Changes To Qatar Airways Rebooking Policy, But It’s Still A Great Deal

Changes To Qatar Airways Rebooking Policy, But It’s Still A Great Deal

If you’ve been paying any attention to Qatar Airways, you’ve likely read about their generous change policy implemented this week.  Some people claim that people have taken advantage of the policy by booking cheaper fares and switching to more expensive routes.  Well, One Mile at a Time reports that there is slight modifications to the Qatar Airways rebooking policy.  But in case you’re wondering, the policy is still pretty generous.

Here’s the changes:

• You now have to wait 14 days from booking to voluntarily change the destination.  This prevents you from booking and then immediately changing the destination.
• The same fare class must be available on the flight you are moving to.  For example, if you book an R fare code, you couldn’t move to a flight where only J fare code is available.
• You cannot reroute if you book a fifth freedom flight.  For example, you can’t book Phnom Pehn to Ho Chi Minh City and then move to a longer flight transiting through Doha.

Overall, these are very minor changes to the policy and still leave people wiggle room to find deals.  Of course, there is a bit more risk because there is no way to know what availability will look like 14 days after booking.  View From The Wing reports that Qatar Airways also stopped publishing fares from the U.S. to Kiev, which had great fares available in the $1600-range.

Qatar Airways Is Okay With People Doing What They’ve Been Doing

There’s been some who claim people who took advantage of the policy were abusing the program and making immoral or wrong choices.  Of course, that is an absurd argument because from the beginning the policy allowed for people to do exactly what they did.  But what this change in policy demonstrates is that Qatar Airways knows what people are doing AND they clearly are okay with it.

It’s hard to say how many business class fares the airline booked through this policy/promotion.  But there is definitely shortage of people on social media and the blogosphere pointing out they took advantage of the policy.  That puts Qatar Airways in a position at an uncertain time where it’s actually increasing demand for its business product.  It’s hard to argue that’s not a good thing for Qatar Airways.

Bottom Line

Qatar Airways made some flight changes to the policy, but the major benefits are largely still in tact.  As we suggested yesterday, this is a win-win policy and promotion for Qatar Airways and consumers.  It’s okay to go ahead and take advantage of this policy because it’s not abuse or immoral.  Clearly, Qatar Airways is hoping you’ll do exactly that.