Crazy Qatar Airways BUSINESS fares – £470 Bangkok, £1200 Perth, £660 HK etc

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OK, there is a medium-sized catch to this headline. You need to start your trip in Cairo. And obviously there are safer places in the world than Cairo at the moment. But read on before dismissing this ….

Qatar Airways is running a ‘2 for 1’ sale for the next couple of days for flights departing from Cairo and various other Middle East / African cities.

(For a UK resident, Cairo is the obvious starting point. Your other options are Algeria, Egypt, Ethiopia, Kenya, Morocco, Mozambique, Nigeria, Rwanda, South Africa, Sudan, Tanzania, Tunisia and Uganda!

Whilst you may think that Morocco is also an option, the fares ex-Casablanca are a lot higher than the Cairo fares).

Full details can be found here.

The rules are straightforward:

Two people must travel together as these are technically ‘2 for 1’ prices

Buy your tickets by 13th December

Take your outbound and return flight by 31st March (edited, I originally wrote ‘outbound by’)

18-23 December and 2-12 January are black-out dates

You cannot have Doha as your final destination

Tickets are changeable for a $250 fee

Interestingly, flights from Cairo to Doha are booking into First Class for that segment.

Let’s look at some prices

Qatar Airways flies to most places, and annoyingly they haven’t listed many sample prices on their website. Here are a couple of examples that I priced up:

Cairo to Bangkok – E£10,608 = £940 = £470 per person!

Cairo to Perth – E£27,184 = £2,408 = £1,204 per person

Cairo to Hong Kong – E£15,078 = £1,335 = £668 per person (harder to find dates)

Plenty of other destinations as well. Cape Town, for example, works out at £1,070 each, and this is for peak season travel.

Remember that you earn Avios points and British Airways Executive Club tier points when you fly with Qatar, making these flights even better value.

Getting to your starting point is not expensive. Economy flights to Cairo cost 25,000 Avios and £163 per person.

Clearly this is not an option for everyone. However, these are exceptional deals if you are in a position to take advantage.

How to earn Avios points from UK credit cards

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 BA Amex American Express card

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 BA Premium Plus American Express Amex credit card

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: