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Qatar Airways to replace Emirates as F1’s airline sponsor – use Avios for tickets?

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SportBusiness has an exclusive story on Qatar Airways replacing Emirates as the official airline partner of Formula 1.

To quote:

Qatar Airways is set to be announced as the new airline sponsor of Formula 1, nearly doubling the fee paid by previous incumbent Emirates to secure the rights.

SportBusiness understands the state-owned flag carrier has agreed a deal to become a top-tier F1 Global Partner from the start of the 2023 season, with the deal expected to be announced ahead of the first race in Bahrain from March 3-5.

Qatar Airways to replace Emirates as F1's airline sponsor

I asked the Qatar Airways PR team in Doha if they could confirm the story but they refused to comment either way.

It sounds plausible, because Qatar has signed a 10-year deal with Formula 1 to host annual races from this year.

The reason I mention this is that Emirates has historically offered great value Paddock Club hospitality packages for Emirates Skywards miles.

You were never going to get a bargain for the British Grand Prix, but for anyone willing to head to some of the lower profile European races there were deals to be had. I know one reader paid just over 100,000 Emirates Skywards miles for 2 x 3-day Paddock Club hospitality packages for a European race last year.

At present Qatar Airways does not have ‘experiences’ redemptions. If they decided to launch them – and obviously having Formula 1 tickets to dish out is a good base to start from – this would be good news now that Qatar Airways Privilege Club has adopted Avios as its currency.

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Category

Emirates and Emirates Skywards, Qatar Airways and Privilege Club

Comments (29)

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

  • BA Flyer IHG Stayer says:
    20 Jan20 January 05:36

    I feel Emyr is going to have a busy day today.

    Due to jet lag I’ve gotten in my pricing requests early!

  • Harry T says:
    20 Jan20 January 05:56

    Emyr can sometimes get you a better price, eg through offers like “Stars and Save” or “Luminous Stay and Pay” where you get a discount off the BFR. This is a particularly good deal due to the extra benefits that stack on top of this.

    • typem2b says:
      20 Jan20 January 08:06

      That sounds interesting- which brands are those deals for?

      • Rob says:
        20 Jan20 January 08:36

        Yes, he gets access to odd stuff. We did a Jumeirah Dubai booking in 2021 and he got a rate which undercut everything on their website, but last year he couldn’t. All down to whatever the chains are desperare to push at any particular time.

  • Andrew J says:
    20 Jan20 January 07:28

    If you have IHG Diamond and you can fix your dates, it’s pretty marginal as you’d get all the benefits except the $100 credit and you wouldn’t need to be paying the much higher Best Available Rate, taking a cheaper advance rate available.

    • S says:
      20 Jan20 January 08:35

      Well yeh, but what if you’re not Diamond and value the flexibility? Isn’t that what these schemes are designed for?

      • memesweeper says:
        20 Jan20 January 09:22

        Diamond or not I’m still booking with flexibility of some kind for all flights and hotels in 2023.

        • meta says:
          20 Jan20 January 11:17

          Same here. I think this is what I am going to do from now. Gone are the days where I am prepared to book non-refundable, given that at any given time a new virus can close all the borders. Although IHG Advance rates are for most hotels refundable 7 days before the stay.

    • BA Flyer IHG Stayer says:
      20 Jan20 January 09:38

      Paying for 4 nights of the BFR could still be cheaper than 5 at a lower rate though.

      One hotel I’m looking at the cheapest rate is £227 so £1,135 for 5 nights,

      With the 5-4-4 nights at the BFR of £272 is £ 1,088.

      If you cancel the former you lose your one nights deposit. With the BFR it’s cancel without charge the day before the stay.

      As a diamond I’d still opt for this offer.

      As always best do the maths before booking.

      (I also checked the railcard rate which is £225 per night so £ 1,125 with a cancel without charge 3 days before arrival)

      • meta says:
        20 Jan20 January 11:20

        In most IHG hotels, one night deposit is refundable if you cancel 7 days before the stay local time, so it’s still quite flexible.

      • Dickie_H says:
        20 Jan20 January 12:55

        The Railcard rate’s gone hasn’t it? It doesn’t appear in the railcard offers page anymore …

        • Rob says:
          20 Jan20 January 13:38

          That was the standard ‘partner’ rate, you can get the same price by Googling ‘IHG British Swimming’ or similar.

        • BA Flyer IHG Stayer says:
          20 Jan20 January 20:26

          The corporate code still works though if you enter it in to the search criteria.

  • PG says:
    20 Jan20 January 08:29

    Can you combine the L&L rate with a confirmable suite upgrade voucher? I know the rules state BFR but a few other rates also qualify

    • Rob says:
      20 Jan20 January 08:34

      Unlikely. I know someone who was blocked from using a voucher just because he added the option to buy 3000 points cheaply on the final page of booking. They are very strict.

  • Erico1875 says:
    20 Jan20 January 09:05

    OT.
    Can Emyr do anything with Disneyland Paris?
    I’m looking specificaly at NY Marvel Hotel

    • BA Flyer IHG Stayer says:
      20 Jan20 January 09:12

      Best just to contact him and ask!

    • Mike Hunt says:
      20 Jan20 January 09:40

      Are you after a one on one with Micky Mouse or just a photo of the two of you together

    • Rob says:
      20 Jan20 January 10:18

      I would guess not but it takes you 30 seconds to fill in the form to ask and it only takes him 30 seconds to reply if the answer is No so worth asking.

  • BSI1978 says:
    20 Jan20 January 09:41

    Was hoping the Intercontinental in Toronto would be included but annoyingly doesn’t appear on the list!

    • dst87 says:
      20 Jan20 January 11:47

      Sadly not – though I stayed there last year and honestly wasn’t hugely impressed. I don’t think I’d bother again. The Kimpton in Toronto is much nicer IMO. It’s obvious, really, but the IC felt like a massive conference hotel (because that’s what it is) and didn’t have the feeling of other ICs I’ve stayed in.

  • babyg says:
    20 Jan20 January 10:44

    Emirates F1 auctions were definitely one of the best under the radar auctions – for just over 100k (if you were lucky) you could get 2 x 3 day paddock passes, which would cost you around $12,000 .. meanwhile my last Hilton paddock pass was 500k Hilton points, and that was just for one day (Saturday only) sad to see the Emirates F1 auctions go, hopefully if Qatar do auctions they wont be over-blogged (hint 🙂 ) too much, Hilton / Marriott auctions are getting very hard to extract value, my first Hilton auctions were 50k, now they are x10 @500k…

  • Jonathan says:
    20 Jan20 January 12:24

    I find it rather odd that Emirates Skywards is one of the few airline loyalty programs to offer on-ground experiences and that most airline loyalty programs mainly focus on flight redemptions, okay QR let you use Avios in select Doha Airport shops, but the return isn’t going to be great
    I think SQ operates a very similar model ?

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