My Experience With Qatar Airways’ Dirty Pool Award Booking Restrictions And NYC Flight Drama

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A few weeks ago, Qatar Airways added ridiculous new restrictions to award bookings for non-elite members without warning.

You can now only redeem for other people if they are one of 4 nominees on “My List” or one of 6 “Family & Friends” nominees who are not Qatar mileage members.

Worse yet, you can’t add anyone to a list unless you have accrued Qatar Avios from a flight or earned miles from a Qatar co-brand credit card.

You can transfer the Qatar Avios into British Airways, Finnair, or Iberia Avios, which don’t have those restrictions, however those airlines can’t book all of the awards that Qatar Avios can.

If you follow our Instagram stories or WhatsApp status, you probably know that I’ve been on the road for the past few weeks (taking my older kids to Tampa, completing a bucket list to attend a baseball game in every MLB ballpark, flying with JJ to a major bank’s HQ to help improve their credit card offerings, and then going with JJ to our cousin’s incredible Alaska kosher fishing program), and Qatar’s restriction hit me as I was trying to book us travel to NYC.

I had booked us a flight using 4.5K Alaska Atmos points, but we wanted to fly back to Cleveland later than American’s 8:40pm flight from LaGuardia, so that we could enjoy a celebratory dinner at Mike’s Bistro, which will be the first kosher restaurant in Chase Sapphire Reserve Exclusive Tables program.

JetBlue has the latest flight from NYC to Cleveland, departing JFK at 10:52pm. I could have used 16.6K JetBlue points for a basic economy flight or 17.5K points for standard economy, but as is often the case, booking with a partner airline is far more lucrative as it’s cheaper and books into standard economy. Options included using 10K United miles, 8.5K Qatar Avios, or 6K Etihad miles.

As I had some 45K Avios sitting in my account from a previous flight cancellation, I wanted to burn those first, but ran into a brick wall trying to book a flight for JJ.

I filed a long-shot informal DOT complaint against Qatar for the unfair practice of adding restrictions onto transferred miles, though my original transfer was to British Airways, so they told me to pound sand. If you did transfer directly to Qatar, you will have a stronger case. Start with an informal complaint and work your way up to a formal complaint. You can also work with Ben Edelman, who has worked with other DansDeals readers, on a formal complaint. Or you can always try your luck in small claims court.

In the end, it was all moot. JetBlue canceled our return flight from JFK, American canceled our backup flight from LaGuardia, and we spent most of the night at Newark Airport until United canceled our backup flight at 1:30AM.

Not a fun night for anyone:

My youngest brother had to get from Cleveland to NYC to take the bar after graduating from Columbia Law School earlier this year, and when several of his flight options were canceled, he actually took a Lyft to make it. The driver accepted the $450 fare on condition that he could bring his wife along, I was just surprised it was that inexpensive!

JJ and I wound up staying in a hotel some 20 miles from Newark, which will hopefully be covered by my Sapphire Reserve card, which has covered travel expenses for flight cancellations like this in the past. We flew again on yet another backup flight the next morning, though it too wasn’t without drama. After boarding, we had to deboard “for refueling.” That didn’t make much sense, but became clearer when Port Authority Police boarded the plane to find a passenger.

We finally made it home, and I got a refund from Qatar, but I’m still stuck with the Avios. Sure, I can credit a paid OneWorld flight to Qatar to unlock them, but I pretty much exclusively fly using miles and, anyway, don’t care to credit points to that program.

It’s a good reminder not to sit on airline miles or hotel points or make a speculative transfer, as they can be devalued or have added restrictions placed on using them without warning.

Did you transfer miles into Qatar Avios that are now stuck due to these restrictions?