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Qatar Airways launches a 25th anniversary flight sale with fare deals and bonus miles

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This article has been sponsored by Qatar Airways

2022 marks the 25th anniversary of Qatar Airways. Launched in 1997, Qatar Airways has become one of the fastest-growing airlines in the world, and operates one of the youngest fleets in the industry

Prior to the pandemic, the airline flew to over 170 destinations and still operates to more than 140 destinations today.

To celebrate 25 years of existence, Qatar Airways has some special fares on offer when you book by 10th January for travel by 31st October 2022.

Economy prices start at just £359 pp, but there are some strong Business class fares available too, including some attractive prices from non-London UK departure points.

Sample fares include:

  • Edinburgh to Dubai – £1,745 pp  
  • Manchester to Johannesburg – £1,827 pp
  • London Heathrow to Dubai – £1,876 pp
  • Manchester to Hong Kong – £1,907 pp
  • London Heathrow to Kuala Lumpur – £2,261 pp
  • London Heathrow to Bangkok – £2,294 pp

You can look for more destinations and find out further details about the sale using this link to the Qatar Airways website.

Business Class on the new Boeing 787-9 fleet

Get 2,500 bonus Qmiles for joining Privilege Club

In addition to the flight sale, if you enrol as a new Privilege Club member before 10th January 2022, you will get a bonus 2,500 Qmiles (the Qatar Airway’s loyalty currency).

All new members will get a further 2,000 bonus Qmiles when they make their first online booking and a further 500 bonus Qmiles per online booking following that.

To get the 2,500 Qmiles bonus, use this link to sign up to Privilege Club and use the enrolment code FLYQR22.

What does Privilege Club offer?

As it is part of oneworld, many Head for Points readers will credit any flying they do with Qatar Airways to BA Executive Club rather than Privilege Club, but it’s worth considering joining the Qatar Airways programme.

Privilege Club has made some big improvements in the last 18 months, slashing the miles cost for redemption flights, making it an attractive alternative to Executive Club. For example, a flight from London to Doha in Business Class would cost 86,000 Qmiles, but you’d need between 100,000-120,000 Avios for an identical flight.

In addition, Privilege Club has removed ‘hard expiry’ for Qmiles. Provided you earn or spend just 1 Qmile every 36 months, your balance remains safe.

Can you earn Qmiles with a UK credit card?

One reason why you may not have considered Privilege Club is the lack of its own UK credit card to help boost your miles.

Although Qatar Airways does not have a UK credit card, there are still ways to earn Qmiles with your everyday spending. We’ve summarised all the credit card options for earning Qmiles in this article, but the highest miles earning option is the Marriott Bonvoy American Express credit card.

You earn 2 Marriott Bonvoy points per £1 spent on the card. This page shows the rate to Qatar Airways from the Marriott Bonvoy programme, which is 3:1:

  • 3 Marriott Bonvoy points get you 1 Qatar Privilege Club mile
  • You get a 5,000 mile bonus if you convert 60,000 Marriott points in one transaction

This means, assuming you convert in chunks of 60,000 Marriott points:

  • £1 spent = 2 Marriott Bonvoy points
  • 2 Marriott Bonvoy points = 0.66 Qatar Privilege Club miles
  • Convert 60,000 Marriott Bonvoy points at once for a 5,000 mile bonus and you are getting 0.825 Qatar Privilege Club miles per £1 spent

The annual fee on the Marriott Bonvoy card is £75 and you get a sign-up bonus too – details of the current offer as of today are below.  This makes the card well worth getting for the first year at least.

Marriott Bonvoy American Express

Bonus: 20,000 points

Read our full review

Other information:

  • 15 elite night credits per year to help you towards higher status
  • Free night, up to 25,000 points, when you spend £25,000 per year.
  • Upgrade to Gold Elite status when you spend £15,000 in a card year
  • Annual fee: £95

Representative 54.8% APR variable based on an assumed £1,200 credit limit and £95 annual fee. Interest rate on purchases 31.0% APR variable.

See if you qualify for the 20,000 points sign-up bonus: +

You will receive 20,000 points as a sign-up bonus on the Marriott Bonvoy American Express card if you spend £3,000 within 90 days of signing up.

To qualify for the bonus, you must NOT, currently or in the previous 24 months, have held any other personal American Express card.

You are OK if you had a supplementary card on someone else’s American Express account.

You are OK if, currently or in the previous 24 months, you have held a Business American Express card.

For clarity, you can still apply for the Marriott Bonvoy American Express card even if you do not qualify for the bonus.  You would still benefit from the 15 elite night credits per year, the free night (up to 25,000 points) for spending £25,000 and Gold Elite status for spending £15,000.

Learn more about the card benefits +

You will receive 15 elite night credits per year in Marriott Bonvoy.  The first batch will arrive within 60 days on applying and then in Spring in each subsequent year.

15 elite nights will automatically get you Silver Elite status in Marriott Bonvoy and put you nearer to Gold Elite and higher tiers.

If you spend £15,000 per card year, you will be upgraded to Gold Elite status in Marriott Bonvoy.

If you spend £25,000 per card year, you will receive a free night voucher, valid at any hotel where reward nights cost up to 25,000 points.

You need a minimum personal income of £20,000 to apply for the card.

Conclusion

With travel restrictions falling away, it is a good time to book your next trip. You can find out more about the Qatar Airways 25th anniversary sale on its website here.

Comments (23)

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

  • Qrfan says:

    The business class fares I’m seeing are the new restricted lite fares, which means no lounge access or seat selection without status (and a poorer lounge even if you do have status). I think this should be mentioned in the article because if you have a layover in Doha that’s a big deal when paying close to £2k. Also, when I select the Dubai route the DOH/DXB leg is in economy. That also reduces the value of the offer.

  • Andrew J says:

    Is it a typo in the article where it says “strong” business class fares – should it read “expensive”?

  • KP says:

    These are sale prices? You must be joking!

    • Mark says:

      It’s a sponsored article #paidshill

    • Track says:

      It is the new normal.

      There are less flights to BKK, PKT. Impossible to travel via HKG and SIN. More pricing power for airlines — in that context 2000 GBP business fare to Thailand is actually cheap and near reasonable.

      Dont expect super-cheap air travel as a result of COVID, push for green, new taxes and sustained increased oil prices as economies pick up. Someone has to pay for it all (the final consumer).

  • ChrisBCN says:

    Today’s other article – £1699 Heathrow to Dubai on Emirates – “it isn’t dreadful”

    This article – £1876 Heathrow to Dubai on Qatar – “some strong Business class fares”

    • Rich says:

      Different author, no editorial consistency but I actually like that. We’ll all make our own judgements at the end of the day anyway.

      • Andrew J says:

        There’s only one reason for the difference in tone and message across the two articles and that’s explained at the start of this article: “This article has been sponsored by Qatar Airways.”

      • Rob says:

        The Qatar flights earn a huge pile of BA tier points and (for the non-London ones) don’t require a Heathrow transfer – Doha transfers are far easier. Qsuite is also FAR better than Emirates business class.

        You’re not really comparing like with like. As the Emirates article says, Lufty will sell you Dubai in Business for £799 until Tuesday if you’re happy with that.

        • Andrew J says:

          Not all flights offer QSuite.

        • Tom says:

          Doha transfers are far easier than a direct flight on Emirates! That’s a new one.

          The QR LHR-BKK fare here is literally more expense than it is 50% of the time on non-sale.

    • KP says:

      I was going to comment the same. Thanks for saving me time.

  • Stuart says:

    If the “Business Lite” fare is selected, does that qualify for any changes / refunds. Qatar say “We understand you need to feel confident and safe when you travel during these times. That is why we will continue offering guaranteed flexibility for travel completed by 30 September 2022”, but when I look at the conditions it seems to contradict this.
    Flying ARN to SIN.

  • Peter says:

    For my Phuket flights in February, they brought back the 15 year old A330 instead of the Q-suite on the A350, the only airline who grounded it. Plus they changed the flight times at least 5 times since November to much worse timings. Quite disappointed so far.

    • AndyC says:

      Next time maybe try Etihad. Flights generally appear cheaper than QR, as well as some being on 787.

    • Russ says:

      I prefer the A330. Feels more spacious and seats are better. Just the stuff you need on a long flight.

  • Aston100 says:

    Those sale prices seem quite high.
    Bangkok for £2.3k definitely doesn’t sound like a sale price at all.

  • Shaks says:

    Would love Qatar to come back to Birmingham!

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

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