Can you still book Qatar Airways Qsuite awards with American AAdvantage miles?

27.10.2023 - 13:23 / thepointsguy.com

Qatar Airways' award-winning Qsuite has long been among the world's best business-class products.

The innovative design features sliding-door suites, high walls (offering incredible privacy), dine-on-demand food and drinks, and an excellent ground experience in Hamad International Airport in Doha (DOH). In short, flying Qsuite is a terrific way to travel.

But it gets even better.

The product has typically been bookable using points and miles, especially when booked in advance and with some flexibility in your dates. For many U.S.-based travelers, this has centered around the American Airlines AAdvantage program, which has traditionally offered Qsuite redemptions at reasonable prices — even using a published award chart.

However, TPG readers have recently questioned if Qsuites are still bookable with AA miles.

Here is the current state of play, and tips to redeem your AA miles for maximum value.

AAdvantage has adopted dynamic pricing for flights operated by American Airlines. For now, though, redemptions operated by Oneworld and other partner airlines still use a zone-based award chart, and the redemption rates are terrific. These airlines include Qatar, British Airways, Qantas, Cathay Pacific, and Iberia.

Related: The best websites for searching Oneworld award availability

You will need just 70,000 American Airlines miles plus minimal taxes and fees to fly Qatar Qsuite one-way between the U.S. and the Middle East or Indian subcontinent.

You could also add a flight between Doha and one of several African cities that Qatar serves for just 5,000 more miles each way in business class. This means you can fly one-way between the U.S. and Africa for just 75,000 AAdvantage miles and minimal taxes and fees.

Suppose you don't live near a Qatar Airways gateway. In that case, you may be able to find an itinerary that allows you to connect domestically in the U.S. on American or Alaska Airlines for the same cost.

Qatar Airways' approach to releasing award seats has been unpredictable for some time. However, some unique events in the past 18 months may help to explain the current state of play:

Business-class award seats on Qatar Airways were always capacity-restrained. Still, earlier this year, they became virtually impossible to book through partner airline programs like AAdvantage or British Airways Executive Club.

This was a major change, especially with American charging 300,000 miles for its own flight in business class (compared to a 70,000-mile partner award operated by Qatar).

It was a similar story with other partner airlines like British Airways, as I can't see Qatar's availability between the U.S. and Doha through these programs.

Even members of Qatar Airways' own Privilege Club program are only