Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

11am – First look at the Qatar Airways UK business class sale deals

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The Qatar Airways January sale, called ‘Global Travel Boutique’ this year, is now livesee 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

Qatar sale

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 

Your best option to maximise your miles when paying is American Express Preferred Rewards Gold.  This offers double points – 2 per £1 – when you when you book flight tickets directly with an airline.  Our review of Amex Gold is here.


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 (71)

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

  • jlon says:

    Thanks Rob, that’s very helpful. I could also price up Auckland: OSL-DOH-AKL-DOH-OSL for a similar price to the OSL-Australia fare.
    I have a questoin for the experts. I would like to do the above Auckland trip but make a side trip to either Hong Kong or Guangzhou. There are direct flights on Qatar from DOH to HKG or CAN but can I incorporate this into the sale fare itinerary or am I asking too much? Ideally I’d like to do something like OSL-DOH-CAN-AKL-DOH-OSL
    Thanks!

    • Kilburnflyer says:

      Qatar don’t fly from CAN-AKL and thus you couldn’t do that as part of fare. However, there is no reason why you couldn’t do open jaw: OSL-DOH-CAN AKL-DOH-OSL and then buy separate ticket/use miles for CAN-AKL sector (perhaps buy Avianca lifemiles for *alliance award)

      • jlon says:

        Thanks Kilburnflyer, good shout. OSL-DOH-CAN/AKL-DOH-OSL comes in at £1638 before any discount code. Just need to work out the CAN-AKL sector as you say. I’ve no experience of Avianca lifemiles, is it worth purchasing for this redemption?

  • S says:

    Spotted some ex-SOF routes at around 980, sadly you’re going to get stuck on an A320 for the first leg

    • Rob says:

      Hard to get to Sofia from London though.

      • S says:

        Hard to take advantage of many of these for me being based out of NCL!

      • ee says:

        We’ve done it, BA fly daily from LHR and there are some good CE fares for racking up another 160tp. You’ll probably need an overnight in SOF on the way and maybe the way back. We found the Hilton was more than acceptable.

  • James Ward says:

    Code PCGTBGIFT not working for me. I keep getting the error message “This offer is no longer valid. However, you may continue to book using our standard fares.(CUG012)”

  • The_penguin says:

    I’ve got an Osl-Akl booking on hold, £1485 ea. in Nov.

    I found the mobile website (on my phone, not a tablet) worked much more quickly than when I tried to use the main website on my pc.

  • Dan says:

    Found some (Economy) fares that suit me for a trip to Zanzibar in September. Got all the way through to payment section and then the website threw some kind of error and won’t refresh. Anyone else had the same?

  • Andrew (@andrewseftel) says:

    OSL-PEN-OSL is £1,120 each for 2 pax

  • Roger C says:

    No! Blocking the whole summer is a disaster for me – we’re both teachers and I’d set my heart on a Business sale fare ex-EU to the Far East for our Silver Wedding trip.

    I’ve a budget of £2000 for the main flights, and about 120000 Avios if neessary. Any suggestions for (reasonably comfortable) ways to get to Hanoi and back from Bangkok without this sale? Or will I have to come up with something completely different?

    • Pig says:

      You can get a business class sale fare to Bangkok on Finnair for around £1500 per person during july

    • Cate says:

      Afraid being adaptable is part of securing cheaper flights. It’s still early days and Airlines would rather have cash paying backsides on seats than fly empty.

    • Leo says:

      Take a day flight in PE on Vietnam Airlines LHR to Hanoi – costs you about £700 each? Use the Premium Plaza lounge in T4 for cash. Seat has plenty of room – 42″ pitch, don’t need a flat bed as the flight is about 11am and takes 12 hours. Avios back in CW from BKK – you haven’t got enough but maybe you could part pay with cash? Air Asia or some such between the two cities in Y. Should easily do it on 2K if not a bit less.

    • Clive says:

      Try BA Ex Amsterdam. Was pricing at under £1200 in Club

    • Lady London says:

      Vietnam Airlines gets good reports and I don’t believe they are expensive.

  • Tina says:

    Rob . Do the discount codes work if booking via the BA website? Thanks

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

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