Coming (back) soon – spending Avios on Qatar Airways

As you may have read in the press, Qatar Airways has signed a deal to join the OneWorld alliance in the next 12-18 months.

As you can redeem Avios on all OneWorld carriers (current members include American Airlines, Air Berlin, Royal Jordanian, Japan Airlines, Iberia, Cathay Pacific, Qantas and Finnair, as well as BA) this will open up some interesting new redemption options. Qatar has a strong and growing route network, as the press release says:

Qatar Airways‘ network serves 120 destinations in 70 countries in the Middle East, Europe, Africa, North and South America, Asia and Australasia, including oneworld hubs Amman, Berlin Tegel, Buenos Aires Ezeiza, Hong Kong, London Heathrow, Madrid, Melbourne, Moscow Domodedovo, New York JFK, Osaka Kansai, Sydney, Tokyo Narita, and the Kuala Lumpur home of oneworld member elect Malaysia Airlines.

Fifteen of its destinations and three countries – Iran, Rwanda and the Seychelles – will be new to the one world map. More significantly, Qatar Airways will substantially strengthen oneworld’s customer offering by providing superior routing alternatives across many hundreds of city pairs. For example, passengers flying between Asia and Southern Europe or between Asia and Africa will now have convenient one-stop connections not previously available within the oneworld network.

Qatar also has very impressive First and Business Class cabin – here is the business class product going into their new Boeing 787’s:

Good news all round then. Keep an eye out in a year for the official joining date, because – when a new partner joins an alliance – there is usually a period where there is a huge amount of reward availability, before it all gets sucked up.

It is ironic, of course, that this news is announced 20 days before the existing BMI and Qatar partnership comes to an end! It seems there will only be a years gap before ex-BMI Diamond Club members, having transferred their miles to Avios points, will again be able to redeem on Qatar!

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How to earn Avios from UK credit cards (April 2024)

As a reminder, there are various ways of earning Avios points from UK credit cards.  Many cards also have generous sign-up bonuses!

In February 2022, Barclaycard launched two exciting new Barclaycard Avios Mastercard cards with a bonus of up to 25,000 Avios. You can apply here.

You qualify for the bonus on these cards even if you have a British Airways American Express card:

There are two official British Airways American Express cards with attractive sign-up bonuses:

You can also get generous sign-up bonuses by applying for American Express cards which earn Membership Rewards points. These points convert at 1:1 into Avios.

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.

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 12th May 2024, the Capital on Tap Business Rewards Visa card is offering a bonus of 30,000 points, convertible into 30,000 Avios. You must have a Limited Company to apply. Click here to learn more and click here to apply.

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.

There are also generous bonuses on the two American Express Business cards, with the points converting at 1:1 into Avios. These cards are open to sole traders as well as limited companies.

Click here to read our detailed summary of all UK credit cards which earn Avios. This includes both personal and small business cards.