Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

You can now fly the Qatar Airways Qsuite in business class from Manchester Airport

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

Qatar Airways is giving Manchester and the north a Valentine’s present in the form of its excellent Qsuite business class seat.  From 14th February, Qsuite is scheduled to fly on at least one daily service between Manchester and Doha starting with QR27/QR28.

From 1st March this is set expand with QR21/QR22, which means that two of the three daily flights will have HfP’s favourite business class seat and service as voted on by you in the HfP Travel & Loyalty Awards 2019.

Qsuite was the first business class seat to have a door and, arguably, is still the best.  You can read Rob’s recent review of Qsuite here.

The only catch is that Qatar Airways has a reputation for last minute aircraft changes which means that you can never quite be certain what you’ll get.  Nevertheless this is a win for anyone who prefers flying from Manchester, as you’ll be able to experience a genuinely excellent product.

If you want to find out more about Qsuite, there is a special section on the Qatar Airways website here.

If you want to know about other Avios redemption ideas from Manchester, this HfP article looks at Avios flights from UK regional airports.

Qatar Airways sale extended by 48 hours

The Qatar Airways sale was due to end on Monday, but it has been extended by two days.  You now have until tonight (Wednesday) to book

Qatar Airways has some excellent deals if you are willing to start outside the UKcheck the list in this article to see if you can save even more money by flying from Stockholm, Oslo or the many other European starting points.

There are a lot of other special offers linked to the sale, including:

  • Double Qmiles if you choose to credit to Qatar Airways Privilege Club instead of British Airways Executive Club
  • Very low-cost Doha stopovers for up to four nights
  • Upgrades at the Oryx Airport Hotel
  • 25% off lounge access in Doha if it is not included in your ticket
  • 20% off excess baggage

Full details are on the sale website here.  If you are booking for flights from a European city, remember that the sale will end at midnight local time.

If you don’t have a credit card with 0% foreign exchange fees, your best option for paying for flights starting outside the UK is American Express Preferred Rewards Gold.

This offers triple points – 3 per £1 – when you book flight tickets in a foreign currency.  This is because the transaction triggers the ‘double points for airline spend’ and the ‘double points for foreign spend’ bonuses.  Our review of Amex Gold is here.


How to earn Avios from UK credit cards

How to earn Avios from UK credit cards (April 2025)

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 – 30,000 points, FREE for a year & four airport lounge passes Read our full review

The Platinum Card from American Express

80,000 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, and the standard card is FREE. Capital on Tap cards also have no FX fees.

Capital on Tap Visa

NO annual fee, NO FX fees and points worth 1 Avios per £1 Read our full review

Capital on Tap Pro Visa

10,500 points (=10,500 Avios) plus good benefits 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

50,000 points when you sign-up 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 (184)

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

  • JeffStrongman says:

    OT
    I have an Avios redemption SYD – SIN rtn in premium economy. Reward flight finder shows business class availability on rtn leg but when I try to upgrade with Avios on app get ‘We are sorry but redemption bookings cannot be upgraded using Avios’ message. Is this true or I have to ring up UK?

    • Shoestring says:

      it’s true

      • Sam G says:

        it’s an amendment not an upgrade in this circumstance, need to call in

        • Shoestring says:

          got any link/ proof it works? ie I suppose you’re paying a *change fee* £30 and getting the agent to move you Premium Economy—>Business for the extra Avios

          I don’t doubt this can be done (ie fare class amended for the fee/ Avios) – but is it asking an agent to bend the rules or are they meant to do this on request?

          • Stu_N says:

            It definitely can be done. I’ve done it a couple of times to upgrade from CW to F when seats come available. It takes a phone call and you’ll be charged a change fee (£35 pp), any difference in taxes, fees and charges between classes (NB this can include increases since time of booking) and the difference in Avios between your original and new booking. If they try to charge you a telephone service fee then push back on that, they should waive it for things that can’t be done online.

            It goes for manual ticketing so can take a few days for BA to process and you’ll likely see several redeposit/ redemption transactions on your Avios account. You’ll know it’s all gone through OK when they charge your card and you can see a ticket number in the BA app.

          • Lady London says:

            Yes its basically a cancellation and rebook for the relevant fee.

            Of course you would want to ensure the agent you speak to has got the seats you need held, before they cancel the ones you have. Most will do it in that order anyway I would guess.

  • Ian says:

    OT:

    Flying with Delta, booked through Virgin to Orlando from Edinburgh.

    It’s EDI – JFK – MCO and reverse on the way back.

    We’ve had a schedule change to the JFK – MCO flights which means we are landing at 19:15 instead of 18:50. I know it’s a fairly insignificant change (landing 25 mins later) but does a schedule change such as this give us the opportunity to ask to be rebooked on a different flight that would be more ‘convenient’ for us?

    There’s a flight EDI – MAN – MCO that would get us in at 15:00 rather than 19:15 and essentially give us more time on holiday so if them changing gives us the right to ask for a change, I’d certainly look to do that.

    Do I stand a chance?

    • Shoestring says:

      sure – it depends on the airline – eg Iberia let you cancel for refund if there is a 15 mins change whereas with BA it’s more like 2 hrs (from memory)

      you could look up the airline’s policy and even if it doesn’t look good, try on the phone

      • marcw says:

        With IB you can change and cancel with a 5 min difference. Just need to call in the middle of the night when you get mostly ecuadorians on the line. Well, that’s true if you speak Spanish… not sure whether the same applies with English.

    • GRIMZ says:

      Delta let me change before for free due to insignificant time change.

  • Barry says:

    I was booked on Qatar Doha-Singapore in November and both directions were advertised Qsuite and I was able to select qsuites both ways. At checkin outward and return they had been changed to the (still OK) older business class seats. I guess I was a bit disappointed. A staff member told me that DOH-SIN was one of their premier routes for QSuite and that they almost always had it on that route but maybe I was just unlucky.

    • TGLoyalty says:

      Qatar are notorious for plane swaps but I wouldn’t be too disheartened as all of their LH flights have very good business class seats.

    • Sarah says:

      I think you were unlucky, I flew to and from Singapore with them recently and it was Q Suites both ways

    • bsuije says:

      Have you tried filing a complaint with the airline? Something along the lines of “booked especially to try Qsuite and was very disappointed that the planes were swapped out, etc.”

      • meta says:

        That’s what I would do, especially since now they explicitly advertise that the flight you’re booking is QSuite.

        • Andrew says:

          I think QR have recently introduced a policy where you can move to a QSuite flight if you find yourself on a differently fitted aircraft which was advertised as QSuite. Personally though, despite the hype, I tend to select a non-QSuite flight as I find the seat less comfortable for sitting and sleeping and the service much less attentive (as they can’t see you so they forget about you).

  • RussellH says:

    EasyJet and Ryanair have apparently complained too.

    Not sue if any of this is logical, since they do not compete on the majority of routes, I believe.

    • Rob says:

      What actually happens is that they watch Flybe routes and when they get to a level that can justify a jet aircraft they launch and try to force Flybe off with the benefit of a more comfortable journey.

  • BJ says:

    OT Hilton status: Are readers status meters updating ok this year? I’m missing 3 rollover nights but just wondering if this might be a general issue before I begin the soul-destroying task of contacting CS? Also, is there any way my partner can determine his status from 1st April 2020 other than asking CS? He did not qualify to retain Gold on stays but held amex platinum and requested Gold while he was already Gold so we are hoping that will ‘buy’ him another year year.

    • sloth says:

      Mine refreshed today to show my correct status (it always seems to take a couple of weeks?)

      Re your partner, assuming he registered for gold recently via the plat then he should have it until March next year

      • BJ says:

        Yes, he was already Gold last summer when he submitted the platinum benefit status request, so I figured that would still register and take him through March 2021. Thanks for confirming. Last time he checked his status was still updating but I thought only the counters were reset at this time and the new status level doesn’t change until 1sr April? I’m sure that my own counter is wrong but I’ll leave it a while before contacting them.

        • Secret Squirrel says:

          My counter reset or updated and I still show gold. If its Been updated recently does this mean I’m gold through to Mar 21 as I was expecting to drop down to silver this year?

          • BJ says:

            Don’t think so, I think your 20-21 status doesn’t update until 1 April but IIRC we get notified a week or two before that. That’s why I am trying to figure out if there is a way to find out my partners status before then. If it is simpky a matter of counting nights like mine it is easy but where amex platinum or Hilton card has been used then nothing is certain until late March which is a nuisance with decision making.

  • Doug M says:

    Does a Virgin Economy Delight seat attract Reduced APD like other economy, or is it Standard Rate?

  • marcw says:

    It seems the Virgin – Air France – KLM earn and burn launch has been postponed.

    • Rob says:

      KLM has pulled the page showing today as the launch day.

      • BJ says:

        Is it possible that there could be a high level dispute over proceeding with it, or mire likely they have just not agreed the finer details?

  • Craig says:

    Sorry OT completely.

    I have just been accepted for the HSBC Premium card and IHG Reward card – does anyone have any idea if revolut top ups via curve are treated as cash advances? If people aren’t sure i will check when the cards arrive

    • Grant says:

      IHG is ok, but they will only authorise small amounts at a time up to £700 p/w

    • Craig says:

      to clarify my terribly worded post – the HSBC card i am referring to is the HSBC Premier Credit Card. Would be great if anybody knew the answer re this one as well!

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.