Update (25 March 2022): There have been some changes to the Qatar Airways award seat access given to Qantas Frequent Flyer members.
Qatar Airways Business Class is popular with many Australian frequent flyers, especially as all flights to Australia will soon feature the airline’s award winning Qsuites product at the front of the plane. Qatar Airways is also a partner of Qantas in the Oneworld alliance, so it’s no surprise that Qatar Airways Business Class is an aspirational redemption for many Qantas Frequent Flyer members saving up their points to fly to Europe.
Unfortunately, Qantas Frequent Flyer members are blocked from booking most Qatar Airways Business Class award seats on flights between Australia and Doha.
Qatar Airways normally releases up to four Business Class reward seats per flight, including on its long-haul flights between Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide, Perth and Doha. If you’re a member of the Qatar Airways Privilege Club program, or any other Oneworld airline’s frequent flyer program, you would have access to all of these seats.
If you had American Airlines AAdvantage miles, Cathay Asia Miles or Japan Airlines Mileage Bank miles, for example, you could redeem your miles to book up to four Qatar Airways Business Class seats on the same flight from Australia to Doha (plus an onward connection to Europe or elsewhere, if Doha isn’t your final destination).
There are also up to four Business seats per flight available to members of the British Airways Executive Club program redeeming their Avios. (Incidentally, Avios will also soon become the currency of the Qatar Airways Privilege Club program.)
But only one Business Class seat per flight is made available to Qantas Frequent Flyer members.
Qatar Airways releases one seat per flight to Qantas members
If you wanted to redeem Qantas points to book the same flight from Brisbane to Doha, you would be able to book one Business Class reward seat…
But as soon as you search for two or more seats, the Qantas website shows no Business Class availability on any Qatar Airways flight between Australia and Qatar. (You can still book Economy Class though, if you want.)
Even if you try calling the Qantas call centre, you’ll unfortunately get the same result. The call centre staff can only see up to one Business Classic Reward seat per Qatar Airways flight.
It’s not entirely clear why this is, but the most likely scenario is that Qatar Airways is deliberately blocking access to the additional reward seats for Qantas Frequent Flyer members. This has already been happening for over a year, so it’s not a new problem or a temporary glitch.
Qatar Airways does not currently offer Premium Economy or First Class to Australia, so this issue only affects Business Class award inventory.
Possible workarounds
If you want to book more than one Qatar Airways Business Class seat to Europe using frequent flyer points, there are a few alternative options you could try…
1. Fly Qatar Airways from Asia to Europe
While only one Qatar Airways Business reward seat per flight is available to book using Qantas points between Australia and Doha, this limitation doesn’t apply to other routes. So, if you can find a way to get to an intermediate point in Asia using another Qantas partner airline, you could pick up Qatar Airways seats for multiple passengers from there. All flights can be booked on the same ticket, using the Qantas multi-city booking tool.
For example, you could fly with Malaysia Airlines from Sydney to Kuala Lumpur and then Qatar Airways the rest of the way to Europe. Malaysia Airlines typically releases up to two Business reward seats to Qantas Frequent Flyer members on its flights from Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth to Kuala Lumpur.
Fly Qatar Airways from Auckland
This limitation also does not apply to Qatar Airways flights to or from New Zealand. So, you could fly to Auckland and then pick up four Qatar Airways Business Class seats from there.
Ironically, the Qatar Airways flight from Auckland to Doha has a transit stop in Adelaide. But only one Business Class seat is available to book using Qantas points from Adelaide to Doha!
If your ticket is from Auckland to Doha, you won’t be able to just board the flight in Adelaide. You will actually need to fly to Auckland first, to catch the Qatar Airways flight from there.
Split up between Australia and Doha
If you’re looking for two Qantas Classic Reward seats, another option could be to take separate flights between Australia and Qatar. For example, one person could fly direct from Melbourne to Doha while the other passenger could take a connecting flight via Adelaide. All flights from Australia to Doha arrive at approximately the same time, so you could meet again in Doha and continue onwards to your final destination on the same flight.
Use a different frequent flyer program
The final (and rather obvious) solution is not to use Qantas Frequent Flyer points to book Qatar Airways flights. When using points or miles with any other Oneworld frequent flyer program to or from Australia, you won’t be subjected to this frustrating limitation!
This example also serves as a timely reminder of why it’s a good to diversify and accumulate points with different frequent flyer programs – or better, a credit card rewards program that gives you the flexibility to transfer points to multiple different airlines as you need them.
Join the discussion on the Australian Frequent Flyer forum: QR withholding award seats from Qantas?
