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Bits: Qatar Airways selling UK-Dubai for £975 in Business, new BA Innsbruck flight launched

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News in brief:

Qatar Airways launches Dubai in business class for £975

Qatar Airways has launched an exceptionally good fare to Dubai – just £975 return.  I have NEVER seen flights to the Middle East so cheap in business class from a UK starting point.

At the moment, this is bookable from Birmingham, Edinburgh and Manchester.  I have been told that a London sale price will launch next week which may or may not be the same.

Details are on this special webpage here.  You must book by 21st July.  Seats are available until May 2017 although some dates may be blacked out.

If you are sitting on an Avios redemption to Dubai you need to think about this.  Swapping your redemption – with over £500 of taxes – for a £975 cash ticket is well worth considering, especially if you were having to connect via Heathrow from a regional airport.

Remember that Qatar Airways flights earn Avios and British Airways tier points.  You would get 360 tier points return for this routing.  Here is my review of Qatar’s Boeing 787 business class seating.  There is a special Qatar 787 microsite here if your potential flight is on one.

More details are on the Qatar website here.  I will let you know if a similar Heathrow fare appears.

Qatar 350

British Airways launches Heathrow to Innsbruck

British Airways announced a new service to Innsbruck from Heathrow on Wednesday.  This will complement the existing Gatwick service.

It launches on 4th December.  There will be four flights per week during the Winter season (Wednesday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday) and two per week during Summer 2017.

As always with new routes, there should be excellent Avios availability at the moment as all of the flights should have been loaded into the system with at least two Club Europe and four Euro Traveller seats available.


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

25,000 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 a huge range of valuable benefits – for a 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

Huge 30,000 points bonus until 12th May 2024 Read our full review

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

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

40,000 points sign-up bonus 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.

Comments (59)

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

  • Callum says:

    Had booked EDI-LHR-DXB for £1243 plus 38.5k in Avios CW. Saw this, got same dates priced at £1k over xmas, luckily I was in the 24 hr window so got full refund from Ba plus all avios back, and then booked this, looking fwd to Qatar business on 787, thanks Raffles for all your hard work with the site 🙂

  • JacarandaSpa says:

    Thought I’d wait for the Heathrow ones, hope they do it now as all the regionals appear to have gone (worried face!).

    • Rob says:

      Plan was to launch it tomorrow but things could have changed.

      • JacarandaSpa says:

        Expedia had “special” fares with Qatar yesterday (£1018 from Heathrow) but I pontificated because it was only on the A330 and couldn’t work wether they would be on lie flat or angled.

  • Talay says:

    OT and sorry to appear daft but just what do I get if I rush to earn BA status points ?

    I usually fly out to Asia long haul and have been using Etihad for the last few years largely because of the (then) very generous 3x and 4x mileage accruals, free chauffeur and a pretty good product.

    Well, as the mileage bonuses have largely dried up and the pricing is all over the place and with me doing more Europe routes then I have the opportunity to a) use BA Club Europe and b) Qatar (BA Club World product does not inspire on my route).

    So from my calculations, I would lose my chauffeur, lose my status (temporarily), have to pay more for Club Europe (I own the company) than an alternative, have to stick to Qatar or BA but would but woul get BA status which offers just what on Qatar and elewhere ?

    Thanks

    • Rob says:

      Only major Silver benefit – oneworld lounge access and free BA seat selection

      Only major Gold benefits – book ANY seat on ANY BA flight for double Avios, Galleries First lounge access, book Row 1 in Club Europe

      However, you will get Silver for just 1 Qatar trip to Asia (well, near enough – 560 of the 600 tier points) so you don’t need to move much to BA.

      • Talay says:

        As I contemplate moving off Etihad (and their family account which I find useful) do you have a matrix of how many flights in business are required to get a free flight in business ? I know it would not be absolutely accurate but it is a single data point which would be useful.

        I just redeemed one on Etihad and paid around £200 in fees whereas the Avios redemption on the Amex 2 for 1 cost me about £1050.

        What I did notice on Etihad was that when the cash fare went down, the amount of points required to redeem the free ticket went down. In my case from circa 280k to a straight 200k which was a more than pleasant surprise.

  • Premium Fare deals (J and F) - Page 192 - FlyerTalk Forums says:

    […] According to this when it was launched last week only BHX, EDI, and MAN. LHR was mentioned as being added this week, which it now has been. https://headforpoints.com/2016/06…usiness-class/ […]

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

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