$912 For Qatar Airways’ Ultimate Business Experience: My First Europe Redemption Trip From India

Personal background

Some may recognize me as a longtime OMAAT commenter (and ostensibly Air India cheerleader)… 😅 I digress. The fact remains that, in the decade of reading OMAAT, I’ve long remained fascinated by how miles and points can get your foot in the door to some incredible airline redemptions.

However, since I’m not US-based (in fact, I never set foot outside Asia until last month), reading about Chase and Capital One cards and lounges has decidedly low utility for me. As such, I’ve been far more interested in OMAAT’s airline/aviation stories — and the more outlandish an itinerary (such as the latest Saudia/Riyadh Air trip report series), the better — than anything to do with US credit cards, hotel loyalty programs or ultra-luxury (Airelles, Capella, etc.) travel. Moreover, I use the same username on flight-report.com, where I’ve published dozens of airline reviews.

For context, I’m an Indian currently pursuing an MBA from IIM Bangalore, one of India’s top business schools, though since I studied and worked in Singapore for several years until 2025, most of my credit cards and points are with Singaporean banks like HSBC Singapore and UOB. That doesn’t mean that you won’t be interested in this redemption story, because given that I was flying from India to Europe for the first time, I might as well make the aviation side of it count — and in spectacular style, on perhaps the best all-round airline to fly Business Class on!

My entry into the miles-and-points game in Southeast Asia

As I said, I’ve travelled exclusively within Asia, and only got into the Singaporean miles-and-points game in late 2023, following local blogs like The MileLion. However, I will concede that OMAAT singlehandedly shaped my perceptions of most premium products out there. It’s the reason I know so much about Qatar being perhaps the world’s single most desirable airline in Business Class (pre-Riyadh Air) — between the Qsuite, the Al Mourjan Lounges and many other things — and about Taipei, despite its rather small hub airport, being the next premium battleground thanks to the battle between EVA, Starlux and China Airlines.

It’s also why I went out of my way to buy Alaska miles during a promo sale — since they don’t partner with any transferable points currency in Asia — just so I could fly Starlux’s A350 from Taipei to Ho Chi Minh City in Business Class for a mere 15,000 points!

Over a year and a half from 2025–26, such OMAAT-inspired award redemptions made me get my foot in the door to several of East Asia’s best airline lounges: Cathay Pacific’s The Pier Business Lounge, Starlux’s Galactic Lounge at TPE T2, a cluster of Star Alliance lounges at Bangkok Suvarnabhumi — and, on one occasion, even Singapore Airlines’ The Private Room! (When I permanently left Singapore in June 2025, returning to India, I could’ve just booked SIN–BLR direct. Instead I booked SQ’s First Class to Jakarta (so as to enter The Private Room), followed by SriLankan’s Business Class from Jakarta to Colombo, and Economy to Bengaluru. All with miles. Yeah, don’t ask.)

All of this pales in contrast to what seasoned travellers from the Western (and also East Asian) blogosphere have achieved, with their combination of multiple credit cards, stronger passports, more relaxed work schedules and plain old cash. But I can confidently say that, at my young age (mid-20s) and with my weak Indian passport, I’m proud of what I’ve done — and that (to me) working in Singapore was the springboard to making any of this possible.

How I booked my first trip to Central Europe using Qatar Avios (in Economy at first)…

With an academic term coming to an end in late August 2026, and a month to go before an exchange semester at Melbourne started at the end of September, I decided to go for a two-week solo trip to Greece plus some Central European countries. Both because I wanted to see that part of the world after all my intra-Asia travels, and because countries like Czechia, Poland and Hungary offer better bang for the buck than the likes of Paris, Amsterdam and (especially) Switzerland.

And since I belong to a country with one of the highest Schengen tourist visa applications, I decided to give it a shot — I’d never done a full-fledged physical visa application before. (I won’t go over the details of that, but I can sense some surprised faces among some of you readers, who might never even have applied for a visa anywhere, given your strong Western or East Asian passports!)

Regardless, what particularly struck me was the fact that I could get the India-to-Europe legs done on Qatar Airways, and I had quite a few points in my HSBC Singapore account — thanks to their Revolution credit card, which awards 4 airline miles for every S$1 SGD spent on certain bonus categories.

In the end, I originally booked the following itinerary in Economy Class. For brevity, I use 24-hour times here; hence 04:00 means 4 a.m. — in the morning/night. (There were some intra-Europe segments on Aegean and LOT for which I paid cash, which I won’t include here: only at the very end.)

Outbound: (Bengaluru–Doha–Athens)

• 24 Aug | QR573 BLR–DOH | depart 04:00, arrive 05:30 (4h0m) | A350-1000 
• 24 Aug | QR203 DOH–ATH | depart 07:45, arrive 12:25 (4h40m) | 787-8

This cost me ₹35,080 INR (≈US$366) plus 8,500 Avios, in a Cash + Avios booking.

Return: (Bucharest–Doha–Bengaluru)

• 6 Sep | QR222 OTP–DOH | depart 17:10, arrive 21:40 (4h30m) | A320 (downgraded from 787-8)
• 7 Sep | 6E1302 DOH–BLR | depart 02:00, arrive 08:55 (4h25m) | A321neo

This pure award booking cost me 30,000 Avios plus €123.83 (≈US$143) in taxes and fees.

Now you’ll notice that the final leg home to BLR was operated by IndiGo, which is India’s largest airline, and Qatar’s codeshare partner. I was by no means enthused about flying an IndiGo A321neo on an overnight journey home — IndiGo is many things, but comfortable isn’t one of them. (The airline offers a pure low-cost-carrier experience on most of its 400-strong Airbus fleet, with no charging or hot meals, except a handful of brand-new A321XLRs.) The problem was, if I were to fly QR572 (DOH–BLR) on Qatar metal — an A350-1000 to be precise — it automatically bumped up the price to 60,000 Avios! Not a great use of Avios just to avoid IndiGo on the final leg…

…and then I upgraded the return segment to Business Class using Avios…

The trip was originally going to proceed as above, but then on 11 August I noticed that Qatar Airways had started a limited-period monthly redemption discount, with 25% off awards. One of the featured destinations for Business Class awards was Colombo (close to India): if you were to fly DOH–CMB, you’d pay 26,250 (not 35,000) Avios. Even better, you could add on another segment connecting to Colombo, and the entire Business award would be 45,000 Avios instead of 60,000! (This has now turned into a monthly discount, called Privilege Deals — similar to Singapore Airlines’ KrisFlyer Spontaneous Escapes.) I took advantage of that by adding a segment from Bucharest, Romania, and after cancelling the previous OTP–BLR routing and rebooking this, I now had:

Return (Bucharest–Doha–Bengaluru) in Business Class:

• 6 Sep | QR220 OTP–DOH | depart 10:40, arrive 15:10 (4h30m) | A320 (downgraded from 787-8)
• 7 Sep | QR664 DOH–CMB | depart 01:35, arrive 09:00 (4h25m) | 787-9

This pure award booking cost me 45,000 Avios plus €193.08 (≈US$222) in taxes and fees. Separately, I booked an IndiGo cash fare (6E1168) to take me from Colombo to Bengaluru.

This would give me QR’s A320 lie-flat Business Class, which Ben has, in the past, proclaimed to be the best combination of hard and soft product in Business on a narrowbody — that is, before the likes of ITA Airways and Starlux Airlines launched their A321neos, and this even predates the A321XLR. (The A320ceo is QR’s only narrowbody aircraft in 2026, with 737 MAXes moving to Royal Air Maroc, and the all-economy A321neos to Sun PhuQuoc Airways.) It would also give me the new Elevate Ascent suites on the 787-9, so I was very much looking forward to that.

Most importantly, it would give me a nice long 10-hour layover at Doha: enough time to check out the Al Mourjan South and Al Mourjan Garden lounges — plus the Louis Vuitton Lounge at the latter! QR has several daily flights to Colombo, but the late-night QR664 had the best timings for a long layover at DOH, while having enough buffer to connect to my final IndiGo CMB–BLR leg as a separate ticket. Despite all my misgivings about Hamad Airport in general — I always held that it was a snooty, ostentatious place designed for millionaires and influencers (unlike Changi, my home airport for years, which can be enjoyed regardless of ticket class) — I was mighty thrilled to have the opportunity to check out the Al Mourjan Lounges, proclaimed as among the best in the world. But there’s more to come…

…before a paid upgrade during check-in led to the Qsuite on the A350-1000!

On 22 August, some 48 hours before departure, I discovered that, to my dismay, there was not a single window seat available during check-in on the initial QR573 leg from Bengaluru. Just for fun, I checked out the fares to upgrade that sector to paid Business Class — and it would cost some ₹33,000 INR (≈US$344) to do so. Here’s when I pulled my final lever to bring down the cost even further, since I was out of HSBC points for this upgrade. Funnily enough, I wasn’t even specifically dying to fly the Qsuite — but since the A350-1000 was operating QR573 anyway, I figured that I might as well go for it to make the outbound as special as the return. Like Ben, I’m a completionist!

Having transferred 12,000 Avios from HSBC Singapore to The British Airways Club, I used the BA Balance Boost feature and paid US$150 to double that number of Avios. With 12,000 more Avios in hand, that lowered the price of the paid upgrade to ₹16,700 INR (US$174) — which meant that I paid US$324 using Cash+Avios to upgrade that roughly 4-hour sector to the Qsuite. I could have spent a bit less for it if I had more Avios on hand, but I was delighted that a trip with initially no Business sectors now had three flights in Business Class out of four on Qatar Airways!

What I eventually flew — including other airlines (a crazy Ben-style multi-country routing)

My eventual itinerary was as follows (including all the intra-Europe/Asia flights that I took, paid with cash) — you can see that this is as crazy of a routing as some of Ben’s most epic adventures around the globe (and since I’m a diehard avgeek, I even have registrations for each of them):

1. 24 Aug | QR573 BLR–DOH | depart 04:00, arrive 05:30 (4h0m) | A350-1000 (A7-ANH) | Business Class (Qsuite)
2. 24 Aug | QR203 DOH–ATH | depart 07:45, arrive 12:25 (4h40m) | 787-8 (A7-BCB)
3. 28 Aug | A3866 ATH–PRG | depart 16:25, arrive 18:05 (2h40m) | A321neo (SX-NAB) — Aegean Airlines, the Star Alliance member from Greece, and one of Europe’s best full-service airlines
4. 3 Sep | W62467 BUD–WAW | depart 06:20, arrive 07:35 (1h15m) | A321neo (HA-LDM) — Wizz Air, the Hungarian low-cost carrier and a juggernaut in Europe
5. 5 Sep | LO641 WAW–OTP | depart 11:00, arrive 13:50 (1h50m) | E195 (SP-LNK) — LOT Polish Airlines, another underrated Star Alliance member, with free snacks for all; I even paid some ₹1,521 INR (US$16) for a proper meal and it was served in chinaware — in Economy(!!!)
6. 6 Sep | QR220 OTP–DOH | depart 10:40, arrive 15:10 (4h30m) | A320 (A7-AHU) (Business Class) — followed by a nice long 10-hour layover with time for the Al Mourjan Lounges (and Louis Vuitton Lounge)
7. 7 Sep | QR664 DOH–CMB | depart 01:35, arrive 09:00 (4h25m) | 787-9 (A7-BHP) (Business Class)
8. 7 Sep | 6E1168 CMB–BLR | depart 11:30, arrive 13:05 (1h35m) | A321neo (VT-ILN)

And now we come to the headline figure — that’s:

• US$366 + 8,500 Avios to book the initial BLR–DOH–ATH sector in Economy;
• US$324 + 12,000 Avios to upgrade QR573 BLR–DOH to the Qsuite;
• US$222 + 45,000 Avios for the return OTP–DOH–CMB sector in Business.

That’s a total of US$912 (≈₹87,000 INR) and 65,500 Avios for the Qatar Airways portion of the trip — covering the Qsuite on the A350-1000, the Elevate Ascent on the 787-9 and the A320 lie-flat J product. I’d say that’s a pretty incredible redemption by any standards — though it may well fall short of what many of you with better access to credit-card rewards have done!

And when I settled into my rear-facing Qsuite seat on 24 August, preparing to depart for my first journey to Europe, I could only look back and think what an incredible set of redemptions this had been. Sure, it wasn’t as ambitious as a 13-hour journey from the US or Australia to Doha, but when you’re chilling in the Qsuite and sipping that refreshing lemon-mint cooler, who’s complaining?!

However, I must concede that some signature elements of the Qsuite experience were missing. No faux candles and no pillows with cheesy destination quotes — apparently a 4-hour BLR–DOH flight isn’t long enough for those. But that’s likely to be near the bottom of the things that I was worrying about. Honestly, with depressed demand and increased wartime fuel prices, I really got lucky with redeeming for Qatar Business in 2026 post-FIFA-World-Cup (where QR was omnipresent!).