Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

Earn double Avios points when flying Qatar Airways before 31 January

Links on Head for Points may support the site by paying a commission.  See here for all partner links.

Qatar Airways officially joined the oneworld alliance, of which British Airways is a member, on 31st October.  This means that you can now spend and earn Avios and earn British Airways Executive Club tier points when flying Qatar Airways.

It is traditional for new members of oneworld to run a ‘double miles’ bonus they join, and Qatar has not disappointed.

It is a simple process:

The Iberia Plus link is here and requires registration (you also need to log in to see the page).  Closing date for registration is December 31st.

Details of the BA version are here – it seems that you do not need to register for this and would receive double Avios automatically.

Double Avios runs from November 15th to January 31st 2014 (excluding 20 December – 5 January)

Note that you do not receive double tier points, only double Avios.  Similar promotions are running with other oneworld airlines if you would prefer to credit your Qatar flight to American Airlines etc.

All of the other oneworld airlines are running similar promotions, so have a dig around on the respective websites if you want to credit to American etc.

However, it is not all good news.

The Qatar Airways earning chart has now appeared at ba.com.   It is, to say the least, not very generous.

The cheapest economy tickets will only earn you 25% of miles flown.  Even ‘G’ semi-flexible tickets will only earn you 50% of miles flown.  You need to fly on fully flexible Y or B category economy tickets to earn 100% of the miles flown.

For comparison, British Airways gives you 100% of the miles flown even on the cheapest economy tickets.  If you need to fly to Doha in non-refundable economy, you will earn 400% more Avios on British Airways compared to Qatar Airways.  (During this promotion, the difference will be ‘just’ 200%.)

Business Class earns 125% of flown miles (BA would give you 150%).  First Class gives 150% (BA 200%).  In these classes, you are better off with Qatar whilst the promotion is running.

Don’t forget the pretty impressive business class sale which Qatar Airways is currently running and which I wrote about yesterday.


How to earn Avios from UK credit cards

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:

Barclaycard Avios Plus card

Barclaycard Avios Plus Mastercard

Get 25,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher at £10,000 Read our full review

Barclaycard Avios card

Barclaycard Avios Mastercard

5,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher at £20,000 Read our full review

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

British Airways American Express Premium Plus

25,000 Avios and the famous annual 2-4-1 voucher Read our full review

British Airways American Express

5,000 Avios for signing up and an Economy 2-4-1 voucher for spending £15,000 Read our full review

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.

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold

Your best beginner’s card – 20,000 points, FREE for a year & four airport lounge passes Read our full review

The Platinum Card from American Express

40,000 bonus points and a huge range of valuable 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

Huge 30,000 points bonus until 12th May 2024 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

30,000 Avios sign-up bonus – plus annual bonuses of up to 30,000 Avios Read our full review

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.

American Express Business Platinum

40,000 points sign-up bonus and an annual £200 Amex Travel credit Read our full review

American Express Business Gold

20,000 points sign-up bonus and FREE for a year 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.

Comments (10)

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

  • rachid says:

    Hi,
    I think Executive Club does not grant status miles on QR, unlike with BA or AA.
    Overall, for Gold members, the double miles promotion is not that great.

    • John says:

      But it’s the same with most other oneworld airlines except AA and IB; they all give 25% for the cheapest economy. JL is also a bit of an oddity as it’s 30%, but they do give the status bonus.

  • courtster says:

    If I’m not mistaken hat makes a business return using 788/77L eqp to MEL from FRA £1730 with 600 TPs and 52140 Avios each. We’d be all over that if we weren’t off to BGI to get married!

  • courtster says:

    …as Silver/Gold of course.

  • Susan says:

    I recommended theFRA- MEL flights to friends to earn 600 tps and BA silver. Completely forgot about the 4 BA metal ruling:-(. Would they be better to take out a QR frequent flyer card? Friends are Europe based and may not have BA flights in next few months.

    • Rob says:

      They have the rest of their BA membership year to get the 4 flights, so possible, Wouldn’t credit to Qatar scheme – they are most likely to redeem them in Europe so would benefit from BA’s reward flight saver.

  • Nick says:

    If I have that Marco Polo gold card from my Amex Plat card – do I get the star alliance benefits here on Qatar? eg extra baggage

  • Owen Rudge says:

    I still have a feeling that the BA Qatar earnings list (for economy at least) is not entirely correct. At the very least, a Qatar booking I have shows 75% and 50% earnings according to BA’s Manage My Booking (matching the earnings chart for Qatar’s own programme), yet according to the earnings chart I should only be getting 25% and 50% miles. At least, I hope BA’s made a mistake…

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

The UK's biggest frequent flyer website uses cookies, which you can block via your browser settings. Continuing implies your consent to this policy. Our privacy policy is here.