Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

More amazing sub-£800 Qatar business class fares from European airports

Links on Head for Points may support the site by paying a commission.  See here for all partner links.

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.

Qatar 787 350 business class

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.


How to earn Avios from UK credit cards

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:

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

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

25,000 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 – 20,000 points, FREE for a year & four airport lounge passes Read our full review

The Platinum Card from American Express

40,000 bonus points and a huge range of valuable benefits – for a 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

Huge 30,000 points bonus until 12th May 2024 Read our full review

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.

British Airways Accelerating Business American Express

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

40,000 points sign-up bonus 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 (92)

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

  • Jason says:

    Does anyone know how long avios take to reach your BA account, when flying on Qatar?

    • Chico Dusty says:

      Mine took a day longer than BA normally would, so around 3 days.

      • Jason says:

        Did they credit after you had completed the return flights?
        I flew last Wednesday and still not showing, could do with them posting before the 27th April 🙁

    • Danksy says:

      Bizarrely I did LHR-DOH-SLL and the same return. All abios and TPs posted within 3 weeks apart from the return leg from SLL to DOH and I’ve been unsuccessful at getting them claimed!

      • Ricardo says:

        I’ve had the same experience. Other sectors posted fine, so I raised a claim via the online form on ba.com for my SLL-DOH flight. This was initially rejected, but I called BA and they agreed to re-raise it and it came through about a week after that.

    • Jason says:

      They’ve posted today 🙂

  • richie says:

    Determined to support qatars ‘dubious’ ethics? or determined to save half the standard cost of a business class fare as well as hitting silver in one swoop. Would you stay away from JAL because Japan kills wales? Or not fly on Qantas because how the aboriginals were treated, how about aa because all the American Indians were treated badly. Ps Qatar own a stake in aig now , so flying ba is also supporting those dubious ethics

    • JQ says:

      While Qatar Airways is fully government-owned, what do the policies of the Japanese government have to do with flying Japan Airlines?

      By this time most people who work for them should be aware of their “dubious ethics” and were not forced to sign up or to continue working for them if they want.

    • Mark says:

      Japan kills Wales? 🙂

  • JoshBosh says:

    CX also have some rather aggressive pricing right now. Only really noticed for departures from Stockholm, and all route via LHR. All their long haul aircraft offer 1-2-1 or 1-1-1 in business, and they’re second only to Garuda Indonesia in the business cabin….

    • JoshBosh says:

      in my opinion that is…… (might of had something to do with the bottle of champagne i consumed between boarding and landing at AMS from LHR).

  • Nick says:

    I’m flying Christmas Day AMS-BKK on 787 and A380. Can’t wait.

  • Fredrik says:

    I wanted to look for Houston flights from Oslo, London or Copenhagen but the Qatar website wont allow any European departure cities (except Bucharest and Budapest). Is there an easy answer to this?

    • Polly says:

      Qatar only do direct to the US from Doha, and maybe route you from Eastern EU via Doha connections. I think! But I read it somewhere on their site. So you have to look at other options.

      • JoshBosh says:

        I had been trying that with the Qatar website for the extra Tier points. Came to the same conclusion and had almost settled on Romania. Then i noticed Cairo (ok not Europe but a cheap flight) came in quite a bit cheaper. If you arrive in Cairo on a OW carrier you could just have the luggage checked through and avoid the $25US visa fee in Egypt.

  • Josh says:

    Does anyone know when this offer ends (Oslo flights etc) – got caught out on the CX offer in Feb and don’t want to miss out here – thanks for this.

  • Aceman says:

    Does anyone have the cancellation rules for these fares? Might do one but good chance I’ll have to cancel…

    • Polly says:

      Yes $300 change fees, cancelation loose the lot! No refund! So choose carefully. Thinking about SIN from OSLO or CPH for Phuket trip, as good as F on BA with the 121 config….superb. Was just about to book KUL F on BA 241… Will save that for later now. Tnx Raffles

      • James67 says:

        Thanks Polly, will save me the hassle of looking. I’m out with those conditions. Same for Etihad. Would jump at it if I was travelling 4-6 days from now but not months in advance. I seem to recall £100 QR penalty/change fees but I guess that was for their regukar J fares. You could find your way out to HKT or SIN and get back with Sri Lankan J at reasonable cost. I found them good value for money although prices have jumped a bit since they joined one world.

  • darrenf says:

    last night I booked ARN-DOH-HKG-SYD/SYD-PER-DOH-CPH for £1360. very happy!

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

The UK's biggest frequent flyer website uses cookies, which you can block via your browser settings. Continuing implies your consent to this policy. Our privacy policy is here.