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Points and Miles Strategy Guides

How to Book Qatar Award Flights with Points and Miles (Qsuite and Business Class)

Last updated: July 13,2023
Originally Published: January 22,2021
by Freddy Lansky

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Here are the different airlines you can use to book a Qatar Award flight with points and miles. Please keep in mind Qatar had previously signaled before covid-19 its intent to leave the One World alliance sometime in 2021 or 2022, and therefore its partners may change in the near future. (UPDATE: As of December 2020 it seems Qatar has decided to stay in One World after all so this article should stay relevant and fresh for a while) Please note when discussing transfer partners I do not always mention hotel programs, specifically Marriott’s Bonvoy program which transfer in from most major airlines. Please remember if this is all too daunting you can always sign up for our award booking concierge service to handle unlimited award booking requests for a full year for one low rate! We can help you book Qsuite with miles or any other request you may have?

What is best way to book Qatar Airways Qsuites Business Class with Points?

Before we get started you may be asking yourself if its worth it took take Qatar Airways Business Class products including Qsuites or not during these covid-19 pandemic times. We recentely did a flight review that proves the answer to be a resounding yes! So lets dive in. First lets take a look at AwardHacker.com and punch in our sample route Los Angeles to Doha.

In this sample route from LAX to Doha American Airlines provides the best deal. Generally AAdvantage and Qatar’s own Privledge Club provides the best deal, in this case they both charge 70k points or miles for the one way flight, while other airlines charge 85-120k or even higher for the same flight.

Please note that Awardhacker.com is a good tool but is not very accurate, and doesn’t always show all airlines. For example in this screenshot missing is Qatar’s own program that charges 70k for this flight. If these tools were very accurate people like me couldn’t get away with charging hundreds of dollar to book these award flights! Nevertheless its a great free tool to “check your bearings” when beginning an award search!

Qsuites best deal points awardhacker qatar award flight

How do you find Qatar Airways award space?

There are many ways to find Qatar Airways award space if you are interested in booking Qsuites with points and miles. Unfortunately in some cases it requires calling into the airlines, especially if your looking to book with Asia Miles (Cathay Pacific) or JAL.

I’ll show you guys some search tools you can use to find award availability. Please remember we are only using these airlines as search tools. Just because we are using American Airlines or Qantas award search doesn’t mean we are necessarily booking with them. Another warning: The airlines GENERALLY match up in partner award space but not always! Before transferring to an airline, especially one that doesn’t show Qatar award space on their award search tool and you have to call in always call in first to confirm!


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Search for Qatar Award Space on American Airlines AAdvantage

Probably the easiest way to find Qatar Airways award space, regardless of which airline you are booking with. You can even do award searches without bothering to sign up for their AAdvantage program (many airlines force you to do a free signup before being allowed to do award searches). Here is how you do it. Even better, unlike British Airways, you can pull up a full monthly calendar to see where space is available.

  1. On the AA home page select your route (on this example we do LAX – DOH)
  2. Click the “Redeem Miles” box, then click Search.
  3. After searching click “Calendar” then in the calendar under “Show All Classes” click “Business Class” or the class of service you’re interested.
  4. Once you found the flight you like if you are booking with American Airlines continue with checkout, otherwise jot down the flight you want and call the airline you want to transfer to (Asia Miles etc) to confirm space.

If you did everything right, it should look like this:

image 2 qatar award flight


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Use the Qantas Award Search

Qantas Airways “Qantas Points” search engine is a great tool to use because even though its accuracy isn’t always 100%, it provides you with a full calendar of available dates (unlike British Airways that only shows you one date at a time). Here’s how you do it.

  1. Head over to QantasPoints.com and sign up for a free account.
  2. Then you’ll want to head over to the “muti-leg” page which is available here once you login.
  3. Click “Use points – Classic Flight Rewards only”
  4. Type in the city pair you want. (Tip: i’d search one flight at a time, even if you are trying to book round trip so click the “X” on Flight 2 and 3)
  5. Click the date you want and make sure to click “Flexible Dates for all Flights” you’ll see it on the top left of the pane once you click on the Date.
  6. Once you search a calendar will pull up showing up the full month, you’ll need to click inside to see what flights are available with Qatar Airways that day (remember this is showing availability for Qantas and ALL Qantas partners not necessarily Qatar only)
  7. Once you found the flights you want, search on the airline you are planning on booking the Qatar award flight, or if you are planning on booking with Qantas continue with checkout (note Qantas does not provide the best deal on Qsuites)

If you did everything right you should see a result that looks like this, (please note due to covid this screenshot shows wide open availability on most routes but during normal times the calendar would look a lot more sparse for award seats)

qantas tool example qatar award flight

British Airways (Avios) search tool

You can use the British Airways Avios award search tool to find Qatar award space but it’s rather inefficient as you can only see one date at a time. Plus, the BA tool has a tendency to ban you if you do more than a few searches a day. I don’t recommend using the British Airways tool to find award space but the option is there. A lot of award space that shows up on the British Airways tool doesn’t actually exist, and a lot of award space that exists doesn’t actually show up. For that reason, if you are planning on booking a Qatar award flight with British Airways I recommend you use the American Airlines or Qantas tool to find space, and then call British Airways.

Use AwardNexus.com

Unfortunately Expertflyer.com does not show Qatar award availability. However, AwardNexus does show Qatar award availability by doing a One World serach. The tool isn’t free and is complex to use, and beyond the scope of this article. You can use the AwardNexus tool to flush out any available award availability with Qatar Airways, but the results are never too different from using the American Airlines or Qantas search tool anyways. I’ve noticed that not all routes and timing show up so not only is this a paid option.

Which Airlines offer the best deal in points to book Qsuites?

As I said earlier in the article it seems Qatar’s own Privilege Club program and American Airlines generally offer the best deal. Japan Airlines Mileagebank (JAL) and Asia Miles (Cathay Pacific) also offers solid deals especially when booking roundtrip. However JAL miles are hard to accumulate as an American or westerner and Asia Miles does transfer in from Amex but booking with them is a PITA, requiring multiple phone calls. Therefore I’d say American Airlines is your best bet. If you only have Chase or Amex points to play with then British Airways Avios might be the way to go. Lets get started!

American Airlines (AAdvantage)

For one-way flights, American Airlines AAdvantage program typically offers the best deal but unfortunately, no major credit card programs transfer into the airline. However, Citi has its own line of American Airlines credit cards with generous welcome bonuses. In addition, you can open up a savings account with Bask Bank and earn AA points as “interest.” Of course for many of your reading this you may already have a large stash of American Airlines AAdvantage points simply from flying. Not only does AA have some of the best deals for booking Qatar’s business class and Qsuites, it also has very low taxes as well.

Author holding American Airlines Credit Card
American Airlines AAdvantage will usually give you the best deal in both points and taxes but they don’t transfer from any major credit cards programs. Opening up an AAdvantage card is a great way to build up your AA balance!

British Airways / Iberia (Avios)

Along with its sister program Iberia Avios, you can book Qatar Airways Qsuites (and any Qatar business class product) using Avios. Both the 2 most popular points programs in the United States, Chase Ultimate Rewards (UR) points and Amex Membership Rewards both transfer in, making it easy to score an award redemption. However, while not off the charts expensive, it’s generally not the best deal. Some of the deals are reasonably priced in points if you can get over the relatively high taxes that are usually equal to around 10-15% of the cash ticket price. Also booking a BA flight with Qatar is a breeze, just check availability, transfer the points in and book online without ever needing to call in.

Cathay Pacific (Asia Miles)

Asia Miles transfers in from Capital One, American Express (UR), Citi (Thank You Points), and Marriott. Also if booking roundtrip Asia Miles generally ties Japan Airlines (JAL) as the best deal if you can find a saver rate. However, be warned Asia Miles booking engine is practically useless. You’ll need to search for award availability on Qatar using either Qantas or British Airways award booking engine and then call in to Asia Miles to confirm. Theoretically Qatar space should show up on Asia miles award booking engine but its not very accurate. I generally don’t recommend using Asia Miles due to their entire award booking process being stuck in the 1990s despite the fact they offer some of the best deals on points. Always call Asia miles and confirm availability before transferring in, even if you saw Qatar availability using British Airways or Qantas engine. To book with Asia miles in most cases you are looking at at least 2 phone calls with Cathay Pacific. Thats what for most of my clients they prefer to simply transfer the points to British Airways even for a higher rate to avoid calling in as time is money too!

Qantas (Qantas Points)

Generally Qantas is going to offer one of the worst deals. For example on a sample DOH – LAX route on Qsuites, Qantas is asking for 104k points for the same flight American Airlines is asking for 70k points and Asia Miles asking for 85k points. That being said for our Australia readers the Qantas program may be the only option, and while the prices are high, they are only 20% higher than some of these other programs, making the redemptions in the “high but reasonable” category. Another reason to mention Qantas is it transfers in from many US credit card programs including Amex, Citi, and Capital One. Keep a lookout to see if any of these issuers offer transfer bonuses, in such a case it may make sense to book your Qsuite flight with Qantas, but is generally not the best deal. Also Qantas has a great search engine too to sniff out availability on other partners. Sign up to Qantas Points and select “multi-leg” booking and a calendar will pop up showing you availability by date and by class! Qantas availability for Qatar’s Airways doesn’t always match up to what other airlines have available but generally speaking its pretty accurate.

A350-900 Seat - Qatar Airways

Japan Airlines (JAL Mileagebank)

While offering some of the best deals when booking roundtrip (For example DOH-LAX RT for only 130k points!), getting your hands on these Japan Airlines points is hard to come by unless you have a huge stash of Marriot points, are a frequent flyer on the airline or managed to somehow get your hands on some of their Japanese credit cards (for example if you live in Japan). If you had a huge stash of Marriott points you may want to look into transferring them to Japan Airlines to book the flight. Generally speaking though I think other points blogs place way too much emphasis on this program being that most Americans and westerners can’t get enough JAL points to make an award booking anyways.

Qatar Airways (Privilege Club Qmiles)

You can book Qsuites using Qatar Airways own Privilege Club program. The program used to have sky high rates, but recently they’ve standardized their program and actually offer pretty good value now. Honestly, I didn’t even realize how good a value privilege club brings until I was writing this article on how to book Qsuites with miles! Excluding Marriott Bonvoy, Qmiles only has one credit card transfer partner, Citi’s “Thank you” points” (TY) program. You can calculate how much a flight would using this calculator here. You’ll see it matches American Airlines in most cases. You ca

Other One World Airlines and Non-Alliance Partners:

Theoretically you can book Qatar Airways on any One World partner (and some non-alliance partners) such as Finnair, Royal Jordanian, Malyasia Airlines etc. However, these airlines offer incredibly high prices for their award flights, don’t have any major credit card program partners, and generally aren’t worth discussing. You can also book Qatar with LATAM (even though LATAM left One World, they kept their partnership with Qatar). There are also some other non-alliance partners such as GOL, a Brazilian airline and a few other airlines as well that you could use to book Qatar Airways.

NEW: How to Book Qatar Airways Awards with Alaska Miles

alaska airlines edited qatar award flight

Starting on March 31th 2021 you will be able to book Qatar Airways awards including the QSuites using Alaska miles. Details are scant but Alaska generally follows a generous distance based award chart, and if I had to take a wild guess I would think Alaska will be asking the same amount of points to match up with American Airlines. I’d assume that you will need to call Alaska to book an award with Qatar Airways, at least in the beginning until they integrate online booking. Alaska isn’t a partner for any major US credit card rewards program, but is worth mentioning as they release their own credit cards with sign up bonuses through Bank of America, and also many US flyers have a large stash of Alaska points simply from flying and crediting Alaska and partner flights to their program. If you have more details here feel free to add them in the comments!

Is it worth booking Qatar Business Class or Qsuites during Covid?

We recently did a great review of the Qsuites during these pandemic times. Check it out for yourself! Hope you enjoyed this article and always remember if booking an award flight becomes to daunting please consider our Award booking concierge. You pay one low yearly fee for unlimited credit card consulting and unlimited award flight bookings for a full year!

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3 comments

  • Omar

    July 13, 2021

    I am a member of Qatar Airways Privilege Club with Gold status. I have been flying this great airline for many years. Lately, it is impossible
    to reach Qatar airways Customer Service if you have a problem. They have even shut down online communication. They cancelled my flight without offering me an alternative and there is no way to get the refund. What a lousy service from a great airline…

  • Will Poulton

    March 05, 2022

    I have checked several websites that covers how to book Qatar Q suites using AA points/miles. The example all of the websites give is a US city to Doha. Then they give instructions as to how to check availability using the American airlines site. And it works like a charm. But I, and probably most people, are not going to Doha. We are only in transit through Doha. In my case I want to book a Q suite seat from Dallas to Bangkok via Doha. When I enter DFW to BKK in the American airlines site the only flight that comes up on the results is AA/JAL through Narita.

    My question is: How do I check if Qatar business class seats are available for DFW to BKK?

    • Freddy Lansky

      March 05, 2022

      Hi Will,

      Try looking on British Airways Avios and if you see a flight thats open there call American Airlines and ask them to book that flight. Or if you have an expertflyer.com premium subscription you can check there too see whats available.

      Or simply call American Airlines and ask them, there is a lot of availability that doesn’t show up on their search engine. I know the wait times are brutal but you can do the “call me back” feature and go about your day while you wait in the queue.