Qatar Airways flights connecting in Doha, layover?

[sturgeon]

Qatar flight redemptions in business are reasonably priced but tend to have short connection times. I’m thinking to fly via Doha from Asia but spend a few days there before flying to London. Is there a way of booking this so the connecting journey and cost is honoured, will BA do this if I phone?

For example Japan to London business via Doha is 80k points and £62. Otherwise, a separate Japan to Doha flight is 60k and £23 with the separate Doha to London leg 43k and £86 so effectively 23k more points and £40 more tax.

Also, if I did book as a normal connecting flight are they responsible if I miss the connection due to their delay, if booking with points?

[Aston100]

https://www.qatarairways.com/tradeportal/en/policies/STPC.html
I might be wrong here but business class redemptions are in U. U appears to be excluded from the free STPC program.

sturgeon wrote:

Also, if I did book as a normal connecting flight are they responsible if I miss the connection due to their delay, if booking with points?

Unless I’ve misunderstood you, I don’t see any reason why a reward booking would be treated any different to a cash booking in regards to the airline taking ownership of a missed connection on one ticket.

[sturgeon]

Thanks. I’m not looking for any complimentary hotels from Qatar here. Just trying to find out if I can achieve the same points and tax total for a connecting flight if I break up the connection by a few days.

And thanks re the second point, just wondering as most Qatar connection times I’ve seen when searching rewards flights are very short (1.5-2 hours for example which feels very tight)

[Aston100]

sturgeon wrote:

just wondering as most Qatar connection times I’ve seen when searching rewards flights are very short (1.5-2 hours for example which feels very tight)

It’s gonna be down to route and availability.

Here is a route I booked the other day. DO note the abundance of connections far exceeding 2hours
Hopefully the very long screenshot doesn’t break the forum!

[sturgeon]

Thanks, some connection times seem ok in that example but the question remains whether I can delay the connection and stay in Doha a few days, without the points requirement increasing. That’s what I’m trying to achieve.

[LittleNick]

sturgeon wrote:

Thanks, some connection times seem ok in that example but the question remains whether I can delay the connection and stay in Doha a few days, without the points requirement increasing. That’s what I’m trying to achieve.

I think this is a stop-over for anything greater than 24 hours, it might be possible to do on an avios ticket. Might require a phone call to Qatar airways though, not sure if BA could ticket this?

[sturgeon]

Thanks, I’ll try calling BA initially and will then try Qatar. Or if the latter is slightly cheaper I’ll try them first (I think taxes are still a bit lower if booking direct with Qatar).