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For the past few years, it's been easy to write off Qatar Airways' partner award chart. Seemingly no matter the route you searched, Qatar's award pricing was so expensive that there was almost always a better booking option. Savvy travelers knew to transfer Avios from Qatar to British Airways to book the same partner award for fewer Avios.
Now, Qatar Airways has revamped its partner award chart. The good news: Award rates have dropped by up to 60%. The bad news: This new award chart mostly matches one award travelers are already familiar with. Here are the full details.
“Book Award Flights Using up to 60% Less Avios”
That's the headline of the email Qatar Airways sent to Privilege Club members on June 18, 2023. Details? There were none. No links to a website explaining the changes. Just a link to “book now” that took you to a Privilege Club login page.
Still, we were hopeful that there was some substance to this announcement. After all, Qatar Airways Privilege Club has made several positive changes over the past few years, such as slashing award rates to joining the Avios family. It took a bit of digging, but we finally found the new Qatar Privilege Club award chart for partner award flights.
Qatar Airways New Partner Award Chart
Here's the new Qatar Airways Privilege Club award chart for partner award flights:
| Flight distance | Economy | Premium Economy | Business Class | First Class |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1-650 miles | 6,000 Avios | 9,000 Avios | 12,500 Avios | 24,000 Avios |
| 651-1,151 miles | 9,000 Avios | 12,500 Avios | 16,500 Avios | 33,000 Avios |
| 1,152-2,000 miles | 11,000 Avios | 16,500 Avios | 22,000 Avios | 44,000 Avios |
| 2,001-3,000 miles | 13,000 Avios | 25,250 Avios | 38,750 Avios | 51,500 Avios |
| 3,001-4,000 miles | 20,750 Avios | 41,250 Avios | 62,000 Avios | 82,500 Avios |
| 4,001-5,500 miles | 25,750 Avios | 51,500 Avios | 77,250 Avios | 103,000 Avios |
| 5,501-6,500 miles | 31,000 Avios | 62,000 Avios | 92,750 Avios | 123,750 Avios |
| 6,501-7,000 miles | 36,250 Avios | 72,250 Avios | 108,250 Avios | 144,250 Avios |
| 7,001+ miles | 51,000 Avios | 103,000 Avios | 154,500 Avios | 206,000 Avios |
If this award chart looks similar, that's because it essentially matches the British Airways Executive Club award chart for partner award flights — with one notable difference.
Unlike British Airways, the Qatar partner award chart doesn't treat short-haul flights in North America any differently. Instead of artificially bumping these awards to 7,500 Avios each way, you can book award flights under 650 miles for just 6,000 Avios each way:
Besides that, Qatar's new partner award chart seems practically identical to what's offered by British Airways and Iberia.
New Qatar Airways Partner Sweet Spots
Let's help show the power of this new award chart with a few excellent uses.
Short-haul award flights on American Airlines and Alaska Airlines for 6,000 Avios
Perhaps the best sweet spot is booking American Airlines or Alaska Airlines awards under 650 miles in distance for just 6,000 Avios. As mentioned above, this award rate isn't possible when booking using British Airways Avios.
While 650 miles may not sound very far, you can book some routes that would be a pain to drive. For example, Dallas–Fort Worth to Denver is almost a 13-hour drive, but you can book an award flight on this route for just 6,000 Avios:
Then there are routes that can't be driven! For example, you can fly from Miami to the Bahamas for just 6,000 Qatar Avios:
Caribbean/Mexico award flights on American Airlines and Alaska Airlines from 9,000 Avios
Another great use of the distance-based Avios award chart is flying nonstop flights under 1,151 miles to destinations like the Caribbean and Mexico from the U.S. mainland. There are dozens of options from several American Airlines hubs — plus additional point-to-point routes like Austin or Raleigh–Durham to Cancun. Some of these flights can cost hundreds of dollars to book with cash but are available for just 9,000 Avios:
Award flights to Hawaii on American Airlines and Alaska Airlines from 13,000 Avios
You can even fly to Hawaii using just 13,000 Avios! To get this price, you'll need to fly on a nonstop route under 3,000 miles in distance. Dozens of American Airlines and Alaska Airlines routes from the U.S. West Coast are bookable using this sweet spot, such as Phoenix to Honolulu:
Limitations of the Qatar Privilege Club Program
The biggest limitation to utilizing this new Qatar partner award chart is that most partner awards aren't bookable online. The only partner awards bookable on Qatar's website are British Airways and American Airlines:
You can check pricing for partner airline flights on this page. After entering the partner airline, cabin class, origin and destination airports, date(s), and number of passengers, Qatar will pull the flight schedule for that route. Once you select a flight, Qatar will show you the award price.
However, you'll need to confirm award availability through another source — such as British Airways' website — and then call Qatar Privilege Club to book.
Related: How to Find Airline Partner Award Availability
Accumulating Qatar Avios
You have plenty of ways to accumulate Avios even outside of flying Qatar Airways and its partners. Qatar Privilege Club partners with dozens of bank transferrable point programs around the world. Even better, Qatar routinely offers a transfer bonus for converting bank points to Qatar Avios.
For U.S. travelers, Qatar Privilege Club is a direct transfer partner of two major transferrable point programs:
- Citi ThankYou Points: 1:1 transfer ratio; most transfers take less than a day
- Marriott Bonvoy: 3:1 transfer ratio, plus 5,000 bonus Avios for transferring at least 60,000 Bonvoy points; most transfers take three to four days
Or you can leverage the ability to transfer Avios between British Airways, Iberia, Qatar, and Aer Lingus to effectively mint Qatar Avios from any major U.S. transferrable point program:
- American Express Membership Rewards: 1:1 transfer ratio to British Airways Executive Club, Iberia Plus, and Aer Lingus AerClub)
- Bilt Rewards: 1:1 transfer ratio to British Airways Executive Club, Iberia Plus, and Aer Lingus AerClub
- Capital One Miles: 1:1 transfer ratio to British Airways Executive Club
- Chase Ultimate Rewards: 1:1 transfer ratio to British Airways Executive Club, Iberia Plus, and Aer Lingus AerClub
Bottom Line
After years of irrelevancy, Qatar Privilege Club overhauled its partner award chart to mostly match what other Avios programs use. And this totally makes sense. After all, travelers can transfer Avios between programs at a 1:1 transfer ratio with no fees (and transferring instantly). That means travelers could simply transfer Avios to British Airways to book award flights instead of booking through Qatar.
Now, pricing is generally the same whether you book a partner award through British Airways or Qatar. One notable exception, though: You'll want to book short-haul American Airlines and Alaska Airlines awards through Qatar Privilege to take advantage of a better 6,000-Avios award rate.
For those interested in booking Qatar awards, keep in mind that these changes come shortly on the heels of changes to the British Airways award chart for Qatar awards.
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