How To Redeem Qatar Airways Avios For Best Value

Avios is a well known points currency, used by a variety of frequent flyer programs, including British Airways Executive Club, Iberia Plus, Finnair Plus, Qatar Airways Privilege Club, and Aer Lingus AerClub.

The Avios currency gives you quite a bit of flexibility, since you can transfer the rewards between some of the participating loyalty schemes. It’s worth understanding the sweet spots of each program, so you can decide under what circumstances you should redeem rewards through there, rather than transferring them to another “flavor” of Avios.

I’ve written about the best uses of British Airways Executive Club Avios, Iberia Plus Avios, and Aer Lingus AerClub Avios, and in this post I wanted to take a closer look at the best uses of Qatar Airways Privilege Club Avios.

How to earn Qatar Airways Privilege Club Avios

Even if you’re not a Qatar Airways frequent flyer, there are plenty of ways to rack up Qatar Airways Avios. Qatar Airways Privilege Club partners with some major transferable points currencies, including Amex Membership Rewards and Citi ThankYou. On top of that, Qatar Airways Privilege Club often sells Avios at a reasonable cost.

You can also easily earn Qatar Airways Avios by transferring over rewards from other Avios currencies. This means rewards earned on cards like the Aer Lingus Visa Signature^® Card (review), British Airways Visa Signature® Card (review), and Iberia Visa Signature^® Card (review), could be turned into Qatar Airways Avios.

Basics of redeeming Qatar Airways Privilege Club Avios

Along with British Airways Executive Club, I think Qatar Airways Privilege Club is one of the two most useful Avios currencies to redeem through. Privilege Club Avios can be valuable for redemptions on Qatar Airways, and can also be useful for redemptions on some unique partner airlines, which otherwise don’t partner with other Avios currencies.

Before we look at redemption options, let me cover a couple of basics of Qatar Airways Privilege Club Avios:

• Qatar Airways Privilege Club Avios expire after 36 months of inactivity, so you need to earn or redeem Avios in that timeframe to keep them active
• Qatar Airways Privilege Club lets you change or cancel an award up to 24 hours before departure for $25, or between three and 24 hours of departure for $100; within three hours of departure, awards can’t be changed or canceled

Now let me share how I’d go about redeeming Qatar Airways Avios. In no particular order…

Redeeming Qatar Airways Avios on Qatar Airways

Let me start with the most obvious use of Qatar Airways Privilege Club Avios, which is redeeming them for travel on Qatar Airways. There are a couple of important things to understand here:

• Qatar Airways Privilege Club and other Avios currencies have access to more Qatar Airways saver level award space than partner programs (like American AAdvantage and Alaska Mileage Plan); so even if the pricing isn’t the best in the industry, this will often be the only practical way to redeem on Qatar Airways
• In situations where there’s not saver level award availability, Qatar Airways offers “Flexi” awards, where you can redeem twice as many Avios and get access to more availability; while I ideally wouldn’t redeem this way, there are still situations where that could represent a good deal

So, how many Avios should you expect to pay for Qatar Airways awards? Privilege Club doesn’t have an award chart for travel on Qatar Airways metal, though you can find the Avios calculator here, which will give you a sense of saver award costs.

Generally you can expect saver level one-way business class award costs to be as follows:

• Book Qatar Airways from the United States to the Middle East for 70,000 Avios
• Book Qatar Airways from the United States to India for 80,000 Avios
• Book Qatar Airways from the United States to much of Europe (via Doha) for 85,000 Avios

However, for longer journeys, the cost can increase. Then the “Flexi” awards would cost twice as much, for situations where there’s not saver award availability.

Qatar Airways is of course known for its Qsuites business class, which is regarded as one of the best business class products in the world.

Redeeming Qatar Airways Avios on JetBlue

One unique feature about Qatar Airways Avios (compared to other “flavors” of Avios) is the ability to redeem for travel on JetBlue, thanks to a partnership between the two airlines. This can be one of the best ways to redeem for travel in JetBlue Mint.

What’s award pricing like on JetBlue?

• For travel in Mint business class, pricing ranges from 74,000 to 78,000 Avios one-way; the 74,000 Avios price is for a domestic transcontinental flight, while the 78,000 Avios price is for a transatlantic flight
• For travel in economy, pricing ranges from 8,500 to 25,000 Avios one-way; the 8,500 Avios price is for the shortest domestic flight, while the 25,000 Avios price is for a transatlantic flight
• Note that in all cases, award pricing is per segment, and there are no carrier imposed surcharges

This could represent a great value. JetBlue has great business class award availability across the Atlantic, and without surcharges, this is a solid value. This is also a great arbitrage opportunity for those with British Airways Avios, to fly across the Atlantic on a great airline at an attractive cost.

Redeeming Qatar Airways Avios on unique partner airlines

With Qatar Airways Privilege Club Avios, you can redeem for travel not only on oneworld partner airlines, but also on some other unique partners. Below is the Privilege Club partner award chart (which excludes JetBlue redemptions, as they have different pricing, as noted above).

In addition to oneworld partner airlines, I wanted to call out the unique array of airline partners you can redeem on, including Bangkok Airways, LATAM, Middle East Airlines, RwandAir, and Virgin Australia. In many situations, Qatar Airways Privilege Club will be the best way to book these partner awards. For example, Bangkok Airways and RwandAir don’t otherwise have many partners that allow you to redeem rewards.

Note that in some cases there will be significant carrier imposed surcharges on these redemptions, which match what you’d pay if booking a revenue ticket.

Redeeming Qatar Airways Avios on oneworld partners

Since Qatar Airways is in the oneworld alliance, it’s possible to redeem Privilege Club Avios for travel on all oneworld airlines as well. That follows the standard partner award chart, which you can find below, with pricing being per segment.

Since you transfer Avios freely, there are pros and cons to booking partner awards through either British Airways Executive Club or Qatar Airways Privilege Club:

• I find that British Airways Executive Club has a better online booking experience for travel on partner airlines, as you can consistently book oneworld airlines online
• Qatar Airways Privilege Club in some cases has more attractive award pricing, and some will appreciate that you can cancel awards up to three hours before departure (as opposed to the 24 hour limit with British Airways), but the booking experience isn’t as good, as in many cases partner redemptions can’t be booked instantly online

Bottom line

Privilege Club is Qatar Airways’ frequent flyer program, and it uses Avios as its currency. One of the nice things about Avios is how you can transfer the rewards between the various programs, which is why it’s worth understanding the sweet spots of each program.

Personally I think the Qatar Airways Privilege Club program is very useful. For one, it’s potentially the best program for awards on Qatar Airways, as it gives you access to more saver award availability, plus access to Flexi awards, which offer more award seats.

On top of that, Privilege Club is useful for partner redemptions. Beyond oneworld, Qatar Airways has unique airline partners, ranging from JetBlue to RwandAir, opening up all kinds of redemptions.

What’s your take on redeeming Avios with the Qatar Airways Privilege Club program?