Heads up – excellent UK Qatar Airways business class sale launched (Perth £1425, Dubai £880)

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Qatar Airways has just launched a new ex-UK sale. This features some fantastic prices given that you are departing from the UK and not somewhere else in Europe.

The headline fare is Birmingham to Perth for £1,250 return in Business Class. This would be an astonishing fare – except that I couldn’t find one. There IS plenty at £1,425 return though.

There is LOADS of availability for Edinburgh to Dubai at £880 return.

The full list of deals is here. You must book by Monday but can travel up to 31st March 2017.

I will write more tomorrow.

But …..

Before you book, I should warn you about one BIG potential snag.

Qatar Airways flights earn British Airways Avios and tier points. A trip to Asia would get you 560 tier points (4 flights x 140 each) which is 90% of a BA Executive Club Silver card. It is a great opportunity.

Last month, Qatar brought in a new ticket ‘class’ for cheap business class seats, ‘R’. I would expect these flights to book into ‘R’ class.

British Airways has been slow to update its partner list. If you click here you will see that ‘R’ class tickets will only earn Avios and tier points if BOOKED after 1st May.

I am not 100% convinced by this – I get a feeling that it will actually apply to anything FLOWN after 1st May. However, the rule as it is written on ba.com is that you would need to BOOK after 1st May and, of course, that isn’t possible as this sale ends on Monday.

If you book one of these deals, you are taking a risk that you will get nothing in British Airways Executive Club. The best you could do is credit the flights to Qatar Privilege Club but you would be nowhere near earning equivalent status.

Of course, for these prices, you probably shouldn’t care.

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

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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:

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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.)

Category

Qatar Airways and Privilege Club

This article is closed to new posts. Discussion continues in the HfP Forums.

Nick says:

19 Apr19 April 17:15

Cheers rob Birmingham to Phuket in business £980 is a bargain!
- Worzel says:
  
  19 Apr19 April 17:30
  
  Nice “Heads Up” Rob -thank you. Can’t take advantage but seems that Nick has done well and hopefully others.
tony says:

19 Apr19 April 17:28

Just a reminder that the ex-BHX/MAN sale by *A and DL/VS runs out tonight as well. Under £1200 to the West Coast with great availability through to the end of next March. Even cheaper to Florida (not MCO).
- James says:
  
  19 Apr19 April 20:26
  
  Now £1057!!!!
  - tony says:
    
    19 Apr19 April 21:47
    
    Yowzer – also sale period has been extended to 20/4…
David says:

19 Apr19 April 17:41

“I would expect these flights to book into ‘R’ class.”

– They do indeed book into R class, as shown on a dummy booking.
James says:

19 Apr19 April 18:19

Haha Literally posted today on another topic about waiting for this!

I think those prices out of the UK, Its worth the points risk.
But it would be very unfair of BA not to credit them for example in March 2017 almost a YEAR after acknowledging the fair class.
Michael says:

19 Apr19 April 18:36

Yes, this sale is a risk for those collecting Avios and BA Executive Club Tier Points.
But it is a non-starter for fellow Oneworld AAdvantage members. R doesn’t appear anywhere on the AAdvantage charts now, or in the future.
This is a bad omen for QR future sales if they fall into R class for AAdvantage members.
Does this signal strains in the QR/AA relationship due to AA’s position on Middle East carriers?
Will says:

19 Apr19 April 18:43

Ref tier points BA actually state: “Almost all flights award Tier Points. The only exceptions are reward flights, agency and industry discounted fares and flights with an airline that is not part of oneworld”

Does a Qatar sale fare technically fall into any of those conditions?
- Will says:
  
  19 Apr19 April 18:44
  
  I fully understand they are not actually posting, I’m just pointing out a pretty direct inconsistency.
- Rob says:
  
  19 Apr19 April 19:08
  
  There are other oneworld airlines where the cheapest business tickets earn nothing – I think Malaysian?
- James says:
  
  19 Apr19 April 19:54
  
  What am I missing?
  
  The link I clicked on taking you to the ‘Collecting Avios and Tier Points” page shows:
  Business / Lowest (R, I) / 150% of miles flown 750 100%
  
  I even did a browser find for the month ‘May’ and got no results.
  
  Is it just a dodgy link?
  - Rob says:
    
    19 Apr19 April 20:06
    
    That is for flights on BA. Click on the Qatar logo and a box pops up with their rates. ( The pop up is why your search failed.)
    - Leo says:
      
      19 Apr19 April 20:11
      
      Shouldn’t have doubted you Rob – see it all too clearly now. Planning LHR-SGN in March – it’s now £1325 on QR and £1499 AY. Potentially 560 TPs on QR and 440 on AY…..do I risk QR?
      - James says:
        
        19 Apr19 April 20:37
        
        Yea, its right there.. Just stupidly didnt click the Qatar link haha.
        
        I guess it depends on what value 440 tier points are to you, based on how many you have already and when your year expires.
        
        personally Im about 30 away from silver so getting 560 will throw me into the middle of silver but I doubt id make gold before time ran out so Im not too bothered about the tier points side of things myself.
      - Rob says:
        
        19 Apr19 April 20:48
        
        You should doubt me, enough examples of why over the years 🙂
      - Brian says:
        
        20 Apr20 April 08:03
        
        I’d have thought, for comparable prices and tier points (give or take the odd hundred – unless you absolutely need them), AY is better because you don’t need to change in Doha.
bill says:

19 Apr19 April 18:44

Just cancelled MAD-PER-CDG and rebooked BHX-PER-BHX at no net increase in cost. The refund covers the new booking even after the refund fee and it’s more convenient routing.
Graeme says:

19 Apr19 April 21:53

2 weeks in the sun at Christmas booked through Expedia for £853 (R/I) using their ‘special fare’. EDI-DOH-DWC. Thanks for the heads up!