What new Avios earn and spend partners has Qatar Airways brought?

Back in March 2022, 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 and spending options are now available, as long as you open a Qatar Privilege Club account. In this article we look at new possibilities for earning and spending Avios on flights, hotels and car hire.

Part 1: New airline partners

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

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

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 had an existing codeshare deal with Bangkok Airways, but it may have lapsed now that BA has scrapped Bangkok flights. In any event, you could only earn Avios on Bangkok Airways if they had a BA flight number and connected to a BA long-haul flight.

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.

You CAN earn Avios on jetBlue transatlantic flights in Qatar Privilege Club. This HfP article proves it. 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.

There are certain exceptions though. You cannot earn Avios via British Airways on LATAM flight which operate wholly within Peru, Chile, Ecuador or Argentina.

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, although you can redeem via Iberia Plus.

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

RwandAir, based in Kigali, is a very small carrier with just 12 aircraft. However, the airline does fly to London Heathrow via a stop in Brussels which means 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.

Earn and spend Avios with Virgin Australia

Virgin Australia is the newests Qatar Airways Avios partner.

As of July 2022, you have been able to earn and redeem Avios with Virgin Australia via Qatar Privilege Club.

New airlines partners summarised ….

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 FOUR airlines:

• Bangkok Airways
• Middle East Airlines
• RwandAir
• Virgin Australia

You can also earn, but not spend, Avios with jetBlue, earn and redeem with LATAM on more routes than you can via Iberia Plus and earn and spend Avios with Oman Air on the Doha – Muscat route.

Part 2: New hotel partners

In this section I want to look at how you now have additional hotel partners for earning Avios.

Earn Avios with Shangri-La Hotels & Resorts

Shangri-La Hotels & Resorts is no longer a British Airways Executive Club partner. You can still earn Avios, however, via Qatar Privilege Club.

You earn 500 Avios per qualifying stay at participating Shangri-La Hotels and Resorts, Kerry Hotels, JEN and Traders Hotels.

If you choose to earn Shangri-La Circle points instead, you can convert those to Avios in Qatar Privilege Club at a 1:1 ratio. The minimum transfer is 1,000 Circle points.

Additional conversions can be made in increments of 500 Shangri-La Circle Points.

Earn Avios with Rotana Hotels & Resorts

Rotana manages over 100 properties throughout the Middle East, Africa, Eastern Europe, and Turkey. Brands include Rotana Hotels & Resorts, Centro Hotels by Rotana, Rayhaan Hotels & Resorts by Rotana, Arjaan Hotel Apartments by Rotana and The Residences by Rotana.

You earn 500 Avios in Qatar Privilege Club for eligible stay in Rotana Hotels and 250 Avios for eligible stay in Rotana’s Suites and Resorts.

Earn Avios with Centara Hotels & Resorts

Centara Hotels & Resorts is a leading Thai hotel operator with 88 properties. As well as Thailand it can also be found in the Maldives, Sri Lanka, Vietnam, Laos, Myanmar, China, Japan, Oman, Qatar, Cambodia, Turkey, Indonesia and the UAE.

There are six brands: Centara Reserve, Centara Grand Hotels & Resorts, Centara Hotels & Resorts, Centara Boutique Collection, Centra by Centara and COSI Hotels.

You need to credit your stay to Centara’s own loyalty scheme, CentaraThe1. Points can be transferred to Avios at the rate of 5,000 CentaraThe1 points to 300 Avios.

The Centara website has more details about the partnership here. 

Spend Avios with Accor Live Limitless

It has always been possible to transfer Accor Live Limitless points into Avios via Iberia Plus and British Airways Executive Club.

What is new with the Qatar Privilege Club is relationship is that you can now turn Avios into Accor Live Limitless points. The rate isn’t great, but you can do it.

This HfP article has full details on the Accor / Qatar Privilege Club partnership.

New hotel partners summarised ….

We need to be honest – Qatar Privilege Club hasn’t brought a huge amount to the table in terms of new Avios hotel partners.

The key one, clearly, is Shangri-La Hotels & Resorts which is now an Avios partner once again. This fills the gap left by the exit of British Airways.

The ability to turn Avios into Accor Live Limitless points may have value in niche scenarios but the conversion rate is weak.

Part 3: New car rental partners

In this section I want to look at how earning Avios from car rentals is now far easier than it was.

For many years now, the whole of the IAG airline group (primarily British Airways, Iberia and Aer Lingus) has had an exclusive deal with Avis Budget.

This has generally worked well. There are some genuinely good additional benefits offered through this partnership, such as a free additional driver with Avis. You also earn Avios at a decent rate of 5 Avios per £1 spent.

Avis and Budget are often not an option, however, either due to price or simply not having a depot or the availability you need at your destination.

You now have a lot of new possibilities. See here for details of the Qatar Airways car rental partners.

These are your options:

Earn Avios with Avis

Yes, we know, Avis is a British Airways partner already. However, there is a little quirk. Avios earning via British Airways Executive Club is based on what you spend, at the rate of 5 Avios per £1.

With Qatar Airways you earn at a flat rate. For non-status members, this means 500 Avios per rental.

If you are spending under £100, and assuming that the BA and Qatar Airways discount codes get you the same price from Avis, you might as well credit the rental to Privilege Club.

The Avis home page is here. The BA partnership site is here.

Earn Avios with Budget

With Budget, there is an even bigger incentive to credit your rental to Qatar Privilege Club and not Executive Club.

With BA, you will only earn 2 Avios per £1 you spend. Credit your rental to Qatar Privilege Club and you will earn a flat 500 Avios.

Unless you are spending over £250, Qatar Privilege Club is the most lucrative option.

The Budget home page is here. The BA partnership site is here.

Earn Avios with Europcar

Europcar was not previously an Avios partner, although you could earn Nectar points – at a terrible rate – and convert them. We wrote this article on how you could earn points and miles in other loyalty schemes with Europcar.

You can now earn Avios with Europcar via Qatar Privilege Club. You will earn 500 Avios on all rentals.

The Europcar website is here.

Earn Avios with Hertz

Hertz is arguably ‘the big one’ in terms of opening up new ways of earning Avios from Qatar Privilege Club.

As a Privilege Club member you receive:

• Up to 10% off Hertz car rental rates
• 500 Avios for standard rentals 
• 250 Avios for contract rentals 

Historically, we recommended crediting Hertz rentals to Virgin Flying Club. If you collect both Avios and Virgin Points, the Virgin route is still more generous as you receive 1,000 points per rental.

The Hertz website is here.

Earn Avios with Sixt

You can earn 500 Avios for every Sixt rental when you credit it to Qatar Privilege Club.

Sixt also has a partnership with Virgin Atlantic earning 500 Virgin Points per rental – see here.

The Sixt website is here.

Earn Avios with Rentalcars.com

Finally, Qatar Privilege Club has an interesting deal with Rentalcars.com. This is a consolidator, allowing you to book cars from every major rental company in virtually all major markets.

You need to book via the special link on the Qatar Airways website (click on ‘Car Rentals’ and then ‘Rentalcars.com’) which takes you to a dedicated co-branded booking page. You will receive 3 Avios in Privilege Club for every $1 you spend.

New car rental partners summarised ….

The Avis Budget partnership with British Airways has been very successful because it was well designed to offer genuine benefits to members.

That said, Avis Budget is not always the answer to your car rental problems. The new Avios deal with Qatar Privilege Club means that you can now earn Avios from Europcar, Hertz and Sixt too.

Conclusion

Too many people have underestimated what the adoption of Avios by Qatar Privilege Club has brought to their ability to earn and spend Avios.

Hopefully this article has given you a good overview of the new airline, hotel and car rental options available to you.

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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.