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More Avios-earning Qatar Airways £1,000+ business class flights to the Middle East and Asia

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If you have been getting sale withdrawal symptoms, don’t worry! Qatar Airways is back with some more great business class fares out of Europe.

These deals are not as generous as some we saw earlier in the year.  They still represent very good deals for business class travel, however, especially as Qatar Airways has an excellent reputation for the quality of its seats, food and service.  £1,000 to the Middle East is certainly good although admittedly diverting via Europe is hassle for a short route.  £1,100 to Bangkok or Singapore is fantastic value, as is £1,400 to South Africa or the Maldives over peak season.

Qatar 787 350 business class

Remember that Qatar Airways flights earn Avios and British Airways tier points if you add your BA Executive Club number.  Most of the Asian routes below will generate 560 tier points return (140 x 4)!  The Middle Eastern routes, assuming you connect to Dubai or Abu Dhabi, would earn (140 + 40 x 2) 360 tier points return.

As with recent sales, Qatar is discounting heavily from selected cities in Europe.

The best deals appear to be out of Amsterdam, Copenhagen, Oslo and Stockholm at the moment.   This is not surprising – Qatar has to fill TWO Boeing 787 aircraft from Copenhagen almost every day in Business Class.  Scandinavian cities are competing against the cheap long-haul pricing offered by Norwegian.no.  Amsterdam is also a small country with big planes to fill.

If you have a particular route in mind, you should also try out other starting points.  Brussels has had some good deals in the past, for example.

Here are the fare rules for the current offers from Amsterdam:

Book by September 10th

Travel before June 28th

No travel inbound between January 2nd – 6th 2016.  There are no stated restrictions on outbound travel.

Minimum stay 3 days, maximum 1 month

The Scandinavia deals are more restrictive, especially if you want to travel over Christmas:

Book by September 6th

Travel before March 31st 2016

No travel between December 10th – 25th 2015 outbound and January 1st – 10th 2016 inbound

Minimum stay 5 days, maximum stay 1 month

Here are some sample prices – remember that these tickets start in Amsterdam (full list here):

Abu Dhabi – €1,400 (£1,022)

Bangkok – €1,470 (£1,074)

Cape Town – €1,885 (£1,377)

Hong Kong – €1,870 (£1,366)

Phuket – €1,660 (£1,212)

Singapore – €2,375 (£1,735)

Tokyo – €2,075 (£1,516)

Zanzibar – €1,555 (£1,136)

Here are some prices from Copenhagen taken from this list:

Abu Dhabi – DKK 10,795 (£1,055)

Bangkok – DKK 13,995 (£1,368)

Cape Town – DKK 19,345 (£1,891)

Delhi – DKK 12,695 (£1,241)

Dubai – DKK 10,795 (£1,055)

Kuala Lumpur – DKK 15,995 (£1,564)

Maldives – DKK 15,995 (£1,564)

Phuket – DKK 16,495 (£1,613)

Singapore – DKK 16,045 (£1,569)

Here are some prices from Stockholm taken from this list:

Abu Dhabi – SEK 13,945 (£1,070)

Bangkok – SEK 15,495 (£1,189)

Dubai – SEK 13,945 (£1,070)

Johannesburg – SEK 22,545 (£1,731)

Kuala Lumpur – SEK 20,245 (£1,554)

Maldives – SEK 22,395 (£1,719)

Phuket – SEK 15,795 (£1,213)

Singapore – SEK 15,895 (£1,220)

Here are some prices from Oslo taken from this list:

Abu Dhabi – NOK 13,045 (£1,013)

Bangkok – NOK 14,995 (£1,165)

Dubai – NOK 13,045 (£1,013)

Cape Town – NOK 18,595 (£1,445)

Kuala Lumpur – NOK 17,145 (£1,332)

Maldives – NOK 18,195 (£1,414)

Phuket – NOK 16,145 (£1,255)

Singapore – NOK 17,195 (£1,336)

Because these fares start in Europe, there are no black-out dates for the UK Autumn half-term holidays.  I had no trouble getting Copenhagen to Dubai to price up from Sunday October 25th to Sunday November 1st, for example, which is half term for most schools.  (Departures on Saturday October 24th were more expensive.)

When booking with Qatar Airways, it is important to NOT just look at the headline price. It is also important to get the right aircraft. You want to be booking onto a Boeing 787 featuring the latest impressive 1-2-1 business class seating which I reviewed here. The A380 and A350 aircraft have the same seating.

The Boeing 777 seating I reviewed here is fully lie flat but is in a more traditional configuration. The A330 and A340 aircraft have sloping business class seats so are not the best first choice.

The good news is that Copenhagen, Oslo, Amsterdam and Stockholm are usually operated by Boeing 787 aircraft so you should get the newest business class product.

Apart from Oslo, which is further and uglier (!), all of these departure points are easy to reach from the UK and a pleasant place to stay for the night if a stopover is required.  I would have a serious look at these deals for your long-haul travel plans over the next six months.  Have a play around at qatarairways.com and see what you can find.

You should also do the maths and consider whether it is worth cancelling any Avios redemptions in order to rebook on a Qatar cash ticket.

The list of Copenhagen deals is here, the list of Stockholm deals is here, the Amsterdam deals are here and the Oslo deals are here.  Other destinations apart from those listed may well be available at sale prices if you search.

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.

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.

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.

Category

Qatar Airways and Privilege Club

Comments (83)

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

  • Polly says:
    25 Aug25 August 06:34

    Really very good of you Rob to list out example fares like that. So helpful for us punters. Firmly agree with your advice, regarding cancelling or delaying use of a 2-4-1 or avios fare for one of these. We cancelled our F 241 to KUL and are off to HKT end sept ex CPH. It was such good value, and as you say the 1-2-1 config is so much more spacious and brighter than the BA F cabins too. Now using our 2-4-1 in F for SEA next year.

  • Chris says:
    25 Aug25 August 07:08

    Stockholm Singapore available for the GP (17 to 22 Sept) for around £3,600 for 2 in business plus the cost of positioning. Tempted to cancel my (very convoluted) BA award booking and do this instead. Thanks for the heads up.

    • Joe Chapman says:
      25 Aug25 August 07:19

      You can get that price from LHR when they do a UK sale – that’s how much I paid for two seats to SIN next month. May be worth keeping an eye on that?

    • Polly says:
      25 Aug25 August 08:49

      Chris, that seems too much for an ex EU flight, plus positioning…ex OSLO looks way cheaper, but maybe doesn’t work for your dates. Are you very restricted, date wise then? Osl is an ok place to hang out for a day…

  • Joe Chapman says:
    25 Aug25 August 07:17

    There are no A340’s with the sloped seats left in the QR fleet – 3 of them have been refitted as 2 class with flat seats in business, while the final one is being refitted now.

    The A330’s are a bit different – all the A332’s that are being converted have been now, the rest will be leaving the fleet, and they’ve now started on the A333’s. You have a better than 50/50 chance of getting a flat bed with the A330’s now

  • Will says:
    25 Aug25 August 07:43

    Also worth warning people to be careful with connecting flight. For example Zanzibar is I think on an a320 with a stop in Kenya.

  • John Tickner says:
    25 Aug25 August 07:58

    Am I being dim – How do the Asian routes generate 140 x 4 TP’s ?

    • Polly says:
      25 Aug25 August 08:31

      As Raffles explained, it’s per sector, eg. on BA, LHR > BKK it’s classed as one sector only, but on QR eg. to HKT it’s 2 sectors each way eg CPH >DOH then DOH >HKT thus 160 x2 out plus same on return. This just leaves you 40TPs short of BA sliver! plus then you need to complete 4 further flights on BA to reach silver. Some people use their positioning flights to gain some extra TPs. I will for CPH soon, but my OH will be on RFS avios.

      • Danny says:
        25 Aug25 August 10:06

        Re positioning flights to Amsterdam, there are some decent CE prices from Gatwick and City at the moment. For most dates I was looking at in March and April next year they often come in below £200. Some dates were £193. Some of the inbound CE legs were £81 or £193 for return.

        I booked an economy from Gatwick (convenience and lounge access) and return in CE (40 tier points) to City for £124 – 1 more cheap return flight and I will retain silver for 2017-18.

  • John G says:
    25 Aug25 August 08:05

    What do you have against Oslo, which is not as far as ARN and certainly not in any way ugly!!

    • Rob says:
      25 Aug25 August 09:07

      Been a couple of time, never liked it! Lots of concrete!

      • Alan says:
        25 Aug25 August 09:26

        Interesting, I quite liked it, as did my folks when they went on their ex-OSL trip to Oz earlier in the year (they got last minute cheap opera tickets and enjoyed it!)

    • Modern Day Sinbad says:
      25 Aug25 August 09:44

      I was just about to post this question too! I quite like Oslo. I actually prefer it to CPH.

    • Jordan D says:
      25 Aug25 August 10:52

      With the other posters – OSL is a far nicer city that CPH, IMHO!

  • Daz says:
    25 Aug25 August 09:04

    I have taken advantage of these offers. I got the AMS-DOH-KUL for about £1200 x 3 for our holiday in Jul/Aug this year; they are absolutely brilliant, the 787 from AMS is excellent and we were all very happy campers. The 777 flight to KUL was not as good as the Dreamliner but still nothing to scoff at. Used avios for 3 x CE flights from LHR to AMS.

    I would give one word of warning: Don’t stay over in Doha whilst waiting for a connecting flight, it is not worth it. We stayed at the IC in West Bay Lagoon and whilst it was a decent enough hotel; it was not worth paying the entry visa every time you came in to the country; to be honest it is not a pleasant experience; the heat in Jul/Aug is mad making the sea in to a hot-tub. Just use the business lounge in DOH and get flights closer together.

    I will continue to do these offers for flying out to Asia as they are excellent value for money, excellent service and the facilities are brilliant in DOH. I find trying to get BA CW Avios flights a real waste of time for 3 people and cannot be bothered with it anymore. I prefer to use my avios for short haul, interconnections.

    • Polly says:
      25 Aug25 August 09:36

      With you all the way there Daz, as I have been discussing this very plan for a while now. Keep collecting the avios, but if as a couple we can find BA F on our 241, will do, but mainly will look at QR or ex EU BA sales for Asia or the US in future. It’s almost pointless, the searching is too time consuming, as is the collecting, unless via card bonus, or tesco methods.

      Agree about stopovers, just use the fab lounge, and yes make sure it’s J class always. Can you just imagine the World Cup in those.conditions,when you cannot even walk outside in the streets in those temps.? Worst ever decision to award that cup for summer schedule.

      • erico1875 says:
        25 Aug25 August 22:28

        As well as the fact most of the city is dry, I cant see the culture shift to facilitate hundreds of thousands of booze thirsty football fans in such s short time frame

        • Polly says:
          25 Aug25 August 23:22

          Am laughing just picturing that scene, v v funny thought, actually! Think the real UK fans will just sit it out here, and enjoy the pub action on home territory! Safer too! Enjoyed your comment about the miserable Finnair crew too!

  • Daz says:
    25 Aug25 August 09:07

    I just pulled this from my BAE account to show the tier points and avios gained from the flights.

    Tier Avios
    19-Aug-15 Miscellaneous 0 4,500
    19-Aug-15 Flights DOH AMS 140 3,826
    19-Aug-15 Flights KUL DOH 140 4,715
    29-Jul-15 Flights AMS DOH 140 3,826
    29-Jul-15 Flights DOH KUL 140 4,715

    • LM says:
      25 Aug25 August 13:33

      What is the “Miscellaneous” entry here? Guessing by the date it is related in some way..

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