Taxes Breakdown
Some points to remember:
Remember, QR award space is currently not bookable with Avios as the partnership hasn’t started, although it should sometime in October. Qatar Airways awards are bookable as all-partner awards with AAdvantage, which I wrote about here.
QR does not have first class between North America and Doha currently, although they operate a 2-2-2- full-flat business class on their 77W’s. They fly their 787’s with reverse herringbone business class to select destinations to Europe, including Frankfurt, London, Zurich, and Oslo among others.
AA is currently mispricing fuel surcharges on QR segments, I strongly suggest asking for the rate desk or contacting @americanair on Twitter to remove the YQ on your reservation.
I hope this helps when you are trying to book an award with Qatar Airways segments. Comment if you have any questions:
Hi – Am on the BA website but can’t seem to find US routing, or to search anywhere other then thru Avios, which only seems to allow US-UK route searches. Any suggestions?
When you’re searching and given the option to have a stopover, don’t select a stopover. Search Tuesdays/Wednesdays, for example see my date JFK-DOH on March 18.