Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

£818 business class sale bargains to Asia on Qatar Airways (£566 Dubai, £979 Cape Town)

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On Saturday I looked at the impressive £1,150 fares available to Las Vegas this Summer in business class on British Airways and Virgin Atlantic.

If you are heading east, the great news is that Qatar Airways has brought back another round of astonishingly cheap sale fares to Asia from various departure points around Europe.  These fares are bookable for dates until 31st March 2017.

You need to book by Tuesday, however.

Qatar business class sale to Asia

As well as being great deals, you will earn Avios and British Airways tier points as Qatar is a oneworld partner.  A typical Qatar Airways flight to Asia from Europe would earn 560 British Airways tier points (140 + 140 + 140 + 140) return because of the connection in Doha.  That is only 40 tier points short of British Airways Silver status although you also need to fly four BA one-way flights to gain status.

The best deals this time seem to be from Scandinavia – Oslo, Helsinki, Stockholm and Copenhagen.  Helsinki flights do not start until October so ignore those unless you are booking for later in the year.

The Stockholm deals list is here.  Typical fares in Business are:

Bangkok SEK 11,195 (£916)

Dubai SEK 10,545 (£863)

Hong Kong SEK 10,395 (£851)

Krabi SEK 9,995 (£818)

Phuket SEK 10,945 (£896)

Shanghai SEK 11,145 (£912)

Singapore SEK 11,945 (£978)

The Copenhagen deals list is here.  Typical fares in Business are:

Adelaide DKK 12,945 (£1,322)

Auckland DKK 14,195 (£1,450)

Cape Town DKK 11,245 (£1,148)

Dubai DKK 8,045 (£821)

Hong Kong DKK 10,795 (£1,102)

Kuala Lumpur DKK 11,495 (£1,174)

Maldives DKK 11,995 (£1,225)

Melbourne DKK 15,445 (£1,577)

Tokyo DKK 13,995 (£1,429)

The Oslo deals list is here.  Typical fares in Business are:

Adelaide NOK 18,445 (£1,512)

Bangkok NOK 10,095 (£827)

Bali NOK 15,395 (£1,262)

Cape Town NOK 11,945 (£979)

Jakarta NOK 13,195 (£1,082)

Kuala Lumpur NOK 12,145 (£995)

Maldives NOK 11,445 (£938)

Singapore NOK 10,945 (£897)

The Helsinki deals list is here.  Typical fares in Business are:

Abu Dhabi – €745 (£566)

Adelaide – €1,845 (£1,401)

Delhi – €1,095 (£832)

Dubai – €745 (£566)

Kuala Lumpur – €1,295 (£984)

Sydney – €1,895 (£1,439)

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.

The A320 short haul aircraft used from Helsinki have ‘very nearly fully flat’ business class seats even though it is a single aisle plane.  I have never flown these but the feedback is OK.

My review of the 787 business class seat is here.  The 777 business seat review is here.  I reviewed the A380 business class seat here. The food and drink is the same high quality whichever aircraft you use.

You can book these deals via the UK Qatar Airways site here.  Remember that you need to book by Tuesday 31st May and travel before 31st March 2017.


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

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 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 (87)

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

  • xcalx says:

    Totally OT.

    I have a number of £50 Tesco vouchers due to expire on 31st May, did I read a while back that Tesco are not keen on refunding multiple vouchers when only spending the minimum amount ie £2.50 to BA for 600 Avios and a refund of $47.50

    • Rob says:

      Not keen but they still seem OK with it. However refunds count towards your £300 quarterly cap.

      • xcalx says:

        Thanks for that Raffles. I have them over a few accounts and if this quarter goes the way the last quarter I will not have a problem with the limit.

    • Alex W says:

      How long does it take to get the “change” after spending a voucher? I’ve been waiting ages and now missed the end of the quarter, very annoying!

  • Mark LLL says:

    Off Topic, beginner’s question: I’ve 39,000 Qatar Qmiles expiring soon.
    How best should I use the points?
    Whisper it, but I’m flying with Emirates for the foreseeable.
    Have searched HFP for ideas , but still don’t know what to do with the Q miles. Extended the expiry last year (from memory,think I paid USD250 for 12 month extension) -which seems like a waste now.
    Grateful for any advice.
    Thanks Raffles for this marvellous site.

    • Rob says:

      I would be looking at what sort of BA flight I could get.

    • mark says:

      My mother called me as she was stuck in KUL, could not get on her flight to MNL as i had not booked the return yet. I did a dummy booking and it was <35,000 qmiles from MNL to Manchester and about $50…. You can get a long way with 39,000 miles as long as it's 1 way :p

  • Will P says:

    Just taken full advantage of this one and booked up from Oslo to HCMC with a stopover in Doha on the way back! 3 trips in one for £1150 a person in comfort. Fantastic.

  • Ryan says:

    Some long stopovers to AKL – does Qatar offer free hotel rooms in business class for a long stop?

    • Clive says:

      Only if you meet the criteria ie no shorter transits available and minimum connection time is greater than around 7 hours

    • Paul Jones says:

      Ryan,

      You can get the Crowne plaza city from around £60 with a free shuttle service and an on arrival visa in the business area is about £20 well worth it if you have a 10 hour+ stopover. Stayed there many a time and is good value. alternatively use the hotel in airport and just pay for the pool and fitness centre usage about £30 I recall

  • Trent says:

    Qatar offer the free hotel if it’s over 8 hours. Oryx Rotana was the one I got given on my AKL flight for April 2017 with an 8 hour 45 minute layover. You just call after you’ve booked. I called before I booked as well to make sure the flights I was going to book were eligible, so it’s best to do that I think. Hardly any wait time on the UK number both times.

    • Jon says:

      Do you have to have booked direct with Qatar, or will third party bookings (eg with expedia) count?

  • Paul says:

    Yes it’s really handy that you can book via amex they are also offering double points.
    I agree these fares suggest the end of avoid hobby however QR have been very clever and the deals offered last year have not been repeated this year. They support new routes then tend to rise. I wouldn’t right off the hobby just yet

  • David says:

    Is it possible to do open jaw on these fares? I would like to do ARN-HKG / HKT-ARN but trying to book this results in ‘no availability’ error on the return, despite there being availability when looking on the same date for a r/t to each destination.

    • Ralph says:

      Try kayak. QR website has never been great with open jaws. Alternative is to use avios on Dragonair for HKT -HKG for the return

  • s879 says:

    Are these fares for off-peak? I am looking at December xmas holidays from Helsinki to Dubai/ Abu Dhabi return and they are coming up about £850 as opposed to around £566. Do I need to input a promo code?

    • Rob says:

      No code, but Qatar makes few or none available on peak dates.

    • World Traveller says:

      Here’s some of the relevant small print for this sale:
      * Valid on Qatar Airways operated flights from Oslo
      * Travel period: 24th May 2016 – 31st March 2017. (Lowest fares available until 31st August 2016)
      * Blackouts: Outbound from 10th December 2016 until 31st December 2016. Inbound from 31st December 2016 until 15th January 2016.
      * Discount applies to instant purchases only.
      * Child/Infant discounts: 75% child fare & 10% infant fare.
      * Seats are limited and are subject to availability of the relevant booking class.
      * Fares are from fares and include all applicable discounts, fees, taxes and airport charges. Service fees may apply for tickets purchased at Qatar Airways sales offices or through travel agents.
      * Minimum stay: 5 days (Middle East 3 days) Maximum stay: 2 months

      • R.R. says:

        I’ve still managed to get very decent flights to BKK, thank you Rob

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

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