A summary of prior restrictions can be found in my June 28, 2026 post here
Estimated reading time: 2 minutes
Recall that in mid-June 2026, Qatar Airways added a very inconvenient restriction where you couldn’t book award flights for others, even if you were on the same booking, unless the other person traveling was on a designated list. This applied to both Qatar award flights and using Qatar to book partner awards as well. The issue is you could not add someone to a designated list unless you had certain qualifying activity such as having a Qatar Airways co-branded card or credited a Qatar flight or partner flight to the Qatar Airways program. Apparently most US-based travelers have never flown a Qatar flight paid with cash or credited a partner flight to earn miles on Qatar’s loyalty program, leading to uproar when this change was announced.
Well that doesn’t matter anymore. Qatar Airways walked back the hard part of these restrictions. You still need to add people to a designated Qatar Airways list (either Friends & Family or My List). But you don’t need to credit any flights to Qatar Airways or have a co-branded card. You just need to have your Qatar Airways account open 30+ days.
Different Qatar Airways lists?
There are 2 different lists you can add people to. They have different requirements and privileges but both need your own Qatar account to be open 30+ days to add others.
- My List. List of people you can book award flights for through Qatar’s program. There are 4 slots you can use.
- Friends & Family. You can book award flights for people on this list, and your miles will pool together. People added to this list must be new Qatar Privilege Club members. There are 9 slots you can use.
Interested in more award flight deals and related tips & tricks? Make sure to subscribe below or visit newsletter.findflightsfor.me to get deals directly to your inbox.
