If you fly Qatar....

[reader]

....be advised that as of March 11 you will no longer be able to contact the carrier's Privilege Club program by any means other than on its website. Information regarding the use of miles for any purpose will no longer be available by phone regardless of member status. You will be not able to even inquire on line about upgrade availability until AFTER you have purchased your ticket.

Qatar notice:

With the implementation of self-service functionality, all redemption requests and profile updates can be completed online our website www.qmiles.com. In line with this enhancement, from 11 March 2018, we will no longer be supporting these activities through our ticketing offices, contact centers or any other offline channels.

[Guest]

Seems like a good  reason to dump them especially for frequent travelers. I was never that impressed with them anyways.

[1moRussian]

Cost cutting

as I realized, last year they increased all prices in miles - so my 2 possible trips to SEA region became only 1... And I am not sure what do do with leftover miles: do I have a reason to keep them or it's better to spend them next trip in Doha duty free shop

[reader]

IMO, spend all of them as quickly as possible.

All of the big 3 Gulf carriers are experiencing financial problems. Ethiad seems to be in the most difficulty, Emirates finds itself over extended and Qatar continues to feel the effects of the embargo imposed by its neighbors due to its friendly policies towards Iran. Destinations and flight frequencies are being trimmed and new equipment orders being cancelled outright or cut back.

I'm having problems trying to get Qatar to refund their highest cost economy "flexi" ticket (sold as having fully refundable fare basis). This is not a good omen for what lies ahead.

 

 

 

 

 

[PeterRS]

The inability to check on availability of upgrades prior to purchasing a ticket is nuts!

Qatar is a OneWorld airline. So I assume its miles can be spent on other carriers in the Alliance. n recent years all carriers and most hotel chains have been revamping their mileage/points schemes. Travellers now have to spend more to gain less. And if my experience is anything to go by it is becoming more and more difficult to use them. I decided three years ago to get rid of all miles and this year my hotel points. I don't travel long distance much now and upgrades are not much use to me for short /medium range flights. I search around for cheaper fares. If you book far enough ahead, its surprising what good deals can be had.

[reader]

When I was making reservation of the trip on Qatar nine months out, my plan was to use Qmiles to upgrade to biz. When I called the Privilege Club, they told me I couldn't check upgrade availability until after I purchased the ticket. However, agent assured me that my Gold status and fact that I was buying flexi ticket significantly improved my chances of getting the upgrades.

Went ahead and purchased it and immediately attempted to upgrade. Qatar would only upgrade the DOH-BKK segments. So I attempted to cancel the refundable ticket. This involved numerous calls and emails, all of which produced conflicting instructions. I was unable to either cancel on the website or at either the reservations or Privilege Club contact centers.

I finally appealed to my credit card issuer who is pursuing the matter with Qatar.

My advice is if you are considering a Gulf carrier, purchase your ticket only through a One World or other network partner airline. If you are in the US or EU, you enjoy far better protection. Better yet, avoid the Gulf carriers altogether. There are too many other good airlines out there with competitive fares and good schedules.

 

 

[PeterRS]

Things have obviously changed. 4 years ago I took Qatar to Europe because the price was good and I could get to a secondary destination without changing at a hub airport. It cost 97,00 baht biz class. I had bought about 8 months in advance. Then during the Bangkok Travel Fair I noticed a special promotion of the same route at the same time for 77,000! I assumed I was screwed but decided to call Qatar's Bangkok office just to check. The lady could not have been nicer. I could cancel my first ticket but there would be a penalty - all of 3,000 baht! She also confirmed there were seats at the new price. It was all sorted out in about 5 minutes and I saved 17,000. But prices have gone up a lot since then.

A word of warning about purchasing through another OneWorld carrier. My understanding is - and I hope someone will correct me if I have got this wrong - you are still bound by the Qatar fare rules and regulations. That is definitely true if you use another OneWorld carriers miles to get a Qatar flight. Once the ticket is issued, you will get no help at all from BA, AA, CX or whoever you booked it through. This happened to me 2 years ago and they washed their hands of any responsibility when a big problem arose. I got zero help and was told only Qatar could help! They didn't!

 

[reader]

Started using Qatar about four years ago, also. My first New York-BKK biz fare was about $2,500. I had no complaints.  Compared to the other Gulf hubs, I found Doha fairly easy to get around with spacious concourses and a comfortable lounge. Fares are now on a par with other major carriers and prices have about doubled. But it's not the in-flight service that I'm taking issue with.

The problems I recently encountered can only get worse when Qatar eliminates the frequent flier phone contact center. When website access is the only option, you're forced into a cookie-cutter decision matrix. I much prefer to talk with a live rep to navigate the tricky process of attempting to check and confirm upgrades. You can no longer do that on Qatar.

As you say, things have changed.

About flight rules, if a partner airline sells you a ticket with its flight numbers on it (code sharing), it becomes the issuer of record. This process is distinct from simply transferring your miles to another network carrier and flying with that carrier's flight numbers.