Qatar Airways Privilege Club has just added new restrictions regarding who you can redeem your Avios for. Essentially, you have to create a list of potential nominees who you can redeem your rewards for. While I can on the surface understand the value of this in terms of preventing fraud and bartering of rewards, the execution leaves a lot to be desired, and there’s one rule that will lock many people out of being able to redeem.
In this post:
Qatar Airways limits awards with “My List,” “Family & Friends”
Historically, Qatar Airways has allowed Privilege Club members to redeem their Avios for anyone. Admittedly fraud and bartering of rewards has become an increasingly big problem for loyalty programs, so we have seen more programs add restrictions on who rewards can be redeemed for, in an effort to minimize fraud.
Along those lines, Privilege Club has just greatly limited who members can redeem their Avios for, thanks to two new initiatives:
- With the new “My List” feature, Privilege Club members can only redeem rewards for up to four other Privilege Club members, and they have to be saved to the account; once added, they have to stay connected to the account for at least six months before being removed, limiting the ability to cycle through redemption options
- There’s also the “Family & Friends” feature, whereby Privilege Club members can redeem rewards for up to six other people who are not Privilege Club members, and they also have to be saved to the account
Just to be crystal clear, this restriction is specific to Privilege Club, regardless of the airline you’re redeeming on. Conversely, if you book through another loyalty program (even if it’s for travel on Qatar Airways), you’d be subjected to the rules of that program.
On the surface, this seems totally fair. For example, just on the fraud front, having to first invite other members as redemption nominees adds another step that makes it harder for hackers to steal rewards. For that matter, limiting the total number of people you can redeem for helps with limiting the bartering of rewards, since you can only redeem for so many people out of your account.
The issue is the restrictions for creating these nominee lists
Here’s where this policy goes from fair to completely unreasonable, if you ask me. If you look at the terms, you’ll see that you’re only able to invite others to partake in the Friends & Family or My List option if they meet the following two criteria:
- The member’s Privilege Club account must have been active for a minimum 30 days
- The main member must have completed at least one qualifying activity;
- A flown flight accrual with Qatar Airways or any partner airline
- At least one eligible co-branded credit card accrual transaction
Requiring someone to be a member for 30 days is fair, and not an unusual restriction. However, the real issue is that you need to either have credited a flight to Privilege Club, or must have a co-branded credit card.
So this isn’t about security or fraud, but instead, it’s about encouraging people to engage more in the program. And while I can appreciate the concept of programs increasingly wanting “more” from those redeeming (whether it’s more points, an elite status or credit card requirement, etc.), a blanket requirement to have further engagement in the program to redeem for others strikes me as rather odd.
For example, I’ve redeemed a countless number of Qatar Airways Privilege Club Avios over the years, but I’m not actually eligible to redeem for others anymore. Sad!
Bottom line
Qatar Airways Privilege Club has just added a major restriction when it comes to redeeming Avios for others. You can now only redeem your Avios for up to four other Privilege Club members, or up to six other non-Privilege Club members, and each “nominee” needs to stay connected to the account for at least six months.
That’s fair enough. What’s going to cause a lot more frustration is the rules. If you just transfer points from bank programs, you’re now technically out of luck, and can no longer redeem Avios for others. Instead, you need to actually credit a flight to the program, or have a co-branded credit card from the program. Bleh.
What do you make of Privilege Club’s new redemption restrictions?
I mean, there's still Friends & Family feature where you can nominate people who aren't even members so what exactly is the problem? Just use that. No authentic customer needs to redeem for more than six different people in half a year..
Agree this could have been a good change, but was obviously not thought out for practical purposes. I imagine restrictions on adding family will be relaxed, unless QR's real intent here is to reduce award bookings across the board.
Another hiccup some might run into if you try the workaround of booking 2 tickets on separate accounts, you can't actually select the "honeymoon" seats in the middle of the business class cabin as a...
Agree this could have been a good change, but was obviously not thought out for practical purposes. I imagine restrictions on adding family will be relaxed, unless QR's real intent here is to reduce award bookings across the board.
Another hiccup some might run into if you try the workaround of booking 2 tickets on separate accounts, you can't actually select the "honeymoon" seats in the middle of the business class cabin as a single ticket passenger. Unknown if you can call and bypass this, but you can't do it online.
How absolutely Qatarded.
Zing! Got'em!
The "one eligible co-branded credit card accrual transaction" - Qatar Airways doesn't offer a co-branded credit card in Canada and I'm certain in many other countries.
Finally, a reason for Ben to criticize QR!
Now how will I book my 4 leg disaster flights for jet, miles, and credit card? I’m still mentally Recovering from this.
Absurd rules indeed, but what's more discouraging and wrong on Qatar's part:
- they ask for Marriage Certificates to add spouses to the list. That is against the Privacy Laws in USA and EU!! Plus Qatar officially doesn't recognize same-sex marriages, so those groups would be excluded even with the proof submitted.
And that's after a big blow in their business in the Gulf with Iran conflict (still ongoing)!
What are they...
Absurd rules indeed, but what's more discouraging and wrong on Qatar's part:
- they ask for Marriage Certificates to add spouses to the list. That is against the Privacy Laws in USA and EU!! Plus Qatar officially doesn't recognize same-sex marriages, so those groups would be excluded even with the proof submitted.
And that's after a big blow in their business in the Gulf with Iran conflict (still ongoing)!
What are they thinking - they gonna loose a lot of business in US and EU because of those new rules. Their business class seat will fly mostly empty for months to come. Big loss for them and huge disappointment in loyalty program from normal customers with family members (they not even allowed to book award flights with their kids!!)
I have two existing bookings with QR Avios that include family members. Can I change their flights, or am I now locked out of changes because I dont actually credit flights to QR/don't have a QR credit card? Speaking of which, I have most of the major airline/hotel/bank CC's and I have never been denied. But I was denied by the QR basic card! Which is odd because its through cardless and I have the Bilt Palladium.
Sorry Ben, on this one I'm going to have to disagree with you here. Seems like the whining of the "churn and burn" mentality has got your opinion fixed here. For those that have done this before, it's quite a shock, but from Qatar's perspective, why should they let anyone let anyone book award flights through them? This increases the potential for fraud (i.e., points selling) all written over it. Case in point, I live...
Sorry Ben, on this one I'm going to have to disagree with you here. Seems like the whining of the "churn and burn" mentality has got your opinion fixed here. For those that have done this before, it's quite a shock, but from Qatar's perspective, why should they let anyone let anyone book award flights through them? This increases the potential for fraud (i.e., points selling) all written over it. Case in point, I live in the Philippines, and the reduction of availability of awards via Philippine Airlines (MNL-LAX) has been substantially reduced since the announcement until now. I expect that the majority of these bookings are legitimate bookings (even “churn and burn” ) wanting to get to Asia a little cheaper, I get that) , but there is a huge Filipino-diaspora that is looking for cheap flights to/from the Philippines and this invites significant potential fraud. This is only for one route, I know, but multiply this from many other, plus Qatar’s other extensive partner opportunities and the solution is pretty simple – fly with us or get the card.
"...why should they let anyone let anyone book award flights through them?"
To bring down the number of outstanding miles (which sits on the liability side of the accounting equation).
If i earn avios on AA will that qualify me to add members to QR privilege club? and can they be BA/IB/EI/AY avios or do they need to be QR?
So theoretically, I could just credit one direction of a short domestic trip on Alaska to QR and it would allow me to book on behalf of other members on my family/friends list?
this is what i was wondering...i fly phx-lax all the time. easy to credit one of those trips to qatar.
I'm scrambling to try to make this work because I have an award for my family I want to book in less than 30 days (availability is best on this route when window opens). I shifted a flight that I was going to fly with another airline to Cathay and will credit it to Qatar which should 'unlock' my ability.
The problem is that my wife and daughters don't have Privilege Club accounts. If I...
I'm scrambling to try to make this work because I have an award for my family I want to book in less than 30 days (availability is best on this route when window opens). I shifted a flight that I was going to fly with another airline to Cathay and will credit it to Qatar which should 'unlock' my ability.
The problem is that my wife and daughters don't have Privilege Club accounts. If I make a Family & Friends account, do I have to wait 30 days for their accounts to mature? Or is that only for the My List? Basically, is there any way to get around the 30 day minimum from right now, because if so, that's really shitty to do to me and others with no notice
Friends and Family does not have the 30 day condition. That's because to add someone to a F&F group, they cannot have a Qatar Airways Privilege Club account! Ben notes this fact but doesn't notice the contradiction in what he's written.
To my great dismay I have seen basically every single news outlet get some small but critical detail about the changes wrong.
The other one that this article gets wrong is that to be...
Friends and Family does not have the 30 day condition. That's because to add someone to a F&F group, they cannot have a Qatar Airways Privilege Club account! Ben notes this fact but doesn't notice the contradiction in what he's written.
To my great dismay I have seen basically every single news outlet get some small but critical detail about the changes wrong.
The other one that this article gets wrong is that to be *added* to My List you also need to have a 30-day year old account and credit a flight or have a card.
Thanks Grant! I should be OK then once my Cathay flight credits to QR and I can then make a F&F list
Okay never mind Ben didn't actually write that F&F nominees need to fulfill that condition.
Well it was still confusing so I appreciate your clarification
Does this requirement apply only if the main account holder is not travelling, or even for any travel companions on the same reservation as the main account holder?
Both, sadly. You can't even book you and your wife if you've never credited a flight to QR
What's even more absurd... when you purchase Q-Suite, but then, QR does a last-minute aircraft swap for non-Q-Suite, and your options are to... 'kick rocks' or 'pound sand.'
This happens all the time. In fact it happened so often to me I've never even been on Q-Suite because of it and I stopped flying that overrated nothingburger of an airline.
Vloggers love it. Customers don't.
Thank you for actually backing me up on this. I've said it in numerous recent QR stories, and Ben, and a few others, seem to take QR's side, and minimize the concern, or even go so far as to suggest I'm a novice who doesn't know how to properly book the hard product I want. Like, fellas, I've taken QR 20+ times. I know what I'm doing. They've screwed me a few times. That's all. And other folks should be aware of it.