In the miles & points world, there are all kinds of rites of passage. Have you redeemed for an overwater villa in the Maldives? Have you visited the Lufthansa First Class Terminal? Have you showered on an Emirates A380? Have you flown Qatar Airways Qsuites?
Of those, redeeming for travel on Qatar Airways is probably the most widely useful and interesting redemption option. In this post I wanted to take a closer look at how to most efficiently redeem miles for travel on this popular Gulf carrier, especially as the best methods have changed over time.
In this post:
Why you should care about redeeming on Qatar Airways
Let’s start with the very basics. Why should you even care about redeeming for business class travel on Qatar Airways? The way I view it, there are two main reasons this is valuable…
Qatar Airways has an amazing business class
Qatar Airways offers one of the best business class products in the world. The carrier has what’s known as Qsuites, which is its award-winning business class that’s available on many jets.
Business class products really don’t get more well-rounded than Qatar Airways business class, between the seats, service, dine on demand concept, amazing food and beverage selection, entertainment, reasonably priced Wi-Fi, amenities, and more.
There’s not an airline that I’ve found to be as consistently high quality in business class as Qatar Airways, and I know that’s a sentiment shared by many.
Qatar Airways has a global route network
A great business class product is of course nice, but what’s most important is that it can take you to the places you actually want to go. Qatar Airways has a massive global route network.
The airline flies to a dozen destinations in the United States, including Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Houston, Los Angeles, Miami, New York, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Seattle, and Washington. While all flights route through Doha, there are all kinds of amazing destinations you can access in one stop.
For the purposes of routing efficiently, you can’t beat flying Qatar Airways to places in the Middle East, India, and Africa, in particular.
The best programs for booking Qatar Airways business class
One of the tricks to maximizing points is to understand airline partnerships, because the airline you want to fly with and the airline you want to redeem points through often won’t be the same. Airline partnerships create some awesome arbitrage opportunities, and that’s also true for travel on Qatar Airways.
Now, there is a major catch, though — Qatar Airways no longer releases the same award availability to all partners, as was recently flagged by Frequent Miler. Among the most popular programs for redeeming on Qatar Airways:
- Qatar Airways Privilege Club, British Airways Executive Club, and JetBlue TrueBlue, get access to the most Qatar Airways saver level award availability
- American AAdvantage and Alaska Mileage Plan get access to less Qatar Airways saver award availability
With that in mind, let’s look at the various ways to redeem for travel in Qatar Airways business class, and I’ll reference the amount of availability with each program.
American AAdvantage
One of my favorite uses of American miles, and also one of my all-around favorite award sweet spots, is redeeming AAdvantage miles for travel on Qatar Airways. While you can redeem for travel on Qatar Airways globally, my favorite one-way business class sweet spots are as follows:
- Book Qatar Airways from the United States to the Middle East or India for 70,000 miles
- Book Qatar Airways from the United States to Africa for 75,000 miles
Those are spectacular values, especially when you consider just how far you can travel. For example, you could fly from Chicago to Doha to Johannesburg for 75,000 miles in business class, which is an amazing value.
These awards can be booked directly on aa.com, and there are no fuel surcharges. The major catch is that the AAdvantage program doesn’t get access to all Qatar Airways award seats nowadays, so finding availability can be a challenge.
How do you earn American AAdvantage miles? American has several co-branded credit cards, and AAdvantage also frequently sells miles directly at a reasonable cost.
Alaska Mileage Plan
The Alaska Mileage Plan program was recently completely overhauled, with new award pricing that’s both zone and distance based. There are lots of great uses of Alaska miles, and you can redeem them for travel on Qatar Airways globally.
As an example, below is the Europe, Middle East, and Africa award chart, which includes travel from the United States to Europe, the Middle East, and Africa, and travel within Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. This would be most applicable for Qatar Airways redemptions.
As you can see, short haul redemptions are a great deal, and an award covering a distance of 7,001-10,000 miles would cost you 85,000 miles one-way in business class. One benefit of booking through Alaska Mileage Plan is that you’re allowed a free stopover, so if you’d like to spend a couple of nights (or more) in Doha, then this would be a great option.
These awards can be booked directly on alaskaair.com, and there are no fuel surcharges. The catch is that the Mileage Plan program doesn’t get access to all Qatar Airways award seats nowadays, so finding saver level availability can be a challenge.
You’ll often find award availability on Qatar Airways at a higher cost (200,000+ miles one-way), and that’s just because Mileage Plan gets access to some non-saver awards on Qatar Airways, but that’s not exactly a great deal.
How do you earn Alaska Mileage Plan miles? Alaska often sells miles at a discount, and you can also rack up miles with the Alaska Airlines Visa Signature® credit card (review) and Alaska Airlines Visa® Business card (review).
JetBlue TrueBlue
The JetBlue TrueBlue program recently added award redemptions on Qatar Airways, and it’s a great use of JetBlue points.
While there’s not a published award chart, you can expect that business class awards between the United States and Doha will start at 70,000-80,000 points, and if you’re connecting, the price goes up from there. The award pricing is certainly competitive, and what’s most remarkable is how JetBlue gets access to more Qatar Airways award space than Alaska and American do, so that’s a great advantage. These awards can be booked directly on jetblue.com, and there are no fuel surcharges.
How do you earn JetBlue TrueBlue points? JetBlue often sells points at a discount, and you can also rack up points with JetBlue’s co-branded credit cards. JetBlue is also partners with major transferable points currencies, including Amex Membership Rewards, Chase Ultimate Rewards, and Citi ThankYou.
British Airways Executive Club
British Airways Executive Club offers improved saver level award availability for travel on Qatar Airways, in line with what Qatar Airways Privilege Club members have access to. Furthermore, award pricing between the two programs is largely aligned.
How many British Airways Avios should you expect to redeem? When it comes to redeeming British Airways Avios, Executive Club no longer has an award chart, but here are some rough numbers you can expect to pay for one-way redemptions:
- 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
You can book these awards directly on ba.com, and there are some mild fuel surcharges on these redemptions, though they’re hardly that high. The main selling point of these redemptions is the ability to book with transferable points currencies. Furthermore, we sometimes see transfer bonuses of 20-40% when transferring points from programs like Amex and Chase, which can get you an astonishingly good deal.
How do you earn British Airways Executive Club Avios? British Airways partners with major transferable points currencies, including Amex Membership Rewards, Capital One, and Chase Ultimate Rewards. You can also freely transfer rewards between the various “flavors” of Avios, including Aer Lingus AerClub and Iberia Plus. Lastly, there’s the British Airways Visa Signature® Card (review), which is quite lucrative.
Qatar Airways Privilege Club
Nowadays Qatar Airways Privilege Club is a compelling program through which to book Qatar Airways business class awards. The award pricing is competitive, and on top of that, you get access to the most availability.
Generally you can expect redemption rates to be the same as through British Airways Executive Club, so a one-way business class award between the United States and Doha will start at 70,000 Avios one-way, with mild surcharges.
Another thing worth understanding about Privilege Club is that you get access to the program’s “Flexi” awards, which offer extra award availability, but for twice as many Avios. This doesn’t get you last seat availability, but it gets you significantly expanded award space. For many people, this could be a great opportunity to snag an award when there’s not otherwise availability.
How do you earn Qatar Airways Privilege Club Avios? Of the major transferable points currencies, Privilege Club directly partners with Citi ThankYou. You can also freely transfer rewards between the various “flavors” of Avios, making it easy to combine rewards.
What is Qatar Airways award availability like?
Qatar Airways has definitely gotten savvier when it comes to how it releases award availability, in terms of furthering its own goals (engagement in the Privilege Club program, and other Avios currencies).
If you’re trying to redeem American AAdvantage or Alaska Mileage Plan miles for Qatar Airways business class nowadays, good luck. I don’t want to say it’s impossible, but it’s much harder than it used to be. Often award availability will be released in spurts — you might find some award availability close to departure, but it sure isn’t easy, especially to and from the United States.
Nowadays you’ll find much better award availability through British Airways Executive Club and Qatar Airways Privilege Club, including way in advance.
Now, of course it’s disappointing that American and Alaska don’t have access to this space, but I wouldn’t say it’s all bad news. The good news is that British Airways and Qatar Airways partner with major transferable points currencies, and on top of that, we do sometimes see transfer bonuses. So you can still get quite a good value on Qatar Airways redemptions.
As much as I personally dislike airlines not making award seats available equally to all partners, I also can’t blame airlines for this. The reimbursement rates between airlines for award seats are typically quite low, and there’s the most upside for an airline with making award seats available it it furthers engagement in the “native” program.
Bottom line
Qatar Airways offers one of the world’s best business class products, which can take you to destinations around the globe. There are lots of ways to redeem miles & points for this product, though it’s not necessarily as straightforward as it used to be.
While American AAdvantage and Alaska Mileage Plan offer great redemption rates on Qatar Airways, they don’t have access to the same award availability that you’ll find through other programs, like British Airways Executive Club and Qatar Airways Privilege Club.
For many people, it might be necessary to update the methods you use to redeem on Qatar Airways, given how the landscape has changed.
If you’ve redeemed miles for Qatar Airways, what was your experience like?
Recently booked 2 pax GVA -> DOH -> PER in business on QR (Q-suites DOH -> PER) for 170,000 AA miles plus US$ 107.80. Traveling next January.
I haunted the AA website for several weeks. There was good QR biz availability for every day the first two weeks of December which was too soon for this RTW trip. Then nothing at all until third week of January. The last ten days of January had...
Recently booked 2 pax GVA -> DOH -> PER in business on QR (Q-suites DOH -> PER) for 170,000 AA miles plus US$ 107.80. Traveling next January.
I haunted the AA website for several weeks. There was good QR biz availability for every day the first two weeks of December which was too soon for this RTW trip. Then nothing at all until third week of January. The last ten days of January had good QR biz availability again at very reasonable cost in miles and $ although a bit later than we would have preferred.
Flexibility matters if you can deal with it.
BTW, We're traveling our domestic home airport -> IAD on UA (short flight in econ) and IAD -> ZRH on Swiss in biz. 2 pax for 193,400 UA MP miles plus US$ 11.20. Then on a separate ticket in econ for the 50 minute ZRH -> GVA for 12,000 UA MP miles.
Hi Lucky, what are routing rules like on all these airlines? In particular, which of these programs would allow you to fly US-DOH-China/Southeast Asia/Australia etc. at a reasonable price? I know for a fact that AA does not (or you would have to book separate tickets).
How much availability does QR release to CX? Is it similar to AA/AS or less? I don't see anything available for any long-haul flights on CX's website in the past.
Amex already shows Qatar as a transfer partner.
BC(before Covid) we used to get availability via Qantas via their website any seat on any flight on Emirates and Qatar usingQantas points. We have closed our Amex Qantas cards and moved to Amex non co branded cards and saving Membership Rewards . Lucky you have advised us well as Amex allows you to transfer to 9 mostly oneworld airlines so you can pick and choose.
Qatar joins the Amex Rewards program soon or...
BC(before Covid) we used to get availability via Qantas via their website any seat on any flight on Emirates and Qatar usingQantas points. We have closed our Amex Qantas cards and moved to Amex non co branded cards and saving Membership Rewards . Lucky you have advised us well as Amex allows you to transfer to 9 mostly oneworld airlines so you can pick and choose.
Qatar joins the Amex Rewards program soon or maybe already has.
Ben can you confirm please. Always stop over in Doha it’s a mini Dubai trying to become Dubai and has its own culture and an air conditioned souk.
Anyone recently changed from AAdvantage membership to QR Privelege Club that can share insights? I'm currently AA PP, but earn most my points flying QR or BA (or cards), so thinking of changing.
If you want a decent chance of booking a premium cabin on Qatar through AA, there's decent availability if you go through Asia (e.g. Tokyo, Osaka, or Seoul). You still have to start looking fairly early. Seems like the same amount of points as the USA routes. Naturally this won't be everyone's cup of tea, but if you're based in HNL like me, it's just as viable as going the USA route. A 9 hour positioning flight in coach is nothing to us!
Earlier this year I was able to book IAD-DOH through AAdvantage for 140K round-trip at the end of May, but this really was a unicorn. There was only one outbound and one return date available in May and June, and I've checked periodically since and it doesn't look like anything else has been released.
This is my major reason for the Loyalty Points hamster wheel (the status is very much secondary), so it's a concerning development.
I tried to login to my Qatar airways account this morning and now they're wanting me to give them an verification code(OTP) but I can't receive the code because it was never setup on my account. I called their customer service and they couldn't help me. They said they would have to escalate it. I had just logged into it last week and wasn't asked for the code so I don't know what's going on.
I logged in also today and it wanted a code. It said it sent it to my phone and the last 4 digits were my number, but either they have the wrong number or it never gets to my phone, so I cannot log in at all.
I've noticed for the past year that its been near impossible to find qatar business availability on AA on a lot of the popular US to DOH routes. I guess this is why.