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

[2APlease]

So far my seat selectons on four Avios redemptions PNRs in 2026 are holding. Mel/Mxp/Mel in May and Mel/Ist/Adl in Sept are holding.
Thanks azza007 for the Chat suggestion, easier than a phone call.

 

[Growing Older]

Watching this thread with interest.

Just last week, I made an Avios redemption with QR for 2 x J seats FCO-xDOH-xMEL-CBR in April 2026 through QR Privilege Club. I am a nobody Burgundy with QRPC but WP with QF and SG with VA. I was able to select U seats on all flights and they appear to have stuck a week later, being visible in the QR app.

I left my QR number in the booking (as it was made with Avios), so cannot be sure if my OWE or VA SG status was somehow recognised and allowed me to select these seats? Booking was made on 2nd November, so if something did indeed change at the start of this month, I may have dodged a bullet...

OT - did I really want to go from Rome to Canberra? No - but this was a married segment and a simple DOH-MEL U redemption on exactly the same day and same QR metal was not available. I can make my own way home from CBR-SYD and the transit in MEL isn't horrendous but this little loophole from the DOH-xMEL-ADL flights looks to continue on in a new form once the CBR flights resume for QR.

 

[2APlease]

Like you, I took an indirect routing to ADL when my destination is Mel. Low cost in the greater scheme of airfares,