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.
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.
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%