More updates on the Qatar Airways / Avios / oneworld partnership

I ran a piece recently about the Qatar Airways / British Airways partnership, which is now in place for earning miles on each others planes. Qatar Privilege Club members can also redeem for BA flights from 1st October.

Some more Qatar / oneworld / BA information has dripped out over recent days, so it is worth summarising:

October 30th is the confirmed date for Qatar joining oneworld

As per this news release, you will be able to earn miles on all oneworld airlines (and use their miles on Qatar) from October 30th

No confirmation that you can use Avios on Qatar from October 1st

Whilst we know that Qatar members can redeem on BA early, from the 1st, we don’t know if this will be reciprocal or not. Hopefully it will.

Qatar has dropped fuel surcharges on award tickets via its own programme

This is interesting. Qatar announced in an email last week that it was dropping surcharges on tickets booked on Qatar flights via Qatar Privilege Club. The question now is whether BA will impose surcharges or not for Qatar redemptions.

Qatar has added an extra tier to its programme – Platinum level

This is presumably very annoying to existing Gold members. Qatar Gold members presumably expected to become equal to a BA Gold (ie oneworld Emerald). However, with Qatar sneaking in a new top tier, a Qatar Gold member will only get the benefits of a BA Silver member. I would be very annoyed if this happened to me ….

Qatar routes flying the new Boeing 787

The current cities running the new B787 with the new business class pictured above are (ex-Europe) Copenhagen, London Heathrow, Frankfurt, Munich, Oslo, Stockholm and Zurich.  If you can’t get a seat from London, you may want to try a redemption from one of the other cities.  Non-European routes with 787’s are Bangalore, Delhi, Jeddah and Riyadh.  Fly Qatar on other routes, including from Manchester, and you will get older equipment with older seats.

You can use American Airlines miles on Qatar from September 23rd

Both AA and Qatar have confirmed that reciprocal booking will be available from September 23rd.  Annoyingly, though, it is highly unlikely that they will be bookable on the AA website and it is not possible to check availability on the Qatar website unless you have enough Qatar miles to actually book.  This is therefore likely to involve painful phone calls to AA, where the staff will try to persuade you that Qatar is not an AA partner and then tell you that seats are not available even though they probably are ….

I am personally keen to see Qatar tickets become available to BA members from October 1st, as there is a ticket I would like to book for someone to use during October! Let’s see.

You can learn more about all the points raised above on the Qatar website here.

How to earn Avios from UK credit cards (December 2021)

As a reminder, there are various ways of earning Avios points from UK credit cards.  Many cards also have generous sign-up bonuses!

There are two official British Airways American Express cards with attractive sign-up bonuses:

British Airways American Express

5,000 Avios for signing up, no annual fee and an Economy 2-4-1 voucher for spending ….. Read our full review

British Airways American Express Premium Plus

25,000 Avios and the UK’s most valuable credit card perk – the 2-4-1 companion voucher Read our full review

You can also get generous sign-up bonuses by applying for American Express cards which earn Membership Rewards points, such as:

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold

Your best beginner’s card – 20,000 points, FREE for a year & two airport lounge passes Read our full review

The Platinum Card from American Express

30,000 points and an unbeatable set of travel benefits – for a fee Read our full review

Run your own business?

We recommend Capital On Tap for limited companies. You earn 1 Avios per £1 which is impressive for a Visa card, along with a sign-up bonus worth 10,500 Avios:

Capital On Tap Business Rewards Visa

The most generous Avios Visa or Mastercard for a limited company Read our full review

You should also consider the British Airways Accelerating Business credit card. This is open to sole traders as well as limited companies and has a 30,000 Avios sign-up bonus:

British Airways Accelerating Business American Express

30,000 Avios sign-up bonus – plus annual bonuses of up to 30,000 Avios Read our full review

Click here to read our detailed summary of all UK credit cards which earn Avios. This includes both personal and small business cards.

(Want to earn more Avios?  Click here to visit our home page for our latest articles on earning and spending your Avios points and click here to see how to earn more Avios this month from offers and promotions.)