Booking Qatar with Privilege, then changing when Velocity accepted?

[slipshot]

Hi all.

This is my thought and I'd be grateful for any comments.

Flying MEL - LHR this Xmas with two adults and four kids. All are on my family pooling. I'm Platinum with Qatar Airways, as part of the status match in 2020 with Virgin, and still have Virgin Platinum too.

We need to book fairly soon as prices are silly. What I was looking to do was to to book us all together using my Privilege status, and thus choose seats for us all together.

Then, would it be possible for me to go into the booking once the option to allocate points to Velocity becomes available, for each person, and change the frequent flyer to their Velocity so I get the points and SC for us all via family pooling?

And, if this is feasible, would you lose the seats as the seats we chose would be under a status card that is no longer on the booking or does it not matter once done?

I've flown many many times, but never had this exact situation, so thought I'd ask. Thank you

 

[BNEFlyer]

I'm in the same situation (though I'm Gold and have already booked). Not sure of the answer but you can always change the FF number to VA and see what happens and if you lose the seats change it back to QR. Otherwise wait until after you've checked in to change.

 

[slipshot]

I'm in the same situation (though I'm Gold and have already booked). Not sure of the answer but you can always change the FF number to VA and see what happens and if you lose the seats change it back to QR. Otherwise wait until after you've checked in to change.

Thanks so much... appreciate it and let's see what happens when the actual VA and QA systems start talking... whenever that will be as i thought they were aiming for mid year

 

[BNEFlyer]

Yes it should be going live next Month. Though seat selection should be part of the package for VA Gold and Plat if the QR agreement is like DL and SQ.

 

[frequentflyer91]

I status matched with Qatar/Virgin Platinum and travelled under the status match to Heathrow. It was a phenomenal experience, super personal and they would check up multiple times through the flight. They didn't have any issue chopping and changing statuses with someone else I was flying with from Qantas to Qatar and back again if need be!

 

[slipshot]

I status matched with Qatar/Virgin Platinum and travelled under the status match to Heathrow. It was a phenomenal experience, super personal and they would check up multiple times through the flight. They didn't have any issue chopping and changing statuses with someone else I was flying with from Qantas to Qatar and back again if need be!

Thanks. We just flew to and from England last week with Qatar and it was great, one of the best airlines I have flown in economy and thus impressive. At the moment, our return to England with the family in Dec is looking like Qatar is preferred. And cheapest...

 

[frequentflyer91]

Thanks. We just flew to and from England last week with Qatar and it was great, one of the best airlines I have flown in economy and thus impressive. At the moment, our return to England with the family in Dec is looking like Qatar is preferred. And cheapest...

Yep agreed! As platinum they put us on the top deck of the a380 leaving Heathrow which is nice. Only time I’ve ever slept 10 hours on a plane was Doha to Sydney! Haha

 

[BNEFlyer]

Yep agreed! As platinum they put us on the top deck of the a380 leaving Heathrow which is nice. Only time I’ve ever slept 10 hours on a plane was Doha to Sydney! Haha

I've got the status match to Privilege Club Gold through VA and have selected extra legroom seats on 777 flights and top deck of the A380 to CDG, but I want to earn with VA so might just have to swtich between QR/VA after each flight.

 

[slipshot]

Yes it should be going live next Month. Though seat selection should be part of the package for VA Gold and Plat if the QR agreement is like DL and SQ.

Just on this, I'm curious how you know this should be going live this month? Not being rude, just keen to learn. They committed to this as being mid-year and I suspect this would have advised of any delays so hopefully this happens soon.

 

[BNEFlyer]

Just on this, I'm curious how you know this should be going live this month? Not being rude, just keen to learn. They committed to this as being mid-year and I suspect this would have advised of any delays so hopefully this happens soon.

It was mentioned just after the announcement that the partnership would start in July (that was my understanding anyway).

 

[slipshot]

It was mentioned just after the announcement that the partnership would start in July (that was my understanding anyway).

Seems like maybe they are having issues, as I've not heard anything more on when this goes live and they did quote mid-year, and August is almost that!

 

[slipshot]

Just seen that the partnership goes live tomorrow, 6 September. Apparently flights on QR are appearing on the Velocity page now for booking. It's just been announced.

 

[BNEFlyer]

Just seen that the partnership goes live tomorrow, 6 September. Apparently flights on QR are appearing on the Velocity page now for booking. It's just been announced.

Benefits (Priority boarding, check-in and lounge access) available from 12 September.

 

[slipshot]

So as an update to this thread, I booked the 6 of us to fly to MEL-LON, return CDG-MEL, with Qatar and used my platinum status with QR to choose the right seats. We did this on all four flights and all were confirmed. Then when Velocity came live I added in the other guests details and changed mine to my Platinum Velocity account. Yesterday I received an email that the Doha-LHR leg had been cancelled. And to go onto Live Chat to change the flight. After waiting 20 mins for Live Chat to connect, I gave up and called the number I have. Having changed my FF# back to Qatar Platinum. And then find out that every reserved seat on all four legs have gone! Fair enough the changed flight, but all of them. Some of the seats have been allocated to other people so I kicked up a fuss and we will see if they care to change them. Anyhow, my question is - how close to the actual flight can you change your FF number? I'm thinking that it needs to be just before check in, in order to ensure they don't see you as a 'lower' status with another airline and thus change seats again.

And I assume you cannot change this once the flight has been checked in, as I guess check-in is when you are confirmed as having taken the flight for points and sc to be credited?

 

[BNEFlyer]

So as an update to this thread, I booked the 6 of us to fly to MEL-LON, return CDG-MEL, with Qatar and used my platinum status with QR to choose the right seats. We did this on all four flights and all were confirmed. Then when Velocity came live I added in the other guests details and changed mine to my Platinum Velocity account. Yesterday I received an email that the Doha-LHR leg had been cancelled. And to go onto Live Chat to change the flight. After waiting 20 mins for Live Chat to connect, I gave up and called the number I have. Having changed my FF# back to Qatar Platinum. And then find out that every reserved seat on all four legs have gone! Fair enough the changed flight, but all of them. Some of the seats have been allocated to other people so I kicked up a fuss and we will see if they care to change them. Anyhow, my question is - how close to the actual flight can you change your FF number? I'm thinking that it needs to be just before check in, in order to ensure they don't see you as a 'lower' status with another airline and thus change seats again.

And I assume you cannot change this once the flight has been checked in, as I guess check-in is when you are confirmed as having taken the flight for points and sc to be credited?

I found this out last week. I’m QR and VA Gold, updated my FF to VA and my seat selections disappeared and the seats I had reserved were $200+. Quickly changed back to QR and re-selected.

I have changed my FF from QR to QF whilst onboard waiting for departure with no issues but for this trip I think I’ll just ask the agent to change it for the two flights I have at check in (even though I will do OLCI if possible anyway).

 

[slipshot]

I found this out last week. I’m QR and VA Gold, updated my FF to VA and my seat selections disappeared and the seats I had reserved were $200+. Quickly changed back to QR and re-selected.

I have changed my FF from QR to QF whilst onboard waiting for departure with no issues but for this trip I think I’ll just ask the agent to change it for the two flights I have at check in (even though I will do OLCI if possible anyway).

Thank you - that is very informative and helpful. Good to know. When I changed my FF from QR to Virgin I went back to check seats and they were still there. Perhaps should have waited a little...

 

[dandandan]

I found this out last week. I’m QR and VA Gold, updated my FF to VA and my seat selections disappeared and the seats I had reserved were $200+. Quickly changed back to QR and re-selected.

I have changed my FF from QR to QF whilst onboard waiting for departure with no issues but for this trip I think I’ll just ask the agent to change it for the two flights I have at check in (even though I will do OLCI if possible anyway).

Did you just change on the QR app?

 

[BNEFlyer]

Did you just change on the QR app?

I did, in MMB. In hindsight I should have just kept the QR FF number for all flights.

 

[Stealthflyer]

I have a similar question. I was planning to switch from my QR platinum number to my VA platinum number at check in today but VA couldn’t do it for anything but the first domestic leg. Now at MEL, the QR gate lady says the number can’t be changed after booking, but the points can be transferred for up to 6 months if I ring up. I rang Qatar and they said the same thing. They said once a FF number has been attached to a booking it can’t be changed. Has anyone transferred status credits after flying? It sounds like something that can’t be done. I’m concerned because I need at least half the status credits to maintain VA plat, review date end of Feb.

 

[slipshot]

I have a similar question. I was planning to switch from my QR platinum number to my VA platinum number at check in today but VA couldn’t do it for anything but the first domestic leg. Now at MEL, the QR gate lady says the number can’t be changed after booking, but the points can be transferred for up to 6 months if I ring up. I rang Qatar and they said the same thing. They said once a FF number has been attached to a booking it can’t be changed. Has anyone transferred status credits after flying? It sounds like something that can’t be done. I’m concerned because I need at least half the status credits to maintain VA plat, review date end of Feb.

I suppose it depends whether it was before or after check in - once checked in, I doubt it can be changed for those flights you have checked in for. And not sure about points being transferred either given one is Avios and the other Velocity, but also, status credits cannot be transferred at all.

Having had the QR Platinum experience (and I still am as they keep extending it!), I decided while their in-air experience is fantastic, their aftersales and phone is soooo bad that I doubt I'll fly them again, simply because when things go wrong they just do not care, despite what they say they will do, in my experience nothing ever happened. And this was a number of issues over different flights. So with that in mind, I would be concerned about what you are being told as I think it unlikely to happen