[Anonymous]

[DavidGrodentz]

Hi All. I am reaching out to the forum for any advice or past experiences. I have a business class booking with Qatar Airways from HKG to Copenhagen and return from Stockholm to HKG in July 2016.

I have supplied my CX number with this booking and can see the trip in Manage My Booking in Marco Polo. Normally, this would show the number of miles that will be earned for each leg. However, each leg shows zero

Does anyone know whether R class on Qatar will credit miles to accounts with Oneworld partners, especially CX.

Additionally, with the changes to Marco Polo last month, Club points are also more important. CX have a chart showing club points are earned for R class with Qatar. However, they have a sector by sector calculator that allows you to work out how many club points you earn by sector. R class is not shown for Qatar flights

All very confusing

[rferguson]

I can’t comment on CX but to BA R class does. But only if the booking was made AFTER May 1st. I think ‘R’ class (super super discounted Jfares) replaced some ‘I’ class categories around March? So basically if you booked a ticket in R class to travel on QR in Mar/Apr to travel later in the year one wouldn’t attract ANY tier points.

However if one made their booking after May 1 it will attract normal ‘Business’ tier points. So in your example if you had booked your ticket prior to May 1 for travel in July you would not earn Tier Points or Avilos/miles with BA. If you booked same journey May 1st or after you would.

Not sure if it is the same with CX I guess you will have to give them a ring and check.

I’m no expert but I believe it’s down to the airline you are flying with as to whether they ‘buy’ miles with the airline you hold your frequent flyer account with. I know for instance that RJ and MH exclude some Business Class fares from earning OW miles/avios with other airlines.

[AMcWhirter]

R class ? I was confused at first. R class used to be known as supersonic class in the days of Concorde.

[FDOS_UK]

Yes, but that was nearly 13 years ago 🙁

Businesses are unemotional and unsentimental things and don’t retire fare buckets in the same way that sports clubs retire shirt numbers!

[TimFitzgeraldTC]

R Class is the new lowest fare bucket for Business Class on Qatar – about 6 weeks old (used to be I Class was the lowest).

Several carriers use R Class – anything from Economy to First!

[AMcWhirter]

I agree. It’s the same with airline codes.

Famous codes for UK travellers like BE (BEA) and BR (B.Cal) ended up with Flybe and Taiwan’s EVA Air.

[FDOS_UK]

Yes, you are right. The first four flights I ever took were coded DA, DA, BE and BE. On Comet 4B, Comet 4B, Viscount 800 and Trident 3b.

Those were the days!

[DavidGrodentz]

Many thanks rferguson. Fingers crossed that CX have followed BA on this

I do think that it is strange that economy flights would give you miles but, business class at three times the cost, do not

[Ahmad]

DavidGrodentz,

Such are the anomalies of miles and points. If all airlines/ hotels simply adhered to the much simpler way of crediting miles/points based on the spend rather than the distance travelled, won’t life be simpler!! I do realise that there may be commercial aspects to this, for example incentivising certain routes and/or restricted/non-refundable fare classes etc. but this makes the minefield of airline fares even more difficult to navigate if one is also looking to maximise one’s mileage/point accumulation. I regularly travel Thai Business Class but since Aegean Miles & Bonus joined Star have never used the Thai Royal Orchid Plus number on Thai bookings simply because on the Aegean account I accumulate 200% as opposed to the meagre 125% on Thai.

[SGJNI1961]

There are reports on HFP and I think Flyertalk that R bucket tickets will earn points and miles on BA even if booked before May 1st. Time will tell but I won’t find out until December. Anyone been lucky so far?

[rferguson]

I wouldn’t be too hopeful of that SGNI1961. There was a ‘grey area’ for some time on the issue with ‘R’ simply being omitted from the earning pages on ba.com. BA have updated it now and it clearly mentions for bookings made on/after May 1.

This link takes one to the earning info page for other airlines on BA.com. Click on Qatar and it shows two tables – one pre one post 1 May.

https://www.britishairways.com/en-gb/executive-club/collecting-avios/flights?clickpage=executive-club–collecting-avios–index&kmtag=c&ban=||HC|4×1|LNK1|||||||||L2|||||||

[DavidGrodentz]

An update to my original post

Spoke to a very helpful lady in the Marco Polo Club today. QR R class flights earn both the new CX Club Points and Club Miles as well. When QR introduced R class, most airlines had I class as the lowest Business Class fare

CX have now fixed the new calculator they introduced (for their own FF changes) in April to include R class fares. They don’t appear to have changed Manage My Booking to show the correct miles

Hope she is right. Will find out for certain in early July

[SGJNI1961]

@ DavidGrodentz
That’s good news and I believe BA have now moved in the same direction. “Booked from” now seems to be “Travelled from”.

[CathayLoyalist2]

Slightly off topic but related to the threads notably BA’s BYOB and the comment “a race to the bottom for BA”. I have just flown Qatar for the first time SIN-DOH-MAD and all I can say was the experience was simply outstanding. SIN-DOH was a new A350-900 and the Bus cabin was a testimony to what bus class should be all about. A great seat and the service not to mention the food in terms of quality and presentation was 10/10. On both flights the Cabin Directors introduced themselves and we chatted at length on various issues not least of which was this forum. When I compare CX and QR Business Offering with BA’s Club World the differences in overall experience is as wide as the Grand Canyon. I doubt anyone could possibly say otherwise. IMHO it speaks volumes as to how far down BA has gone over the years which is very sad. I wonder what is in QR’s mind in upping their stake in IAG?

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