Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

London-Hong Kong £1420, Manchester-Cape Town £1350 in Qatar Airways business class

Links on Head for Points may support the site by paying a commission.  See here for all partner links.

I dropped in an extra article yesterday to cover the amazing £1360 return Manchester to Auckland deal launched by Qatar AirwaysYou can read about that fare here but you must book today.

There are two other great deals which also need to be booked today.

Manchester to Cape Town is available for £1350 return in Business Class.

London Heathrow or Gatwick to Hong Kong is available for £1420 return in Business Class.

These must be booked today, assuming it is part of the 48-hour flash sale.

As with the Auckland deal, you won’t get this price over the Summer school holidays in July and August but apart from that it is fairly open from April until late November.  Availability had already started to tighten up last night but you should be able to find something if you are flexible.  There are only a small number of seats at these prices so the larger your group, the tougher it will be, although I saw up to EIGHT seats to Cape Town at this price on some days in September.

These flights will earn 560 British Airways Executive Club tier points return.  That is almost enough for a BA Silver card although you should remember that you need to have flown four one-way cash BA flights in your current membership year before you are promoted.

The aircraft

For Cape Town, both legs will be on a new Boeing 787This has the herringbone seat which I reviewed here and is very impressive.  Qatar has a special website showing off this seat which you’ll find here.  You won’t go wrong here.

For Hong Kong, from London you can pick either the amazing new Qsuite on an A350 or 777 (reviewed here) or the A380 (reviewed here, not Qsuite but has a great bar).  From Doha to Hong Kong you will be on a Boeing 777 which may have Qsuite but you should assume has the older 2-2-2 seating I reviewed here.

How to book

You can find out more about the flash sale here.  It ends at midnight on Wednesday.

The UK Qatar Airways booking site is here.  Make sure you tick ‘Premium Only’ to make searching easier.

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 (79)

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

  • Ian says:

    QR flights from LGW don’t seem to be loaded into the booking system yet?
    I’ve tried getting a price from LGW to see if it’s cheaper than from LHR (and I’d prefer the 787 anyway) but it gives the ridiculous option of National Express coach to LHR! This was for a flight towards the end of the year, so the LGW flights (supposed to start in May?) should normally be showing for those dates.

    • Matt says:

      LGW is loaded, try different dates and you should see it.

    • John says:

      LGW will certainly be cheaper by £5-£10 or so (can’t remember exact figures) simply because its charges are lower than LHR’s.

  • Ramones says:

    Many thanks Rob. Booked Man-AKL in Nov for £1356 this morning. ????

  • beverley says:

    Have all the CPT fares gone, there were some in June this morning at 8 but all seem to be gone now and nothing less than 2700 for the rest of the year. Any thoughts if JNB may be offered?

    • beverley says:

      Ignore me, QR pricing was for the party not per person. All booked now!

  • LUCIE K says:

    Any ideas how i can use miles to get from Auckland to PPT Papeete French Polynesia .

    Exc Virgin Atlantic as ive tried that route via there partners Air New Zealand.

    Thanks in advance

  • Ben says:

    Does the 24hr stop over still work on these fairs? Do they need to be booked as a multi trip?

    • Graham says:

      According to QR, it does need to be booked as a multi city booking and they have refused my request for a +Qatar free Hotel Stay (I am transiting for 14 hours).

      They have referred me to the full T&Cs which make no mention whatsoever of a multi city booking! (which I have just challenged them on). I will update when I hear back from QR.

      • AndyR says:

        Strange, we have had hotel stays approved in the past and we didn’t use multi-city option.

        • Graham says:

          Interesting. Thanks.

          As far as the T&Cs go, I’ve met every single condition. The caveat might be ‘Qatar Airways retains ultimate discretion’ or similar…which is also in their terms.

        • Graham says:

          Well, anyway… A particularly shirty reply saying effectively that the terms don’t matter and “it is up to our discretion”

          Astounded, quite frankly. Be warned. Their ‘discretion’ overrides the official terms.

        • KevMc says:

          Probably worth reporting this to the CMA, as it sounds like this clause in their Terms and Conditions are unfair.

          They have had a clampdown for similarly one-sided terms in the gambling industry lately.

  • ADAM NEMENYI says:

    Thanks for the tip Rob. On the return leg from HKG-LHR I have a 9 hour layover in DOH. Do I need a transit visa if i dont leave the terminal?

  • Alistair says:

    Way off topic but… I’ve booked a first ever stay at a Jumeirah hotel through Amex travel and I’m wondering will I be eligible for Jumeirah points? Is there a way to link an Amex booking to a Jumeirah account?

    • Rob says:

      Yes you should be. For a one off stay taking Emirates or Virgin miles (or other, but not Avios) may be better.

      • Alistair says:

        I just got a reply from amex who said no “because it’s booked through a third party”. Is that just wrong?

      • Lily says:

        Hi Rob
        Have you had any feedback re: ex- Sofia to Doha flights?
        We just flew in on the SoFia-Doha and we were extremely
        disappointed with Qatar flight and in-flight service. It’s nowhere close
        to those Pisa-DoHa or DoHa-Germany flights.
        In general it was a A320 with no in flight entertainment system.
        We were given an IPad instead.
        The food served was amazingly low end – so it started off with there
        was only 1 portion for the main menu for the 4 passengers in the
        business class. They didn’t even bother serving us starter or appetiser and went straight into main. They apologised for not having beef as per the menu and they said they could replace it with the economy menu.
        The other business class passenger was served with soup and an appetiser but then he was told that there is no smoked salmon with the garden salad, so he was served with a plain beetroot feta cheese salad instead.

        For dessert, one of us ordered the ice cream option and we were told there is only 1
        ice cream serving. I was expecting a proper ice cream sundae as per all the ex- Pisa/Germany to Doha flights we had been on. And guess what we were handed over a Magnum!
        When it was my turn, I was told no more ice cream but we could be offered with a chocolate cake from Economy.
        How could there be such a difference with their services? It was pretty unbelievable low end service ? What are your advice in terms of voicing it out to Qatar?
        It’s almost not a like a typical Qatar flight at all.

  • Vistaro says:

    Thanks Rob, Booked 🙂

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

The UK's biggest frequent flyer website uses cookies, which you can block via your browser settings. Continuing implies your consent to this policy. Our privacy policy is here.