Update (2220 hours, 17 May 2020): Rerouting now only possible 14 days after booking if your flight is not cancelled.
If you missed the Business Class fares that I posted on Thursday night, fret not as there are still some high value round trip flights in Economy Class to cities on the opposite side of the globe. There’s been plenty of confusion in the past 24 hours as members of Flyertalk have been reporting conflicting information from customer service officers (CSOs) from Qatar Airways’ call centers.
Do not be discouraged if your request gets rejected by a CSO. If you know the terms and conditions, all you have to do is have some patience and keep calling till you find a competent CSO.
Just a refresher on what has changed since my article on Thursday night:
Fifth freedom flights are no longer allowed
Cheap flights out of Colombo are all gone
Distance seems to be calculated in statute miles now, not nautical miles
Flying to the Americas for less
If you are fine flying ultra long-haul in Economy, these are the best options at the moment.
| Book | Change To | |||||
| Depart | Arrive | Price | Arrive | Distance | Usual Price* | Savings |
| Singapore | Oslo | $760 | Montreal | 3,428 mi | $1,190 | $430 |
| Chicago | 4,054 mi | $1,220 | $460 | |||
| Atlanta | 4,421 mi | $1,400 | $640 | |||
| Cape Town | $842 | Sao Paolo | 3,953 mi | $1,890 | $1,048 | |
| Lisbon | $854 | Sao Paolo | 4,916 mi | $1,890 | $1,036 | |
* On any airline with maximum 1 stop
Confirmation
As of now, there is nothing in the terms and conditions that would disqualify any of the above routes/changes. I had a family member who just booked SIN-CPT-SIN on Qatar’s official website by clicking through TopCashback for 2% cashback. He then went on to call the Singapore hotline (which got redirected to Doha) to make the change. It took 3 calls to find a CSO who understood the terms and conditions. The call only lasted 12 minutes. The final itinerary looks like this:
Understand the risks
If you are planning to make the booking, I would like to remind you that nobody knows how soon these countries will open up their borders and how long it will be till it is safe to travel again. However, because of this generous change policy from Qatar Airways, you will always have great options if you can’t fly.
If your flight is cancelled:
You can get a full refund.
If your flight is not cancelled:
Change to a flight voucher with 2 years validity and get an extra 10% in value.
Change to another destination within 5,000 miles from your original destination.
Follow us on Telegram, Instagram and Facebook to receive our latest updates.