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Qatar Airways has updated its rebooking policy. It is still generous, but not quite as extreme as before.
The new policy is valid for tickets booked by 31st December 2020, for travel by 31st December 2021.
The options are now as follows:
Passengers who want to change their travel plans can:
- keep their tickets for two years
- benefit from unlimited date changes
- Exchange your ticket for a future travel voucher with a 10% bonus.
If passengers’ travel plans are influenced by factors beyond their control, in addition to the above, it is also possible to:
- change the travel destination
- for Qatar Airways Privilege Club members, within the same continental region as the original destination
- for non-members within the country of travel or within a radius of 500 miles from the original travel destination
- exchange the ticket for Qmiles
- get a full refund.
The most interesting option is the opportunity to swap your ticket for another destination in the same region (joining Privilege Club is free and quick, so there is no reason not to be a member). Regions are defined as Africa, America, Australasia, Europe, Far East, GCC (inclusive of Levant, Iran, Iraq), Indian Subcontinent.
Bottom line
Qatar Airways continued to offer a comprehensive and innovative range of rebooking options. The new policy isn’t quite has ‘travel-hackable’ as the previous one, but is still generous.
This needs to be looked at very carefully. If you go tohttps://www.qatarairways.com/en-gb/book.html#beTId_flight| and click the ‘Discover’ tab, then ‘Asia and Pacific’, there is an option to ‘View Region’ (note Region singular, not Regions plural)
You then see either a list of destinations or a map, that extends from Auckland in the SE to the whole of India in the NW. As our flight that was cancelled for pandemic reasons was to Singapore (also shown on this list/map) it would, for example, appear that our original ticket could be rebooked to Auckland.
However, the ‘blurb’for the offer states: Regions are defined as Africa, America, Australasia, Europe, Far East, GCC (inclusive of Levant, Iran, Iraq), Indian Subcontinent. I therefore presume I can only rebook FoC to ‘The Far East’, which is a very different kettle of fish. The problem is every Google search either results in a list of every possible destination, without stating which region that destination belongs to, or takes you back to the Discover tab, I mention above.