[Warning] Qatar won’t be helpful at all for Avios based flight bookings!
Discuss today's stories:
-
A few months ago approx a year ahead of February 2026 I was successful in booking business class reward flights as follows:
(you can see the thread I created at the time here)These are booked as separate bookings (only way to successfully book reward flights for desirable routes – i.e. midnight race)
Flight Departure Date Arrival Date Start End Flight Times
1 08/02/26 08/02/26 LHR Doha QR 006 08:05-17:45
2 09/02/26 10/02/26 Doha Aukland QR 920 02:00-03:55+1
3 06/03/26 06/03/26 Auckland Doha QR 921 14:40-22:00
4 07/03/26 07/03/26 Doha LHR QR 105 02:45-07:20A couple of weeks ago Qatar drastically changed the flights times for flights (2) and (3)
2 08/02/26 10/02/26 Doha Aukland QR 920 18:40-20:50+1 <– 16hrs 40 mins later!
3 06/03/26 07/03/26 Auckland Doha QR 921 23:35-06:45+1 <– 8hr 55 mins later!Both changes meant our London to Doha flights didn’t work anymore and also disrupted a further connection in New Zealand.
I called Qatar and after a long polite discussion I was told that the support team were only allowed to help with the affected flight bookings (i.e. not the flights to and from London). The support team suggested I raise this further through the Qatar feedback form. I did this and after a further 2 long calls the conclusion was the same.
On Qatar’s website there was no reward based flights available that would work for us. I cancelled the Qatar London-Doha flights and was fortunately able to book suitable London-Doha return reward flights using BA and that way I also got to use an upgrade voucher to make it a good deal.
Bottom line, although Qatar appear to be a great airline, if like me you use your BA Avios to make a booking, if there are any schedule changes they will only help for the specific booking code impacted. They don’t have the facility to link bookings (like BA) and many folks will have separate Outbound and Return booking codes as I did, in order to actually secure the flights. The above change was drastic and I expected them to have been helpful because of that. They were not.
p.s. I have not flown Qatar before but since I become aware of them through my New Zealand bookings, I do have a business flight with them in a few weeks. Let’s see what the experience is like.
This isn’t unexpected with separate tickets. In a similar situation with BA, you couldn’t rely on BA agreeing to change the other flights for free either, particularly with no avios seats left.
Retaining the ability to make such drastic timing changes without knock-on effects, may be precisely why QR controls availability to make it hard to get multiple redemptions onto single ticket.
As per your other thread, QR will check your luggage through on separate tickets, and BA won’t.
It’s well-known that while QR provides a great experience on board and in its lounges, the customer service is pretty awful and handling of disruption is not so great either.
It’s well-known that while QR provides a great experience on board and in its lounges, the customer service is pretty awful and handling of disruption is not so great either.
Exactly this.
It’s well-known that while QR provides a great experience on board and in its lounges, the customer service is pretty awful and handling of disruption is not so great either.
Exactly this.
Have heard anecdotes about their poor handling of disruptions, but in this case, QR have zero obligation to the OP and this risk was known well before the booking.
“I asked them to do something for me that they are not really required to do, but they refused, how shocking!”I agree there is nothing amiss being reported here and it is not a ‘warning’. A ‘reminder’ may be a suitable description. Separate bookings are what it says – separate.
What a ridiculous clickbait headline! Seems to display quite a lack of knowledge of how bookings work but of course that’s someone else’s fault.
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.
Popular articles this week:
