MileValue is part of an affiliate sales network and receives compensation for sending traffic to partner sites, such as CreditCards.com. This compensation may impact how and where links appear on this site. This site does not include all financial companies or all available financial offers. Terms apply to American Express benefits and offers. Enrollment may be required for select American Express benefits and offers. Visit americanexpress.com to learn more.

Note: Some of the offers mentioned below may have changed or are no longer be available. You can view current offers here.


Qatar Airways has begun flying its A380s from Doha to London and will begin service to Paris and Bangkok soon.

There are a lot of luxury options between the Middle East and Europe, so I want to focus on the route between Doha and Bangkok that begins December 1.

Screen Shot 2014-10-30 at 3.40.15 PM
from gcmap.com

Award space is wide open on the Qatar A380 between Doha and Bangkok for two people in Business Class. Best of all, the award costs only 30,000 American Airlines miles one way!

Business Class passengers have fully their own fully flat beds and access to an onboard lounge that looks like it’s the nicest in the sky.

Screen Shot 2014-10-30 at 3.52.00 PM
Onboard bar for First and Business Class passengers
  • How is Qatar First Class on the A380?
  • How is Qatar Business Class on the A380?
  • What is the award space picture on the plane?
  • How can you book the award space?
  • How can you make Doha to Bangkok part of a larger trip?

The Qatar A380

Routes

Qatar already flies once daily with an A380 between Doha and London-Heathrow.

QR03 Doha to London departing 7:45 AM arriving 12:25 PM
QR04 London to Doha departing 2:15 PM arriving 11:55 PM

You can always verify the airplane that is flying on ba.com by clicking the flight number on award search results.

Screen Shot 2014-10-30 at 3.38.03 PM

Clicking QR836 above causes this window to pop up, which lists the aircraft as an A380:

Screen Shot 2014-10-30 at 3.38.32 PM

You can already fly Etihad First Class between Abu Dhabi and London or Qantas First Class on its A380 from Dubai to London. All of these flights cost only 30,000 American Airlines miles in Business and 40,000 in First.

Qatar will eventually fly two daily A380 flights between Paris-CDG and Doha. Starting November 5:

QR39 Doha to Paris departing 7:55 AM arriving 1:10 PM
QR40 Paris to Doha departing 3:00 PM arriving 11:25 PM

The second begins January 5, 2015:

QR41 Doha to Paris departing 1:40 AM arriving 6:55 AM
QR42 Paris to Doha departing 8:50 AM arriving 5:15 PM

The third route to fly the A380 will be Doha to Bangkok on December 1:

QR836 Doha to Bangkok departing 1:55 AM arriving 12:10 PM
QR833 Bangkok to Doha departing 8:45 PM arriving 11:55 PM

This flight between Middle East and Asia 2 will cost 22,500 American Airlines miles in economy, 30,000 miles in Business Class, and 45,000 miles in First Class. Plus taxes plus a $35 phone booking fee.

Screen Shot 2014-10-30 at 3.43.13 PM

British Airways will charge 20k/40k/60k Avios in economy/business/first plus taxes and fuel surcharges. American Airlines miles are the better deal for all of these Qatar A380 flights.

The Product on the A380

First Class does not feature a fully enclosed suite like on many competitors or a shower like on Emirates, but it looks to be world class.

Screen Shot 2014-10-30 at 4.10.55 PM

One Mile at a Time has reviewed the First Class product on the A380.

Business Class is a fully flat bed in a herringbone pattern, so that all seats have aisle access. It also looks top of the line.

Screen Shot 2014-10-30 at 3.51.37 PM

Both First and Business Class passengers can access an onboard bar that looks larger and nicer than Emirates’.

Screen Shot 2014-10-30 at 3.52.00 PM

Here is a page set up by Qatar about the First Class, Business Class, and Lounge Experience on the A380.

Award Space

You can search for award space on the Qatar A380 on ba.com. (Here’s how!) Any Qatar award space there is equally bookable with American Airlines miles.

I searched ba.com via Award Nexus to make a nice calendar for this post. I searched February 1 to 28, 2015 for 2 seats in Business Class and 1 seat in First Class from Doha to Bangkok.

There was no First Class award space for the whole month on the route.

There was Business Class space for 2 passengers on 27/28 days on at least one flight.

Screen Shot 2014-10-30 at 3.41.58 PM

Award Nexus allows you to filter by a specific flight number, so I filtered for the one daily Doha to Bangkok flight on the A380. There is award space for 2 passengers in Business Class on the flight 22/28 days in February.

Screen Shot 2014-10-30 at 3.39.07 PMUsing the Space

I’m sure very few of my regular readers live in Bangkok or Doha, but this can still be an amazing award as part of a larger round the world trip. THINK BIG!

  • Book United States to Europe in Lufthansa First Class with the amazing award space available all winter on one route.
  • Book Europe to Middle East with 40,000 American Airlines miles in Qantas, Etihad, or Qatar First Class.
  • Book Doha to Bangkok with Qatar Business Class for 30,000 American Airlines miles.
  • Book Bangkok to the United States in Cathay Pacific First for 67,500 American Airlines miles.

This whole ultra-luxurious trip to several interesting destinations could be done for 137,500 American Airlines miles, 62,500 Aeroplan miles (Membership Rewards), taxes, phone booking fees, (and fuel surcharges on the Lufthansa award only.)

Screen Shot 2014-10-30 at 4.24.02 PM
In Ultra-Luxury for 200k Miles

That’s really not many miles when you consider that anyone can get 93k American Airlines miles from two credit cards at the moment.

Booking the Award Space

With Avios (not recommended), you can book Qatar award space on ba.com. Business Class from Doha to Bangkok is 40,000 Avios + $175 all in. Pay with a credit card with no foreign transaction fees because purchases from ba.com, even in dollars, code as foreign purchases.

Screen Shot 2014-10-30 at 3.39.31 PM Screen Shot 2014-10-30 at 3.39.38 PM

To book Qatar award space with American Airlines miles (recommended), call American Airlines at 800-882-8880 and feed the agent the flight number, date, and cabin of the award space you found on ba.com. There are no fuel surcharges, but you cannot avoid a $35 phone fee in addition to taxes.

Getting the Miles

Right now the Citi® / AAdvantage® Platinum Select® MasterCard® is offering 50,000 bonus miles and two lounge passes after spending $3,000 in the first three months. The card also comes with other awesome benefits like a 10% rebate on miles used for award bookings.

We know that the US Airways® Premier World MasterCard® will no longer be offered to new applicants as soon as the US Airways and American Airlines frequent flyer programs integrate, some time in the second quarter of 2015. That means that the chance to earn 40,000 bonus miles after first purchase will disappear soon. Check out all the places you can go with just the sign up bonus.

All US Airways miles not redeemed on the US Airways chart by the time of integration will become American Airlines miles, and American Airlines has committed to not devaluing its award chart at the time of combination. The two types of miles are roughly equal in value.