A novel palladium-catalyzed CO-gas- and autoclave-free protocol for the synthesis of 11H-pyrido[2,1-b]quinazolin-11-ones has been developed. Quinazolinones, which are omnipresent motif in many pharmaceuticals and agrochemicals, were prepared in good yields by C-H bond activation and annulation using DMF as the CO surrogate. A 13CO-labelled DMF control experiment demonstrated that CO gas was released from the carbonyl of DMF with acid as the promotor. The kinetic isotope effect (KIE) value indicated that the C-H activation step may not be involved in the rate-determining step. This methodology is operationally simple and showed a broad substrate scope with good to excellent yields. © 2015 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.