Qatar Airways Privilege Club has recently lowered its Avios award redemption rates for its partners and this could be valuable in your next redemption.
Qatar Airways Lowers Partner Award Costs
As first mentioned by Mainly Miles, this is a very good opportunity for Privilege Club members who book an award ticket as you can save over 50% on long-haul routes.
Up until now, Qatar Airways had fairly uncompetitive partner award rates however, this has now changed as of June 2023.
Here is the old partner award chart published prior to June 2023 for reference:
And here is the new award chart published with the new changes as of June 2023:
The new redemption rates are now similar to what the British Airways Executive Club program offers as they both use Avios as their currencies.
Redeem Qatar Airways Privilege Club Avios On Non-Oneworld Partners
With the lowered redemption rates, there is one great reason to use the Privilege Club Avios – redeeming on select non-Oneworld partners.
Thanks to Qatar Airways’ partnership between:
- Bangkok Airways
- LATAM
- Middle East Airlines
- RwandAir
- Virgin Australia
You are able to redeem awards tickets on the above airlines which are not offered on either British Airways Executive Club or Iberia Plus program. Therefore, I see this revaluation very positively as you can use your Avios for many destinations.
Privilege Club Avios Partner Sweet Spots
Here are some of the partner award sweet spots. Keep in mind that the availability depends on the partner airline’s award fares too.
- A one-way Business Class award from Doha to London costs 62,000 Avios instead of 100,000 Avios.
- A one-way transpacific Business Class costs 154,500 Avios instead of 200,000 Avios.
- A one-way Business Class from Africa to Europe costs up to 92,750 Avios instead of 120,000 Avios.
- A one-way flight between the Middle East to most European cities start from 13,000 Avios.
- A one-way intra-Asian flights start as low as 6,000 Avios.
If you plan to travel domestically within Australia, you can redeem awards on Virgin Australia starting from 6,000 Avios as well.
How To Book Partner Awards From Privilege Club Account?
Unlike booking award tickets on Qatar Airways, British Airways and American Airlines, the Qatar Airways Privilege Club currently does not allow partner redemptions online.
Booking a partner award is a little burden as you have to call the Qatar Airways Privilege Club center by phone to book or submit an online form at least 4 days prior to departure.
This primitive booking process is uncomfortable and time-consuming therefore I recommend you use this process if you want to book non-Oneworld partners.
Summary
Qatar Airways Privilege Club program has lowered the Avios required for partner airline redemption. This is specifically great news as now you can redeem the Avios at half the previous rate.
However, keep in mind that with the exception of Qatar Airways, British Airways, and American Airlines, you would need to either call the call center or submit a request in order to redeem the Avios on partner airlines.