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When and Where Qatar Qsuite Is Flying in the US Next Year

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In case you missed it, Qatar’s Qsuite was the winner of the 2018 TPG Awards Best International Business Class of the Year — scoring a 90 in TPG‘s new numerical review scoring system. If you want to check out the product for yourself, you’re in luck: Qatar is adding three new US destinations to its Qsuite route network in early 2019 and it’s easier than ever to search Qatar award availability.

Let’s review when and where you can check out the award-winning product for yourself to/from the US:

In This Post

Routes Currently Operating

There are five daily flights between the US and Doha currently using Qatar’s Qsuite:

However, be careful when booking these flights. Based on spot-checking these routes, sometimes a non-retrofit aircraft will be used to operate every once in a while. For example, flights 703/704 between Doha and New York JFK randomly has a non-Qsuite A350-900 this Wednesday:

You’ll want to check and make sure that you weren’t switched back to this non-Qsuite product. Rather than having to do so manually, we recommend using ExpertFlyer to set an aircraft change alert.

Launching Soon

Qatar is expanding the award-winning business class product to three more US route in the next four months.

Routes Without Qsuite (Yet)

This leaves just three of Qatar’s US destinations without plans to get Qsuite:

Philadelphia (PHL): QR Flights 727 and 728
Atlanta (ATL): QR Flights 755 and 756
Miami (MIA): QR Flights 777 and 778

Currently all three of these routes are using the same Qatar A350-900, which has the airline’s second-best business class product. While it’s not Qsuite, it’s still pretty spectacular — especially paired with Qatar’s legendary on-board service.

However, the Atlanta route is being switched to a not-so-award-winning 2-2-2 business class product on the unretrofit 777-300ER from Dec. 16 to Mar. 30, 2019. Starting Mar. 31, 2019, the route is being switched back to an A350-900 without Qsuite.

Searching Award Availability

Searching for Qatar award availability used to be a huge pain. Now, for better or worse, it’s incredibly easy. At the end of October 2018, AA added Qatar award availability searching and booking to its website. Now, you just have to head to AA.com and enter your desired routing to check your options.

While AA will combine domestic and international award availability, there’s no way of limiting the calendar search results to only include Qatar award availability over the Atlantic. If you have flexible dates, I’d recommend searching specific Qsuite routes to find which dates have what availability from the US to Doha, using AA’s “non-stop only” calendar feature to limit the results to Qatar award availability.

Once you have the over-water flight availability figured out, then you can figure out domestic and onward connections if needed.

How To Book

Qatar Qsuite remains one of the few awards where it’s generally best to use American Airlines AAdvantage miles. So, once you find award availability, you’ll want to book right there on the AA.com website.

Awards cost 70,000 miles each way between the US and the Middle East (e.g. Qatar, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, UAE) or Indian Subcontinent (e.g. India, Sri Lanka, Maldives), or 75,000 miles each way between the US and anywhere in Africa (e.g. Seychelles, Mauritius, South Africa). However, you can’t use Qatar to route to any other regions — such as back to Europe or onward to Asia Regions 1 and 2 — on the same ticket.

Taxes are minimal booking through AA. For example, flights from the US to Doha cost just $7.65 one-way.

Cathay Pacific’s Asia Miles is an alternate way of booking Qatar awards between the US and Doha, with rates running 75,000 miles one-way or 150,000 miles round-trip. You can get Asia Miles by transferring points from American Express Membership Rewards (1:1 ratio, 48-hour transfer time), Citi ThankYou Rewards (1:1, less than 24-hour transfer time) and/or Marriott Rewards (3:1 ratio with a 5,00-mile bonus for transferring 60,000 points).

Qatar’s other options aren’t going to be as good. For example, British Airways charges 105,000 Avios each way, plus an absurd $643 in taxes/fees on the shortest nonstop flights from the US to Doha. Connections will add even more mileage and out-of-pocket cost. Iberia Plus requires a round-trip award when booking Qatar. While the mileage is slightly better — Boston to Doha runs 175,000 Avios — the taxes/fess are just as awful (e.g. $1,278 round-trip BOS-DOH).