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I don’t have enough Avios to book a Qatar return flight directly on the Qatar site.
I do have enough Avios across my BAEC HHA to do it through that.
The flights price up exactly the same on both sites (inc Avios and the taxes/charges).Other than the higher cancellation fee (£35 vs $25) are there any other differences, pros and cons for booking a Qatar Airways reward flight through British Airways?
Alternatively, I could try and book one leg through BA site and one leg through Qatar site, but not sure what sort of things could go wrong like this.
I could just transfer some points from my Amex MR balance into Avios, but I had planned to use my MR for the next time there is a bonus for Hilton transfers.
Any thoughts please, particularly around negatives for booking both Qatar legs through the BA site.
Thanks.
Do it via BA if pricing is the same – if nothing else, cancellation is easier if needed.
Yep, we just did our DPS DUB one way on baec. Simples. Can’t get back on our 241 from Sin or anywhere in Asia, sadly. Same everything. And l still find the QR site hard to navigate, after all these years. So, if a miracle happens and we can use our 241 home, will be much easier to cancel on baec, as Rob says.
Thank you both.
Pros: Easier to change or cancel, and much easier to navigate BA site versus Qatar site as noted above. I should add that QR app despite being temperamental is better than QR web.
Cons: If you are departing the regions you may find yourself paying substantially more on booking via BA versus QR sites. For example EDI-DOH-BKK in J is 75k on QR site versus 93k booked via BA unless this has been fixed. There is a belief amongst some readers here that QR frequently targets reward flights booked via BA and other partners for schedule changes and day of departure downgrades. Both are obviohsly a big deal and remember QR does not have PY. I suspect such only affect a very small proportion of pax buf it clearly happens based on reader feedback. For these reasons I have booked two reward flights and one revenue flight via Qatar rather than BA this year.
@BJ
Good point re downgrades.. will take our chances and hope for the best…Pros: Easier to change or cancel, and much easier to navigate BA site versus Qatar site as noted above. I should add that QR app despite being temperamental is better than QR web.
Cons: If you are departing the regions you may find yourself paying substantially more on booking via BA versus QR sites. For example EDI-DOH-BKK in J is 75k on QR site versus 93k booked via BA unless this has been fixed. There is a belief amongst some readers here that QR frequently targets reward flights booked via BA and other partners for schedule changes and day of departure downgrades. Both are obviohsly a big deal and remember QR does not have PY. I suspect such only affect a very small proportion of pax buf it clearly happens based on reader feedback. For these reasons I have booked two reward flights and one revenue flight via Qatar rather than BA this year.
I think the error may be fixed as I have booked today EDI-DOH-HKT return via BA (but all Qatar flights) for 150k avios (plus £519 tax)
@Duggie, yes indeed, only last night I booked my partner on QR via BA BKK-DOH-EDI for 75k plus £155 (about £138 via QRPC IIRC). This despite my assertions on here that I’d only book QR via QRPC and not BAEC. However, QR website was being typically stubborn, I lost patience and like @Polly said sometimes we just have to twke chances. Much to my shame, my partner is taking the chances. Risks are very small though, I’ve never been downgraded in my life while my partner was only once following a plane substitution after an AF strike. Interestingly, last night BA would not complete the booking with the BKK-DOH sector in First. I wish they would now fix the problem preventing AY/NORRA rewards as that would open up a lot more reward opportunities to BAEC members.
Glad to hear your frustration is over and you got your seats. Enjoy Phuket!
Booked.
BJ, if this goes awry, I’m going to add you to my naughty list. Somewhere between Shoestring and JDB.Booked.
BJ, if this goes awry, I’m going to add you to my naughty list. Somewhere between Shoestring and JDB.Being no stranger to spectrums I suppose another will not make any difference 🙂 Not sure why I should risk the naughty book simply for providing information to help readers make informed choices if their own. Good luck with your flights, see my message to you on chat today (Thursday)
Booked.
BJ, if this goes awry, I’m going to add you to my naughty list. Somewhere between Shoestring and JDB.
@BJ whilst you would be very welcome, I’m sorry you have been threatened with the ignominy of joining me on the naughty list. I can reassure you however, that when the OP is downgraded and rerouted via Almaty, you will be in the good company of leading lights from many organisations, including BA, Barclays and today Sixt that have offended the OP. You will also find that it’s a very convivial, tolerant and positive world enhanced with fine foods and beverages.😀 not in my nature @JDB but just this once I think I’ll refrain from further comment and just sit back and watch the OPs travels with interest.
I booked Avios QR flights on BA. QR have now cancelled the second flight and rebooked me on to one which departs before the first arrives. There are no Avios seats on the later flights. I think I would be far more likely to get rebooked on a revenue flight if I had booked direct with QR (admittedly I have not yet called to try though). Given how often QR cancel and retime flights, that’s worth considering when deciding with whom to book.
If a two sector Qatar flight to the UK resulted in a downgrade on one sector, would I seek a return of some Avios from BA? It hasn’t happened to me yet but just trying to understand what I should do if it does happen.
If a two sector Qatar flight to the UK resulted in a downgrade on one sector, would I seek a return of some Avios from BA? It hasn’t happened to me yet but just trying to understand what I should do if it does happen.
Yes, if you booked the ticket via BA, you need to approach BA for the refund. You won’t have UK261 rights that give rise to what is effectively penalty reimbursement, but you will get the difference between the two classes for that sector plus tax if it is less for the lower class. If it is booked as one journey, unfortunately the refund on one sector may not amount to much.
@E looks like you’d have to retain your boarding pass and ask BA for refund if it was a QR operated flight *to* the UK.
*From* the UK any airline, even non EU UK based like QR, would have to pay you downgrade compo for the downgraded flight leg under UK261 EU261 but not *to* UK or Europe for non EU UK based airline
Thanks JDB and Lady London – useful to know just in case!
Thought I’d update this thread.
It has been quite difficult to get BA to make changes to my QR flights.
I booked an open jaw using avios.
I wanted to push my return journey back by a day (there were reward seats available).
Took several phone calls to BA across a 10 day period before I finally got an agent who was able to make the change.
Overall, it took more than 2 weeks to get re-ticketed.
Several agents felt that I would need to pay additional taxes & charges – anything between £1112.79 to £1650.16 on top of what I’d already paid, plus the change fee, plus the service charge.
The difference between the last agent and all of the previous ones was vast. To the point where it felt like the last agent was the one in the wrong because she did not at any point mention these additional taxes & charges, only the change and service fees.
Two of the previous agents had agreed to waive the £100 fees (£35pp + £15pp * 2) on the basis that it isn’t possible to change open jaw / multi city reward booking online and you are forced to phone up. However, the final agent disagreed.
I sent in a query to BA and they upheld the decision that the £100 worth of fees were applicable and weren’t interested in what two agents had said about waiving them.Overall, I am unhappy with the experience. I think it must be due to BA agents not really understanding how to handle date changes for partner reward seats, with further complication due to multi city/open jaw. On several of the call, the agents stated I would need to wait for the back office to calculate additional charges and I would need to call again.
It also didn’t help that some agents were not blocking the seats that I needed, while others released the seats again the following day. There was a risk of someone else coming along and purchasing the flights that I needed. Luckily that didn’t happen, despite the whole process taking over 2 weeks to complete.In future, I will look to book directly with Qatar Airways and find some other way to get the correct amount of Avios into my QRPC account, be it through exchanging some of my Amex MR or purchasing the difference in points.
Am I missing something? I thought I just moved avios from BA to QR when I wanted to make a booking.
Am I missing something? I thought I just moved avios from BA to QR when I wanted to make a booking.
You can from your individual BAEC account yes.
At the time I made the booking, my Avios were spread across a household account.
You can only transfer your own Avios to QRPC, and not from the other members of your HHA.
BA allow you to use the entirety of your HHA when making a partner booking. Hence why I booked my Qatar Airways reward flights through BA.Am I missing something? I thought I just moved avios from BA to QR when I wanted to make a booking.
In addition to @Aston100 comments above and in a separate thread on this topic, there are many permutations for making QR reward bookings directly or via BA. He is right that generally it’s better to book directly but there can be variations in pricing and availability (on individual flights and pairs) and that can be on either site, so there is no single way or right/wrong way and I makes no difference (save re HHA as above) where you draw the necessary Avios from.
If you end up cancelling or needing any sort of refund, BA is a whole lot easier.
Ah ok, yes I just moved my own. Presumably your booking was all on one PNR, which caused the difficulties with changing one leg?
If you end up cancelling or needing any sort of refund, BA is a whole lot easier.
During the summer gone, I made some last minute changes to (other) Qatar flights (booked directly with Qatar Airways).
I made a cancellation to a one-way reward booking through the live chat within the Qatar app.Took about 5 minutes in total (from signing in to completing the convo).
As others have said elsewhere, the people manning the live chat seem to be very knowledgeable.
The cancellation cost me $25 per person and this was refunded in just a few days (can’t remember exactly, but felt like no more than a week).So in that example, I am unsure how BA would have been easier had I booked through them.
Got an email from BA yesterday that there are changes to my Qatar Airways flights.
“If you’d like to book a different flight, please call us.”
Thought I’d see if I can be moved onto an earlier flight back to London (there were two).Contacted Qatar Airways through live chat on the app. This is because they respond very quickly and seem empowered to handle changes.
Got an agent from the QRPC team in under a minute. Two minutes later he advised (as expected) that I should contact BA as that is whom I purchased my flights through.
OK, so that was expected but good to get confirmation in under 5 minutes that it is indeed BA who I need to talk to.Phoned BA. After about 30 minutes, I got through to someone from the sales team (despite ringing the number in the email from BA and selecting the appropriate option to make changes to my flight).
After around 20 minutes of being placed on hold, the agent advised that I would need to contact QRPC, because BA can’t change my flights if the overall delay is under 5 hours.So that was a waste of an hour.
Further evidence that the site-wide view about it allegedly being easier to handle changes and cancellations through BAEC rather than QRPC is incorrect.
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