Crazy Qatar Airways business class fares – £470 Bangkok, £1200 Perth, £660 HK etc

OK, there is a medium-sized catch to this headline.  You need to start your trip in Cairo.  And obviously there are safer places in the world than Cairo at the moment.  But read on before dismissing this ….

Qatar Airways is running a ‘2 for 1’ sale for the next couple of days for flights departing from Cairo and various other Middle East / African cities. 

(For a UK resident, Cairo is the obvious starting point.  Your other options are Algeria, Egypt, Ethiopia, Kenya, Morocco, Mozambique, Nigeria, Rwanda, South Africa, Sudan, Tanzania, Tunisia and Uganda!

Whilst you may think that Morocco is also an option, the fares ex-Casablanca are a lot higher than the Cairo fares).

Full details can be found here.

The rules are straightforward:

Two people must travel together as these are technically ‘2 for 1’ prices

Buy your tickets by 13th December

Take your outbound and return flight by 31st March (edited, I originally wrote ‘outbound by’)

18-23 December and 2-12 January are black-out dates

You cannot have Doha as your final destination

Tickets are changeable for a $250 fee

Interestingly, flights from Cairo to Doha are booking into First Class for that segment.

Let’s look at some prices

Qatar Airways flies to most places, and annoyingly they haven’t listed many sample prices on their website.  Here are a couple of examples that I priced up:

Cairo to Bangkok – E£10,608 = £940 = £470 per person!

Cairo to Perth – E£27,184 = £2,408 = £1,204 per person

Cairo to Hong Kong – E£15,078 = £1,335 = £668 per person (harder to find dates)

Plenty of other destinations as well.  Cape Town, for example, works out at £1,070 each, and this is for peak season travel.

Remember that you earn Avios points and British Airways Executive Club tier points when you fly with Qatar, making these flights even better value.

Getting to your starting point is not expensive.  Economy flights to Cairo cost 25,000 Avios and £163 per person.

Clearly this is not an option for everyone.  However, these are exceptional deals if you are in a position to take advantage.

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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:

There are two official British Airways American Express cards with attractive sign-up bonuses:

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.

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.

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.

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.

Click here to read our detailed summary of all UK credit cards which earn Avios. This includes both personal and small business cards.