Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

Some Qatar Airways Business Class flight sale deals we missed, from £696

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

Yesterday I wrote a long piece on the latest business class sale deals from Qatar Airways.  This was offering exceptional fares from as low as £751.

When I researched that article I only looked at the ‘usual suspects’, ie the Netherlands and Scandinavia.  As it turns out, there are also good deals to be had out of France and Belgium.

Qatar A350

Paris

Out of Paris (this page shows the headline business fares from Paris CDG) the stand-out deal seems to be Tokyo at €1,445 (£1,027).

This is cheaper than all of the other departure points for Tokyo I listed yesterday.  Given how quick and easy it is to get to CDG, this is a great deal if you’ve ever wanted to visit Japan – especially as the sale period covers the Spring ‘cherry blossom’ period.

The Maldives out of Paris is €1,520 (£1,080) which is not as good as the £816 deal from Oslo, but easier for anyone who does not have an easy connection to Oslo from a local airport.  Bali is €1,625 from Paris (£1,155).

Abu Dhabi is €1,250 (£888) which, again, is a little more than the best deal I found yesterday but may be more convenient.

Brussels

The ease of getting to Brussels on Eurostar – your ticket even includes the connection to the airport for free – means that this is another interesting option.

The best deals, summarised here, seem to be Dubai / Sharjah / Ras Al Khaimah at €980 (£696).

This is attractive as a British Airways tier point run, as you pick up 400 tier points for the return trip.

Have we ever seen business class tickets to the Middle East from Western Europe under £700 before?!

As a reminder, here are the fare rules for the current offers:

Book by November 6th

Travel between January 15th and June 30th 2016

Minimum stay 7 days, maximum stay 1 month

All of the Paris deals are summarised here.  The Brussels deals are here.  My listing of special fares from Amsterdam and Scandinavia which ran yesterday is here.

PS. If you are not a regular Head for Points visitor, why not sign up for our FREE weekly or daily newsletters? They are full of the latest Avios, airline, hotel and credit card points news and will help you travel better. To join our 70,000 free subscribers, click the button below or visit this page of the site to find out more. Thank you.

How to earn Avios from UK credit cards

How to earn Avios from UK credit cards (June 2025)

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 Card

30,000 Avios and the famous annual Companion Voucher voucher Read our full review

British Airways American Express Credit Card

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 Credit Card

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

50,000 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 points worth 0.8 Avios per £1 on the FREE standard card and 1 Avios per £1 on the Pro card. Capital on Tap cards also have no FX fees.

Capital on Tap Visa

NO annual fee, NO FX fees and points worth 0.8 Avios per £1 Read our full review

Capital on Tap Pro Visa

10,500 points (=10,500 Avios) 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 Card

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.

The American Express Business Platinum Card

50,000 points when you sign-up and an annual £200 Amex Travel credit Read our full review

The American Express Business Gold Card

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.

Category

Qatar Airways and Privilege Club

Comments (43)

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

  • James says:
    4 Nov4 November 05:19

    Good lord. If I were flying anything other than EY F for my coming redemption to Dubai I would be cancelling and booking this.

  • Scott says:
    4 Nov4 November 06:47

    Good thing about the Middle East fare is that minimum stay is only three nights as the flight from DOH-DXB is considered First. Booked a nice long weekend from Brussels

  • Idrive says:
    4 Nov4 November 06:47

    These require such a good timing, quick decision making…and it is so difficult to take decisions on the spot with no firm plans:-( and no big time! I would need at least the weekend but this is ending on Friday.. What to do?

  • oyster says:
    4 Nov4 November 07:33

    Do the middle east first class connections include access to the new F lounge in Doha?

    • Scott says:
      4 Nov4 November 08:25

      Yep should do on the outbound. Not sure about the inbound as you are connecting to Business?

    • Rob says:
      4 Nov4 November 09:07

      Yes, on the way out. Not on way back as it is based on the class you connect to AFAIK.

  • Pawel says:
    4 Nov4 November 07:42

    what about ALG-PHL om a350 its under 800GBP

    • Rob says:
      4 Nov4 November 09:07

      I try to focus on ones with easy positioning – you can’t complain about the price though.

  • Ian says:
    4 Nov4 November 08:09

    Someone noted on FT yesterday that you can book Sofia-Dubai for £580 rt. Ok, it’s not round the corner, but still…

    • Rob says:
      4 Nov4 November 09:06

      Need to be careful you don’t drop under 2,000 miles to Doha or you would not get long haul tier points. And, hey, Sofia ….?!

      • Ian says:
        4 Nov4 November 10:04

        2001 miles, apparently. *Just* squeezes in.

      • Brian says:
        4 Nov4 November 13:31

        What does ‘hey, Sofia’ imply? That it’s too far from London or that you wouldn’t be seen dead in the city? If the former, it’s a three-hour flight, so only an hour more than Oslo – some might feel that’s worth it if the onward flight is cheap enough. If the latter, it may not have the cultural variety of Dubai and the other Middle Eastern cities some people like to frequent, but it is an interesting city nevertheless…

        • Rob says:
          4 Nov4 November 14:50

          It was mainly around the fact that Sofia is not a convenient connection for most people in the UK. I accept that I have no knowledge of whether Sofia Airport is a decent place to spend a few hours.

          • Brian says:
            4 Nov4 November 15:23

            Okay. I was thinking in terms of Sofia being interesting for a stopover for a night – given the uncertainty, I would usually only do an ex-EU if I could stay a night in the starting-point.

  • Jason says:
    4 Nov4 November 09:02

    Hi James67,
    Thought I’d reply to your post, on yesterday’s sale thread, here as its not so long.
    Haven’t made a decision yet, although about to email travel agent.
    I can get decent flights for the times we want st the moment. Yes I was happy with original plans but it just means switching the holidays round and it also means I might not waste a 241 I was probably not going to be able to use.
    I was hoping for a £1k sale fare ex eu to MLE, so £700 ish is too difficult an opportunity to potentially give up. I’ll know more later today.
    If I did change it may mean BA F direct to Dubai rather than current Qatar to Dubai via doh, on a380, which is not a bad substitution.( if I can get 4 seats in F)

    • James67 says:
      4 Nov4 November 10:31

      Good luck with it. You could also check BA to AUH if DXB isn’t available. I think Rob posted they are now flying 787-9 to AUH. Try to establish good relatio ship with travel agent, probably best to chat to them directly than email. They and hotel too would be wise to accommodate you rather than risk losing the business.

      • Jason says:
        4 Nov4 November 14:12

        Thanks James,
        I’ve used agent the last 4 years to Dubai and she has said as long as I re-book 10 weeks prior, to our stay in April, we can switch the deposit.
        Have also managed to get 241’s in F every year, so hopefully it may work out better.
        Just have to try and switch a London Hilton non redeemable booking now, hopefully they’ll be forgiving as I’m going to spend 760k Hilton points by changing it…..fingers crossed.

        • James67 says:
          4 Nov4 November 15:30

          Sounds like you are getting resultsand everything falling into place. I don’t do much with Hilton these days, had too many disappointments. If you get no joy with regular customer care then worth a shot with head office. That worked for me when I had a hilton stay I really needed to be hilton turn into an ihg stay when the old hilton wembley changed hands.

          • Jason says:
            4 Nov4 November 17:44

            Hi James67,
            Hilton changed, deposit to be re-used in Dubai next October, 4 flights Oslo to MLE booked 39462 NOK….bargain …. plus 2 nights in HIA hotel in Doha. Hopefully on Qatar but can’t complain if I have to pay.
            All I need now is BA availability next October for Dubai.
            Thanks for your help.

          • James67 says:
            4 Nov4 November 18:22

            I’m sure you already know the date the seats should be released so just check as soon as possible that day. I have no idea how many seats BA usually release but I would imagine more on AUH than DXB.

          • Rob says:
            4 Nov4 November 22:50

            Not so sure. There was, a couple of weeks ago, a mass release of Dubai seats for Easter next year as I mentioned in the comments at the time. Abu Dhabi tends to see more seats open up earlier.

            Worth noting that the Abu Dhabi is often the earliest Dubai / AUH departure from Heathrow. Unless you want to arrive in Dubai near midnight, getting the Abu Dhabi flight makes more sense.

          • Polly says:
            4 Nov4 November 22:52

            Hi Jason, your hotel will probably covered by QR if your layover is over 8 hrs, which is a nice bonus if they pay. Your MLE trip sounds great. It’s on our bucket list.

  • Mogensen says:
    4 Nov4 November 09:27

    I regularly pay 200-300 pounds for a 25 min. economy class jump r/t between aar-cph flight in an old ATR72 aircraft with SAS. These QR fares are incredible! Got mine secured yesterday…

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

New to Head for Points?

Welcome!  We’re the UK’s most-read source of business travel, Avios, frequent flyer and hotel loyalty news. Let us improve how you travel. Got any questions? Ask them in our forums.

Get 25,000 Avios with the Barclaycard Avios Plus Mastercard

GET A SIGN-UP BONUS OF 18,000 VIRGIN POINTS!

Latest Forum Posts

Get 50,000 bonus points (worth 50,000 Avios) and £400 of dining credit with The Platinum Card

Check reward flight availability instantly for free!

See a whole year of reward seat availability on one page at SeatSpy.com

Special offer: Get 30,000 bonus Hilton Honors points until 14th August 2025

Booking a luxury hotel?

Our luxury hotel booking service offers you GUARANTEED extra benefits over booking direct. Works with Four Seasons, Mandarin Oriental, The Ritz Carlton, St Regis and more. We've booked £1.7 million of rooms to date. Click for details.

SME? Get the only free credit card with points which convert to Avios

Get points worth 20,000 Avios with 'first year free' American Express Gold

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.

Got it!