Qatar launches Amsterdam to Doha – and why it is not the best Avios redemption

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• Phillip says:

  7 Jan7 January 07:11

  Don’t forget Copenhagen with taxes at £146.

• James67 says:

  7 Jan7 January 07:27

  FRA aupposed to be switching to a350 unless that has changed. A huge downside of QR is that if you are heading to se Asia redemption really don’t work as your connecting flight from DOH is going to be another 40k avios CX exAMS is a better option with taxes typically under £100, reportedly superior service, more frequent connections and wider range of Asian destinations than QR for broadly similar avios spend. Even compared to the 25k QR routes such as TXL CX exAMS still wins because of lower taxes, and for most people probably cheaper and more frequent positioning flights to AMS.

  • Rob says:

    7 Jan7 January 08:45

    I have a diary note to write something on Cathay and indeed SriLankan from Europe, as it happens.

    • richie says:

      7 Jan7 January 09:32

      The Sri Lankan lounge at Colombo is brilliant . There was an actual chef carving big thick slices of beef Wellington when I was there in may. On the other hand the one that ba used had a plate of cold meats

      • Andrew says:

        7 Jan7 January 09:47

        The SriLankan lounge if you’re travelling in Business is excellent. If you’re in Economy and using status the lounge is drab, dull with poor food choices, the only plus being a decent shower.

        • Andrew says:

          7 Jan7 January 11:22

          It seems Sri Lankan have recently changed their lounge access rules. As a BA silver member I flew with them very shortly after they joined Oneworld and, after a bit of an argument, was allowed into the Serendib Lounge.

          Their rules seem to be wholly at odds with the general Oneworld rules who should really clamp down on member airlines picking and choosing which alliance rules they want to follow.

        • richie says:

          7 Jan7 January 12:40

          yes in may i was flying with ba with 3 friends in club. myself and partner were silver members so had a choice of 3 O/W lounges, but the other 2 could only use the ba partner lounge as they had no status.

        • James67 says:

          7 Jan7 January 15:53

          Qatar also guilty of this I believe.

    • James67 says:

      7 Jan7 January 16:01

      Look forward to it. The issue with SriLankan anywhere except LHR is which aircraft you end up on. J class rewards to/from London anytime I have looked were few and far between. Revenew J flights on SriLankan can still be great value but not as good as they once were.

  • ankomonkey says:

    7 Jan7 January 09:35

    Does JAL have any reduced Avios redemptions if starting elsewhere in Europe (CDG, FRA, etc.)?

    • anon says:

      7 Jan7 January 09:57

      NRT-LHR is 5974mi which is band 7, as is FRA and CDG.
      HEL and DME are in band 6 which saves 10,000 avios each way in J.

      • ankomonkey says:

        7 Jan7 January 12:58

        Thanks!

        • James67 says:

          7 Jan7 January 15:56

          …and very cheap oneway revenue positioning flights to HEL exUK regions on SAS.

• Richie says:

  7 Jan7 January 08:05

  Qatar fly to Warsaw also, however i wouldn’t think theat route would get a 787 or a350

  • rad says:

    7 Jan7 January 12:00

    They do fly to Warsaw, but it’s an A320 at this time. Apparently supposed to switch to a 787 or A350 mid year.

    • richie says:

      7 Jan7 January 12:44

      if that happens i will use them. or at least try and use them as im wanting to do a trip to australia next year. starting from waw will be a bonus as we are likely to need a few days there prior to the trip. i will then make my wway to australia from doha or dubai. (qantas or Qatar) .

      i may also use it for a trip to maldives, as male is only 25k e/w from doha. , the problem is its also an a320/321 route. and the flight times to male are aways middle of the night it seems, ior at least they were when i was looking last year.

• James says:

  7 Jan7 January 09:05

  Yes if you are an airplane geek then getting a redemption ex FRA is tempting for the impending A350 introduction on that route… Should be a lot more pleasant in economy than the 787 too.

• Martin says:

  7 Jan7 January 10:08

  What about BRU? I snapped up a LHR – DOH – HKG return for a little over £1,400 for HK Sevens in March a couple of months ago. Is a 787 route BRU – DOH as well

  • anon says:

    7 Jan7 January 10:37

    What about BRU? It is in the same avios band as AMS.

• tony says:

  7 Jan7 January 11:21

  MUC seems to have been missed off the list…

  Does anyone know how to get QR to price sensibly on European open jaws? I can get it to work within the UK, but if you try something like MUC-HKG-LON the price skyrockets… Anyone know of sites that work for this?

• Sebastian says:

  7 Jan7 January 13:06

  Is there anyway to get to Salalah with Avios? I know Qatar fly there but whenever I try to look for redemptions I draw a blank.

  • anon says:

    7 Jan7 January 13:26

    I can find QR availability on almost every day I checked.

    Search DOH-SLL.

    • Sebastian says:

      7 Jan7 January 14:01

      Ah, thank you! I was making the mistake of waiting to see if it would appear in the drop down box. It seems Vienna to Salalah is also just under 3,000!

      Now I can get ten nights in a Deluxe Room in the Hilton Salalah for 40,000, get a Business return to Vienna for 50,000 with just £270 tax and I can also get a couple of nights in Vienna on the Club Carlson 241 promo, that’s me done for my winter 2015 trip.

      • Rob says:

        7 Jan7 January 14:59

        Result! Coming back there is probably minimal tax difference between Doha-Vienna and Doha-London (as APD is only due on the outbound) so it might be worth taking the direct flight back even though it requires 15,000 extra Avios. To be honest, when I came back via Zurich from my trip to Doha it was a bit of a drag having to change onto a short-haul plane for the last hop especially as you are pretty tired by that point.

        • tony says:

          8 Jan8 January 06:45

          You mean doing exactly what people travelling long haul and aren’t based in the SE of England have to do pretty much every time 😉

        • Alan says:

          8 Jan8 January 14:20

          Haha yes – I got some rather confused looks from friends when I explained I was flying back SFO-MIA-JFK-LHR-AMS-EDI on an ex-EU fare. The last short-haul legs are always the worst bits!

      • anon says:

        7 Jan7 January 15:35

        VIE-SLL is just over 3,000 miles but BA awards are priced per segment, so it would be VIE-DOH-SLL anyway which is a band 5 (25k) plus band 1 (9k) each way in J.

        • Sebastian says:

          7 Jan7 January 17:39

          Ah! That is a bit annoying re the segments, I may just buy an economy ticket outright instead as at the moment I can get a return from Vienna for £340 and then use the Avios towards a redemption for LA.

          As for Vienna, I actually plan to do four days there as I’ve never been, so I was planning on staying two nights on the way out and two nights on the way back and thus racking up two stays as well as the four nights. However, the tip about the return is helpful especially as I hadn’t realised that before, thanks!

• Rich says:

  7 Jan7 January 20:57

  QR have today announced that they are reducing the fuel surcharge.
  No details yet.

  • Rob says:

    7 Jan7 January 21:43

    Saw this. May not change much, JAL is reducing the fuel surcharge from April but BA taxes on redemptions appeared unchanged when I looked!

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