Here’s a cool new opportunity to redeem Avios for travel within Africa, as flagged by Head for Points.
In this post:
Use Avios for travel on Airlink in Africa
Qatar Airways is buying a stake in Airlink, South Africa’s largest regional airline. The airline operates a fleet of roughly 65 jets, serving around 45 destinations in 15 countries. Historically, options for redeeming points on Airlink have been fairly limited, but that has changed.
It’s now possible to redeem Qatar Airways Avios for travel on Airlink, with all redemptions bookable directly on Qatar Airways’ website. The only bad news is that it seems that only economy redemptions are possible, and not business class redemptions. That’s not a huge deal, but it sure would be nice…
Best I can tell, there’s no award chart for these redemptions, so pricing varies based on the exact route. For example, a one-way Johannesburg to Cape Town redemption starts at 12,000 Avios, plus 446.65 ZAR (~$24) in taxes and fees.
Meanwhile Airlink’s most interesting route, from Johannesburg to Saint Helena, starts at 18,000 Avios, plus 2,272.75 ZAR (~$123) in taxes and fees.
Keep in mind that it’s possible to transfer Avios freely between the various currencies that accrue Avios, including Aer Lingus, British Airways, Finnair, Iberia, etc. So this gives you the flexibility to redeem any of those currencies on Airlink.
How useful is this Airlink redemption opportunity?
More redemption options are always a good thing, so I’m happy to see Qatar Airways Privilege Club adding redemptions on Airlink. That being said, I’d say that in most situations, you’re not going to get some massively outsized value here. After all, most Airlink tickets aren’t actually that expensive when paying cash, and business class redemptions aren’t possible.
I’d say the one route where you can get outsized value is on the Saint Helena service, given how high the prices are, due to how challenging the route is to operate. A one-way economy ticket ordinarily costs $500+, so I’d say redeeming 18,000 Avios plus paying the taxes and fees could be a pretty decent deal. Again, it’s not some amazing deal, but I do think it will interest some.
United Airlines also has a partnership with Airlink, so it’s possible to redeem United MileagePlus miles on Airlink. That being said, in a vast majority of situations, you’ll find that Qatar Airways offers better redemption values, so that’s the program I would focus on for these awards.
Bottom line
It’s now possible to redeem Qatar Airways Avios for travel on Airlink, opening up additional redemption opportunities in Africa. The catch is that only economy redemptions are possible, and not business class redemptions. This is definitely something worth being aware of, though don’t necessarily expect that this will be the world’s best use of Avios.
What do you make of redeeming Qatar Airways Avios on Airlink?
Can you do a connecting flight on the same ticket? Where I fly in Africa doesn’t have direct flights outside of the continent. I’d love to be able to do one award ticket LAX-DOH-JNB-LLW.
Airlink is now the only full service carrier in SA. They even brag about that on their flights, for good reason.