If you’re redeeming miles or points for Qatar Airways business class, seat assignments will now cost you…
In this post:
Qatar Airways expands business class seat fees
As of November 2025, Qatar Airways has added a fee to assign seats in advance when traveling in business class on award tickets:
- This applies to all business class awards in the “U” fare bucket, whether booking through Qatar Airways Privilege Club or a partner program (it doesn’t apply to Flexi awards, since those don’t book into “U”)
- Those with oneworld Sapphire and oneworld Emerald status are exempt from these seat assignment fees
- Complimentary seat assignments continue to be available for all at online check-in, which opens 24-48 hours out
For example, looking at a Doha to Frankfurt business class award ticket, I see a fee of 370 QAR (~$102) to assign a seat in advance.
This is a disappointing change, but not that surprising
In 2021, Qatar Airways overhauled its business class fare bundles. With this, we saw the airline add seat assignment fees on its Lite and Classic business class fares.
We’ve seen the trend in recent years of airlines increasingly introducing “basic” business class, intended as a further way to segment potential customers, and maximize revenue from each passenger. In particular, this has been more of a focus as we’ve seen more premium leisure travel, which has caused an increase to premium cabin demand, but maybe not with the yields of traditional business travelers.
So it was interesting that award tickets were still treated similar to full fare business class tickets in terms of seat inclusions, rather than being treated as more basic or discounted business class tickets. Of course I liked that policy, for obvious reasons.
However, it’s also not surprising to see this change. The airline has definitely focused on maximizing revenue in premium cabins, as we’ve seen Qatar Airways become much less generous with business class award availability, not only for partner programs, but also for Privilege Club. So I guess this is viewed as yet another way to improve the economics of these redemptions.
Here’s to hoping this is the extent of changes to business class award tickets, and that we don’t see the airline cut lounge access on redemption tickets, as is the case with the most discounted revenue tickets.
If you want to frame this differently, those with oneworld Sapphire or Emerald status may be fans of this policy change, since it should leave more seats for them to assign in advance at no cost.
Bottom line
Qatar Airways has added seat assignment fees for saver level business class award tickets. If you want to assign seats before online check-in and don’t have eligible oneworld elite status, you can now expect to pay a pretty penny to select seats.
In 2021, Qatar Airways added seat assignment fees on its lower business class fare bundles, so I guess this is an extension of that policy.
What do you make of Qatar Airways adding seat fees in business class?
Now the important question is, if you’re a OW elite traveling with a companion, does the free seat selection only apply to you, like CX, or both, in a world with common sense.
Made it just under the wire. Booked a long haul in J a few weeks ago and managed to pick my seats for free.
I’ve dropped Qatar Privilege Club. They’ve drastically limited “Saver” awards and opened up many more “Flexi” awards. For instance, it’s now almost impossible to find a U-class (Saver) booking from Australia to Europe via Doha. This means that instead of paying 90,000 Avios one way, it now costs around 180,000. In addition, they’ve substantially increased the taxes and fees on award tickets.
If you book an award seat using Qatar Avios, but have sapphire status with Alaska, are they one of the airlines that I could change that after booking?
When travelling with your partner, Qsuites is one of the few seats that I would be willing to pay a seat assignment fee for.
Frankly in the case of QR it is almost unneccessary to pre-reserve a seat, since all of them are good. Just if you really really want a window seat you might "gamble" by waiting until the check-in.
I started flying oneworld (QR and CX) in March this year and with my next return in two weeks I have QR PC Platinum.
Before I was Gold, I always waited until the check-in, and was happy. Be aware that the QR B787-9 row 5 window seats don't have a .window
Crap, I have to pick a seat before my Sapphire status expires
I hate this. It’s tacky and cheap.
I wonder if they gonna do massive or moderate devaluation on their award chart. It’s been same price for awhile and I think they are overdue for devaluation. I hope they balance it out with this stupid seat fees with moderate devaluation like 10-20% increase but not holding my breath though. Already booked out all QR award flights in 2026 with seat selected so I guess I’ll leave it alone unless forced to cancel
QR did devalue. Booked 2 J YUL-CPT for late this month for 190K Avios. Looking into next year for North American gateways, everything is 400K and very limited availability. And forget using AA miles for anything.
It’s about that. They didn’t devalue the program per se; instead, they’ve drastically limited “Saver” awards and opened up many more “Flexi” awards. For instance, it’s now almost impossible to find a U-class (Saver) booking from Australia to Europe via Doha. This means that instead of paying 90,000 Avios one way, it now costs around 180,000. In addition, they’ve substantially increased the taxes and fees on award tickets. So, to me, Qatar used to be...
It’s about that. They didn’t devalue the program per se; instead, they’ve drastically limited “Saver” awards and opened up many more “Flexi” awards. For instance, it’s now almost impossible to find a U-class (Saver) booking from Australia to Europe via Doha. This means that instead of paying 90,000 Avios one way, it now costs around 180,000. In addition, they’ve substantially increased the taxes and fees on award tickets. So, to me, Qatar used to be one of the best programs, but I’ve now used up my remaining miles and won’t be using it anymore.
They’re saying… “Boo-urns!”
(Thank goodness for oneworld status.)
Did they buy their pillows at Hobby Lobby?
This is a ridiculous change. Have a QR award for Q1 2026 that I've been babysitting for months because there is an equipment change every few weeks (so have to re-select seat). Looks like I've been wasting my time because inevitably there will be another change and I will lose my seat assignment yet again. Not giving them a dime to pick a seat when I have already done so probably 4-5 times already. Query...
This is a ridiculous change. Have a QR award for Q1 2026 that I've been babysitting for months because there is an equipment change every few weeks (so have to re-select seat). Looks like I've been wasting my time because inevitably there will be another change and I will lose my seat assignment yet again. Not giving them a dime to pick a seat when I have already done so probably 4-5 times already. Query whether they can assess this charge retroactively to previously ticketed awards under their contract of carriage (haven't reviewed).
I believe this only affects new award reservations. I was able to change my seat on my award ticket yesterday, so as long as you don't cancel and rebook you should be fine.