Qatar Airways Restricts Award Bookings For Others With Absurd New Rule

What's even more absurd... when you purchase Q-Suite, but then, QR does a last-minute aircraft swap for non-Q-Suite, and your options are to... 'kick rocks' or 'pound sand.'

This happens all the time. In fact it happened so often to me I've never even been on Q-Suite because of it and I stopped flying that overrated nothingburger of an airline.
Vloggers love it. Customers don't.

Does this requirement apply only if the main account holder is not travelling, or even for any travel companions on the same reservation as the main account holder?

I'm scrambling to try to make this work because I have an award for my family I want to book in less than 30 days (availability is best on this route when window opens). I shifted a flight that I was going to fly with another airline to Cathay and will credit it to Qatar which should 'unlock' my ability.

The problem is that my wife and daughters don't have Privilege Club accounts. If I make a Family & Friends account, do I have to wait 30 days for their accounts to mature? Or is that only for the My List? Basically, is there any way to get around the 30 day minimum from right now, because if so, that's really shitty to do to me and others with no notice

Thank you for actually backing me up on this. I've said it in numerous recent QR stories, and Ben, and a few others, seem to take QR's side, and minimize the concern, or even go so far as to suggest I'm a novice who doesn't know how to properly book the hard product I want. Like, fellas, I've taken QR 20+ times. I know what I'm doing. They've screwed me a few times. That's all. And other folks should be aware of it.

Friends and Family does not have the 30 day condition. That's because to add someone to a F&F group, they cannot have a Qatar Airways Privilege Club account! Ben notes this fact but doesn't notice the contradiction in what he's written.

To my great dismay I have seen basically every single news outlet get some small but critical detail about the changes wrong.

The other one that this article gets wrong is that to be *added* to My List you also need to have a 30-day year old account and credit a flight or have a card.

Thanks Grant! I should be OK then once my Cathay flight credits to QR and I can then make a F&F list

Okay never mind Ben didn't actually write that F&F nominees need to fulfill that condition.

Well it was still confusing so I appreciate your clarification

Both, sadly. You can't even book you and your wife if you've never credited a flight to QR

So theoretically, I could just credit one direction of a short domestic trip on Alaska to QR and it would allow me to book on behalf of other members on my family/friends list?

If i earn avios on AA will that qualify me to add members to QR privilege club? and can they be BA/IB/EI/AY avios or do they need to be QR?

Sorry Ben, on this one I'm going to have to disagree with you here. Seems like the whining of the "churn and burn" mentality has got your opinion fixed here. For those that have done this before, it's quite a shock, but from Qatar's perspective, why should they let anyone let anyone book award flights through them? This increases the potential for fraud (i.e., points selling) all written over it. Case in point, I live in the Philippines, and the reduction of availability of awards via Philippine Airlines (MNL-LAX) has been substantially reduced since the announcement until now. I expect that the majority of these bookings are legitimate bookings (even “churn and burn” ) wanting to get to Asia a little cheaper, I get that) , but there is a huge Filipino-diaspora that is looking for cheap flights to/from the Philippines and this invites significant potential fraud. This is only for one route, I know, but multiply this from many other, plus Qatar’s other extensive partner opportunities and the solution is pretty simple – fly with us or get the card.

I have two existing bookings with QR Avios that include family members. Can I change their flights, or am I now locked out of changes because I dont actually credit flights to QR/don't have a QR credit card? Speaking of which, I have most of the major airline/hotel/bank CC's and I have never been denied. But I was denied by the QR basic card! Which is odd because its through cardless and I have the Bilt Palladium.

Absurd rules indeed, but what's more discouraging and wrong on Qatar's part:
- they ask for Marriage Certificates to add spouses to the list. That is against the Privacy Laws in USA and EU!! Plus Qatar officially doesn't recognize same-sex marriages, so those groups would be excluded even with the proof submitted.
And that's after a big blow in their business in the Gulf with Iran conflict (still ongoing)!
What are they thinking - they gonna loose a lot of business in US and EU because of those new rules. Their business class seat will fly mostly empty for months to come. Big loss for them and huge disappointment in loyalty program from normal customers with family members (they not even allowed to book award flights with their kids!!)

Now how will I book my 4 leg disaster flights for jet, miles, and credit card? I’m still mentally Recovering from this.

Finally, a reason for Ben to criticize QR!

The "one eligible co-branded credit card accrual transaction" - Qatar Airways doesn't offer a co-branded credit card in Canada and I'm certain in many other countries.

How absolutely Qatarded.

Agree this could have been a good change, but was obviously not thought out for practical purposes. I imagine restrictions on adding family will be relaxed, unless QR's real intent here is to reduce award bookings across the board.

Another hiccup some might run into if you try the workaround of booking 2 tickets on separate accounts, you can't actually select the "honeymoon" seats in the middle of the business class cabin as a single ticket passenger. Unknown if you can call and bypass this, but you can't do it online.

"...why should they let anyone let anyone book award flights through them?"

To bring down the number of outstanding miles (which sits on the liability side of the accounting equation).

Zing! Got'em!

One other wrinkle is you have to be careful if you credit a basic economy flight to Qatar. AA will not generate miles so will not count, Jet Blue, Latam and others will

Hi there from Germany. Had a chat with Qatar....here the quote"

......That is correct. This will only qualify with our direct partner airlines,
Direct Partner Airlines:

Garuda Indonesia
LATAM Airlines
Philippine Airlines
S7 Airlines
Xiamen Air
Bangkok Airways
JetBlue
Middle East Airlines (MEA)
RwandAir
Virgin Australia..."

So just taking any OW flight wont do it.....

I mean, there's still Friends & Family feature where you can nominate people who aren't even members so what exactly is the problem? Just use that. No authentic customer needs to redeem for more than six different people in half a year..

this is what i was wondering...i fly phx-lax all the time. easy to credit one of those trips to qatar.

try reading the article one more time slowly champ

So... having read the article, I decided to apply for a Qatar Airways credit card to meet their requirements. Guess what? I was declined!!! Why? '1) High percentage of existing revolving trades are inactive and 2) Utilization of existing bankcards is too low'. My FICO is in the 800's and I pay off my cards. But, they know I am not going to use this card once I meet the spend requirement. Thanks to our little 'excursion' in Iran, I am now sitting on 500,000 Avios due to canceled flights from March... that I basically can't use. Hoping I can transfer / use these on BA?

Book a short AA hop (if you can) and credit the miles to Qatar. Quite a hassle to do, but would be wasteful of the 500k miles. Maybe a weekend getaway for just a day or 2?

Per the comment just above yours (and based on what that person was told via chat with a Qatar customers service rep), it appears that American Airlines is not on the approved list of airlines that will meet the criteria.

Try S7, I hear they have some cheap flights!

why should they let anyone let anyone book award flights through them?"

Um, maybe because that's the agreement they signed with their partner airlines?

Flights on AA won't count at all, no matter what class you book - American Airlines is not on the approved list of partners (see the earlier post from @Lutz, who was told this by Qatar).

Just chatted with Qatar who confirmed our upcoming short flight with AA will qualify. They mentioned that class 'B' would not, which I assume is Basic Economy.
When the rules were introduced I booked a weekend away which I was planning on anyway and made sure I used one of their partners. Total cost $250 - not the end of the world.
I'm unsure where the dodgy list from the (supposed) German commenter was from.
This isn't a terrible idea overall and aims to protect the integrity of their program.

Guess what Smarty. I got the dodgy list from my chat with Qatar. I have some Alaska flights coming up and I thought easy.....Qatar Partner Airlines and Alliance Airlines are not the same I was told. Twice ! So I guess we have to wait until one tried it. I ll do it next Monday....
The greez from Germany obviously German

Guess what smarty… I got that from the chat I had with them!
Partner airlines and alliance airlines are not the same. So I iguess we will find out.
Guess what again… the German.
Regards,
Lutz

Sad! I have points with BA and once transferred du QA and got award tickets for me and my partner. It is no more possible unless I have a qualified flight with a QA partner. In Canada we do not hav a QA branded credit card so we do not have this possibility.
Why this obligation in order to be able to add your own partner/spouse?
Unintended consequences?

As I understand the new rule, in order to put a new person in your Friends Family list, you need first to have at least one qualified flight with eligible points or credit card (in Canada no possibility to have a QA branded card). Why this "gate" before being able to even register a spouse/partner and redeem for two?

Yes, agree that is the best approach... However, I think we need clarity on which airlines qualify. If you go to the Privilege Club main page, there are two lists: (i) 'partner airlines', and (ii) 'oneworld airlines'. The requirement in the terms and conditions uses the term 'any partner airline'. I could read that generically to include oneworld (AA) or in a more limited way (JetBlue). I think this is so new that I struggle to trust the well intentioned agent on the phone... Let's see. Either way, I'm taking a flight to meet this silly requirement.

Sharing my experience here - hope its helpful. When this went live with the new restrictions last week I was literally looking to book award tickets for my family that same day. I flew a round-trip Alaska flight SFO-LAX the next morning and credited to Privilege Club. It took a full 3 days for the Avios to post to PC (but i chatted with Qatar on day 2 and asked them to please expedite - dont know if that helped or not). Posted as 2 separate transactions - one for each leg btw. I was immediately able to add to Family and Friends and book tickets once the Avios posted. I lost out on better availability and paid more in Avios because of this. I dont really mind what they are doing in concept but the rollout of this was very clumsy and hindered a big trip I had been planning for months.

You can go on the avois website and have an immediate transfer to BA, Iberia or Finnair. I think it has to be in 1000s (so you might be leaving a few hundred avois) but there aren't any other restrictions that I'm aware of.

Thanks for the data points - I'm in your boat but will hopefully be able to still book at the window

I wish they would have simply been more transparent about the exact rules when this was announced. Honestly thought I would have no problem, because I've flown on 4 cash paid long haul Qatar flights in the past year. But I'm ineligible, because I always add my AA number since I'm OW Emerald. Great.

I missed out on crediting a recent JetBlue flight as well, since I didn't anticipate this issue. So now I'll have to figure out a convoluted AA or Alaska flight where I'll forego my typical benefits just to use this in the future. I like that they are restricting points brokers, but not letting prior paid customers book? That's absurd.

I don’t think this is unreasonable. More airlines should require some real KYC to combat FFP fraud. 30 days wait doesn’t do anything to stop people from setting up lots of fake accounts. Maybe allow people to show up and verify their identity at an airline counter with their physical id at least.

Over the last recent years Qatar has gone on a spree allowing multiple new partners and outlets where you can acquire Avios and redeem. Maybe it has gotten out of hand, with vastly more travellers competing for (even fewer) reward seats.
In growing their program they have damaged it, and their reputation.
How they didn't see than coming is inexpicable.

Exactly - only option for us in Canada is to book a QR or partner flight in cash and have points credited to QR. Here's a good review of this change from a Canadian perspective: https://princeoftravel.com/news/qatar-airways-avios-redemption-restrictions/

I guess the best option without paying cash is booking one short-haul AA/AS/B6 booking...even better with Sapphire Boost or Amex Business 35%

It's completely unreasonable because the only way to book avios for someone else is if you paid for a Qatar flight USING a Qatar ff number. Not many of us have done that

If I already have trips booked and had my wife on the family and friends list before the rule came in effect do I still need to take a flight with partner airline or you think I’ll be fine booked round trip qsuite for Oct

I don't think the requirement is absurd as it is a once in a lifetime requirement from my understanding. Once you credit a single flight (it could be a short Qatar flight or partner airlines flight), the my list function is unlocked. (I used to credit a flight or two when I was still foolishly out of the miles and points universe over 10 years ago and My List function in my account is usable.)

Totally reasonable on Qatar's part. They can see who's making bookings in their business class cabins. If you just look around at who's on those cabins these days, you can see they are types who have just signed up credit cards in the US and got a ton of points or bought a fare off a broker. Also there are obviously brokers selling their cabins off at significant discount just degrading their product.

As a non US resident I commend Qatar for doing this. If you don't like it go book on British Airways. You have options.

I like these new rules. The more it restricts mileage chasers the better it is for the “normal” traveler”. Heaven forbid they make it easy for regular humans at the expense of bloggers and Boarding Area gamers.

Ben: Any clarity on whether AA or other OneWorld flights qualify for the 'partner' activity? As you know, Qatar has a separate two lists of 'partners'.

Thank you Sarah. Very helpful. I think the critical takeaway is that Alaska is part of Oneworld and tells me that an American flight should also qualify. Agree with you that it would have been nice if they had communicated this better as I just took an American flight last weekend that I could have used for this purpose.

any partners

Thanks for highlighting this. I just tried to make a test booking for my wife and myself traveling together and I cannot do it because my wife is not on the friends and family list. This is simply insane. If this stays in effect I will not fly with them any more.

Sorry, I am very confused.
I'm looking to book only myself, using AA mileage to book QR, PHL/JNB OW, does this also mean I must credit a flight to QR. I have been a QR member for 5 yrs with pd flights from 2021.

Besides a comment sent to QA, what can we do? Protest to Amex for example since their points can be tranferred into Avios so they understand clients are furious? Social media post to QA and Avios?
Anything else?
The main thing here to obtain: an intelligent relief for parnters/spouses/children that have to be registered and stay in the account for (example) at least 6-12 months. The idea is that for a large portion of people we do not participate to scam and that the rule adpted has IMPORTANT UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES!!!!

the OBJECTIVE is not absurd but the condition to apply it is: in Canada I do not have any plan to fly with a One Wolrd parnter in the year1-2 years BUT I accumulate Avios points and love to get my award with BA or QA. I bring them business in buying points so I do not understand why QA does not respect our situation. I was supposed to get an award ticket in november but I need now to change plans because the couple flights I have in the meantime are not with OW.

I am ready to comply with my "other signiificant other" staying in the account for 2 years if they want! No problem with that. I do not participate in any scam!

The condition looks like ones decided by a "creative" legal dpt....not a marketing one.

Using AA miles has nothing to do with the QR policy; if the flights are available on AA site (hah!) then you can book them with your AA miles.

"why should they let anyone let anyone book award flights through them?"

Because that's how airlines make money. They sell their miles to banks, people use those miles to book flights. Make it impossible to book award flights and that revenue goes away. Once they start losing those sweet bank dollars, you can bet this restriction will go away. Someone took a jackhammer to solve a problem that required a hammer.

Eh, since it's a once in a lifetime requirement, take a single AA flight and credit it to QR and you're good to go.

I literally just transfered 450,000 amex points to take my daughter to Australia from the UK with qatar and found i cant use them due to this, and cant transfer them back to amex...

Just spoke to amex and qatar. Transfered 450,000 points a month ago to take myself and my daughter from uk to Australia. I now cant use them as cant make a family account, I cant even book separately as she is 7 so needs an adult. 450,000 avios just wasted and gonna have to pay cash to emirates!