What new airlines can you earn and spend Avios with via Qatar Privilege Club?

Back in March, Qatar Airways officially adopted Avios as its frequent flyer currency. Qmiles are no more.

You can now link your British Airways Executive Club account with your Qatar Privilege Club account and move Avios back and forth at a 1:1 ratio. Our ‘how to’ guide to account linking is here.

If you think ‘so what?’ because you could already book Qatar Airways flights via British Airways Executive Club, you need to think again. A lot of new Avios earning options with partners are now available, as long as you open a Qatar Privilege Club account.

We have already written about how you can earn Avios with Europcar, Hertz and Sixt via Qatar Privilege Club.

In this article I want to look at how you now have additional airline partners for earning and spending Avios.

We’ve already looked at Virgin Australia

Last week we told you how Qatar Airways is about to launch a new partnership with Virgin Australia. From July, you will be able to earn and redeem Avios with Virgin Australia via Qatar Privilege Club, using ‘Combine My Avios’ to move your points to and from your British Airways account.

Read the linked article above to find out more about how this will work.

Qatar Airways brings new airline partners to Avios

You can find details of all Qatar Privilege Club partners – cars, airlines, hotels, the lot – on this page of the Qatar Airways website.

I will ignore all of the partners in the oneworld alliance, since you can already earn and spend Avios with them via British Airways Executive Club.

Earn and spend Avios with Bangkok Airways

British Airways has an existing codeshare deal with Bangkok Airways, but it is only valid when you book a connection to or from a British Airways flight to Bangkok and the flight carries a BA flight number. You won’t be doing this until at least April 2023 as Bangkok flights are cancelled for the Winter season (BA still hasn’t notified customers about this ……).

Qatar Airways is far more flexible. You can earn Avios in Qatar Privilege Club on ALL Bangkok Airways flights.

You can also redeem Avios for Bangkok Airways flights via Qatar Privilege Club.

Earn Avios with jetBlue

This is very interesting, given that jetBlue is now flying from London Heathrow and London Gatwick to Boston and New York.

Whilst jetBlue has a partnership with American Airlines, the transatlantic routes are excluded from mileage earning on competition grounds.

As far as we can tell, the jetBlue transatlantic routes are NOT excluded from earning Avios in Qatar Privilege Club. This is potentially very attractive, letting you take advantage of jetBlue’s impressive business and economy class service – and attractive fares – whilst still earning Avios.

Note that you cannot spend Avios on jetBlue flights via Qatar Privilege Club – only earn them.

Earn and spend Avios with LATAM

Latin American carrier LATAM was part of oneworld, and so an Avios earning and redeeming partner, until 2020. It resigned after receiving a financial injection from Delta Air Lines, which also took an equity stake.

Despite leaving oneworld, you can still earn Avios in British Airways Executive Club when flying with LATAM. You will not earn tier points and certain domestic routes are excluded.

There are no stated exclusions to earning Avios in Qatar Privilege Club, so in some circumstances you may need to credit your LATAM flight to Qatar Airways and not British Airways to earn Avios.

You can redeem Avios on LATAM flights via Qatar Privilege Club. This is no longer possible via British Airways Executive Club.

Earn and spend Avios with Middle East Airlines

Middle East Airlines is the national airline of Lebanon.

You can both earn and redeem Avios on MEA via Qatar Privilege Club.

Earn and spend Avios with Oman Air (on one route!)

With British Airways no longer flying to Muscat, and Oman becoming an increasingly popular tourist destination, this could have been an attractive new redemption option for Avios collectors.

Unfortunately, the partnership between Oman Air and Qatar Airways is very limited. You can only earn and redeem Avios on flights between Doha and Muscat.

Earn and spend Avios with RwandAir

The final Qatar Airways non-oneworld airline partnership is with RwandAir, based in Kigali. This is a very small carrier with just 12 aircraft although – as the airline flies to London Heathrow via a stop in Brussels – it may be an interesting alternative for anyone planning a trip to Africa.

You can earn and redeem Avios on RwandAir via Qatar Privilege Club.

Conclusion

Whilst you can’t earn British Airways Executive Club tier points from the airlines above, the adoption of Avios by Qatar Airways means that you can now earn and spend Avios on another FIVE airlines:

• Bangkok Airways
• LATAM
• Middle East Airlines
• RwandAir
• Virgin Australia (from later in 2022)

You can also earn, but not spend, Avios with jetBlue and earn and spend Avios with Oman Air on the Doha – Muscat route.

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How to earn Avios from UK credit cards (March 2023)

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.

SPECIAL OFFER: Successfully apply for either of the Barclaycard Avios credit cards by 2nd April 2023 and you will be entered into a free draw to win ONE MILLION AVIOS! Full details are on the application forms here (free) and here (paid). This competition is exclusive to Head for Points readers. T&C apply.

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.

Until 30th March 2023, the sign up bonus on American Express Business Platinum is increased to 120,000 Membership Rewards points – click here. The bonus on American Express Business Gold is increased to 60,000 Membership Rewards points – click here. T&C apply, see the application forms for details.

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