In late February we learned about major changes coming to the Qatar Airways Privilege Club loyalty program. With this, Qatar Airways is adopting Avois as its rewards currency, which I’d consider to be pretty exciting. These changes are now live, and we’ve also learned all the details, so I wanted to recap all of that…
Continue reading: Live: Qatar Airways Adopts Avios As Points Currency
Share your questions, experiences, and thoughts below.
@ Sean M. -- They'll be converted into Qatar Airways Avios at a 1:1 ratio and redemption rates will stay the same, so they should maintain their value.
If they allow cross currencies transfers this will be a bonus. I've stopped using whatever Avios I do accumulate for flights as BA surcharges are stupidly high. I've just been using Avios to book cars for when I'm in Germany.
I have a pant full of Avios that I rarely use, pretty much for two reasons, crappy IB service and huge BA surcharges. As long as Qatar don't load up with the latter, this sounds OK.
I used American miles to book Qatar award flights for June and July later this year. Will Qatar’s switch to Avios impact people with existing non-Avios award bookings?
"As of late March 2022, major changes are coming to Qatar Airways Privilege Club."
Don't you mean as of today? Or perhaps you mean something different.
Avios are easy to collect and non-BA carriers don't necessarily have big surcharges, as with Aer Lingus for example. Maybe Avios will be redeemable on Qatar at reasonable prices. No reason to assume not.
this seems like overall good news, but doesn't it mean competition for award seats will be far higher than currently? my assumption is that Qatar allows for X amount of award seats per flight between AAdvantage/Avios and that number will not increase.
Sounds good let the actual details come in for redemption hope there is no catch.
You'll theoretically be able to transfer your BA Avios to Qatar and vice versa.
It is not a good news for us Qatar Airways Privilege Club members who lives in Middle East.
Qmiles are generous comparing from what I saw with Iberia and BA. And 1:1 and sometimes actually even more.
This will result in Very Bad Things for readers of this blog.
There's a huge pool of people collecting Avios. It's easy to amass a huge pile of them from a variety of credit cards. Points-collectors will be all over Qatar and award redemptions will become nearly impossible, and with all that demand, two things are certain: a major devaluation, and high YQ charges. It's already pretty easy to book QR awards if you have AA miles. It's hard to imagine that will remain an option.
This "enhancement" is a huge shake-up for Qatar. I expect they will take this opportunity to "fix" what's wrong with their program (that is, there are far too many undesirable customers -- all the readers of this blog, for example -- riding in premium cabins). The glory days of points collectors enjoying QSuites easily and cheaply are going to end.
LOL, AA has always been better redemption for QSuites and it isn't like there are millions of AA points from a recent promo 😉
You may want to remind everyone that on Feb 4 you posted about a sign-up bonus. I wasn't going to bother, but given the upcoming Avios conversion I just did (and the 2500 miles were credited to my new Qatar account immediately).
Granted, this announcement is a change to the program but I think the major changes (taking place late March 2022) refers to something Ben said earlier in the article "...We’re told to expect more details in the next couple of weeks, as today was just the initial announcement to give members notice."
The 'other' site indicates that points will be transferred 1-1 from QR to Avios.
This is incredible news for Canadians as there are two ways to transfer points to Avios - the AMEX Gold and the RBC BA Visa. Finally a way to get out of AC and into an airline that travels where we want to go (from SEA or eastern Canada) with points we can collect. The only downside is the potential rate problems.
As long as they don't start charging the same outrageous taxes and fee like BA. *Fingers crossed*
There may be a corporate reason. BA is in bother with the EU thanks to Brexit. Air France and Lufthansa say it is no longer truly European. If upheld then BA's non-European longhaul may have to be separated. Q's 25% holding is also an EU issue. So maybe the solution might be recreate BOAC make the ownership link with Qatar more formal and let BA fight it out inside the EU with all those low cost guys like Ryanair? Having a prelim tieup with the frequent flier operation could be a step along the way.
Wow. I’m a little surprised since it wasn’t that long ago when Akbar Al Baker was calling British Airways stuff like “a low-cost carrier” and “two out of ten”. Also, how is this going to affect the Student Club program they have?
Will new points expire? It seems as if current points will have the same expiration date.
This is a curious development and it will be interesting to see whether, and how much integration there will be between Avios-issuing programs. This does not form a new Flying Blue where the airlines have a single FF program, and it's probably premature to assume it will look anything like that. Rather, it looks like they will remain separate. It remains to be seen whether QR will allow the sorts of transfers that are possible between IB/BA/AL, much less allow a free-for-all for transfers. It's not even clear that the airlines will have a common awards chart. Carrier fees, after all, aren't the same across the existing three airlines.
It makes me wonder if this presages increased cooperation between One World FF programs, and even others adopting Avios. These programs are too valuable to the airlines for them to cede too much control to a shared entity, so I expect that QR and the other three will maintain their differences. Time will tell.
@ Saliya -- They'll be converted into Avios at a 1:1 ratio, and it's not expected that redemption rates will change.
@ Nevsky -- That's a great question, but we don't have the answer to that yet. I'm sure we'll find out soon.
LOL ‘a pantful’ … like a ‘shirtload’, as we call it down under (if we’re trying not to swear ;-P )
Will i still be able to use my AA miles to redeem on Qatar Airways flights? Thanks
Avios is more and more becoming more and more like a currency. And BA/IB/EI/VY and now QR are the "central bank" issuing it ... Obviously, for the time being, Avios are still intangible rights and not a currency, because the still miss several features, in particular that they can be used as a legal tender (unrestricted exchangeability). But QR's decision is certainly a step into this direction.
Worthless Avios are now going to flood the market on QR redemptions, great. I expect fuel surcharges to skyrocket following BA's lead.
Just checked various routes, LOL they already have. Enjoy your first round of devaluations/fuel surcharges, everybody!
It’s brilliant! I just managed to book 4 reward flights back from Hanoi that I’ve been looking for.
Such a positive move from oneworld (for a change!).
After linking accounts, its not possible to check reward flight availability and Avios required for redeeming on Qatar Airways flights on the Qatar website. It gives you the error, "You do not have sufficient Avios to proceed with booking."
It is ridiculous that Qatar will not allow you to see reward flight availability and Avios required till you actually transfer the Avios into the Qatar account.
Fuel surcharges have now increased dramatically on many routes when booking on the Qatar website. This is a devaluation for those of us that have a decent balance of Qmiles.
Yep, they DOUBLED on one QR route I looked into yesterday vs. today, to the amount that BA charges.
And on BA.com the mileage INCREASED, not decreased, from 19k to 24.5k Avios (and no change in fees).
Great, higher surcharges on QR.com or higher mileage requirement on BA.com: take your pick!
There is a way around that. Search for a flight as if you're paying cash. On the page where you choose your fare, look above and to the right. There is a button that says something like "Book an Award Flight" or "Pay with Miles and Cash"....I can't remember. It will then have you login. Once logged in, it will show you the miles/avios required.
Not theoretically. The functionality is already there (in the Q site) and it's quite simple. Did it myself today
I was able to transfer Avios from my BA account to my Qatar account. But when I go to transfer the same Avios back from my Qatar account to my BA account, I get the error, "Sorry. The transfer was unsuccessful Unfortunately, we are not able to process your request. Please try again after some time."
Can anyone please check to see whether they are facing the same issue?
Linking one's Exec Club account to Qatar, does it give you acess to just the Avios in your account or total household Avios?
I updated my dashboard on Privilege Club account.
But am waiting till later to link my Privilege Club account to my British Airways Executive Club account.
I don't have an BA account but been a QR flyers for 6 years.
First time here -= just thought I'd share this as I don't know how I feel about the QR/BA marriage so to speak. Hopefully it will smooth operations - if only they will waive those fees. lol - Very expensive!
When I transferred 1 Avios into my account from BA, the problem disappeared. It seems to be restricted to completely empty accounts.
yes big devaluation, previously 40€ for taxes and fee and now same route Europe to Asia 200€.
How to screw your loyals customer, good job QR...
Redemption rates HAVE changed. Qatar airways have now reverted to the ‘blockade’ pricing for intra-Middle East routes, pricing them as per the ‘first class’ bucket. A return award from LHR-KWI in Business Class (booking via Qatar Airways Privilege Club) is now 123k Avios + £560 of fees. I booked this same itinerary 6 weeks ago for 85k Qmiles + £300 of fees. It’s absolutely NOT the same. This is a real devaluation for ME-based QRPC members and a serious mistake, in my opinion.
I assume that this is because IAG have enforced that QR adopt the ‘correct’ pricing for ‘First Class’ sectors, whereas previously they were only charged at a ‘Business Class’ rate.
Booked 2 seats LHR-DOH-LAX, all Q-suites, for 90k BA Avios + 400GBP each. A lot less than BA was trying to charge. Linked my accounts but didn’t have to transfer any Avios to Qatar- When I booked through Qatar’s site it just pulled Avios direct from my BA account. Great change for BA Executives (so far) as good redemptions on BA long haul have been so hard to come by.
This sounds a positive development. I have some Qatar miles due to expire in coming months and no flights or partner activity planned (tho of course I would look to arrange some to maintain). But do you think if I transferred the Qatar Avios to BA, they'd be gain the same expiry as my BA Avios? That may not be known and apologies if I've misunderstood the process. Best all
Is it possible to transfer Avios directly from my Iberia Plus program account to Qatar ?
Or do I first need to create a BA account and from there transfer to Qatar ?
Thank you.
I was able to move Avios back and forth between QR and BA. Qatar award tickets are searchable with just 1 avios in the account. When I search for 1 or 2 one-way award tickets ( economy ) it shows as 42500 avios per person ( 85000 total ) but for 3 award tickets (still one-way) for same date, it jumps to 85000 per person ( 255000 total ) . Is this a glitch or award rates increase based on number of ticktets ?
AA redemptions on QR seem to be changing independently of this development, due to the start of AA's JFK-DOH service in June. Now searching for business class redemptions on the AA website produces multiple connection options through NYC on AA metal (with First as well as Business since AA is using a 3-cabin 777 on that route), and often no options with QR. So arguably the new AA service (for as long as it lasts) may take some pressure off Avios redemptions on QR, at least to/from the USA and Doha, if AA basically "forces" traffic through DOH onto that JFK-DOH route. The interesting question is how much award space AA is loading for JFK-DOH - at least as of this week, it seems to be a considerable amount.