Qatar Airways has launched another one-week-only promotion on economy and business class seats from London. Some of the fares are not bad, such as Abu Dhabi for £310 (£305 from Manchester). Business class fares start around £1700 and you can get as far as Bangkok for that price.
You can see full details here. You need to fly before December 10th.
The real action, though, is taking place elsewhere in Europe.
As with previous sales, Qatar is discounting very heavily indeed from selected cities in Europe. It can’t be easy, to be honest, to fill TWO Boeing 787 aircraft from Copenhagen every day in Business Class.
With prices like these, it is tempting to cancel any outstanding Avios redemptions and rebook for cash on Qatar. You won’t be paying much more than the Avios taxes and charges figure – use your points to redeem for a hotel when you get there!
Here are some sample prices to Bangkok in Business Class:
ex Amsterdam – £974
ex Copenhagen – £782
ex Stockholm – £784
ex Oslo – £770
ex Frankfurt – £1,155
and here are some prices to Singapore in Business Class:
ex Amsterdam – £1,123
ex Copenhagen – £985
ex Stockholm – £835
ex Oslo – £842
ex Frankfurt – £1,281
Many, many more destinations are available.
To put this in context, I am sitting on Singapore Airlines flights to Singapore in late May where the tax is £600 per person – and that is before the huge number of miles needed on top as I couldn’t get the cheapest saver seats. However, there is no way I will be allowed to take my kids to Singapore via Stockholm and Doha!
Don’t 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.
Remember that these fares earn Avios and BA tier points. Most of the Asian routes will generate 560 tier points return! Don’t forget that you need to book via the Qatar Airways website here to get these fares.
About Head for Points
Undoubtedly irrelevant to most of you but the maximum stay is 3 months.
If buying from the Qatar site when it quotes in for example Danish Krone for an ex CPH flight, can you then pay in GBP to avoid card exchange fees?
Seems not, these fares are not on Expedia etc
They are on Expedia etc, well the ones from Oslo were
I was looking to get a flight to India in business in this sale, and tried to use ITA Matrix to see where was the best place to start and where in India you could go, but it doesn’t seem to have any availability for these offers.
Am I doing something wrong, or does ITA Matrix never have sale fares?
Make sure you have 6 or 7 nights between the outbound and inbound flights. The fares should then show up. Unfortunately ITA Matrix availability and pricing doesn’t appear to quite match Qatar’s website, so some searching around may be necessary – but it is a starting point.
Just taken advantage of this and got two business fares from Stockholm to Tokyo for £1900. Quite a steal.
So with the current Avios changes is it better to credit the miles earn for this flight direct to Qatar’s Privilege Club or back to my BA Exec Club?
Problem with Qatar is that you don’t get the cheap Euro redemptions and you don’t get the BA Amex 2-4-1. I’ve never been through the Qatar scheme in detail but I doubt it is so different (but worth a look). Of course, a double miles promo or similar at the time you fly may move the needle.
I agree, we were in this program for quite a while, and now stay solely with BAEC. QR have a nasty habit of suddenly dropping you to the next tier if you haven’t flown enough with them. It’s reviewed every 6 moths or was, which gives you very little lea way to retain status. I once missed retaining silver by one week. And they won’t budge. You get a letter telling you and it’s suddenly a shocker when you can’t access the biz lounge in T 4. Was v glad to have a priority pass from my platinum card, then my Marco Polo card for access. V diff to get F, and hard to get a J upgrade when booking. Saying that you can upgrade right up to departure if a reward seat appears. The BAEC Is far more flexible, generally. Rob had pointed out benefits. You can only get qr miles from flying, or crediting OW flights to them. Have a read and study their program. Certainly we found it restrictive. Their customer services replies are like from 12 yr olds, take days to reply if you need to add miles etc. depends how you use your miles though.
I’ve decided to keep my 2f1 CW redemption to KUL and then onto SIN.
Yes, I would have been a bit richer Avios wise. But the extra hotel night in CPH, cancellation fees and hassle factor has put me off it.
Nice effort Qatar, maybe next time…..
I have a 2-4-1 voucher booking for GLA – KUL, and reluctantly reached the same conclusion. The hassle factor in going to CPH(either direct or via LHR) and stopping over (probably on both outward and inward flights) wasn’t appealing, especially with the amount of luggage I will be taking over. Also the DOH – KUL sectors are flown on cabins with the older style business class. Overall, by the end of the journey I don’t think I would have been at all relaxed and BA Club World (on this one occasion) is the better option.
Hi WTP and CV3V, if you have enough avios to spare, to upgrade to F, you should look at KUL F this morning. Don’t know when you are both travelling, but lots of availability on F to and from KUL late sept and oct today, v little in nov. We got F both ways just now LHR KUL LHR, using a 241. Then going to HKT on MAS avios RFS. Hopefully all under old rules. Have had the tickets nos emailed to me now, so presume we are safe!
one thing to keep in mind when comparing BA and QR sale fares which are out right now: QR does not credit any Tier Bonus.
Also just off the phone with BA: If you want the old earning rules to be applied the ticket MUST BE TICKETED BY 11:59 PM April 27 – not just booked. Otherwise the Avios will be credited following the new rules.