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Fly Qatar Airways business class to Auckland for £1,125

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Qatar Airways has launched a limited batch of Avios and BA tier point earning sale fares.  These are only available until Monday but you can book for any date in the next 12 months.

This is not a wholesale mega sale as we saw in January.  The prices are certainly good but you need to look carefully for the real bargains.

The good news is that you are now 100% certain to receive British Airways tier points and Avios on discounted Qatar business class tickets.

Qatar Airways A350 Doha

There is bad news for people who missed out on the April Qatar sale because they took BA at their word when they said that Qatar business class sale tickets booked before 1st May but flown later would not earn Avios.  Reports on Flyertalk are that these tickets ARE crediting perfectly happily to BA Executive Club.

The best deal I can find is to Auckland.

Qatar confirmed today (Monday) that Auckland is delayed until 1 February 2017.  You cannot now book tickets for travel before that date at this price.  If you booked over the weekend, I would imagine Qatar will re-route on the A380 via Sydney which is not a huge hardship.

If booking this deal, make sure you book directly on the Qatar website.  This leaves Qatar fully responsible for getting you to Auckland in case the start of services is delayed again – most likely by putting you onto a Sydney flight and buying you a connection.  Booking via Expedia or another agent adds a level of doubt about who would be responsible.

You should also note that Doha to Auckland is currently 17 hours on a Boeing 777 which has Qatar’s older style 2 x 2 x 2 seating.  This is great for a couple but less good if travelling alone.  My review of this seat can be found here.  It will hopefully be switched to an A350 if Airbus can fix the problems which are delaying their deliveries to Qatar.

Warnings out of the way, here are the best prices I have seen advertised.

Whilst not mentioned on their Italy deals page, Qatar is offering Pisa to Auckland for €1,423 (£1,125).  I had no problem finding this price for January 2017 but, of course, you cannot now book for departures before 1st February.  The flight from Pisa to Doha is on a short haul A320 but it does apparently have ‘proper’ business class seating.  From Rome you will pay a lot more – €2,000.

Qatar A380

Another option, and a more convenient one, is from Berlin.  Berlin to Auckland is €1,649 (£1,300) return.  A list of other Qatar sale deals out of Germany is here.

Oddly, you can mix and match these two fares to get an even better price!  Using the multi-city option on the Qatar website lets you book Berlin – Auckland / Auckland – Pisa for just €1,393 (£1,100).

What sale deals are available from the UK?

The list of sale deals from the UK is here.

From Birmingham, which is the only city listed, there is a lot around the £1,600 mark including Hong Kong and Johannesburg.  It is worth trying prices from Manchester, Edinburgh and London as well.

Apart from Auckland, there is nothing in this sale which is a ‘must book’.  It is worth remembering that these fares are good for the next 12 months, however, so you may want to lock in something for Christmas or Easter 2017.

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

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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

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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.

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 12th May 2024, the Capital on Tap Business Rewards Visa card is offering a bonus of 30,000 points, convertible into 30,000 Avios. You must have a Limited Company to apply. Click here to learn more and click here to apply.

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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

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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

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American Express Business Gold

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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 (159)

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

  • Ian says:
    10 May10 May 01:13

    So I booked Berlin > Auckland > Pisa and the manage my booking for BA shows only 420TPs. Is this a mistake? I don’t see how that works out… I thought it would be 140 x 4 so 560TPs… is the Pisa to Doha flight showing as 80TPs right now?

    Hopefully fixed by next year lol a long time to worry about it

    • Stu R says:
      10 May10 May 05:15

      …. you “worry” about TP’s when you’ve just bagged a return to NZ in biz for a steal?!?

      As an aside, I tried to add my booking to the ‘Manage my Booking’ on BA and got a message saying “Sorry, we are unable to add bookings that do not contain any British Airways flights to your account” …. clues?

      • Shl says:
        10 May10 May 20:01

        Stu R this is totally normal. Only if there is any BA flight in your booking you would receive a BA record locator.

        • Stu R says:
          10 May10 May 21:18

          Yes, but Ian above says:
          “I booked Berlin > Auckland > Pisa and the manage my booking for BA shows ….”
          unless his flight from Berlin to Doha carries a BA codeshare number?

          • Ian says:
            12 May12 May 08:22

            I did think that too but I’m just over-complicating things. It should be 600TPs all up but the Doha to Pisa route isn’t loaded into the BA system yet, doesn’t even show on the BA calculator too. Thanks for the help anyway 🙂

      • Ian says:
        12 May12 May 08:14

        lol I’m not worried just curious. It’ll be the end of my TP year and I’ll be very close to 10,000TPs this year… just want it for a screenshot to be honest.

        I know its a steal.. but 19 hours on a plane even in business is not exciting. I would still much pefer 3-4 flights with layovers enroute but def not complaining! 🙂

  • janice says:
    10 May10 May 12:00

    Jest had a horrendous experience with Qatar. Suffice to say, if they tell you that although your flight is delayed, they’re holding the connection for you…. they’re lying and they’re getting you to Doha to strand you rather than admitting failure and rerouting you.

  • Trent says:
    12 May12 May 12:15

    Those flights I bought for €1,347 to AKL are now priced in I class at €4,272. What an absolute bargain! Thank you again for the heads up!

  • Han nz says:
    16 May16 May 22:56

    I booked a flight from Doha to Auckland a few weeks ago leaving on the 22nd December 2016… Has my flight been cancelled?! I haven’t heard anything from Qatar airlines about this yet?! Ahhhhhhhh!!

    • Yan says:
      17 May17 May 01:26

      Yes, the launch flight has been delayed to 6 Feb 2017 and may even slips further until next April

      Call QR asap and explore your rebook / reroute / refund options

  • Mary says:
    17 May17 May 22:55

    I booked a business class flight Athens – Auckland via Doha (which includes the new direct Doha-AKL flight) . The booking was made via the Qatar web site for January 2017 and the flights were confirmed in April 2016. Have now been emailed a new ticket re-routing me to Sydney, Australia. On contacting Qatar Airlines Athens office I was told I could not be re-routed to Auckland and if I wanted to continue to Auckland from Sydney it would be at my own expense. I was offered a full refund or the option of rebooking for February 2017, more than a month after the original booking.

    • harry says:
      17 May17 May 23:06

      Not so bad, you get a full refund and plenty of time to find another route.

      • Qatar virgin says:
        18 May18 May 14:06

        Dont agree Harry. People booked fares with Qatar because they were cheap. These weren’t mistake fares that being booked. They were legit fares from Qatar. Once people book their flights they tend to make subsequent bookings for hotels, cars and time off etc… Qatar should be more flexible and help get people to their destinations with the least impact. In my instance Qatar have put me on a DOH-AKL flight that leaves before my PSA – DOH arrives – so its effectively cancelling my tickets as they are unusable. They are forcing people into cancelling their flights.

    • Jim says:
      17 May17 May 23:21

      EC261 applies, so they can’t just try and leave you in Sydney rather the AKL. Qatar has a contractual obligation to get ticket-holders to their final destination; and with a minimum of inconvenience.

      I would let this run for a few weeks as there is still some shake out to happen, they offered too generous terms to change originally & have now volte faced and introduced draconian rules that are currently illegal under EC law.

      No doubt they will eventually find a happy medium. In the meantime check out flyertalk as this is being discussed a lot on their currently.

      • Kerry says:
        18 May18 May 18:09

        My brother and I booked PSA/AKL/PSA departing in December. As with Mary we found that our booking had been amended to go to Sydney, with the DOH/SYD flight departing before the PSA/DOH flight arrived (and vice versa!). I had a call from a reservations agent at Qatar who initially told me we could fly to Sydney and travel onto Auckland at our own expense or pay the extra taxes and go to Auckland via Hong Kong. When I called back to ascertain what the taxes would be I was then given a different story as, evidently, the first agent hadn’t seen the email from Doha setting out the official position on this.

        The net outcome was we’d have pay a considerable increase to fly to Auckland via Hong Kong or to simply fly to Sydney and make our own way there. The only two acceptable options were a refund or rebooking in February at the original promotional fare. We chose the latter option as, to be frank, it made no real difference to us to go in December or February.

        At the end of the day, a fare of just over £1,050 for business class to Auckland and back is incredibly good so I guess it’s understandable they want to limit their exposure.

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