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Spend your Avios on Qatar Airways from October

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Back in October 2012, Qatar Airways signed an agreement to work towards membership of the oneworld alliance, which includes British Airways.

This would allow British Airways Executive Club members to spend Avios points on Qatar flights, as well as earn Avios and tier points when flying with them.

Qatar is planning to join in October 2013.

This would represent impressive progress compared to some other sign-ups with oneworld and Star Alliance, but Qatar is likely to have better existing IT systems than many other non-European airlines.

As you can redeem Avios on all oneworld carriers (current members include American Airlines, airberlin, Royal Jordanian, Japan Airlines, Iberia, Cathay Pacific, Qantas and Finnair, as well as BA) this will open up some interesting new redemption options. Qatar has a strong and growing route network, as the press release says:

Qatar Airways‘ network serves 120 destinations in 70 countries in the Middle East, Europe, Africa, North and South America, Asia and Australasia, including oneworld hubs Amman, Berlin Tegel, Buenos Aires Ezeiza, Hong Kong, London Heathrow, Madrid, Melbourne, Moscow Domodedovo, New York JFK, Osaka Kansai, Sydney, Tokyo Narita, and the Kuala Lumpur home of oneworld member elect Malaysia Airlines.

Fifteen of its destinations and three countries – Iran, Rwanda and the Seychelles – will be new to the one world map. More significantly, Qatar Airways will substantially strengthen oneworld’s customer offering by providing superior routing alternatives across many hundreds of city pairs. For example, passengers flying between Asia and Southern Europe or between Asia and Africa will now have convenient one-stop connections not previously available within the oneworld network.

Qatar also has very impressive First and Business Class cabin – here is the business class product going into their new Boeing 787’s:

Qatar Airways 787

Good news all round then. Keep an eye out for the exact joining date because – when a new partner joins an alliance – there is usually a period where there is a huge amount of reward availability, before it all gets sucked up.


How to earn Avios from UK credit cards

How to earn Avios from UK credit cards (December 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

Get 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

30,000 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 – 30,000 points, FREE for a year & four airport lounge passes Read our full review

The Platinum Card from American Express

Huge 80,000 bonus points and great travel benefits – for a large 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

20,000 points (ONLY TO 9TH DECEMBER) Read our full review

Capital on Tap Pro Visa

30,000 points (TO 9TH DECEMBER) plus good benefits Read our full review

There is also a British Airways American Express card for small businesses:

British Airways American Express Accelerating Business

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

50,000 points when you sign-up 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 (26)

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

  • james leverett says:

    If you are flying LHR-DOH-DXB and return, by the time you get back to Doha on return you should have the miles from the first three legs credited to your account. U can then go to Duty Free and use the miles as currency to buy anything (including alcohol and tobacco). Something else to think about.

  • richie says:

    iv just had a thought…. could i fly them today and not enter any frequent flyer info, when they join oneworld i could then go to ‘Claim missing Avios points on partner flights’ on baec ad get miles through that… or would it not credit flights that were flown prior to them becoming oneworld members

    • Rob says:

      Correct. You won’t get anything for flights before the start date. Better to credit to the Qatar scheme and hope you have enough for a one-way BA redemption.

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

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