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 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

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.

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 (71)

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

  • will says:
    9 Jan9 January 12:45

    HEL-BKK and HEL-SGN have been these prices for at least a week now. Fingers crossed something gives over the next 7 days by way of a bargain. Been waiting for this sale to get to GGL, need to be in SGN in feb and was hoping to make one more long haul somewhere interesting via this sale.

    • will says:
      9 Jan9 January 12:46

      Otherwise I’ll be doing turnarounds CGK-CMB-AUH twice just for the tier points 🙁

  • Lucian says:
    9 Jan9 January 13:08

    No Miami? 🙁

  • ashic says:
    9 Jan9 January 13:42

    I’m hitting BA Silver this year, and so wanted to see if there are some deals to be had in Economy – hopefully the OW lounge at Doha will make do. The economy deals are quite good too. I just booked a return trip to Bali over the October mid-terms (Flying out of LHR Friday 19 October 10pm and landing back on Sunday the 28th) for two adults and a 7 year old for £1460.03. That’s earning 80 BA Tier points, and next to no Avios (I think it’s around 4000 per person). Let’s see if it’s worth forgoing a Club Europe break for it.

    • MansNotHot says:
      9 Jan9 January 13:56

      OW lounge in Doha for non-biz class ticketed passengers sucks

      • Mr(s) Entitled says:
        9 Jan9 January 16:14

        Priority pass lounge sucks too. In fact, for a new airport I’m not a fan.

        • ashic says:
          9 Jan9 January 16:17

          Been in PP last year, not great. Going on a biz ticket in April, so will compare all three. Better than nothing, I guess.

        • Rob says:
          9 Jan9 January 16:27

          It sucks massively, I had to use it when I came back from Ras in 2016 as I wasn’t allowed in the Qatar lounge due to being on a media / staff ticket!

  • Mucky says:
    9 Jan9 January 13:50

    Is this better than the 2 for 1 deals that they used to have?

    Thanks!

  • Zooropa says:
    9 Jan9 January 14:43

    I have got £2359 for 2 people ( so slightly above your budget) leaving on the 15th August coming back on the 29th in club. All BA flights.

    Leaving from Amsterdam, going to Bangkok via LHR. (yes you will have to fly to Amsterdam and come back on yourself). This is cheap for BA …looks like they may have responded to the Qatar sale.
    I have just booked Cape town for 8 nights for £1200 each in club AMS-LHR-CPT.

  • Tom C says:
    9 Jan9 January 14:47

    Sadly nothing seems to appear to me for the dates I need for our trip next month from LON > SEZ; JNB > LON. Looks like I’ll have to book Turkish for about £4k for 2 in J, which isn’t all that bad, but would have preferred OW.

  • Jason says:
    9 Jan9 January 16:11

    Yes, I booked on Amex Travel and got the “Platinum Cardmember Benefit” combined with the recent £200 cash back offer. Purchased ARN – CPT at £1,209 each.

    • Optimus Prime says:
      9 Jan9 January 16:15

      Did you book online or over the phone?

    • Richard says:
      9 Jan9 January 18:31

      What’s the Amex platinum benefit you
      Mention? I have the 200 pounds off spend but not sure what the platinum benefit is?

      • Waribai says:
        9 Jan9 January 18:56

        Yes, I’m intrigued about the platinum card member benefit too….

    • fbrj says:
      9 Jan9 January 19:07

      I thought the t&c required a £ transaction. Doesn’t ARN get billed in SEK and then converted? Let us know if you are informed that your £200 credit has been triggered!

  • Adam says:
    9 Jan9 January 16:40

    I booked OSL-MEL Via DOH for £1440 in November.

    • Julie M says:
      9 Jan9 January 16:56

      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.

      • Brandon says:
        9 Jan9 January 17:35

        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.

      • fbrj says:
        9 Jan9 January 19:09

        Also if you are after BAEC status – you need 4 x BA metal flights. You could usefully get 2 here if you need them.

        • Julie M says:
          10 Jan10 January 08:33

          Thanks all for the suggestions, will perhaps look into the earlier flight of the day on BA. Cheers.

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