British Airways removes Qatar ‘R’ business class from tier point and Avios earning

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• Reddot says:

  3 Nov3 November 08:15

  Dreadful behaviour. Mister and I have an SEK-DOH-SIN in February. Perhaps time to stop building up the Avios stash as much and nest somewhere else since the real use of Avios is for our LON-EDI trips where the cash price can be mad and 4000 Avios go a very long way.

  • Julian says:

    3 Nov3 November 08:25

    Some of BA’s cash prices for flights a day or two before departure truly defy belief. I have seen cash prices of £680 One Way for Club Europe (and an even more incredible £580 in Euro Traveller or Economy) from LHR to PMI when booking only a day or so ahead of departure for £25 and 15,000 or 12,750 Avios or £17.50 and either 7,500 or 6,500 Avios (Peak vs Off Peak). They do of course sell those same Club Europe seats for only about £125 per sector on some less popular dates many months ahead of departure………………………………..

• Kathryn says:

  3 Nov3 November 08:28

  Argh, so annoying…

  I’m flying to Auckland in March with R tickets – am I right in my thinking that if I credit to Qatar’s Privilege Club Qpoints instead, I’ll effectively earn their ‘gold’ which equates to Oneworld sapphire?

  • Kathryn says:

    3 Nov3 November 08:49

    Balls, I cocked up the calculator :/

  • Polly says:

    3 Nov3 November 08:56

    Yea you can, we used to be sapphire with QR, until we changed to avios and tesco clubcard helping…just very bad customer services, and no family plan like BA, unless it’s changed recently.

• Mike says:

  3 Nov3 November 08:35

  Rob – maybe it’s time to do a review and comparison of other reward programs that could be a replacement to BA EC? For example, I’m reading up on qmiles and Iberia and whether I can achieve emerald status with them more efficiently

  • Rob says:

    3 Nov3 November 09:16

    The problem here is that there is no clear ‘best’ oneworld scheme. If you compare with BA:

    All other schemes are priced high for EU to EU flight and there is no RFS, so BA to Germany would be roughly 20k plus £80 vs 9k plus £35 with Avios. Not great.

    Lack of credit card earning opps unless you do Finnair via Amex MR

    No 241 voucher which makes BA cheaper to redeem than competitors

    Status with most OW airlines usually requires you to do 4 flights with them per year

    BA status lasts up to 23 months AND has a soft landing which other programs don’t have

    Other schemes may make sense if you fly or redeem on specific routes and carriers but there is no ‘one size fits all’ answer I’m afraid.

    • Mike says:

      3 Nov3 November 17:38

      Thanks Rob, thats a useful summary

    • Alan says:

      6 Nov6 November 20:13

      Although BA is 18k + £70 from the regions so it’s not that different given most of the other schemes will include the connection for free 😉 Overall still not great value though, I accept – TBH I’ve moved much more to point-to-point LCCs for European trips now and used my PP for lounge access.

• DarreS says:

  3 Nov3 November 09:00

  Super annoying as I have just booked other cash BA flights on specific dates to ensure i make the tier point total combined with my anticipated Qatar flight for silver. Otherwise i would have booked the latest flights using avios. So whilst BA can argue that avios benefits can be withdrawn at any time I feel I have an actual financial loss bere.
  Lets hope they honour existing bookings. Surely that is reasonable

  • Scallder says:

    3 Nov3 November 09:30

    DarreS – not sure how recent ‘just’ is but you can cancel for free inside 24 hours if that would help?

• Pau W says:

  3 Nov3 November 09:03

  Interesting. Reading this in Oz having flown out R from Birmingham. Booked last April when it was a case of pre may bookings not getting credited. Then the goal posts moved and flights after may 1 were. My points actually credited from sat and Sunday yesterday so this is very recent. Thanks to. A Mess up by Expedia our return flights had to be rebooked this summer and are in J. That I count is three lots of luck so I hope a major fall isn’t on the way!
  Cannot see how they can do this to others who booked in good faith. Time will tell or a decent lawyer.

• Elliot says:

  3 Nov3 November 09:06

  We are flying QR business AMS to DPS, flying next week, returning 20 November.

  I currently have the flights linked to our BA Exec account and my wife and I were looking forward to BA Silver status and a large payout of Avios miles. This recent development is very annoying to say the least.

  Should I be immediately re-linking the flights to Iberia Plus instead? Am I right in thinking if I do this, while I won’t get BA tier points I will still get Avios points which I can then transfer into my BA Exec account?

  Thanks!

• Tom says:

  3 Nov3 November 09:06

  Flying tomorrow on R tickets. Now unsure what to do?
  Risk leaving BAEC numbers in or switch to another program to make sure we get atleast some credit?

  • Rob says:

    3 Nov3 November 09:14

    Perhaps remove everything and claim later when clear?

    • Polly says:

      3 Nov3 November 09:50

      We are in the middle,of a CPH HKT trip, and only the CPH doh miles have posted so far. Checking daily for the doh HKT leg! Flown last Friday. Now thinking what to do with the return legs. Am sure they will allow a trip to be completed within the baec? Good idea of yours not put any FFP in and see what pans out.
      We got out of the QR plan a few years ago, as unless c/s. Baec family much better deal.
      Fingers crossed for some logic on Ba s part here.

• Damien says:

  3 Nov3 November 09:11

  I’m so sick of BA these days…. Question regarding Iberia.

  I’m bringing my sister with me to Sydney. She’s flying BA from BHD-LHR-CPH then Qatar all the way to Sydney…. She’s just ruby on BA and her year ends in Jan. I’m starting to think she’d be better to join Iberia and just attribute all the points there. Looking at their requirements I think this journey would do it…. but I’m a bit confused about their collection year….. is it from April 1st till 31st March? So if she did just join and attribute there… then she’d only have Iberia Gold (Saphire) till 31st March 2018?

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