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Cardless and Qatar Airways Privilege Club announced an improvement to the benefits of the Qatar Airways Privilege Club Credit Cards in the U.S. Effective immediately, cardholders can benefit from a reward fee waiver when using their card to pay for the tax and fee portion of a Qatar Airways award — but only if you spend enough on your card to earn this new benefit.
Eligible Qatar Airways Cards
The new award fee waiver applies to the following cards:
- Qatar Airways Privilege Club Visa Infinite Credit Card
- Qatar Airways Privilege Club Visa Signature Credit Card
Cardholders will receive a refund on the reward fees paid when they make an award booking through qatarairways.com, the Qatar Airways mobile app, or Qatar Airways contact centers.
The refunded award fees will reflect on your credit card statement as statement credits after completing your award flights.
How to Qualify For Qatar Reward Fee Waiver
The saying goes that there is no free lunch, and the same is true with this reward fee waiver. To receive the waiver, you will have to meet certain card spending thresholds per year. You qualify for the waiver as follows:
- Cardholders qualify for the benefit after reaching $15,000 of spending on their card in their first year of card membership. The benefit is valid for 12 months.
- During the subsequent 12 months, cardholders need to meet a minimum spending requirement of $25,000 per year to keep rolling the benefit over.
Is This Benefit Worth the Spend Requirement?
It's tricky to determine whether this benefit is worth it. You will have to crunch the numbers based on your travel plans to see if this works for you. Committing to spending $25,000 yearly on your Qatar co-brand credit card is a major commitment. However, what you get back is what makes or breaks this deal.
The fee component of a Qatar first- or business-class award is up to $600 per round-trip. If you only book one first- or business-class award with Qatar per year, then you save up to $600 at best. That's a modest 2.4% additional return on exactly $25,000 of card spending.
However, if you book several Qatar awards each year, this new benefit can be much more rewarding. If you can avoid $3,000 in award fees, committing $25,000 of spending can be excellent value — working out to a 12% additional return, in addition to the miles you earn.
Our Take
If you can use this benefit well, it can save you a ton of money. However, like many similar benefits, the key issue is whether you will get enough out of it to spend $25,000 on your card every 12 months.
Can you see yourself making good use of this benefit? Let us know in the comments below.
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