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Qatar lowers Avios prices for oneworld and partner airlines
While it was great news when Qatar switched their loyalty program currency to Avios, it had still not solved the problem of the poor value redemptions on partner airlines within oneworld or its other airline partners.
Qatar recently announced, “You can now reach more destinations with up to 60% less Avios depending on your route. All you need to do is book an award flight with oneworld® airlines or our partner airlines.”
It wasn’t really clear at the time exactly what they meant by this, but it has now emerged that they have dramatically reduced the amount of Avios needed to book flights on Oneworld and partner airlines through qatar.com. In some cases, by up to 60%.
Here is the old redemption chart:
And the new one, which as you can see, is substantially better:
Qatar has a number of partners that are not part of oneworld and can’t be redeemed with BA. These are:
- Bangkok Airways
- Globus
- LATAM
- MEA
- Oman Air
- RwandAir
- TAM
- Virgin Australia
So the change is good news, especially for those airlines that you can’t redeem Avios on with BA.
The bad news is that you can’t book these online or most oneworld partners either. Only Qatar, BA and American Airlines can be booked online. Otherwise, you can fill in a form online (I don’t recommend this, it took well over a week to get any reply when I tried) or call them to book.
It’s easy to transfer Avios between Qatar and BA accounts which is instantaneous.
Qatar Airways Double Avios redemptions
One question I have had a few times is from readers unable to see the headline price when trying to redeem Avios for flights on Qatar using the Privilege Club. The reason why the price appears to be more than quoted in some articles is due to Qatar Airways Double Avios Rewards. Unlike BA’s version they are available to everyone (BA’s version is only for Gold cardholders).
Basically, certain flights will display extra availability on Avios but for double the normal price. You can tell which these are as they will have a green ‘Q2’ logo in the corner of the price. These seats are not available through other partners.
Virgin Atlantic 30% off USA reward flights
Virgin has launched a new offer for 30% off Reward Seats points to and from the US. You need to book by 24th July for travel before 30th September 2023. The taxes and charges are not discounted (no surprise there!).
For example, a round trip to New York would now cost 45,400 points plus £748 with the offer. London to Las Vegas return would be 80,400 + £769.
You don’t need to fly return, and you can also get the discount on a companion voucher booking. The discount is not valid on Gold Reward Flights (reward flights booked with double points) or Points Plus Money bookings. Upgrades to existing bookings are not eligible for the reduction. The discount is only on Virgin Atlantic operated flights.
Routes available:
- LHR to BOS, IAD, JFK, ATL, MCO, MIA, TPA, AUS, LAS, LAX, SEA, SFO.
- MAN to ATL, JFK, LAS, MCO.
- EDI to MCO
You can find the sale page here.
