Qatar Airways Privilege Club has introduced a new feature called “My Reward Seat Finder.” As the name suggests, it’s designed to make it easier for members to search dates and book seats with award availability.
While the added calendar view – which lets you see inventory for up to a month at a time – is an improvement over the previous system, its overall functionality is limited, and you’re likely better off searching for Qatar Airways award flights elsewhere.
Qatar Airways Launches “My Reward Seat Finder” Feature
Qatar Airways recently launched a new feature on the Privilege Club website called “My Reward Seat Finder,” which is designed to make it easier for members to search for dates with award availability.
The process is quite simple. Head to the Qatar Airways website, input your origin, destination, desired month of departure, class of service, and number of passengers, then click “Check availability.”
A calendar will appear displaying the lowest cost of award availability first, and if you’re happy with the price and date, you can click and book.
There are a few things to note when it comes to the overall functionality of the new feature. The availability depends on the number of seats you’ve selected in the search window and connecting flights may be different based on the booking city and departure city.
The calendar doesn’t show availability on oneworld or other partner airlines, nor does it appropriately filter economy and premium cabin redemptions (as we’ll discuss below).
Here’s what else you need to know as per the feature’s terms and conditions:
- Avios displayed are calculated for all passengers and passenger types selected.
- Avios displayed are the lowest available fares across all cabins.
- You must have a minimum of 50% Avios for the trip in order to proceed with the booking.
- Availability for award upgrades is based on the fare paid and on the booking city and departure city.
Searching for Qatar Airways Award Flights Is Easier Elsewhere
While the addition of a calendar feature is an improvement, the new My Reward Seat Finder isn’t as useful as it could be for members.
Even if you select “Premium” as the class of service in your search parameters, the calendar will still include economy redemptions instead of business and first class availability. This makes finding premium availability challenging, as economy awards are mixed in with premium awards.
Qatar Airways offers two types of awards: “Classic” (otherwise known as “Saver”) and “Flexi.” Classic awards are the lowest-priced but often hardest to find for Qatar Airways flights, while Flexi awards are far easier to come by but will cost you twice as much.
Unfortunately, the calendar display with the new feature doesn’t indicate if the price shown falls within the Classic or Flexi category. This means you’ll have to work a little harder to find Classic award availability by clicking through each individual date to determine which fare is being shown.
You might be better off heading over to the American Airlines AAdvantage website (or your preferred award search tool) for Qatar Airways award availability. That’s because you can set the filters to only show non-stop flights with premium cabin availability, and you can see up to a month of availability at a time.
If you do choose that route, keep in mind that Qatar Airways Privilege Club may have more award inventory than what’s shown on partner websites, so be sure to double-check if you don’t find what you’re looking for initially.
Conclusion
Qatar Airways Privilege Club has introduced a new feature called “My Reward Seat Finder,” allowing members the ability to see a monthly calendar of award availability.
The flight with the lowest cost will appear first, making it easy to book if you’re happy with the price and date.
While the new calendar view is an improvement over the previous system, it doesn’t appropriately filter economy and premium cabin redemptions or show availability on partner airlines. This means that despite the new feature, when it comes to Qatar Airways award availability, you might be better off searching elsewhere.
