New Qatar Airways business sale from £976 – good deals, earn Avios, get 560 BA tier points

Qatar Airways has launched another sale.  This time, two people need to travel together to get the best deals – although there is an amazing Brisbane deal available for solo travellers.

The key details are:

You can book for travel until 31st May 2018

You must book by 16th October

All fares earn Avios and British Airways tier points (560 return for Asia)

You have six days to book.  That said, availability is restricted and I wouldn’t wait if you are tied to certain dates.

Note that you cannot travel between 15th December and 10th January. Additional blackout dates apply in some countries.

The minimum stay period is 2 days, but that is unlikely to be a problem.

Full details of the Qatar Airways sale can be found here.

The best fares will not be found from the UK as you can see from the examples below.

Here are a few of the better headline prices. These deals are all for business class travel via Doha. They are per person, based on two travelling – single travellers will pay more in theory.  Do check though, as Qatar pricing can be all over the place at times.

These prices are NOT the full list of discounts – they are just random examples I found to be quite good. The prices are a return flight per person based on when two people travel. Best fares seem to be out of Helsinki and Sofia.

Stockholm to Brisbane – SEK 21,451 (£2,015) – although, oddly, this is worse than their astonishing current promo price of SEK 18,044 (£1,695) when just one person books!  Click here for other Stockholm deals

Brussels to Bali – €1,366 (£1,221)   Click here for other Brussels deals

Vienna to Tokyo Narita – €1,693 (£1,513)   Click here for other Vienna deals

Berlin to Johannesburg – €1,324 (£1,183)   Click here for other German deals

Berlin to Jakarta – €1,301 (£1,163)

Helsinki to Bangkok – €1,093 (£977)   Click here for other Helsinki deals

Sofia to Beijing – BGN 2,136 (£976)   Click here for other Sofia deals

Sofia to Singapore – BGN 2,300 (£1,052)

Some of the price examples above are lower than the website promotion page quotes, but they are definitely bookable at the prices we mention above.

And for comparison:

UK to Bangkok – £1,869

UK to Bali – £2,189

UK to Singapore – £2,079

These routes would all – apart from Australasia – earn 560 British Airways Executive Club tier points return (140 + 140 + 140 + 140) due to the change of plane in Doha. That is more than 90% of what you need for a BA Silver card.  Australasia is 600 tier points for a return flight.

How to pick a departure city

It isn’t all about the long-haul flight price. You need to add in the cost of getting to your starting point.

More importantly, you need to build in contingency. You need to arrive early enough to ensure that you won’t miss your connection if your inbound flight is late. If that means staying overnight, you need to factor in the cost of a hotel. You may also want to pick an airport with a hotel on the airport to avoid messing about with shuttle buses.

Remember that BA will no longer tag through bags to connecting flights when they are on separate tickets. If you are checking in a case, you will need to fly London to, say, Stockholm, wait for your case, clear immigration, go to Departures, check in your case and clear security again. This will take some time.

Pick your aircraft as well as your departure city

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 they will be replaced by the amazing new Qsuite – but that is only on a handful of planes so far.  Qatar Airways 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
• Qatar Qsuite – without flying anywhere

The Qatar Airways website here if you want to have a look at the deals available.  The sale ends on 16th October.

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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.