Will Avios redemptions to Dubai on Qatar Airways restart?

You will probably have seen in the national media that Qatar has reached an agreement with Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates to end the three year blockade of Doha.

I will focus on the aviation benefits of the detente rather than the political elements.

Qatar Airways will now be allowed to fly over Saudi Arabia again. As the only country sharing a land border with Qatar, the removal of flying rights meant that many Qatar Airways routes involved a lenghty detour. The detour involved flying over Iran – for a substantial fee – which ironically strengthened the regime that Saudi Arabia and the UAE wanted to weaken.

More practically, we should soon see Qatar Airways resuming flights to the UAE and the other countries involved.

It will reopen a route to Abu Dhabi on Avios, as British Airways has now dropped the route, as well as increasing Avios options to Dubai. We may even see the Doha to Ras Al Khaimah route coming back, which I reviewed a few years ago.

It will be especially useful to readers outside London who may find a Qatar Airways redemption to the UAE more convenient than flying British Airways with a connection in Heathrow.

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How to earn Avios from UK credit cards (December 2022)

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:

There are two official British Airways American Express cards with attractive sign-up bonuses:

You can also get generous sign-up bonuses by applying for American Express cards which earn Membership Rewards points.

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.

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.

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.

Click here to read our detailed summary of all UK credit cards which earn Avios. This includes both personal and small business cards.