American Airlines Still Exploring Flights To Doha Despite Coronavirus Pandemic

News notes from around the interweb:

  • Redesigning airports for the COVID era

  • MGM casino hotels in Mississippi re-open Monday

  • Some data on improvements in airline ticket sales from over at United.

  • The American Airlines – Qatar Airways codeshare has launched (and American may still fly to Doha)

    The first phases of the codeshare will see Qatar Airways’ passengers able to book travel on American Airlines’ extensive domestic connections via Chicago (ORD) and Dallas (DFW) to 200 cities including Miami (MIA), Houston (IAH), Atlanta (ATL), Detroit (DTW), Minneapolis/St.Paul (MSP), Seattle (SEA), and San Francisco (SFO). Additional cities, including destinations in Central America, and the Caribbean will be added, subject to government approvals.

    …Further expansion of the strategic partnership* will include Qatar Airways placing its code on American’s international flights to North, Central and South America and Europe, and American Airlines placing its code on Qatar Airways flights between the U.S. and Qatar and beyond to a range of destinations in the Middle-East, Africa and Asia.

    Both airlines will also continue exploring the opportunity for American Airlines to operate flights between the U.S. and Qatar, along with a number of joint commercial and operational initiatives to further strengthen this renewed partnership.

  • United will reduce flight attendant crewing to FAA minimums on international widebodies unless flights hit 80% load factors

  • You can now use AAdvantage miles to pay for seat assignments like Delta miles replace cash at a penny apiece. That makes sense from a balance sheet perspective, but if you’re using miles this way you shouldn’t be going out of your way to accumulate those miles.

About Gary Leff

Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel - a topic he has covered since 2002. Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »

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Comments

  1. @ Gary — Why would anyone want to fly AA over QR to anywhere? I suppose if a SWU-able fare of <$500 r/t was available I MIGHT consider it.

  2. @Gene – based on the EQD/EQM earning chart for Qatar Airlines flights…unless you’re buying a Y or business class ticket you might want the status earning power of a regular AA flight?

    Some of us barely fly 100,000-125,000 miles a year and need every last flight credited to our main airline to make top tier status, especially such a long international flight like US-middle east.

  3. If AA flies to Doha, can they fly over Saudi Arabia or do they have to go around as well? I wouldn’t think they’d fly over Iran or Syria.

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