Qatar Qsuites might be the world's best business class, and that means finding the award space to actually book them using miles has gotten challenging lately. Today's your lucky day.
Just last week, we alerted our Thrifty Traveler Premium members to a massive amount of Qatar Qsuites award space later this year and into early 2025, with two (or more!) business class suites available many days. From Chicago-O'Hare (ORD) to Washington, D.C.-Dulles (IAD) and Dallas-Fort Worth (DFW) up to New York City (JFK) and many places in between, there are plenty of business class seats available from many of Qatar Airways' U.S. outposts.
Some of the best availability later this year has dried up since we first sent an award alert to Thrifty Traveler Premium members a few days ago. But there are still plenty of dates that work in February and March 2025 on many U.S. routes to and from Qatar's hub in Doha (DOH).
For example, there's award space for two or more flying Qsuites from Chicago-O'Hare (ORD) on many dates next March. The same is true of many of the other U.S. gateways.
Want more award alerts like this one? We send them to Thrifty Traveler Premium members first, along with dirt-cheap domestic and international flight deals.
You could use this glut of award space to fly nonstop to Doha (DOH), of course. But you could also continue elsewhere in the Middle East like wonderful Muscat, Oman, or Abu Dhabi (AUH) or Dubai (DXB) in the United Arab Emirates – and that's a wise move, as you'll get into the incomparable Al Safwa first class lounge during your layover in Doha. Or head to paradise and make your way to the Seychelles (SEZ) or Maldives (MLE) … or even all the way over to Thailand.
While the cheapest way to book these flights is through American Airlines, availability to book Qsuites using AAdvantage miles has been nonexistent lately – plus, those miles are fairly hard to earn unless you're a frequent AA flyer. Between much greater award availability and an easier path to earn the miles by transferring them from credit card points like Chase, Amex, or Capital One, the best way to book Qsuites right now is using British Airways or Qatar Airways Avios.
Nonstop flights between the U.S. and Doha (DOH) are just 70,000 Avios each way – or 5,000 to 15,000 miles more to connect onward to other destinations throughout the Middle East, India, or the Maldives or the Seychelles. You can also continue all the way down to South Africa for just 95,000 Avios apiece.
Keep in mind that you'll also be on the hook for taxes and fees: About $100 each way to Doha and $200-ish each way to other destinations with a connection.
Maybe you're not thinking about 2025 yet … but if you want to cozy up in a Qsuite like this across the ocean, you should be. With Qsuites, booking as soon as possible is practically a necessity these days. Plus, booking with points and miles gives you the flexibility to cancel later and get all your miles (and any taxes and fees) back for just a small cancellation fee.
Read more: The #1 Trick to Booking Qatar Qsuites Right Now
Read our Qatar Qsuite review from Dallas-Fort Worth (DFW) to Doha (DOH)!
How to Find Flights & Book
With this much award availability, it shouldn't be hard to find the flights you want – whether you're going straight to Doha, elsewhere in the Middle East, the Maldives, or beyond. Most of Qatar's U.S. gateways have solid availability for at least two travelers – and in many cases, four or more. Return availability in Qsuites is solid, too.
February and March 2025 have the most dates available flying Qsuites from the U.S. – with some scattered availability in 2024, too.
Qatar generally flies Qsuites on all its U.S. routes, including Atlanta (ATL), Boston (BOS), Houston-Intercontinental (IAH), Philadelphia (PHL), Washington, D.C.-Dulles (IAD), and others. Unfortunately, Qatar Airways has a knack for unannounced plane swaps that could leave you on a Qsuite-less plane. Dallas-Fort Worth (DFW), Chicago-O'Hare (ORD), New York City (JFK), and Washington, D.C.-Dulles (IAD) might be the safest bets to ensure you fly a Qsuite.
To find the flights you want, head to Qatarairways.com (or Britishairways.com) to start an award search. You'll need to have a Qatar Privilege Club account to search for award flights. If you want to book a flight with a one-stop flight to a destination beyond Doha, you'll want to search and book through Qatar instead. You can easily combine BA and Qatar Avios between frequent flyer programs to get the miles you need to book with either airline, no matter which transferrable points currency you have.
Select “Book an award flight” and choose “Premium (Business/First).” Searching separately for one-way flights is easier to find the award space one way is easier to find award space, even if you're planning to fly Qsuites roundtrip.
Read our step-by-step guide to booking flights with Qatar Avios!
It might take some trial and error to find dates that work for as low as 70,000 Avios each way. You might run into “Flexi awards” – higher-priced tickets that clock in at 140,000 miles (or more) apiece. You'll want to avoid those.
If you're going beyond Doha, connections should be pretty quick – though some flights will require a longer, eight to nine-hour layover in Doha. It's not so bad when you’ll have access to the spectacular Al Mourjan business class lounge – or the brand-new Al Mourjan “The Garden” lounge.
While Qatar or British Airways Avios are the easiest way to book these flights right now, there are some other solid ways to book Qatar Qsuites using points and miles.
- Using American Airlines AAdvantage miles is easily the best option on paper, as the airline charges just 70,000 AAdvantage miles each way and low fees no matter where you go. But in practice, actually finding these flights through American has become nearly impossible lately.
- JetBlue's (typically lackluster) TrueBlue points program is a shockingly good option: You can book nonstops to Doha for just 70,000 points – with better award availability than what you see via AA, to boot! You can transfer points from American Express, Chase, and Citi to JetBlue – though Amex points don't transfer on a 1:1 ratio like the others.
- Got a big stash of Alaska miles? Thanks to a recent partnership, you can book for as low as 85,000 miles to Doha, elsewhere in the Middle East, or even the Maldives – though you may also see other Qsuites options for a whopping 200,000 Mileage Plan miles. Much like American Airlines, award availability through Alaska is hard to come by lately.
- You can also book these flights using Cathay Pacific's AsiaMiles, which is an Amex transfer partner. Expect to use 75,000 to 85,000 miles – but you'll also be on the hook for roughly $500 in taxes and fees.
How to Earn Avios
You don't need to have flown British Airways or Qatar Airways to earn Avios with either airline.
Avios are incredibly easy to earn because you can simply transfer some credit card points to either Qatar or British Airways. British Airways is a Chase transfer partner, Amex transfer partner, Capital One transfer partner, Bilt Rewards transfer partner, and now a Wells Fargo transfer partner, too. Plus, you can easily pool miles between British Airways and Qatar to get the amount you need. Qatar, meanwhile, is an Amex and a Citi transfer partner. But perhaps the best part is you can easily pool miles between British Airways and Qatar to get the amount you need no matter which airline you're booking through.
No matter what credit card points you've got, they all transfer to Avios on a 1:1 basis – and sometimes even better.
That means points from cards like the *venture x*, *chase sapphire preferred*, or *amex platinum* are the key to getting the Avios you need to book a 13-plus-hour flight in Qsuites. But right now, some Citi ThankYou points could be your best friend.
That's because there's a 30% transfer bonus from Citi to Qatar Airways, which means you can book these flights with as few as 54,000 Citi points! This transfer bonus runs through May 31, with one hitch: You might not get those bonus Avios until as late as mid-June, by which point this award availability could be long gone.
Bottom Line
We'll never say no to a big batch of Qatar Qsuites availability. The ability to fly two or more in Qsuites this year or early next is unbeatable – especially when it costs just 70,000 to 95,000 miles apiece.
You can book a future trip nearly later this year or early next knowing you'll have one of the best rides across the Atlantic Ocean available. And you'll have the flexibility to change plans down the line if need be.
Thanks for the great article!
But I’m not seeing any availability at all early next year on Qatar’s own website.
All available seats are “flexi awards” (with the little green flags) and cost 340K one way.
I’ve tried searching for multiple cities too like LAX, DFW, SEA…
Am I missing something??
The situation has changed since we posted this alert, unfortunately. I would start by searching AA.com for nonstop routes to Doha (DOH) from multiple cities. Any dates that you see in green for 70K each way on AA’s calendar should work at the cheaper rates through Qatar’s site.
The Maldives currently has testing requirements for everyone, but no quarantine requirements for vaccinated travelers. Travel from a handful of south Asian countries including India is shut down at the moment.
Did I miss something? This article came out today Dec 21, 2020 but the comments are all dated October 2019.
Ha no, you didn’t miss anything Nate. We republish some stories like this one with new information on up-to-date availability, so sometimes the older comments stick around.
You’re right. Most of the Doha to US routes are full due to high demand. But I’ve seen them pop up closer to the flight dates. Wait a bit longer and you will be pleasantly surprised.
Any recommendations on vice versa? Im searching for DOH-USA in the same time periods and it is 100% empty in a lot of these city pairs.
Unfortunately, the only thing you can do is be vigilant and patient. Award availability ebbs and flows, particularly with Qatar. If you’re flexible, something will likely pop up. Just keep searching.
What software are you using to see that award calendar that shows one or more and 2 or more seats?
We searched for availability manually through AA.com and then put together our own graphics to display it!