Last October Qatar Airways announced their intentions to join the OneWorld alliance, a process that generally takes 12-18 months. Ahead of the merger, they've already been codesharing with American since February, and have a reciprocal mileage earning partnership with British Airways since last week. As part of that, British Airways announced that redemptions on Qatar…
Continue reading: Qatar Airways set to join OneWorld on October 30, 2013
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@ John -- Whoops, looks like you're right. Not sure how I missed it when I visited.
Since Qatar will have a route to PHL in April. Do you think I can go Biz class from BSR-DOH-PHL-DTW on one ticket for 67.5K each. The last leg on AA/US if they merge.
Since Qatar will have a new route to PHL in April. Can I do an award like this for 67.5K each: BSR-DOH-PHL-DTW. On the last leg its AA/US if they merge.
You think there's any chance of AA updating their award rules as a result of QR joining up? QR is a very convenient and comfortable way to reach both SE Asia and Africa from the US...
@ Justin -- Highly doubt it. They didn't for Etihad, so doubt they will for Qatar either.
Ben- Does Etihad or Qatar fly from DFW to the Middle East or plan to anytime soon?
@ John -- Qatar flies to Houston, though not Dallas. Neither carrier has announced intentions to fly to Dallas.
Thanks for the info!
Does lax-mle still require two awards on AA?
For what cities in the US can you fly to the Maldives on one AA award? Finally, if it were the same miles, would you go from the West Coast ofthe US to the Maldives via Cathay or Qatar?
@ Beachfan -- While Etihad doesn't publish a fare between Los Angeles and Male, Qatar does, so it should be possible to do it on one award once they join.
All else being equal I'd choose Cathay Pacific over Qatar since they fly a longhaul configured plane between Hong Kong and Male, while Qatar flies a regionally configured plane. So with Cathay Pacific you'd get a flat bed the whole way.
Ability to search/book award space online would be nice. As a techie who prefers to do everything online, not having an easy way to do alliance/partnership-wide searches/bookings is lame.
So I like United and British sites -- they aren't great paragons of modern design or usability but aren't as backward as many others (ahem, Delta!).
you say "•They have a pretty good fully flat business class product" - how is their first? do they fly it to the US?
@ Lantean -- Unfortunately they only offer a first class product on a few flights, and none of them to the US have a first class.
I flew Qatar Airways first class from London to Doha a couple of years ago. The reviews can be found here:
https://onemileatatime.com/five-star-virgin-qatar-airways-first-class-from-london-lhr-to-doha-doh/
https://onemileatatime.com/five-star-virgin-qatar-airways-first-class-from-doha-doh-to-london-lhr/
Hilarious that they offer first class to London but not to the US. You'd think there'd be demand for it on a much longer flight.
Then again, since they are upgrading their business class seating to reverse herringbone, who needs first?
@ wwk5d -- They have reverse herringbone on their 787s, though don't believe they've announced that they'll put it on their 777s, have they?
[…] Mile at a Time notes that Qatar Airways will officially join the Oneworld Alliance on […]
Ben- What is the best way to search for Etihad award availability? When I use Etihad.com their website freezes up after about 3-4 searches. It is a very clunky/broken down site.
@ John -- The Etihad site unfortunately remains the best option, as clunky as it is.