Qatar updates 'unlimited' rebooking policy

Middle East-based airline Qatar Airways, recently announced a new rebooking policy — dubbed “Travel with Confidence” — that covers flights through December 31, 2020, booked by September 30, 2020.

The changes from the airline offer customers more flexibility during the coronavirus outbreak, including an ultra-generous date and destination rebooking policy, the ability to convert travel credits to Qmiles and other interesting options.

Initially, the updated rebooking policy stated that Qatar Airways flyers could make “unlimited” changes to their itineraries, including changing their flight destination to anywhere within a 5,000-mile radius of their original destination. Even better? Under that policy customers were able to make these changes voluntarily and a fare difference didn’t apply.

Now, however, Qatar has made some slight modifications to the policy that remove some generosity — yet it still ranks as one of the most generous coronavirus change policies the industry has ever seen.

Initially, these changes came just days after Qatar Airways announced that it plans to start ramping back up its international service, with the airline serving 52 international destinations by the end of May and 80 by the end of June. This makes it clear that Qatar wants to start its return to normalcy, but has left customers wondering what happens if their travel is disrupted in the case of continued border closures, flight cancellations and general concerns around the safety of future travel.

The new booking policy looks like an attempt to squash these fears and encourage future flight bookings, giving Qatar Airways immediate cash-flow.