Awful Qatar Business Class Award Availability on US Routes

Qatar Business Class Award Space 2019

10/2019 Update: While still not great, award availability is possible for spring 2020 on routes such as JFK-DOH:

Qatar Award Space JFK-DOH 2020

Qatar Business Class Award Availability is Terrible on Many US Routes, Especially for Summer 2019. Many TravelSort Clients who fly to the Maldives or Africa on safari find great value using AAdvantage miles to fly Qatar Business Class via Doha, since the Maldives is 70,000 AAdvantage miles each way per person, while Africa, including Tanzania, Kenya, South Africa, Seychelles, etc. is 75,000 AAdvantage miles each way.

Late last year I was able to easily reserve 3 seats in Qatar Business Class for Atlanta ATL to Doha in March, a route that is currently on a 777, with Business Class in a 2-2-2 configuration, but that is slated to change to QSuites on an A350 by the end of March.

But looking at summer, there's no award availability for two travelers (all searches below are for two travelers). The reduced award availability has tended to coincide with Qatar award space appearing on AA.com, where it's much easier for the average AAdvantage member to search for and book it; previously, many used British Airways' site to search for the space, then called AA to book.

Qatar Business Class Award Space 2019-ATL-DOH-July-August

To be fair, there is some award availability earlier, in April-May, and again in the fall:

Qatar Business Class Award Space 2019-ATL-DOH-March-April

Qatar Business Class Award Space 2019-ATL-DOH-August-September

Doha to NYC also lacks Qatar Business Class award space this summer:

Qatar Business Class Award Space 2019-DOH-NYC-June-July

It's a similar picture for Doha to LAX, where there's no Qatar Business Class award space this summer, and virtually none in general until February 2020:

Qatar Business Class Award Space 2019-DOH-LAX-June-July

Looking at Philadelphia to Doha, which isn't nearly as popular as NYC or LAX to Doha, this also lacks Business Class award space for summer 2019:

Qatar Business Class Award Space 2019-PHL-DOH-July-August

This isn't good news for anyone trying to plan a last minute summer trip that relies on Qatar Business Class award space to or from the U.S., and is another reason why planning ahead and flexible dates are so crucial when seeking to use frequent flyer miles.

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dfost
dfost
5 years ago

Thanks that’s useful information. Although it’s bad news! American Airlines just seems to be all over the place these days as far as availability anywhere internationally.

dfos
dfos
5 years ago

Same with Hong Kong from dallas or lax on American. No availability thru the entire calandar. At all.

Rich T
Rich T
5 years ago

Hi Hilary – doesn’t appear to be any improvement on ATL – DOH direct routes that I’ve looked at this weekend – very disappointing. Do you have any more insights or updates on larger trends, or any improvements?

Jay
Jay
5 years ago

I have been trying to find some availability in the month of October for QSuites from Atlanta to Mumbai (via PHL) and the availability seems to exist till Doha but nothing is comping up from Doha to Mumbai. Any thoughts?

Eric
Eric
4 years ago

Where do you select “nonstop only” for this AA.com award search? Has that selection been taken down?