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When and Where Qatar Qsuite Is Flying to the US in 2019

JT Genter
JT Genter
Contributor
JT is a location-independent digital nomad traveling 250,000+ miles each year with his wife Katie.
July 26, 2019
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7 min read
Qatar 777 Qsuite First Look
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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 has already added three new US destinations to its Qsuite route network so far in 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:

Routes Currently Operating

There are eight daily flights between the US and Doha currently using Qatar's Qsuite:

However, be careful when booking these flights as sometimes a non-retrofit aircraft will be used to operate every once in a while. 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

After expanding the award-winning business class product to three more US routes already in 2019, there's one more coming later this year:

  • Philadelphia (PHL): QR Flights 727 and 728 -- operating with a non-Qsuite Boeing 777-300ER through August 31 before switching to a Qsuite Airbus A350-900 on September 1

Routes Without Qsuite (Yet)

This leaves just two of Qatar's US destinations without plans to get Qsuite:

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For almost the entire rest of the year, these routes are using the same Qatar A350-900, which has what I consider to be 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.

Image by Zach Honig / The Points Guy.
Image by Zach Honig / The Points Guy.

However, the Atlanta route is being switched to a not-so-great 2-2-2 business class product on the non-retrofit 777-300ER starting on October 27, 2019.

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 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 Bonvoy (3:1 ratio with a 5,000-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).

If you need to stock up on American Airlines AAdvantage miles to accomplish your Qsuite dreams, here are the best options right now:

  • Buy AAdvantage miles for as little as 1.73 cents per mile. This is the easiest way of getting miles at the moment for an award. At 1.73 cents per mile, one-way awards between the US and the Middle East or Indian Subcontinent costs just $1,211 before minimal taxes/fees. Award flights all the way down to South Africa would cost just $1,298 before taxes/fees.
  • Citi® / AAdvantage® Platinum Select® World Elite Mastercard®: 50,000 bonus miles after spending $2,500 on purchases in the first three months of account opening.
  • CitiBusiness® / AAdvantage® Platinum Select® Mastercard®: 70,000 American Airlines AAdvantage® bonus miles after spending $4,000 in purchases within the first 4 months of account opening.
  • Citi® / AAdvantage® Executive World Elite Mastercard®: 50,000 miles after spending $5,000 on purchases within the first 3 months of account opening.

The information for the Citi AAdvantage Platinum card and CitiBusiness AAdvantage Platinum card has been collected independently by The Points Guy. The card details on this page have not been reviewed or provided by the card issuer.

This post was originally published on Dec. 6, 2018 and updated July 25, 2019 with the latest information.

Editorial disclaimer: Opinions expressed here are the author’s alone, not those of any bank, credit card issuer, airline or hotel chain, and have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by any of these entities.