Qatar charging seat selection fees for Business (U) award bookings

[azza007]

Looks like Qatar is now charging seat election fees for business class (U) award bookings.
Free for Oneworld Sapphire & Emerald.

https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/qatar-airways-privilege-club/2206547-qr-charging-seat-selection-fees-j-incl-redemptions-like-ba-wef-3-nov-2025-a.html

I got caught out by this the other day.
Made a business class booking using QR Avios & had selected seats for free, received the E-ticket with the selected seats showing.
The next day logged into Qatar Privilege Club checked the booking and seat selections had disappeared and now wanting to charge a fee.
Charging about $80-$100Eur per sector Europe to Doha and Doha to Australia.
Logged into Qatar Privilege & hopped onto online chat today and the agent added my QFF number and I could then select seats for free.

 

[SCM]

That's kind of weird, so does that mean that for instance with VFF reward booking, you will be able to select for free?

 

[madrooster]

That's kind of weird, so does that mean that for instance with VFF reward booking, you will be able to select for free?

No. All QR U class booked from Nov 2025 onwards has chargeable seat selection.

 

[Mattg]

No. All QR U class booked from Nov 2025 onwards has chargeable seat selection.

Do Velocity Gold/Plat members get free seat selection on Qatar Airways?

 

[madrooster]

Do Velocity Gold/Plat members get free seat selection on Qatar Airways?

Yes. They didn't used to, but they do now.

 

[Hunter4vr]

That's rough, what's next, no lounge access with (U) award tickets?

If I'm flying with a child <5 years old and I don't pay to select seats, will they auto allocate seats at check in that are next to each other?

 

[FlyingFiona]

Do their seats become free to select at T-80 (or similar)?

 

[ols]

Glad I've recently booked my four Qatar redemptions for August/September next year.