Qatar Airways Qsuites is one of the best ways to fly from North America to the Middle East and beyond. It’s widely regarded as one of the best business class products in the world, and for good reason.
One feature that’s exclusively found in Qsuites cabins is the “Quad”, which allows you to enjoy a shared flying experience in a semi-private suite with a group of up to four people.
What Is the Qatar Airways Qsuites Quad?
The Quad is a completely unique aviation experience that can only be found on Qatar Airways Qsuites.
Due to the cabin configuration, the Quad allows for four passengers to face each other, share the same table, and enjoy a business class flight together.
This is done by simply sliding back partitions located behind each entertainment unit, which opens up a pair of rearward-facing suites to a pair of forward-facing suites.
Then, you can lower the partition between each pair of seats, which further opens up the space.
Once the Quad is set up, you can slide all four doors shut, and enjoy meals together, play cards, or chat without having to stand up or get out of your seat.
The Quad can be found on all Qatar Airways flights that feature the true Qsuites cabin.
This means that you won’t find it on the Boeing 787, the Airbus A380, or on any Qatar Airways flight that has a 2-2-2 business class seat configuration.
How to Book the Qatar Airways Qsuites Quad Using Points
To start, it’s worth noting that finding four award seats for Qatar Airways Qsuites is indeed a challenging task, but not an impossible one.
You’ll need to plan and maybe encounter a bit of luck; however, the prize is more than worth the effort.
Option 1: Find Four “Saver” Award Seats
Finding four award seats sounds simple enough, but in practise, it’s fairly difficult. This is because Qatar Airways tends to only release two “Saver” award seats at any given time, at most.
To find the four award seats necessary to book the Quad directly, you’ll have to do a fair bit of digging, and may need to look on some less popular routes.
The first step is to get familiar with the routes on which Qatar Airways offers Qsuites.
Aside from looking at the cabin configuration on, say, ExpertFlyer, you can simply go to the Qatar Airways website and search for a flight pairing.
In the results, you can see the word “Qsuites” written clearly in the search results on flights that offer the product.
Then, you’ll want to familiarize yourself with how Qatar Airways releases award seat availability on various routes.
To be frank, finding four Qsuites award seats between Doha and North America is nearly impossible.
Even if Qatar Airways has four or more Qsuites seats available to be booked with cash, it still won’t usually release them to be booked with points.
Instead, you’ll have to search for less popular Qsuites routes for a better prospect of finding four award seats.
One such route is Qatar Airways’s fifth freedom flight between Buenos Aires and São Paulo.
Unfortunately, you won’t have a very long time to experience all that Qatar Airways and the Quad have to offer, as this flight is just shy of three hours. However, you’ll still be able to have the same party in the sky as you would on any other long-haul route.
The best part of this route is that there is bountiful award availability. On many dates, there are four award seats consistently available.
For example, you can either redeem 20,000 Avios per person from British Airways Executive Club:
Or 20,000 Avios per person from Qatar Airways Privilege Club:
Or 20,000 miles from American Airlines AAdvantage:
If you have AAdvantage miles to redeem for this flight, you’ll only have to pay around $76 (USD) per passenger in taxes and fees, compared to around $150 (USD) each if you book with either flavour of Avios.
Finding four award seats on other routes is very difficult, indeed. You’ll either have to depart from or fly to Qatar Airways’s hub in Doha, Qatar.
This is where it gets tricky, since you’ll need to keep an eye on availability from many different parts of the world. Your best bet is to look for routes to or from South East Asia.
You’ll have the best chance of booking the Quad this way if you’re flexible with your dates and destinations.
Option 2: Book Flexi Flights through Qatar Airways Privilege Club
If you book your flight through Qatar Airways’s own loyalty program, Qatar Airways Privilege Club, you’ll have access to more award seats. However, the extra availability can also come at an additional cost.
Qatar Airways offers “Flexi” pricing when all of the lower-priced “Saver” award seats have already been booked up, or simply aren’t available.
In exchange for more availability, the Flexi price is double the normal cost of an award flight.
For example, a one-way flight in Qatar Airways Qsuites from Montreal to Doha normally costs 70,000 Avios on off-peak dates.
With Flexi redemptions, the price jumps to 140,000 Avios per person.
Flexi award flights can only be booked using Qatar Airways Avios, and can’t be booked through other partner loyalty programs.
With Flexi pricing, it’s more likely that you’ll find four award seats available, even on some of the more popular routes. However, it comes at twice the usual price, and you’ll usually have to wait until the last minute to find the best availability.
However, one way to help with the increased cost is to transfer points during a transfer bonus event to either British Airways Executive Club or Qatar Airways Privilege Club.
As a reminder, you can easily transfer Avios between your British Airways Executive Club and Qatar Airways Privilege Club accounts. Therefore, you can take advantage of any transfer bonus promotions for either loyalty program.
Of the two, British Airways Executive Club is a transfer partner of more programs in Canada and the United States, including:
Therefore, if you can wait for a transfer bonus to come around from any of the above partners, you can expect to get an extra 30–50% bonus in Avios, which you can then transfer over into Qatar Airways Avios to take advantage of better availability with Flexi awards.
For example, Flexi pricing for a flight from Montreal to Doha is 140,000 Avios per passenger.
With a 30% transfer bonus taken into consideration, the effective cost drops down to around 108,000 points from any of the transfer partners. A 50% transfer bonus would drop the effective cost down further to 93,333 points, which is much more palatable than the full Flexi cost.
Option 3: A Hybrid Approach
Even though finding and booking four Qsuites award seats is a difficult task, finding two seats at the “Saver” price is comparably much easier, especially if you book far in advance.
Another way to give yourself a chance of securing the Quad is to book two business class tickets in Qsuites far in advance, and then keep an eye on award availability as you get closer to your departure date.
You can check throughout the year to see if Qatar Airways releases more “Saver” award seats, and if it does, then you could book those at the lowest price.
If not, you may be able to book another two seats at the Flexi rate, either in advance or at the last minute.
This method doesn’t necessarily guarantee that you’ll be able to book the Quad, and it requires actively monitoring availability.
However, if you end up booking four seats at the “Saver” level on two separate bookings, then you’ll have scored a great deal on the Quad.
If you wind up booking two “Saver” seats and two Flexi seats, then the average cost per ticket is only 1.5x the “Saver” price per person.
Once again, if you can leverage a transfer bonus promotion, the cost will drop accordingly.
Option 4: Upgrade Cash Flights with Avios
Qatar Airways allows passengers to use Avios to upgrade an economy seat to a business class seat.
To figure out how many Avios are required to upgrade a seat, you can use Qatar Airways’s online calculator.
For example, from Montreal to Doha, you’ll have to redeem 37,000, 55,000, or 73,500 Avios for an upgrade from economy to business class, depending on which original economy fare you booked. It’s worth noting that you can book the flight for 70,000 Avios to begin with, so this method isn’t necessarily a great deal.
It’s important to note that you’ll only be able to upgrade flights booked with cash, which means you’ll have to secure the cash booking first, and then request an upgrade to business class.
Business class upgrades with this method are also subject to availability.
You can also adopt a hybrid approach with upgrades by booking two flights with points, and then paying cash for two economy flights and using Avios to upgrade.
How to Reserve the Qatar Airways Qsuites Quad
No matter how you secure four Qsuites bookings, you’ll still need to select the right seats for the Quad.
If you managed to book all four seats on a single booking, then you should be able to simply select your seats online.
However, if you have separate bookings, you’ll need to call Qatar Airways for the airline to place you all together in the Quad.
This is because the seats that make up the Quad can be blocked off to selection, unless you have four passengers on the same booking.
The seats you’ll need to choose for the Quad depend on the type of aircraft you’re on.
If you’re flying Qsuites on either the Boeing 777-200LR or the Boeing 777-300ER, you’ll want to select any of the following sets of seats:
- Seats 1E, 1F, 2D, and 2G
- Seats 3E, 3F, 4D, and 4G
- Seats 5E, 5F, 6D, and 6G
- Seats 7E, 7F, 8D, and 8G
- Seats 9E, 9F, 10D, and 10G
On the Airbus A350-900, you’ll want to select any of the following sets of seats:
- Seats 1E, 1F, 2D, and 2G
- Seats 3E, 3F, 4D, and 4G
- Seats 5E, 5F, 6D, and 6G
- Seats 7E, 7F, 8D, and 8G
Lastly, if you’re flying on the Airbus A350-1000, you’ll want to select any of the following sets of seats:
- Seats 1E, 1F, 2D, and 2G
- Seats 3E, 3F, 4D, and 4G
- Seats 5E, 5F, 6D, and 6G
- Seats 7E, 7F, 8D, and 8G
- Seats 9E, 9F, 10D, and 10G
- Seats 11E, 11F, 12D, and 12G
Conclusion
With the Qsuites Quad, Qatar Airways offers a unique opportunity to fly in your own semi-private suite with a group of four.
While booking the Quad using points is certainly difficult, it’s not impossible. Your best bet is to plan early, and be prepared to act quickly if award seats become available.
With a bit of luck and plenty of patience, you’ll be rewarded with a memorable flying experience with your group of four.
This story originally appeared on princeoftravel
