Qatar Qsuites is one of the best ways to fly, period. And booking it with American AAdvantage miles is one of the best ways to make it happen, whether you're looking to fly the world's best business class to Doha (DOH) for 70,000 miles or paying just 75,000 AAdvantage miles to head all the way down to South Africa.
There's just one problem: It's virtually impossible to book Qsuites using AAdvantage miles lately. For the last month or so, American Airlines has been unable to see practically any Qatar business class awards online. And even when other airline programs like British Airways Avios and even JetBlue can easily find and book those seats, American agents are unable to book them by phone, too.
So when trying to book your own cozy suite with Qatar Airways using AA miles used to look like this …
These days, this is almost always what you'll see…
You might be able to snag a single Qsuite ticket using AA miles when looking at the last minute, just 14 to 30 days in advance or so. But otherwise, your searches at AA.com are bound to come up empty. Dialing up American to book by phone – a great workaround in the past when AA's site couldn't see Qsuites availability – does you no good, either.
A month after we first noticed this issue, the problems for travelers who racked up AAdvantage miles with a dream of flying Qsuites drag on. It's a tough reminder of the two critical elements of booking any award ticket using miles:
- The award rate, or how many miles you need to book.
- Award availability, or if the airline is actually releasing seats to book using miles.
The second piece is the most crucial one. It typically comes in waves: Just last month, for example, we sent Thrifty Traveler Premium an alert for wide-open award space flying Qatar business later this year, even using just 70,000 AAdvantage miles.
Poof: It all vanished within a matter of hours. And it's never returned … at least not to American Airlines.
But this is bigger than Qatar simply being stingy with releasing award availability again. While you can still book Qsuites using Avios from British Airways or Qatar or even JetBlue TrueBlue points, like this one-way flight from Dallas-Fort Worth (DFW) to Doha (DOH) next November…
… American Airlines and its flyers don't get a whiff of it. The same scenario plays out on virtually every route you search: You get nothing.
It's not the first time we've seen this issue, but it's even worse than before. In the past, you could still book that Qsuites ticket by calling American instead. That's no longer the case.
Whether it's a technical glitch that needs to get sorted out or a conscious decision by Qatar (or maybe even American) to block flyers from using AAdvantage miles. Fellow Oneworld carrier Alaska Airlines and its Mileage Plan miles appear to be getting the same treatment.
But it hurts most for American AAdvantage miles, which have long been the best way to book Qsuites … by far. You'll fork over the lowest amount of taxes and fees and the fewest miles, too – especially if you're connecting beyond Doha (DOH) like within the Middle East, over to the Maldives, or down into Africa.
And it's a double whammy, as AA's site was easily the best for finding award availability with Qatar, even if you weren't planning to use AAdvantage miles to book. Its handy filter for nonstop, business class flights, and a monthly calendar view made it easy to zero in on routes where Qsuites were available.
That means you'll now need to rely on an award search tool like point.me or Seats.aero … or resort to searching day-by-day through either British Airways or Qatar's website. Depending on when and where you're looking, that could require a lot of trial and error.
Read our full review of flying Qatar Qsuites business class from Dallas-Fort Worth (DFW) to Doha (DOH)!
Fingers crossed this changes soon. But until it does, it cements British Airways and Qatar's own Avios as the best. Using these airline programs, there's typically rock-solid availability to book Qsuites 11-plus months out – further in advance than most airlines allow. That means you can lock up a trip in Qsuites as far out as early 2025, as of publication.
Plus, those points are even easier to earn. Both airlines are transfer partners with most of the big credit card companies – and you can even combine and transfer Avios between the two carriers – meaning a stash of points on cards like the *chase sapphire preferred*, *amex gold*, and *venture x* is all you need.
Read more: The #1 Trick to Booking Qatar Qsuites Right Now
Bottom Line
Qatar Qsuites remain one of the best ways to fly, period. And in normal times, booking them with American AAdvantage miles is the best way to make it a reality.
But for the last month or so, American and its flyers have been unable to book all but the tiniest sliver of last-minute Qsuites award availability – even when other airline programs can easily do so. That's a tough blow for travelers who have a balance of AA miles and dreams of flying Qsuites.
This is VERY helpful! It’s been driving me med for weeks trying to figure out what happened as I have been planning a trip to Africa next year and Qatar has the best options for eastern and southern Africa. I even called AA, spoke to an agent, and confirmed that they can see the reward availability from their end. It makes it a bit of a challenge for both parties to get it booked but at least it can be done.
No luck with Asia Miles/ Cathay.
I found available seats via BA’s website, waited on the line for 2 hours to speak to someone, and the lady said she couldn’t find any award seats on the date/flight I requested.
Well Qatar needs to get through ticketing awards that were booked months ago. Took then a week to ticket an AA award booking for me. Then, for another, I’ve been waiting 2 months with it pending. Have called twice. AA agents say yes, it’s in their system all good, but Qatar can be terrible about getting around to ticketing these in a timely manner.
Qatar doesnt ticket AA awards. The AA liaison for Qatar airways (obviously an AA employee) reviews the routing and ensures it adheres to AA routing rules and then approves. The ticket will be issued once this person finishes the review. Typically 24-48 hours. QR in no way is responsible for ticketing AA award tickets once space is captured and saved by the AA agent.
Same issue with Etihad. In December 2023, AA website showed Etihad business award space within 60 days but in the last week of January, things changed & now you can hardly see any Etihad business class award space. Overseas call centers are unable to see award space either.
Any updates on this?
We haven’t seen much availability to book Qatar with AA miles for many months. For whatever reason, AA is not seeing the same award space that other partners see.
What’s an easy way to look up Qatar availability? Using BA is hard if one wants to look at a month’s availability
Try Qatar’s own site. You have to create an account though.