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Qatar Airways launches Gatwick flights alongside a week long ‘book early’ sale

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Qatar Airways has landed in Gatwick. On Tuesday the inaugural flight from Doha to London Gatwick was welcomed with a celebratory water arch. The new twice daily service will be operated by a Boeing 787 and increases to 16 flights per week service over the Summer season.

Qatar Airways Group Chief Executive, His Excellency Mr. Akbar Al Baker, said about the new route:

“Qatar Airways is delighted to be expanding its reach in both London and throughout the U.K. Earlier this month, we launched direct flights to Cardiff, the capital of Wales, clearly demonstrating our continued commitment to this market. We are very proud of our strong and extensive trade ties with the U.K. and look forward to offering our loyal passengers the chance to explore the newest and most exciting destinations within our global network.”

Early Bird promotion

Qatar Airways has also launched an Early Bird promotion for travel later this year.

Book by 29th May for travel between 15th August 2018 and 31st March 2019 to get fares from £391 (Delhi) in Economy.

The travel period for flights departing London is slightly more restricted, running from 1st September 2018 until 31st March 2019.

There’s a blackout period between 13th December 2018 and 13st January 2019 inclusive.

The booking page and T&Cs are here.

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 (October 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

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.

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 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, along with a sign-up bonus worth 10,500 Avios.

Capital on Tap Business Rewards Visa

10,000 points bonus – plus an extra 500 points for our readers 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

Up to 80,000 points when you sign-up and an annual £200 Amex Travel credit Read our full review

American Express Business Gold

Get up to 40,000 points as a sign-up offer 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 (109)

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

  • Nick says:

    OT bit… Virgin Money has launched a £25 bonus offer for EXISTING customers who add a new product, including the new VS credit cards. This appears to be in addition to the bonus points. As they had a market-leading regular saver for a while, there may well be other HfP readers who are eligible too 🙂

    • Jimmy Mac says:

      I had the same email. Have the 0% for 39 months CC, not sure what of the other products Virgin flog I’d be interested in for the £25 if I’m brutally frank.

      • the real harry1 says:

        Is it still 8000 miles for a new Virgin ISA? (no repeats if you already did this). That wouldn’t be too bad, ie 8000 miles + £25.

        Not as good as my Orbis ISA, invest minimum £100 for a year, matched with another £100 🙂

        Offer now ended but it does seem on past history they’ll repeat it a couple of times in the ISA year.

  • Paul says:

    Wow, domestic flight reductions to Newcastle, Aberdeen and Glasgow……….now watch faresvrise.
    If this country had any form of decent regulator for aviation they would be acting on BAs abuse of a monopoly, note no change to EDI where there is some competition.

    • Jamesay says:

      Absolutely correct. Prices on the Monopoly route of GLA to LHR are astronomical!

    • Brian says:

      I fly from NCL. That’s a big devaluation from BA.

      This comes at a great time for me moving my business from SkyTeam to BA. Perfect…..not

      • Mr. Brown Ale says:

        Not really a devaluation – just a drop of one flight per day. And if the 321s are sent up more frequently instead of the 319s – and with all the extra seats – in terms of numbers of seats not a huge loss. Plus: if you need to get to LCY or LGW, it’s quicker to go via Edinburgh – especially if you are north of Newcastle. As for KLM/AF – good luck with that! AF strike every time the wind blows in a different direction, and frequency to AMS is less than reduced frequency LHR > NCL. And on planes with far fewer seats…

        • Lumma says:

          I’m from the north east originally. In five years living in London I’ve flown once. The airports are too far out of town and the fares are too expensive to make it worthwhile. If they flew to London City I’d do it more often.

          Crossrail might make it more worthwhile however.

    • TripRep says:

      Paul – FlyBE operate on ABZ-LHR

      But yes less flights = less cheap seat availability

    • Anna says:

      Yes, some Manchester flights have been cut as well. This is all going to have an impact on those of us who need connecting flights for redemption bookings. I can see the end of the avios-free add on for long-haul redemptions.

    • Andrew says:

      At the same time, with Flybe operating on the ABZ-LHR route, it might improve their loadings and profitability – which can only be a good thing.

      Do Flybe’s Embraer aircraft ever turn up on the Heathrow diagrams?

    • Callum says:

      In what way could a regulator feasibly act in such a scenario that isn’t unfair to BA?

      It’s not like they’ve become a monopoly through shady business practices – it’s because demand is low.

  • Simon says:

    I fly from terminal three for the first time Saturday morning, club Europe. Assume the BA lounge is my best option even though I have priority pass access?

    • Tony says:

      I’d suggest that BA is the weakest of the offerings are T3. You definitely want to try out the Cathay Pacific and Qantas lounges.

    • Darren says:

      No, no and thrice no.

      +1 what Tony said.

    • Rob says:

      No, worst. Qantas first, Cathay 2nd, AA 3rd, BA 4th.

      • Simon says:

        But I only have priority pass which is aspire or number 1 or BA due to flying business!

        • Rob says:

          I would rank them, on a Business ticket, Qantas, Cathay, Club Aspire, No 1, American, BA on that basis. Partly depends on time of day and whether you love BA bacon rolls for breakfast or not. You can visit them all of course.

          BA Gold or F passengers should prioritise Cathay First.

      • Simon says:

        Am I being thick then Rob in not realising I can access Qantas and Cathay lounges on a BA club Europe ticket?

        • Sam G says:

          Yes…. 😉 – any Oneworld is OK on a biz ticket even without status

        • Simon says:

          qantas opens later than cathay (8am vs 0530) so bear that in mind

      • Anthony Dunn says:

        The QF and CX/AY lounges in T3 are extremely agreeable. The bar at the top of the stairs in the QF lounge serves some very quaffable Oz wines and good catering whereas the CX/AY lounge has excellent catering.

      • John says:

        Tried QF for breakfast last Sat morning, they didn’t have any substantial food until 0930, by which time I had decamped to CX.

    • MattyS says:

      Is there an unaccompanied age limit for the lounges ?

      Promised my lad and his friend (both 17) I would use my BA miles to get them a flight in the summer. Irritatingly the timings mean they have to fly out CE from T3. I read that the BA lounge does not accept unaccompanied U18’s but couldn’t find anything one way or the other for the other ones.

      • Rob says:

        The availability of unsupervised alcohol is the issue. Qantas has all its booze behind the bar – perhaps they are more relaxd?

      • MattyS says:

        Thanks Rob, Harry. I read that self-serve booze was the issue for the BA lounge, so they may be okay to get in the other ones if it is a proper bar. They have assured me they wouldn’t drink though………

        • Lumma says:

          Cathay Pacific has a pour yourself Carlsberg tap near the entrance so that might be not an option either

  • Jamesay says:

    Question. What is BA Gold Guest List please?
    I’m BAEC Gold Card holder and haven’t heard of Gold Guedt List? Do I have to apply or is it invite by BA only?
    Thanks in advance!

    • TGLoyalty says:

      Earn 5000 TP which is roughly 11 return 1st class flights a year

  • Ian says:

    OT – I’m BA Silver. My company’s just booked me in WTP to New York through their corporate travel agency.

    I can see the bulkhead seats available on ExpertFlyer, and on the BA website if I do a dummy cash booking.

    But in my account, I can’t choose the bulkhead seats in the work booking (but I can choose all other available seats). Could this be because it was booked through an agency? Might a call to BA sort it?

    Thanks!

    • Rob says:

      Odd. If your number is in the booking it should show.

      • Ian says:

        Thanks Rob. Yes, it appeared in my account before the Agent even confirmed my ticket yesterday evening.

        • Mike says:

          Isn’t this because the bulkhead seats are bassinet seats? So they are held back until close to the flight in case somebody needs to travel with an infant?

          At least ISTR seeing a message to that effect when I tried to select a bulkhead seat on my last WTP flight…

        • the real harry1 says:

          Yep that’s right – ISTR they are kept in reserve for parents travelling with infants (who can book them free of charge at time of booking, or later under MMB) until T-72 hrs. Then they are opened up to other passengers.

        • Ian says:

          Thanks Mike and Harry. That doesn’t seem to fully be the case.

          If I make a new booking on ba.com for the same flights, going as far as I can without paying – the seat selection option while logged in as Silver lets me book any of the 8 front row seats.

          For whatever reason I can’t select them in my actual booking.

        • Ian says:

          Ah – thanks Harry. Makes sense now. At 6″5 I’ll be monitoring obsessively until I fly :-).

        • the real harry1 says:

          Did you see the tip that whilst @ T-72 hrs you can’t get it via MMB but have to phone, OTOH you can go to the Royal Jordanian site and do it online via their version of MMB?

        • Ian says:

          The Royal Jordanian site allows me to do it now alright. Should I worry about that causing issues with BA later on? Great tip (as always), Harry!

        • the real harry1 says:

          I would just do it now 🙂

          You might get kicked out, off course, but just watch it carefully every now and then and you can still move to another decent seat via RJ.

    • TripRep says:

      WTP seats are also reserved for CW downgradees, speaking from experience…. 😛

  • Joe says:

    Does the dropping direct flights to Luanda, in addition to cessation of other long haul routes that BA couldn’t make work (Chengdu etc) suggest the case for a third LHR runway remains overstated? The argument that a third runway is needed to enable access to new/emerging markets is false if there is clearly no [viable] demand for such destinations. Instead we see BA increasing mostly short haul EU and leisure destinations, which tbh the low cost carriers do better at Gatwick and Stansted. Just some musings on a Thursday morning…

    • Rob says:

      That was already clear when BA launched a pile of China and India routes 5 years ago and had to close them.

      • Jordan D says:

        “A pile of China & India routes” – other than Chengdu what have they cancelled? Calcutta hasn’t been served for years (and definitely not in the last 5) …

        • Rob says:

          Perhaps more than 5 years, but there was a raft of Indian routes at one point. Chengdu is the only dropped China route, agreed.

    • Will says:

      Having flown out of and returned into stansted last weekend I was extremely impressed with the airports ability to process people.

      It was very busy, had staff directing passengers to queues very clearly and informing people to prepare liquids/remove laptops and also very clear instructions being repeated on how to use e gates on return incl removing glasses and headphones.

      Sounds obvious but very different to how BHX operate.

      • Will says:

        And just to clarify it meant large queues were moving very quickly on both sides of the airport.

        Contrast that to BHX where they have 1 queue to feed the e gates instead of airing people behind each gate which results in huge latency between a green e gate entry and a passenger actually getting into the gate. The staff at bhx were also more interested in chatting than instructing the queue on e gate compliance.

    • @alastairtravel says:

      LAD has a lot of local Angola related challenges – this is likely contributory – perhaps more trouble than it’s worth.

  • J kelly says:

    I was on the cancelled BA FLIGHT TO Palermo Sun 28 Octand there are very few options to rebook onto other airlines so had to cancel trip. Called BA said they had cancelled due to not enough passengers despite it also being offered as a BAholiday. I fruit sting as I feel BA is selling this route in bad faith. They will have years of historical data regarding this route-so why offer the dates when they must know in all likelihood they are going to cancel the flights for the ‘winter schedule’ and why making those changes when the whole of U.K. is on 1/2 term-a busy time of travel.
    When called to complain-the whole process took 40mins which seems to defeat the purpose of customer service-I am a gold member, increasingly wonder why I bother.

  • the real harry1 says:

    For reference (as as noted yesterday), BA are obliged in law (EC261) to offer you either refund or re-routing to same or similar destination at a date you choose. So, for example, you might have insisted on easy Jet Gatwick-Palermo on 27th (or from Luton) – or got a flight with 1 change to get you to Palermo on the 28th. I accept this may not have been acceptable to you in terms of inconvenience or hassle if BA at first did not accept your re-routing suggestion on a competitor airline/s. Others on FT have often suggested that provided you do the research, find an alternative route then put this to BA on the phone and explain you know your rights to re-routing under EC261, BA is fairly agreeable to arranging the ticketing for you. That is your choice (ie to insist on re-routing or not.) But BA have no choice and must pay up – even if they are difficult & you have to pay for the ticket yourself then claim back the cost on MCOL – BA would fold & pay up in short order as it is very black and white.

    • vlcnc says:

      I find reality this is really hard to get BA to do – many people like my partner just can’t be done with the hassle – as BA are generally quite twatty about it. Maybe we should say Cruzey about it? Sort of like Jeremy Hunt is another word for…

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