Bits: Qatar Airways deals from Oslo, Waitrose shopping tracking

News in brief:

Interesting Qatar Airways deals from Oslo

Qatar Airways has launched some interesting deals from Oslo if you need to travel to Asia, Africa or Australasia over the next couple of months.

These Qatar Airways deals are worth a look because:

you earn Avios and BA tier points when you fly with Qatar – 560 tier points, almost enough for BA Silver, with a return in Business Class to anywhere outside India or the Middle East via Doha

the Qatar Airways business class product is excellent

the fares are very good value

You can take a look at the Oslo deals here.  Highlights are:

Cape Town for NOK 15,939 (£1,488)

Auckland for NOK 19,469 (£1,817)

Singapore for NOK 13,989 (£1,306)

….. plus the cost of getting to Oslo and back!  But that is what Avios ‘Reward Flight Saver’ redemptions are for ….

Note that whilst two people need to travel together to get the Economy deals, this is NOT the case with the business class deals.

You need to book by 10th April for flights between 21st April and 20th June.

As Qatar Airways flies a Boeing 787 on the Oslo route, you will get the latest – and very impressive – business class seat which I reviewed here and which is pictured below.

Waitrose shopping now tracking via Virgin Atlantic

My recent article on the ability to earn Virgin Atlantic miles when you shop in-store at Waitrose generated more excitement than most recent pieces.

Following the initial enthusiasm, people started to get concerned when nothing was tracking.  The good news is that the Virgin portal is now catching up.  As of yesterday, I was showing miles for transactions dated 30th and 31st March.

It isn’t clear if that is the date of the transaction, the date it was processed or the date it posted.

Note that the Virgin Atlantic site is now saying that the ‘4 miles per £1’ deal is a special offer which will only run until 24th May.  It isn’t clear what the on-going earning rate will be after that.

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How to earn Virgin Points from UK credit cards (April 2024)

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

You can choose from two official Virgin Atlantic credit cards (apply here, the Reward+ card has a bonus of 15,000 Virgin Points):

You can also earn Virgin Points from various American Express cards – and these have sign-up bonuses too.

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold is FREE for a year and comes with 20,000 Membership Rewards points, which convert into 20,000 Virgin Points.

The Platinum Card from American Express comes with 40,000 Membership Rewards points, which convert into 40,000 Virgin Points.

Small business owners should consider the two American Express Business cards. Points convert at 1:1 into Virgin Points.

Click here to read our detailed summary of all UK credit cards which earn Virgin Points. 

(Want to earn more Virgin Points?  Click here to see our recent articles on Virgin Atlantic and Flying Club and click here for our home page with the latest news on earning and spending other airline and hotel points.)