Black Friday Sale: Buy Qatar Airways Avios With a 50% Bonus (1.53¢ Each)

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This Qatar buy Avios promotion has ended. However, you can still purchase Qatar Avios here.

Now through November 27, 2023, Qatar Airways Privilege Club members can buy Avios with a 50% bonus. With this promotion, members can buy Avios for as little as 1.53¢ each.

Please note that this promotion may be targeted. When you land on the Qatar Airways website, you might see a banner promoting this deal for a different amount. However, when each member of the AwardWallet team logs in, we are presented with a 50% promotion.

Regardless, is it worth buying Qatar Avios? Let's look at some examples.

A Note on Buying Avios

Buying points isn't usually the best way to accumulate any award currency — Avios or otherwise. It's much better to earn points and miles through everyday purchases, credit card welcome bonuses, and traveling. However, there are at least a couple of scenarios where buying points can make sense.

First, if your balance is just short of booking that next great redemption, buying points can be the fastest solution. Considering award availability can change in a heartbeat, waiting around for points to post may mean the difference between snagging an award and losing out.

Second, it's often possible to save money by buying points for an award redemption instead of paying the cash fare. Below, we'll look at some examples of this.

Buy Qatar Avios, then redeem Avios through another program

Remember that you can transfer Avios between British Airways, Iberia, Qatar, and Aer Lingus at a 1:1 transfer rate and no cost. That means this buy Qatar Avios deal can be a roundabout way to buy British Airways Avios or buy Iberia Avios at a cheaper rate than you can from one of those programs, depending on what each program is offering and how the prices shake out.

Key Terms of This Deal to Buy Qatar Avios

• Buy or gift Avios and receive a 50% bonus.
• Promotion expires at 11:59 p.m. GMT+3 on November 27, 2023 (3:59 p.m. Eastern Time in the US).
• This promotion may only be targeted to members in North America.
• You can buy Qatar Avios in increments of 1,000.
• The maximum number of Avios a member can purchase in a year is 250,000 (before the bonus).
• Purchases of Avios are not refundable.
• Miles will be deposited in the member's account within 72 hours.
• Purchased miles do not count toward status or tier qualifications.
• Members must have at least 1,000 Avios in their account to gift Avios during the sale.
• Only members with at least 1,000 Avios of earning activity in the past can buy miles.

The last two rules are important. If you don't have the necessary account history, you will see this error message:

Well, that's a bummer…

With this promotion, you can buy Qatar Avios with a 50% bonus. However, although there is just one bonus level of 50%, there are still tiers to this promotion due to how Qatar prices Avios:

• 1,000–4,000: No bonus (2.8¢ per Avios)
• 5,000–10,000: 50% bonus (1.67¢ per Avios)
• 11,000–25,000: 50% bonus (1.6¢ per Avios)
• 26,000–250,000: 50% bonus (1.53¢ per Avios)

When purchasing between 26,000 and 250,000 Avios during this 50% bonus promotion, you'll pay just 1.53¢ per Avios.

The value of Qatar Airways Avios

For economy awards, typical redemption values are around 1.1¢–1.5¢ each. For long-haul premium redemptions, Avios can be worth approximately 3¢ each.

This doesn't mean that you'll always get this much value from every Avios redemption option. In fact, many redemptions with Qatar Airways Privilege Club can be downright bad redemptions. However, the value can be found when you know where to look.

Buy Qatar Avios and Save

Qatar Airways Privilege Club calculates award charges by distance. Qatar recently improved numerous redemption costs. The program also has a “per segment fee”, making the cash portion of redemptions a bit convoluted.

Also, remember that you can buy Qatar Avios and transfer those Avios to British Airways or Iberia. So, we will include a few of those examples below.

Let's take a look at a couple of scenarios where you could save money if you buy Avios instead of paying cash for a ticket.

Chicago to Male, Maldives in Qatar Qsuite

Credit: JT Genter/AwardWallet

• Mileage rate: 85,000 Avios each way
• Typical cash price: $2,524 one-way
• Redemption rate: 2.97¢ per Avios
• Cost to buy 85,000 Avios (at 1.53¢ each): $1,301 one-way

Doha, Qatar to Muscat, Oman in Qatar first class

This option would allow you to check out the famous Al Safwa First Class Lounge in the Doha airport!

• Mileage rate: 21,000 Avios each way
• Typical cash price: $1,010 one-way
• Redemption rate: 4.8¢ per Avios
• Cost to buy 21,000 Avios (at 1.53¢ each): $321 one-way

U.S. West Coast to Hawaii on American Airlines

Like Iberia and British Airways, Qatar only charges 13,000 Avios for economy awards on nonstop flights between the U.S. West Coast and Hawaii. If a cash price on one of these routes is high, you can save by buying Avios and redeeming them instead of buying the flight with cash.

• Mileage rate: 13,000 Avios each way
• Typical cash price: $257 one-way
• Redemption rate: 1.98¢ per Avios
• Cost to buy 13,000 Avios (at 1.53¢ each): $199 one-way

U.S. East Coast to Spain on Iberia — booked through Iberia Avios

Although this Avios sweet spot isn't available through Qatar, you can buy Qatar Avios and transfer them to Iberia Avios to book off-peak business class awards between the U.S. East Coast and Spain for 34,000 Avios each way.

• Mileage rate: 68,000 Avios + $308.31 round-trip
• Cash price: $3,742 round-trip
• Redemption rate: 5¢ per Avios
• Cost to purchase 68,000 Avios (at 1.53¢ each): $1,040 round-trip

Los Angeles to Sydney in business class with a free stopover in Doha

• Mileage rate: 120,000 Avios each way
• Typical cash price: $4,558 one-way
• Redemption rate: 3.8¢ per Avios
• Cost to buy 120,000 Avios (at 1.53¢ each): $1,836 one-way

For other redemption ideas, you can check the Qatar Avios Qcalculator to see how many miles you need.

Buy Qatar Avios With the Right Card to Maximize Your Earnings

Qatar sells Avios via Points.com, so your purchase won't code as a hotel or travel payment. Consider using one of these cards for your purchase:

• Any credit card where you're working on a sign-up bonus. These are the best welcome offers available right now.
• Any credit card with perks you can unlock from spending — such as hotel free night awards, hotel elite status, or airline elite status.
• Your best credit card for everyday spending — such as the Citi Double Cash^® Card or Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card.

Related: Which Credit Card Should You Use to Buy Points and Miles?

Other Ways to Earn Qatar Avios

If you aren't in a rush, there are other (less expensive) ways to add to your Avios stash. You can transfer miles from the following into your Privilege Club account:

Consequently, any card earning these types of points can help you earn Qatar Airways Avios. Even better, if you collect more than one, you can simply pool them together.

It's also possible to combine Avios from Iberia, British Airways, Aer Lingus, and Qatar. This is free and instant and allows you to use your Avios in whichever program provides the best redemption option for the flight you want.

Bottom Line

Qatar Airways currently offers a promotion for Privilege Club members to buy Avios with a 50% bonus. While 1.53¢ per Avios may not sound like anything to write home about, Privilege Club is a bit of a dark horse in this hobby. For some redemptions, this deal could make sense — from Iberia business class to Europe to Qatar's famous Qsuites to the Maldives. If this presents a cheaper option than the cost of buying a flight, it can make sense. Just do the math before reaching for your wallet.

Would you buy Qatar Avios for 1.53¢ each?

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