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Amazing business class flight deals from Qatar Airways – Maldives £907, Singapore £837

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Qatar Airways has kicked off another amazing round of business class deals under the heading of ‘Qatar Travel Festival’.

This is a genuinely impressive package:

Very, very cheap business class fares from various European departure points

You can book for travel until 15th December 2016

Qatar Travel Festival

… all of which earn Avios and British Airways tier points

… or, if you credit to Qatar Airways, will earn triple QMiles

… and you can win a prize as well in a free draw for all bookers

You have five days left to book – these deals end on 17th January.

Full details can be found here.

The best fares will not be found from the UK

Here are a few of the more jaw dropping prices.  These deals are all for business class travel via Doha.

Oslo to Cape Town – NOK 11,895 (£914)

Oslo to Bangkok – NOK 10,045 (£772)

Oslo to Maldives – NOK 11,795 (£907)

Oslo to Melbourne / Sydney – NOK 18,395 (£1,414)

Oslo to Singapore – NOK 10,895 (£837)

Copenhagen to Bali – DKK 13,795 (£1,380)

Copenhagen to Bangkok – DKK 8,945 (£895)

Copenhagen to Dubai – DKK 8,045 (£804)

Copenhagen to Hong Kong – DKK 10,695 (£1,070)

Copenhagen to Sydney – DKK 15,495 (£1,550)

Amsterdam to Bangkok – €1,160 (£866)

Amsterdam to Cape Town – €1,380 (£1,030)

Amsterdam to Dubai – €1,110 (£828)

Amsterdam to Phuket – €1,220 (£910)

Amsterdam to Zanzibar – €1,165 (£870)

These routes would all – apart from Dubai – earn 560 tier points return (140 + 140 + 140 + 140) due to the change of plane in Doha.

As ever with Qatar, you should keep an eye on the aircraft.  The most modern seats are on the Boeing 787, Airbus A350 and Airbus A380 fleet.  The A330 and Boeing 777 aircraft are now all fully flat, however.  A couple may even find the older style seating on these aircraft better as there are pairs of seat together.  The newer planes have a herringbone layout where passengers faces away from each other.

My review of the 787 business class seat is here.  The 777 business seat review is here.  The food and drink is the same high quality whichever aircraft you use.

You can book your Qatar Travel Festival deals on this special site here.

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How to earn Avios from UK credit cards

How to earn Avios from UK credit cards (April 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

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.

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 27th May 2025, the sign-up bonus on the ‘free for a year’ American Express Preferred Rewards Gold card is increased from 20,000 Membership Rewards points to 30,000 points. Points convert 1:1 into Avios (30,000 Avios!) and many other programmes. Some people may see even higher personalised offers. Click here to apply.

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 27th May 2025, the sign-up bonus on American Express Platinum is increased from 50,000 Membership Rewards points to a huge 80,000 points. Points convert 1:1 into Avios (80,000 Avios!) and many other programmes. Some people may see even higher personalised offers. Click here to apply.

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold

Your best beginner’s card – 30,000 points, FREE for a year & four airport lounge passes Read our full review

The Platinum Card from American Express

80,000 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, and the standard card is FREE. Capital on Tap cards also have no FX fees.

Capital on Tap Visa

NO annual fee, NO FX fees and points worth 1 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

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

50,000 points when you sign-up 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.

Category

Qatar Airways and Privilege Club

Comments (167)

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

  • Joexc says:
    13 Jan13 January 11:57

    Hi I wonder if someone could help me ASAP, does anyone have experience of not turning up for second leg of a return booking with four segments? Planning a cruise from Middle East to Indian and Thailand in Nov/Dec. I realise if you don’t turn up for first leg that a ticket gets cancelled but what if I turn up for first leg Oslo to Doha but stop there… Will the fact I didn’t take second leg onwards to Bangkok result in my return flights being cancelled? Also could I get my baggage ticketed to Doha not Bangkok as the connection is over 8 hours? Would I need to turn up at the airport and pretend I missed my connection to ensure my return flights are not cancelled?

    • Clive says:
      13 Jan13 January 12:07

      Wouldn’t work Joe. As soon as you miss the second leg the remainder of the ticket will be cancelled.

  • sam wardill says:
    13 Jan13 January 14:31

    The option I am looking into has ~8 hours in Doha from ~midnight. What are the options in that position? Do you have to get a visa and clear immigration to get an airport hotel?

    • great_circle says:
      13 Jan13 January 16:08

      As soon you have to leave the airport (the airside part) you will have to clear immigration. Their lounge is comfy enough for an 8 hour layover IMO.

    • JamesW says:
      13 Jan13 January 16:24

      There is one hotel inside the airport for which you don’t need a visa but it is very pricey.

      • Rob says:
        13 Jan13 January 17:35

        I reviewed it last month ….

        • sam wardill says:
          14 Jan14 January 11:28

          I recall this now. I will dig it out. Incidentally it seems that Qatar Airways will arrange visa and accommodation for non-voluntary transits of between 8 & 24 hours. My transits are 7h30 & 7h45 so this doesn’t help me. I might try to appeal to their better nature (as a O/W Emerald on overnight transit in business) but I’m not holding my breath.

  • Dee says:
    13 Jan13 January 15:37

    Hi,

    I’m still seeing some business class OSL-SYD prices on Gotogate for £1078. are these a mistake?

    • JamesW says:
      13 Jan13 January 16:22

      Holy cow, I’m hitting that up if I can find dates before November (quite a bit before ideally). What were the dates you saw ? Originally only Nov & Dec were showing I think but I thought I’d missed the price anyway.

      Shame you don’t get the 3x base mileage booking through a 3rd party site.

      • Kathy says:
        13 Jan13 January 17:16

        I was finding £1097 in early September but with 19 hour layovers at Doha,

        • Kathy says:
          13 Jan13 January 17:23

          Ah, how about 10th-17th September for £1092? Reasonable 2-3 hour layover times.

      • Brendan says:
        13 Jan13 January 17:22

        I found £1060 on the Irish version of gotogate (using xe as converter) to Sydney, dates 12th – 20th Nov. Short stops too. Bargain

  • Ponti says:
    13 Jan13 January 15:46

    Can you stop over in Doha for free?

    • harry says:
      13 Jan13 January 15:50

      There’s nothing to see or do except eat, it is not a place you’d ever willingly choose to visit as a tourist (unless you were obliged to visit friends/ rellies I suppose). Nice & warm if you got a decent hotel with a pool. But if you had a choice between a couple of days in Doha vs an extra couple of days at your destination, the one to go for is very obvious.

  • JamesW says:
    13 Jan13 January 16:19

    Seriously don’t plan any time for Doha unless you are especially fond of Islamic art in which case visit the museum.

  • JamesW says:
    13 Jan13 January 16:20

    They do offer a free tour service of Doha for people with a transit stopover. Can’t remember the details, google it or there are some mentions of it on Flyertalk.

  • JamesW says:
    13 Jan13 January 16:28

    AAAAAAAAAAaaaaaaaaggggggggghhhhhhhhh…………….

    Thinking of pulling the trigger on a Sydney trip but need to figure out if the Qmiles I’d get in the 3x offer as a Platinum would be worth the extra few hundred pounds vs booking on a 3rd party site.

    Can’t find out on the QR site what the ‘base’ miles are. I really don’t think you get 3x what the QMiles calculator shows you as a Plat in Business class.
    Any ideas how to work it out ?

  • Ponti says:
    13 Jan13 January 17:14

    Should I bank miles to AA, BA, or QR?

    • Lady London says:
      14 Jan14 January 12:28

      see Polly’s reply.

      A if you like USA and 2-4-1 and are “invested in BA perhaps for RFS.

      However AA does have a Platinum (Silver) challenge right now.

      QR apparently equal at best only if like to travel East a lot. I think Polly said hard to use Qmiles to redeem in J as well due to local demand.

      AA and BA better websites so you might have to contact QR more often than you would for BA/AA. Apparently QR level of customer service and communication can make things difficult.

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