[BPP]

Exploring flights (in ‘J’) with BA to Colombo for January 2024 I note that they can be with Qatar, either all 4 legs or a mixture. BA to DOH then QR to CMB. The interesting thing is that there appears to be a small saving to be made over booking the same flights wholly on the QR web site.
I rang BA to ask what the arrangements are for pre allocated seats and was advised that after booking with BA I would have to go on to the QR site (with the PNR) to sort out seat allocation??
Bearing in mind that BA always charge for advance seat alocation and QR generally do not then what happens?
Also I was advised that if booked with BA, lounge access was ‘in any One World’ facility. Does this include the Qatar lounge in LHR-T4 and the main Al-Mujaran lounge in DOH?
Has anybody gone down this route?

[Nick Pike]

If you book with Qatar you will have, I think a Qatar issued ticket on a flight with QR codes throughout. If you are flying from LHR on BA metal- I thought they only flew from Gatwick but may be wrong-it won’t depart from T4 so you will get use of the BA lounge in T5 if that is the departure point or any Oneworld lounge if it leaves from T3. If you are on Qatar metal it will leave from T4 anyway and you will get the QR lounge, unless you have booked their deeply discounted business class with no lounge access. That should be clear when you book.

If you are flying onwards from Doha in business you will get the use of the huge, but in my view vastly overrated, Al Mourjan lounge there.

Be warned- if you are flying on a BA plane to Doha with a QR coded ticket your tier points and Avios often don’t post and you have to claim them via the BA website. The claim will be rejected by QR so you then have to appeal it. It’s a faff but you get there in the end. No idea why. Save your boarding card in case.

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