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Qatar Airways has opened quite a bit of Qsuites availability next Spring from several US gateways. Award space is available in February and March, with many days having 2 seats available. Unfortunately, the space isn’t showing up on American or Alaska, so you have to use Qatar, British Airways or JetBlue to book. (h/t: findflightsforme)
While there’s plenty of flights available between the US and Doha, extending the trip in either direction in business was difficult to do for us, especially when it involved a US positioning flight.
The Deal
- Fly Qatar Airways Qsuites from US and Doha for as low as 70,000 Avios one-way between February and March, 2025.
- Flights are available to/from Atlanta (ATL), Chicago (ORD), Dallas (DFW), Houston (IAH), Miami (MIA), New York (JFK) and Washington Dulles (IAD)
- Many days have 2 seats available
Ways to Book
Currently, there’s no availability via American AAdvantage or Alaska Mileage Plan. Here’s the options that we were able to find
- Avios (British Airways) – 70,000 Avios and + $100-$150 in surcharges each way (use portal + britishairways.com). American Express, Bilt, Chase and Capital One are all British Airways transfer partners. Avios can also be transferred from Qatar to BA, which allows you to indirectly us Citi ThankYou Points.
- JetBlue – 70,000-80,000 TrueBlue points + $8-$55 each way (use portal + jetblue.com).
- Avios (Qatar) – 70,000 – 94,500 Avios + $100-$150 in surcharges each way (use portal + qatarairways.com). Citi ThankYou points transfers directly to Qatar. Avios can also be transferred from BA to Qatar, but it can be a bit of a process to set up initially (see how here).
Quick Thoughts
Qsuites are hands-down one of the best business class products in the world. They have a self-contained suite with doors that feels more like a first class cabin. Greg finally had a chance to fly it last year and loved it.
Usually when Qatar drops a bunch of availability, we can also book flights for destinations that extend beyond Doha. That’s possible via Qatar’s own program right now, but the additional taxes & fees make it extremely expensive. For instance, we found a flight from DFW-to Johannesburg, South Africa in Qsuites the entire way that added ~$1000 in surcharges (in addition to the 95K Avios award price). BA charges much less in fees for Qatar flights, but unfortunately, we weren’t able to find the same connecting itineraries there. Others may have better luck.
This availability most likely won’t last long, so book it ASAP if you find dates and routing that works for you.
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Was able to book DFW-DOH-CPT, return JNB-DOH-DFW for March! 2 ppl, 95k each way plus ~$200 in fees. That’s a lot of time in Qsuites!
Interesting thing I learned today when booking awards via AA, one cannot combine Qatar and Etihad on the same itinerary… the website allows it but then it won’t go thru ticketing.
They told me to cancel and book 2 separate tickets which is fine because of 6 hour layover but still would have been better on one ticket.
Booked a flight because of this post.
One thing not mentioned here is the ability to “boost” your Avios points on BA. I had 33k points laying around in my BA account, transferred in another 27k points.
BA allows you to “boost” the 27k points just transferred for a total of 3x (81k points) at a rate of $0.012 per point. I can only confirm that points transferred in from Chase, AMEX and Capital One can be boosted. I heard BILT pts cannot.
Points transferred immediately from those 3 issuers and the boost also happened immediately. Bought 81k points for $972.
Add on the award fees of $252 RT and the business class QSuites cost me $1224 + 60k Avios. Pretty good deal when economy seats for the same route is $1600. A good 30 hours in QSuites coming up.
THank you Frequent Miler
Tim, how can we be sure we’re getting Qsuites?
see the flight details and look at the plane. some 777-200LRs, 777-300ERs, Airbus A350-900 and all A350-1000.
there are also specific flight numbers that fly the QSuite.
i’d do a quick search for “ultimate guide to qatar qsuites” for details.
Hi Tim, I am new to points and miles, so please excuse my ignorant question. Is the 70k points on BA without the stopover? I am getting a quote of 266k points for 2 with a London stopover.
make sure you have the right dates and look for direct flights to Doha. The flights operated by BA that connects through London are going to be pricey
@Tim No post on the email from Bilt sent to seemingly everyone, even if they didn’t have the card, accusing them of fraud/misconduct??? The blogosphere is pretty quiet, except for DOC and MEAB, almost suspiciously quiet. Definitely this week’s crazy thing tho.
I saw probably five or six posts about it yesterday. My understanding is that it was some sort of glitch on Bilt’s side, as they sent an oops e-mail shortly after and no one who received the e-mail was actually shutdown (Stephen was the only one on the FM Team that got one). Since nothing really happened, it didn’t seem worth a standalone post, but I’ll include it in this week’s Saturday Selection. Good call for a “what crazy thing.”
Snagged 2 USA to DOH J for 140k Jetblue + $15 tax. Thanks Tim! Interestingly Jetblue is showing lots of J availability not showing on QR.com
Sorry, but what do you mean by (use portal + britishairways.com) etc. Which portal ?
Whichever portal is offering the best rewards (that you’re interested in). The easiest way to check rates is via cashback monitor.
Oh, you meant shopping portal. I see… I didn’t realize it would work on award flights. Thank you.
I guess it still works for the taxes portion?
It’s surprising that BA charges fewer points *and* fees than QR. I thought it’d be the other way. Thanks for posting.