Award Alert: Qatar Airways Qsuites For 4, 70,000 American Miles Per Person

On Straight To The Points, I share great business and first class award flight opportunities to help you use your miles and points via my private Award Alerts newsletter. Today, I wanted to share a recent alert with readers of God Save The Points since I know you all love Qatar Airways Qsuites. Since this was sent, more space in March has opened up while some dates listed below won’t be bookable anymore.

To receive alerts about premium cabin award flights for 4+ people that you can book with miles, make sure you sign up for Award Alerts. Right now, these alerts are focused on awards to/from the U.S. and Canada.

Now, let’s get into it!

Qatar Airways Qsuites Space For 4

What better way to kick off the weekend than with an Award Alerts Newsletter about Qatar Airways Qsuites award space for 4?

Qsuites alerts have certainly been popular ones and I continue to get requests for them. In fact, I just got a request the other day and that’s why I’m sending this one.

Award space on Qatar Airways — especially for multiple people — has really tightened up in the last 6 months. With that in mind, I wanted to alert you to some space for 4 people out of several US airports in early 2020. Before we get into the details, just remember you can connect in Doha on your way to places such as the Maldives and South Africa.

Just remember that many countries in the Middle East don’t have relations with Qatar right now so that can make simple connections within the region a bit tough — Oman is a great option though.

Straight to the points:

Routes: BOS/IAD/IAH/ORD-DOH
Operating airline: Qatar Airways
Class of service: Qsuites (business class)
Dates: March 2020
Seats available: 2 to 4
Cabin layout: 1-2-1
Book with (per person, one-way):

• American AAdvantage –
  • 70,000 miles to the Middle East/Indian Subcontinent
  • 75,000 miles to Africa
• Cathay Pacific Asia Miles –
  • 90,000 miles non-stop to Doha and beyond

Taxes/fees (per person, one-way): ~$8 with AA, ~$640 with Cathay Pacific
Bank transfer partners: Amex, Capital One, Citi – Cathay Pacific

Check out our complete guide to redeeming American miles if you’re curious about routing rules, change/cancelations fees, award rates and more. We’ve also curated some of the best ways to use American miles if these dates don’t work for you.

Similarly, you can use our in-depth guide to Cathay Pacific Asia Miles if you want to learn the ins and outs of its various award charts and routing rules or check out our favorite ways to book flights with Asia Miles.

Booking Details

Qsuites award space isn’t wide open the way it was last fall but there’s a decent amount of space for 4 people if you can book in March 2020. You’ll find a few additional dates if you’re booking for 2 people.

Your best bet for space is out of Philadelphia — also has space in February — but other US cities also have several dates available in March.

If for some reason you’ve avoided reading about Qsuites, you can read my friend Gilbert’s thoughts on the experience. Now, let’s get into the dates where you can find space for 4 people!

Remember, some of these dates have been booked since I sent this Award Alerts newsletter but more dates beyond March 15 could be available. Oh, and don’t forget to look at DFW and JFK.

Philadelphia (PHL)-Doha (DOH)
February: 7, 13, 16, 21, 23, 24, 27
March: 1-4, 8-11, 13-15

Washington Dulles (IAD)-Doha
March: 2, 3, 8-11, 14, 15

Chicago (ORD)-Doha
March: 3, 4, 8, 10, 14, 15

Dallas-Fort Worth (DFW)-Doha
March: 5, 8, 9, 15

Boston (BOS)-Doha
March: 1-3, 5, 7, 10-12, 14, 15

Houston (IAH)-Doha
March: 1-4, 7-13, 12, 14, 15

Connecting Flights on American and Qatar Airways

Finding domestic business class award space on American for connections can be tough but you can often find economy award space for these shorter flights.

If you want to connect in Doha and continue to a destination such as South Africa, the Maldives or Sri Lanka, remember that your connection must be less than 24 hours if booking with American miles otherwise, you’ll be charged for two separate awards — no, thanks.

Hopefully, Sri Lanka will extend the visa-free travel period after the six-month trial so you can save the $35 visa fee.

Return Flights

As these flights are toward the end of the schedule, we can’t see beyond mid-March with American. However, there is return space out of Doha on Qatar Airways for 4 people on several dates through mid-March. If you book with Asia Miles, you can book up to 360 days from departure, but you might not like the taxes/fees.

Best ways to book Qsuites

My guess is that most of you aren’t really interested in paying $600+ per person in taxes/fees thanks to surcharges that Cathay will require. Besides, American requires fewer miles to Doha.

While you can transfer points from Amex, Capital One and Citi to Asia Miles, the ease of earning American miles through co-branded credit cards balances things out so I don’t see either as having a massive advantage here.

The other big AAdvantage to booking with American is that you’ll only need 70,000 miles to fly to Doha and 75,000 miles to the Indian Subcontinent or Africa.

Asia Miles has a few distance-based charts. One for awards on only Cathay Pacific and Cathay Dragon — let’s call this the standard chart and another for awards on multiple Oneworld carriers.

However, if you only include one Oneworld carrier, you can add 5,000 miles to the standard chart rate. If you include a connection on American, the award will be governed by the Oneworld multi-carrier chart — I’m not a fan.

2 reasons you might want to book with Asia Miles

First, you can include a stopover in Doha on your way to your final destination.

Second, Asia Miles allows you to book further out than 330 days. AA only allows you to book award 330 days from departure while Asia Miles will let you book 360 days from departure. If you really need to make sure you get a flight booked, this could help.

Booking Process

Let’s start with American as I think that will be the most popular option.

1. 1. Search the long-haul segment to DOH with American Airlines to confirm Qsuites space
      • If you want to add connections, search from/to those cities after you’ve confirmed the long-haul segment
   2. If transferring Marriott points to American, put the award on hold then transfer points immediately
      • You can hold awards online
   3. Complete the booking

Booking with Asia Miles isn’t quite as straightforward. If you are booking a non-stop:

1. 1. Search on the Asia Miles site
      • If your travel dates are flexible, search with American first so you can see a calendar of date options
   2. Enter the desired date of travel
   3. Find Qatar Airways space – you may also see British Airways or Cathay space
   4. Transfer Amex, Capital One, Citi points — can take a couple of days to process
   5. Select the flight you want
   6. Complete the booking

If your award will include a connection on American, you’ll have to call to book. In this case, you can follow the same steps but you’ll want to search with Qantas or British Airways for the AA segment then call 1-866-892-2598 to complete the booking.

Final Thoughts

Personally, I would look at using American miles for this one. The ability to include connections for no extra miles plus the fact that the taxes/fees would be over $500 cheaper is just too good to pass up.

If you’re psyched about a stopover in Doha or just have tons of Amex and/or Citi points and don’t care about surcharges, by all means. My guess is this will be less common though.

However you end up booking, I think you’ll be quite happy to check out Qatar’s Qsuites product.

Let me know in the comments if you book Qsuites or if there are any destinations you’d like me to include in a future Award Alerts newsletter!