I wrote about Qatar’s insanely generous COVID rebooking policy back in May this year.
Qatar are now leading the pack by introducing a policy that covers travel all the way until December 2021!
The new policy isn’t quite as generous as before and there are a couple of extra hoops to jump through but it still absolutely the most flexible rebooking policy of any airline right now.
What’s changed from the first Qatar COVID policy?
- Unlimited route change option is only applicable when your original travel has been impacted – this is the biggest change. You must wait until one of your flights is cancelled before making any changes to your booking
- All travel must be completed on/before 31 December 2021 – Previously the date was December 31st 2020
- Voluntary rebookings must be made into the same booking class – If you booked deep discount business class, the same deep discount bucket must be available on your new date
- If you are a Qatar Airways Privilege Club member, you may change the original destination within the same country or same region – Previously you could change your destination up to 5000 miles in any direction and you didn’t need to join the Privilege Club.
Qatar A350
What does Qatar consider to be a region?
Regions are defined as Africa, America, Australasia, Europe, Far East, GCC (inclusive of Levant, Iran, Iraq), Indian Subcontinent.
No more booking a flight to Doha and then having the option of flying to either Cape Town or Shanghai.
Conclusion
It was only logical that Qatar would cut back on the original policy. Being able to buy a flight to Doha and then immediately change the destination to Singapore for free, made absolutely no financial sense.
The new policy requires your travel to actually be impacted before you make any changes but once that happens you retain the flexibility to rebook anywhere within the same region and on any date up until December 31st 2021, free of charge.
When it comes to flexibility during COVID, Qatar is undoubtedly still the market leader.
[NOTE: The policy is constantly changing so always make sure you check here before calling to rebook flights.]
3 Comments
Hola!
I just got off a very frustrating call with QR, where I tried to change my ticket purchased in early September (SIN-FRA) for SIN-AMS. They won’t let me change it without paying the fee difference, mentioning that as of October 1st the rules have changed as you mentioned.
I kept telling them that when I booked the tickets, different policy applied, but absolutely no help at all. Could I bother you with some advice on what I could potentially do? Just keep calling until I have a helpful agent?
Since I booked it in Business Promo I’m concerned with the clock ticking as those seats are quite limited. Thanks a looot for taking the time to help!
Hello, me again,
A tip for all of you reading: After chewing my frustration, I felt that it was a case of ‘Hung up and call again’.
I called instead the Doha call center (+974 4023 0000 ) and got it changed in literally 3 minutes, no questions asked.
Hope this helps,
Tomas
Thanks for reporting back Tomas, glad to hear it worked out for you!
A similar trick to using the Australian call centre at AA for Etihad award bookings…
it can often pay to try different call centres when practising the ancient art of HUCA
I tried calling Air France in Dubai the other day for much the same reason 😉