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British Airways reinstates Qatar ‘R’ class earning – so check out Qatar’s new 2-4-1 sale

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Yesterday was a fairly chaotic day on Head for Points, but all ended well.  British Airways claimed that it was a mistake that it announced that Qatar Airways ‘R’ class (discounted business class) tickets would no longer earn Avios or tier points – a mistake repeated by BA’s social media and call centres.  By the end of the day, ba.com had been adjusted and ‘R’ class tickets were again officially qualifying for Avios and tier points.

This means that we can look at the current Qatar Airways ‘2 4 1’ business class sale today.

Qatar 350

As usual, the best deals are to be had if you start outside the UK.

Remember the following guidelines:

As this is a 2-4-1 sale, you need two or four to be travelling to get the prices quoted

These flights all involve changing in Doha.  This means that you earn tier points and Avios on four segments.  For flights to Asia, you will earn 560 tier points return (140 x 4) as long as each flight is over 2,000 miles.

Qatar Airways has a wide range of aircraft in its fleet.  The hugely impressive current generation business class seating will definitely be found on the Boeing 787, Airbus A350 and Airbus A380 aircraft.  As this is a 2-4-1 sale, however, you will also be perfectly happy on the Boeing 777 fleet because of the two-abreast seating.

My review of Qatar Airways A380 business class is here, 777 business class here and 787 business class here.

These pages have a summary of the best deals for the main European departure hubs.  I recommend taking a look at each based on where you want to fly:

Qatar Airways Stockholm deals (Singapore SEK 11,730)

Qatar Airways Helsinki deals (Phuket €1,130)

Qatar Airways Germany deals (Johannesburg €1,229; Dubai €1,019)

Qatar Airways Oslo deals (Bangkok NOK 10,500)

Qatar Airways Paris deals

Qatar Airways Amsterdam deals  (Tokyo €1,519)

Qatar Airways Brussels deals (Maldives €1,580)

In most cases you must book on the Qatar Airways website by Monday 7th November and travel between 15th November and 15th June.

An extra 5% saving on flights from the UK

There is no doubt that the best deals are available from continental Europe.  However, if you are happy to pay extra for the convenience of starting from a UK airport then there are some offers out there.

Here are a sample, priced per person based on two travelling:

Dubai – £1320 (Edinburgh)

Goa – £1390

Bangkok – £1620

Kuala Lumpur –  £1650 (Edinburgh)

Seychelles – £1840

Maldives – £1750

Cape Town – £1950

More UK deals can be found here.

Book your Business Class Qatar Airways sale flight from the UK via this page and you will receive a further 5% discount.

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.

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.

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.

Category

Qatar Airways and Privilege Club

Comments (61)

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

  • Mouse says:
    4 Nov4 November 05:56

    Given the weak pound plus the cost of positioning, do these ex-EU prices still represent good value compared to flying from U.K.?

    • DaveP says:
      4 Nov4 November 06:38

      I guess you would need ‘to do the math’ and factor in the ‘cost’ of any positioning and inconvenience time for ex-EU compared to ex-UK.

    • Rob says:
      4 Nov4 November 07:26

      Depends on the route and the day. BA rarely sells South Africa for under £2500 in business, for eg, but this is a route where you might pay a premium to fly direct.

    • Passy says:
      4 Nov4 November 08:21

      If you have the likes of Avios and hotel loyalty program points then you can reduce the financial impact of positioning flights and hotel stays. For positioning flights, I use reward flight saver which can be very good value and burn Accor or Hilton points for my hotel stays when required.
      Even if you have to pay for the above, despite the poor exchange rate, I feel ex EU departures still represent great value and lets not forget the better aircraft, food and service offered if you fly with QR – oh, and not forgetting the tier points.

    • Zander says:
      4 Nov4 November 15:30

      Yes, for example I just booked the FRA-JNB route for 2.868€ (£2,544) in Feb whereas LHR-JNB is £3,904 a saving of £1,860 for a trip I am making anyway and I will use my miles to get to FRA from LHR to minimise additional cost of extra flights.

      I will probably walk away with a £1,400 saving overall so yes, worth it IMO.

  • John says:
    4 Nov4 November 06:07

    What TPs do you get for DXB-DOH?

    • Andrew (@andrewseftel) says:
      4 Nov4 November 06:23

      60, I think ( assuming it’s still F)

      • joelyp says:
        4 Nov4 November 08:52

        Yes, 60 in F. Also consider flying into or out of DWC in Dubai – wonderfully quiet and about the same distance from the city centre as DXB.

  • DaveP says:
    4 Nov4 November 06:35

    Much relief that BA have reversed the situation that caused much angst for myself and many other HfP readers. Will make my forthcoming flights with QR even more enjoyable!

  • Nick says:
    4 Nov4 November 07:05

    I’m tempted with the ex OTP deal £540 to DXB. Trouble is it’s a320 both segments and while I’ve done an a320 DOH to LHR on what was the all biz plane it’s ok but not a patch on the A350….tempting price though but then factor on travel costs to Bucharest and I’m not sure

    • Genghis says:
      4 Nov4 November 08:01

      A likely 3 segments to Dubai, most likely all in A320s sounds too much like a mission to me. You’ll arrive better rested in Y on a direct flight.

  • James says:
    4 Nov4 November 08:04

    Is the really actually a 2-4-1 sale? It just looks like a discount on the price if you book two tickets – not buy one get one free. Understand that tax isn’t 241, but I got two R tickets to Tokyo for less than these prices in their last sale (ie not 241, just regular discounts)

    • Rob says:
      4 Nov4 November 08:10

      They are calling it 241 so I copied it.

      There will probably be another sale soon for solo travellers at the same price.

    • Adrian says:
      4 Nov4 November 09:50

      From what I’d read it said “save up to 40% on two people travelling together” (base fare). The UK prices are very high at the moment even taking account the value of the pound. Like most people if I’m looking at ex-eu I want a 787 or 350, most of the cheap fares are the a320 or a330 which to be honest makes it less attractive to me.

  • Alan says:
    4 Nov4 November 08:05

    I’m glad to see they’ve reinstated earnings for these fares (I didn’t have any booked, but to suddenly remove them seemed manifestly unfair), however I trust they’ve have a bit of a sit down internally to look at their appalling comms yesterday – for both the call centre and social media team to be confirming the change only for the FT reps to say later in the day that it was effectively a typo is a pretty poor state of affairs. Either they backtracked under pressure or they haven’t got their internal systems properly setup to flag up these sort of issues and immediately escalate them to the relevant member of staff for clarification!

    • Will says:
      4 Nov4 November 09:16

      The the latest BA fares to Tallinn via Helsinki you could build a nice tier point run in from Helsinki.

      • Adrian says:
        4 Nov4 November 13:41

        Yes this looks really good, even as a weekend away at 200TP. For the weekend that fits for us in Dec it’s £239 each, some dates are even cheaper, there’s a Hilton under 3 miles away, possibility of the a350 also. Only minor downside is potentially a 4 1/2 hour wait for a 30 minute flight which is a PITA or arrive after midnight (something I have done many times but I’m still not a fan of) and at the moment it’s pretty cold and they are expecting snow, neither of these things will discourage us!

        • Ed says:
          4 Nov4 November 17:35

          Is there a quick way to find out or calculate TP awards? Curious to know the optimal way to find good flights for mileage or TP runs.

          • Rob says:
            4 Nov4 November 19:16

            Not really because you need to know which flights are over 2000 miles and which are under.

          • Polly says:
            7 Nov7 November 01:13

            Ed, that’s impressive, thanks for that little map…. Good thinking there…Moscow is on our radar one of these days….

  • sh83 says:
    4 Nov4 November 10:19

    very OT, so apologies and thanks in advance.

    I have a Plat and want to refer a Gold… but the silly Amex website or App won’t let me refer!!
    Only a like for like refer appears?!

    Anyone else having these problems, or am I doing something wrong?

  • Gill says:
    4 Nov4 November 10:51

    OT question on December shop small Amex offer.
    Do secondary card holders get the offer if the primary cardholder has already visited that retailer?

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

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