When planning the flights for my upcoming trip to Vietnam and Cambodia with my mum in March 2026 (if we actually make, considering we should have made this trip in 2021 and we all remember 2021…), I started to notice some patterns in availability of Qatar Airways reward seats. 

You can book First Class for “free”

Qatar doesn’t offer First Class on many long haul routes. They only have proper First Class seats on their A380s and some 777s, which are leased from Cathay Pacific. An interesting quirk in how they sell First Class seats is that they’ll sometimes offer First for no additional cost. 

Look at this flight from Bangkok to Doha on an ex-Cathay Pacific 777. 

It’s the same amount of points and taxes for First Class as it is for Business! This isn’t a glitch and plenty of people have booked First Class for the same price as Business, but it doesn’t always appear at this price and sometimes they will charge extra for it.

Now, Qatar’s First Class offering isn’t that much better than their (excellent, best in the world) Business Class, so that might be their justification for not charging any extra. Granted, you get a much bigger seat, Al Safwa lounge access in Doha and more expensive champagne but the difference between First and Business isn’t huge. 

Qatar are well known for their equipment swaps so I do wonder whether selling First for the same price as Business is just damage limitation for when they swap a plane and end up downgrading you to Business (no refund for you!). That might also explain why it only appears occasionally and not on every flight.

Not all seats are released at the same time

I really wanted to book the A380 for our flight home from Asia. It’s my favourite aircraft and I think mum will really enjoy the novelty of the bar (everyone must do it at least once in their life!). It’ll make a great ending to a memorable holiday, and something to look forward to on the way home. 

Qatar release reward seats 361 days before travel. It’s usually good practice to snaffle seats when they get released as there’s no guarantee extra seats will be made available. 

What I began to notice is that Business Class seats on the A380 from Bangkok to Doha weren’t released at the same time as the other flights. This screenshot shows availability on release day. Zilch in Business or First Class. 

But give it a few days, and availability gets added. 

By my reckoning, Business Class seats on the A380 are released around 5 to 7 days after economy seats. This isn’t the same for seats on other aircraft (777, 787-8 or 787-9), but if you specifically want the A380 like I did, it’s something to watch out for. 

The app has different (usually better) availability than the website 

It’s not unusual for businesses to want to encourage sales via their app over their website, and I noticed differences in availability in the Qatar Airways app versus what was on their website. 

In this scenario, there’s First Class on the 777 from Bangkok to Doha and Business Class from Doha to Manchester (albeit with a long wait in Doha – so not for everyone), but this option doesn’t appear at all on the website. 

One annoying thing about the app is that you can’t filter by premium cabins like you can on the website so you have to click on every time option to see which classes are available. 

So there you have it. It’s weird what you find out when you’re obsessive!