Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

Book an astonishing Manchester – Auckland £1360 deal in the 48 hour Qatar Airways flash sale!

Links on Head for Points may pay us an affiliate commission. A list of partners is here.

Adjusting for inflation, this is the cheapest fare I think I have ever seen from the UK to Australasia in Business Class.

Last January we had Malaysia Airlines offering London to Sydney in Business Class for £1500 but even that is beaten by this deal.  (The comments below mention a £1100 Garuda deal last year which I missed.)

Until tomorrow (14th), Qatar Airways is selling Manchester to Auckland in Business Class for £1360 return.

You won’t get this deal over the Summer school holidays in July and August but apart from that it is fairly open from April onwards until the pre-Christmas period kicks in.    

As usual with Qatar Airways, the deal is one route and one route only.  Birmingham,  Dublin and Cardiff are nowhere close on pricing.  Edinburgh and London departures are about an extra £400.  There are no deals to Sydney, Canberra, Perth etc.  It is Manchester to Auckland or nothing.

These flights will earn 600 British Airways Executive Club tier points return.  That is enough for a BA Silver card although you should remember that you need to have flown 4 one-way cash BA flights in your current membership year before you are promoted.

The aircraft

Manchester to Doha is on a new Boeing 787This has the herringbone seat which I reviewed here and is very impressive.  Qatar has a special website showing off this seat which you’ll find here.

Doha to Auckland is on a Boeing 777.  You might get the new Qsuite but it is more likely that you get the older 2 x 2 x 2 layout which I reviewed here.  It isn’t great for a solo traveller but good for a couple.  And if you are complaining at £1363 then really ….

How to book

You can find out more about the flash sale here.  It ends at midnight on Wednesday.

The UK Qatar Airways booking site is here.

Your best option to maximise your miles when paying is American Express Preferred Rewards Gold.  This offers double points – 2 per £1 – when you when you book flight tickets directly with an airline.  Our review of Amex Gold is here.


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:

Nectar American Express

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

American Express Platinum card Amex

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 card

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.)

Comments (52)

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

  • James T says:

    Hi Rob. If I let my BA silver lapse and then use Qatar to get 600 tier pts in the next status year, can I get up to 23 months silver (ie, balance of year of the flight and then a full year afterwards).

    • Rob says:

      No, because your Membership Year will not reset when you drop to Blue and go back up to Silver.

      This is one of the bigger problems with the BA system – the inability to move membership year end dates, especially within a family.

  • Paul R says:

    Just got returns to Wellington via Sydney £1356 , books into Air New Zealand Economy
    for the SYD – WEL legs , Can Handle that especially on Air New Zealand !

  • Lynn says:

    Thanks, I have booked this. I had booked flights with Iberia and the refund conditions were you lose 100 euros each way. They have taken considerably more than that. I have emailed Iberia including a pdf of the booking conditions, should that be enough? And further suggestions would be very welcome.

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