Buying miles & points strategically can represent a great value, especially for luxury travel. The Qatar Airways Privilege Club program has just launched its latest promotion on purchased Avios, and it has the potential to be a great deal, even if you’re looking to acquire another “flavor” of Avios. However, there are a lot of ways to acquire Qatar Airways Avios, so I wouldn’t necessarily recommend outright buying them.
In this post:
Promotion on purchased Qatar Airways Privilege Club Avios
Through Thursday, November 28, 2024, Qatar Airways Privilege Club is offering a bonus on purchased Avios. While different members may be eligible for different offers, it seems that the standard version of the promotion offers a tiered bonus of up to 60%, as follows:
- Buy 3,000-25,000 Avios, get a 20% bonus
- Buy 26,000-48,000 Avios, get a 40% bonus
- Buy 50,000-250,000 Avios, get a 60% bonus
Note that this seems to be an “early bird” sale, and that between November 29 and December 5, we’ll see a promotion offering up to a 50% bonus.
How much does it cost to buy Qatar Airways Avios?
Qatar Airways Privilege Club ordinarily charges 2.3-2.8 cents per purchased Avios, with the price getting lower the more Avios you buy. That’s before any discounts or bonuses, and there are no further taxes and fees beyond that cost.
With this offer, if you’re eligible for a 60% bonus, you’d receive a total of 400,000 Avios at a cost of $5,750, which is a rate of 1.44 cents per Avios.
How many Qatar Airways Avios can you purchase?
Qatar Airways Privilege Club limits members to purchasing 250,000 Avios per account per calendar year, before any bonuses. Note that in order to be eligible to purchase Avios, you must have earned at least 1,000 Avios in your account since enrollment, though that could be through any means (like transferring points from a partner).
If you do buy Qatar Airways Avios, it can take up to 72 hours for them to post to your account, but they ordinarily post much faster than that.
Which credit card should you buy Qatar Airways Avios with?
Qatar Airways Privilege Club Avios purchases are processed by points.com, meaning they don’t count as an airfare purchase for the purposes of credit card spending. Therefore I’d recommend using a card on which you’re trying to reach minimum spending, or otherwise a credit card that maximizes your return on everyday spending.
In this case the best option is the Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card (review) or Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card (review), which offer 2x miles and have no foreign transaction fees. Usually the Chase Freedom Unlimited® (review) or Citi Double Cash® Card (review) would also be good options for maximizing everyday spending, but the cards have foreign transaction fees, so wouldn’t be a good option in this case.
Is buying Qatar Airways Privilege Club Avios worth it?
The Qatar Airways Privilege Club program has become increasingly useful in recent times. In 2022, we saw Qatar Airways adopt Avios as its rewards currency, and I’d say that’s great news for the value of Privilege Club.
The first thing to keep in mind is that as long as you have some account activity and have your accounts linked for a minimum amount of time, you can transfer Avios freely between Aer Lingus, British Airways, Finnair, Iberia, and Qatar Airways. That gives you a lot of flexibility.
The other main way that the value of Qatar Airways Avios has increased is that nowadays Qatar Airways restricts a lot of its business class award space to those redeeming Avios. That means availability is very limited when redeeming through programs that might have better redemption rates, like American AAdvantage.
As far as Qatar Airways Privilege Club redemption rates go, here’s how much you can roughly expect to pay, pending award availability:
- A one-way US to Doha award costs 35,000 Avios in economy or 70,000 Avios in business class
- A one-way US to Delhi award costs 40,000 Avios in economy or 80,000 Avios in business class
- A one-way US to Maldives award costs 42,500 Avios in economy or 85,000 Avios in business class
- A one-way US to Bangkok award costs 47,500 Avios in economy or 95,000 Avios in business class
- A one-way US to Auckland award costs 60,000 Avios in economy or 120,000 Avios in business class
I also like some of the unique partner awards Privilege Club offers, including for travel on airlines like Bangkok Airways, JetBlue LATAM, Middle East Airlines, RwandAir, and Virgin Australia. Being able to redeem for JetBlue Mint is a particularly good opportunity.
How much are Qatar Airways Avios worth?
Everyone will value points currencies differently, but personally I value Qatar Airways Avios at 1.3 cents each. I tend to value points pretty conservatively, and there are many ways to get more value from Privilege Club than that.
Do Qatar Airways Avios expire?
Qatar Airways Privilege Club Avios expire after three years of inactivity. However, any Avios earning or redemption activity would reset the expiration of Avios, so buying Avios would give you a further 36 months.
What other ways can you earn Qatar Airways Avios?
Qatar Airways Privilege Club is transfer partners with Citi ThankYou, so there are lots of great Citi credit cards that can potentially earn you Qatar Airways Avios.
Also keep in mind that since Qatar Airways now uses Avios as its currency, you can also transfer Avios between your various accounts, including Aer Lingus AerClub, British Airways Executive Club, and Iberia Plus. These programs also partner with other major transferable points currencies, giving you more options for accruing this currency.
This means you can indirectly earn Qatar Airways Avios with Amex Membership Rewards, Capital One, and Chase Ultimate Rewards.
Bottom line
Qatar Airways Privilege Club has launched its latest promotion on purchased Avios, which has the potential to be quite a good deal. With this, you can receive up to a 60% bonus on purchased Avios.
While I think the value of the Privilege Club program has improved considerably since Qatar Airways adopted Avios as its currency, there’s also less of a need to actually buy Qatar Airways Avios. That’s because there are so many other ways to acquire the different “flavors” of Avios, including with transferable points currencies.
For some people the math on this promotion might check out, though personally I’d only buy Avios with a specific use in mind.
Does anyone plan on buying Qatar Airways Avios with a 60% bonus?
65% here instead of 60%. still not attractive enough after the Finnair one though.
I recieved 65% offer not 60%.
Wasn’t there a Finnair Miles deal going on ? Which is better?