The Qatar Airways January sale, called ‘Global Travel Boutique’ this year, is now live – see here for the UK site.
On the face of it, Business Class discounts appear to be lower than we have seen in previous years, but we need to see what is teased out over the course of the day. I will update this article as I see interesting deals posted or I dig up anything myself.
Please note the bookings dates – most of June, all of July, August and early September are excluded.
- Sale period: 9 until 16 January 2018.
- Travel period: 9 January until 10 December 2018. All travel must be completed by 10 December 2018.
- Blackout dates: 9 June until 10 September 2018.
From the UK, promo code UKGTBAFFILIATE gets you an extra 5% off the base fare. Outside the UK, try code PCGTBGIFT for a further ‘up to’ 5% off the base fare.
Qatar Airways is also offering DOUBLE Qmiles if you credit your flight to Qatar Privilege Club – click here for details and to register. In most cases, however, you will want to credit to British Airways Executive Club because of the 560 tier points available for a return flight to Asia from Europe.
Deals out there (business class, based on 1 person travelling – may be cheaper for 2, using code PCGTBGIFT):
Note that the Qatar Airways website seems to be running a little slowly at the moment. I have personally verified all the prices below although you may need to hunt around for applicable dates.
Athens to Hong Kong €1,467 (£1,293) – Greece sale page
Frankfurt to Johannesburg €1,702 (£1,500) – Germany sale page
Helsinki to Tokyo €1,442 (£1,271) – Finland sale page
Helsinki to Bangkok €1,145 (£1,009) – Finland sale page
Helsinki to Chiang Mai €1,186 (£1,045) – Finland sale page
Helsinki to Ho Chi Minh City €1,452 (£1,280) – Finland sale page
Oslo to Melbourne NOK 16,170 in November (£1,474) (Sydney, Perth etc similar) – Norway sale page
Stockholm to Singapore SEK 13,391 (£1,200) – Sweden sale page
Stockholm to Kuala Lumpur SEK 13,237 (£1,186) – Sweden sale page
Stockholm to Cape Town SEK 15,060 (£1,350) – Sweden sale page
Sofia to Shanghai BGN 2,270 (£1,023) – Bulgaria sale page
To be updated ….
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About Head for Points
I booked OSL-MEL Via DOH for £1440 in November.
I’ve just put a hold on OSL-DOH-SYD / MEL-OSL October flights, there’s some strange bug that can’t find SYD on the search if departing from OSL but breaking the journey up via Doha worked fine.
Does anyone have recommendations on which airline is best to use LON-OSL? I’m a bit worried about getting the last flight of the day in case it’s cancelled and we have no way of getting to Oslo. OH and I are both freelancers so would prefer to get a later flight out on the Friday night.
I would fly BA, if you choose Econ Plus fare you can make adjustments on the day of the booking for free, and Qatar will interline your luggage to your BA flight on the return journey (well they did for me last year). BA wont interline your luggage onto Qatar thou, but I would fly the night before on the way out anyway.
*sorry meant adjust your booking on the day of the flight…
Also if you are after BAEC status – you need 4 x BA metal flights. You could usefully get 2 here if you need them.
Thanks all for the suggestions, will perhaps look into the earlier flight of the day on BA. Cheers.
For ppl starting from ARN I often find a return to MUC (rather than ARN) from DOH is better as it avoids a night in Stockholm and often doesn’t cost that much more. Also often avoids long transit in DOH.
Or doh to lhr
Or EDI even
Be careful, as far as I know ATH – DOH is only 1840 Miles and thus means only 40 TP for the flight compared to 140 from other European destinations.
It is.
I’m looking very seriously at ARN-KUL which I think we can get for around £2.2k two together on dates which work for us. Any other options with good prices for KL? I’ve tried Oslo and Munich but both more than Stockholm.
I’ve never done this sort of thing, but we flew Club World back from KL for the first time (as I had to work on the same day we landed) and the Mrs has got a bit of a taste for business class and lounge access. The status would definitely help and we get to try out an even better business class product.
We would likely combine it with a few days in Stockholm as we have never been. Any recommendations of a place to stay?
I presumably don’t need to stay overnight on returning as long as I can find a flight home, as there isn’t any huge negatives to missing the last leg flight home to London?
I can’t see any combo that will better that – I’ve seen slightly cheaper prices for Singapore and Penang if that’s any good to you
If you’re combining with a few days stay beforehand, I wonder if choosing somewhere like Munich will work out cheaper overall than Stockholm?
Indeed. I’ve seen some promo flights to Penang on Business Class going for £800 return. Departure from Tunisia, return to Oslo. Qatar is pushing this new route to Penang hard. And from Penang you can fly to KL for £10.
Tunis though? Helsinki is one thing but ….! I’d also check what aircraft Qatar is flying out of Tunis and, more importantly, whether it is under 2000 miles to Doha and so only 40 tier points.
Sarajevo has some good fares as well if you’re keen.
I seems to remember that there were no feasible flights back to London from Stockholm, following the arrival of the Qatar flight in the evening. That might be just because we looked at BA, though. Norwegian or SAS might have later flights. We ended up staying in the Radisson which is in the airport for a night, before catching a return flight to London the following day.
If you can find a late flight to London, keep in mind that you will need to collect luggage in Stockholm and recheck it, as your flight to London won’t (presumably) be on the same booking as your QR flight.
Re negatives to missing the last flight home to London – I guess you’ll lose your money on that flight & will need to find a place to stay last minute in a very expensive country, but other than that, probably no other negatives. Sweden is a lovely country to spend more time in (albeit a very expensive one!).
I suggested above – ARN-DOH-KUL//KUL-DOH-MUC but perhaps not clear enough! Can be booked multi city. It avoids o/night in ARN on return and possibly longer transit in DOH. Slightly more expensive but much more convenient!
Ah OK. I didn’t get that it wasn’t MUC both ways! Much clearer now.
I tried changing to multi-city and adding DOH-LHR as last leg: it increased the cost by £500/person 🙁
Thanks for this. Yes having looked more closely it does appear the Qatar flight lands too late to avoid an overnight stay on returning.
There is also the.option of returning directly to LHR from doh directly last leg if you book multi city. It is a couple 100 more but worth the loss of anxiety of.late arrivals hotel and flight back next day.
I stayed in a bunk bed hostel with a bunch of handsome Canadian police officers in Helsinki for £25 last time I got this fare. Not everybody’s cup of tea but it worked for me. To be fair, I like hostels and use them in Japan – fly posh, stay cheap! Then shop like a madman in Tokyo & Osaka….
Just booked OSL-MEL in November for about £1450 pp (2 travelling)
OT but with the Etihad “devaluation” arriving on 15th January, has anyone a clue about where the numbers might post shake up ?
I can book now but can’t really confirm dates and you cannot change Etihad redemptions, no matter what they say as the costs end up too high. But if the points shift against me (LHR-AUH-BKK) then I won’t have enough points to reach the 75% cash and points threshold.