Fly to to Auckland for £1,408 in Qatar Airways business plus other great 2-4-1 deals

I recently covered the new Finnair sale to Asia.  There are two other sales going on at the moment which I have decided to pull together in one article.  The key thing that links all three is that, as oneworld member airlines, you will earn British Airways tier points and Avios when you book any of these services.

Exactly how many tier points can be worked out if you search on a leg by leg basis at the BA tier point calculator page.

New Qatar Airways deals launched

Qatar Airways has followed up its huge ‘Travel Festival’ sale in January with a run of impressive ‘2 for the price of 1’ fares in Business Class.

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

The highlight appears to be Copenhagen to Auckland for DKK 12,289 which is £1,406.  Other Copenhagen deals include Cape Town (£1,327) and Singapore (£1,032).

If you have a particular destination in mind, the following Qatar country-specific pages list the best fares from the countries which seem to have the cheapest deals (Scandinavia and Eastern Europe, basically):

Copenhagen prices

Oslo prices

Stockholm prices

Helsinki prices

Sofia prices (€989 to Singapore)

Bucharest prices (see note below re tier points)

Belgrade prices (€722 to Dubai)

UK prices (for comparison)

The best thing to do is to look at each of these pages and compare the price for your chosen destination.  Remember to factor in the aircraft type used and the cost of connecting to your flight, including any hotel costs.

You must book by 15th February 2017 for travel before 10th – 15th December 2017 depending on origin.  Other black out dates apply and vary by destination.  You must travel in a group of 2, 4, 6 or 8 to get these prices.

For Asian destinations, you will earn 560 tier points – 140 x 4 – for a return flight, as long as each individual flight is over 2,000 miles.  Auckland would be 600 tier points – Doha to Auckland is a whopping 17 hours!

The one exception is Bucharest.  ba.com shows Bucharest to Doha as earning just 40 tier points each way in Business Class – see the calculator here – so avoid that route if tier points are important.

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.  I think that the full A330 fleet has been refitted now too.  The newer planes have a 1-2-1 herringbone layout where passengers faces away from each other.  

The Boeing 777 aircraft are fully flat but have a different 2 x 2 x 2 layout, albeit that a replacement for this will be announced at ITB Berlin in March (we’ll be there to check it out).  Qatar also uses short-haul planes on some European routes but these are configured with ‘proper’ business class seats.

Here are my Qatar Airways seat and lounge reviews – you will see that I am very positive about them:

• Qatar A380 First Class
• Qatar 777 business class
• Qatar 787 business class
• Qatar short-haul First Class
• Qatar Premium Lounge, Heathrow Terminal 4
• Qatar Al-Safwa First Class lounge, Doha
• Qatar Al-Mourjan business class lounge, Doha

Remember that bookings under this deal must be made by midnight local time on Wednesday 15th February.

New Malaysia Airlines deals

You should also check out the current Malaysia Airlines deals as these offer a good alternative if you want to depart from London.

For three months, Malaysia Airlines was offering an astonishing deal to Sydney or Melbourne – £1,500 return in Business Class, flying from Heathrow.

That deal has now gone.  However, the airline has extended its Asian deals to the end of February.

You need to book on Expedia, where you can pick up some Nectar points as well for your trouble.  These prices are NOT available from Malaysia directly.

You need to search for London to Bangkok, Phuket, Bali etc in Business Class.  You need to search for ‘flight & hotel’ and then select ‘I only want a hotel for part of my stay’.  Assuming that you don’t want to book your hotel for the trip via Expedia, select one night only.

On the next page of the booking process you are shown a list of hotels.  These are NOT sorted by price by default, so re-order them.  The cheapest will be a hostel but that is fine as you won’t be staying there.

Bangkok, Phuket and Bali are available for around £1,100 – £1,200 return.  Other destinations may be available if you search.  These are excellent prices for trips starting in London.  For an extra £1,000 return you can upgrade to First Class.

Between London and Kuala Lumpur you will get an A380, with an A330 onwards on most routes.  The A330 business class seat is the latest version and has some very attractive solo window seats as the seating plan on this page of the Malaysia Airlines website shows.

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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 Mastercard

Get 25,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher at £10,000 Read our full review

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.