Stopover with Avios/Qatar

[sturgeon]

I’ve called BA about this who were a bit useless, however they did suggest it should be possible if they book at the call centre vs online. I am flying from Japan via Doha to London with Qatar, I’m keen to have a stopover in Doha for a few days rather than rush for the connecting flight. If I book two single flights then it’s costing around 20k more Avios, so I’m keen to see if I can do this under one booking so it’s priced up the same as a connecting flight with a very short connection.

Booking online gives no option to do this, even though BA says it would.

Is this possible? Any reason it wouldn’t be? The flights aren’t released just yet so I will call and try, just wondering if anyone else did this and how it was achieved.

[BA Flyer IHG Stayer]

I think you’ll get this on one ticket but at the higher price.

A connection is priced as one product but a stopover is a different product so priced differently.

[BJ]

Prices per sector should be the same so it should make no difference whether booked straight through or as two one ways. Recently different pricing levels have been quoted by QR with some suggesting this is peak/off-peak pricing. My guess is you may have picked this up on one of the dates for your two one ways. Try searching the full flight Japan-UK on the date sector is costing you more to see if tbe extra 20k is reflected on straight through price on that too.

[sturgeon]

Thanks. Even on the same date using test bookings the two separate flights cost more than the single one. So I guess it’s not possible, however I’ll try calling BA when all the dates are released to see if they can do it.

[QwertyKnowsBest]

I had exactly same issue albeit from Singapore with a Doha stopover. After playing around online on both BA and QR with options, booked by phone with BA which was less Avios than online but more than without the stopover, go figure.

[Aston100]

Definitely not the same price for two separate tickets compared to one through journey.
On several journeys I’ve priced up from London, Manchester and Birmingham to destinations in South East Asia since earlier this year, on various dates.