Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

More Avios-earning Qatar Airways £1,000+ business class flights to the Middle East and Asia

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If you have been getting sale withdrawal symptoms, don’t worry! Qatar Airways is back with some more great business class fares out of Europe.

These deals are not as generous as some we saw earlier in the year.  They still represent very good deals for business class travel, however, especially as Qatar Airways has an excellent reputation for the quality of its seats, food and service.

£1,000 to the Middle East is certainly good although admittedly diverting via Europe is hassle for a short route.  £1,100 to Bangkok or Singapore is fantastic value, as is £1,400 to South Africa or the Maldives over peak season.

Qatar 787 350 business class

Remember that Qatar Airways flights earn Avios and British Airways tier points if you add your BA Executive Club number.  Most of the Asian routes below will generate 560 tier points return (140 x 4)!  The Middle Eastern routes, assuming you connect to Dubai or Abu Dhabi, would earn (140 + 40 x 2) 360 tier points return.

As with recent sales, Qatar is discounting heavily from selected cities in Europe.

The best deals appear to be out of Amsterdam, Copenhagen, Oslo and Stockholm at the moment.   This is not surprising – Qatar has to fill TWO Boeing 787 aircraft from Copenhagen almost every day in Business Class.  Scandinavian cities are competing against the cheap long-haul pricing offered by Norwegian.no.  Amsterdam is also a small country with big planes to fill.

If you have a particular route in mind, you should also try out other starting points.  Brussels has had some good deals in the past, for example.

Here are the fare rules for the current offers from Amsterdam:

Book by September 10th

Travel before June 28th

No travel inbound between January 2nd – 6th 2016.  There are no stated restrictions on outbound travel.

Minimum stay 3 days, maximum 1 month

The Scandinavia deals are more restrictive, especially if you want to travel over Christmas:

Book by September 6th

Travel before March 31st 2016

No travel between December 10th – 25th 2015 outbound and January 1st – 10th 2016 inbound

Minimum stay 5 days, maximum stay 1 month

Here are some sample prices – remember that these tickets start in Amsterdam (full list here):

Abu Dhabi – €1,400 (£1,022)

Bangkok – €1,470 (£1,074)

Cape Town – €1,885 (£1,377)

Hong Kong – €1,870 (£1,366)

Phuket – €1,660 (£1,212)

Singapore – €2,375 (£1,735)

Tokyo – €2,075 (£1,516)

Zanzibar – €1,555 (£1,136)

Here are some prices from Copenhagen taken from this list:

Abu Dhabi – DKK 10,795 (£1,055)

Bangkok – DKK 13,995 (£1,368)

Cape Town – DKK 19,345 (£1,891)

Delhi – DKK 12,695 (£1,241)

Dubai – DKK 10,795 (£1,055)

Kuala Lumpur – DKK 15,995 (£1,564)

Maldives – DKK 15,995 (£1,564)

Phuket – DKK 16,495 (£1,613)

Singapore – DKK 16,045 (£1,569)

Here are some prices from Stockholm taken from this list:

Abu Dhabi – SEK 13,945 (£1,070)

Bangkok – SEK 15,495 (£1,189)

Dubai – SEK 13,945 (£1,070)

Johannesburg – SEK 22,545 (£1,731)

Kuala Lumpur – SEK 20,245 (£1,554)

Maldives – SEK 22,395 (£1,719)

Phuket – SEK 15,795 (£1,213)

Singapore – SEK 15,895 (£1,220)

Here are some prices from Oslo taken from this list:

Abu Dhabi – NOK 13,045 (£1,013)

Bangkok – NOK 14,995 (£1,165)

Dubai – NOK 13,045 (£1,013)

Cape Town – NOK 18,595 (£1,445)

Kuala Lumpur – NOK 17,145 (£1,332)

Maldives – NOK 18,195 (£1,414)

Phuket – NOK 16,145 (£1,255)

Singapore – NOK 17,195 (£1,336)

Because these fares start in Europe, there are no black-out dates for the UK Autumn half-term holidays.  I had no trouble getting Copenhagen to Dubai to price up from Sunday October 25th to Sunday November 1st, for example, which is half term for most schools.  (Departures on Saturday October 24th were more expensive.)

When booking with Qatar Airways, it is important to NOT 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.

The good news is that Copenhagen, Oslo, Amsterdam and Stockholm are usually operated by Boeing 787 aircraft so you should get the newest business class product.

Apart from Oslo, which is further and uglier (!), all of these departure points are easy to reach from the UK and a pleasant place to stay for the night if a stopover is required.  I would have a serious look at these deals for your long-haul travel plans over the next six months.  Have a play around at qatarairways.com and see what you can find.

You should also do the maths and consider whether it is worth cancelling any Avios redemptions in order to rebook on a Qatar cash ticket.

The list of Copenhagen deals is here, the list of Stockholm deals is here, the Amsterdam deals are here and the Oslo deals are here.  Other destinations apart from those listed may well be available at sale prices if you search.


How to earn Avios from UK credit cards

How to earn Avios from UK credit cards (October 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 – 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 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

10,000 points bonus – plus an extra 500 points for our readers 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

Up to 80,000 points when you sign-up and an annual £200 Amex Travel credit Read our full review

American Express Business Gold

Get up to 40,000 points as a sign-up offer 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 (83)

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

  • Roger says:

    I’m still looking for a decent AMS-CPT fare and see there’s a BA sale ex-NL. AMS-LON-CPT + v.v. in CW costs £1,447 each, so close to the QR offer of £1,365 for my dates: shorter travel time but BA conditions 😀 though with an advantage: i could use LON-AMS and AMS-LON sectors on different days within the 24-hour connection time.

    Hmm, decison time looming.

  • Kerry says:

    As a newbie to headforpoints I was quite excited to read about the great options for business class flights to Hawaii and the Far East. My brother and I looked at Hawaii in business for a cost of around £1,200 round trip but ultimately dismissed this because of the cost of hotels (we fancied an extended trip of around 21 days over the Christmas period but were put off by the fact that half decent hotels were still around £150 a night plus. Also BA’s CW, whilst being infinitely preferable to anything up the back, does feels very claustrophobic and having flown First with them a few times it makes the CW offering even less appealing!

    We opted for AMS-DOH-BKK and got a fare of 1,490.49 Euro (approx. £1,080) each with short connections in Doha (just under 3 hours each way) with flights on 787s and A380s (I always wanted to try an A380). The QR 1-2-1 configuration looks great and from what I’ve read pretty much mirrors BA’s first, so pretty pleased about it all!

    Used Avios to get a couple of Y class flights from LCY to AMS (arriving the day before for the outbound as a precaution).

    So, thanks to HFP for giving the heads-up on these deals!!

    • Kerry says:

      Small update – the recent slump in Euro/£ exchange rates plus just under £33.00 non-sterling transaction fee on Amex pushed the flight cost up to £1,129.47 (from 1,490.49 Euro). Still a good deal, but about £100 more than anticipated!

      • Polly says:

        Well done on getting those fares, still v g for an equal to BA F flight experience in most of our opinions on this site. Shame about exchange rate and fees. We are now going to get a LLoyds avios card again for all these flights, and travel as fees are high for us. Hope you manage to get some deftly priced hotels for your trip now….

        • Kerry says:

          Yes, managed some good deals on hotels including Westin Phuket £90 per night including breakfast (although I’m keeping an eye on SPG’s ‘hot escape deals’ as they’re offering that property at between $82 and $93 per night in September and October!

  • Chris says:

    I’m seriously contemplating the AMS-DOH-BKK for a trip we’ve discussed for a while. In an ideal world, we’d have a stop over of a few days in DOHA on the return.

    Has anyone had any experience in doing this? I’ve looked at the fare rules and it mentions 1 free stopover but I don’t seem to be able to build this into the search. Searching as a multi city with a break of a few days in Doha shoots the fare up. Maybe that’s the point 🙁

    I’d value any thoughts. Thanks

    • Rob says:

      I don’t think it is possible – this has come up before. The stopover may only apply on routes where Qatar stops in city A on the way to city B – there are a few of these routes in their timetable.

    • Bob says:

      I’m playing with the Qatar site right now and about to book AMS-DOH-BKK V.V. in Business, but since the shortest-connection outbound options all seem to be sold out I am thinking of the 35 hr option which arrives in Doha at 23:15 and leaves for Bangkok at 21:00 the next day. That way you might have a decent rest and see at least a (little) bit of Doha for the low J-fare..

      • Rob says:

        Sounds good, 24 hours is enough time to take a look around.

        • Bob says:

          Booked, 1470 euros with a good night sleep in a hotel and continuing the next evening at 9 PM, that’s a lot better than falling asleep in the DOH lounge while risking to miss the 8:30 AM connection. Inbound (january) I could choose about any flight option.

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

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