Great Qatar deal – Heathrow to Doha on British Airways for £961 return in Business

A very interesting British Airways fare has appeared this afternoon for travel between London Heathrow and Doha.

For just £961 return, you can fly from London Heathrow to Doha in Business Class.

The fare is available for pretty much the next 11 months.

(EDIT: We published this article on Sunday afternoon and the deal died late on Sunday night.)

The downsides are:

• you can’t book the Qatar Airways services – only the BA flights

• you can’t add a regional connection unless you book via BA Holidays – the price will shoot up otherwise

• you can’t book beyond Doha – although of course you can pay for onward trips

• there is a 4 night minimum stay

This deal would earn 280 British Airways Executive Club tier points as it stands. Wrap it in a BA Holidays package for 5 nights (either ‘flight + car’ or ‘flight + hotel’) and it would qualify for double tier points – 560 tier points in total.

Most services seem to be on a Boeing 777 so you should get Club Suite.

The fare is obviously non-refundable for this price.

Here is an example for the peak Autumn period:

It’s not clear if this is a mistake fare or not. Whilst it probably is – because World Traveller Plus is cheaper than Business Class for the return – £961 is not unreasonably low for the Middle East. Lufthansa sells UK to Dubai flights for similar sums during sales.

This means that I doubt your ticket would be cancelled even if it is an error. I imagine that BA struggles to sell its Doha flights, given that there are multiple Qatar Airways services which offer better lounges, seat, food and drink, and it may be quietly happy to pocket a few £961s.

You can keep up with discussion on the deal in this Flyertalk thread, which is also likely to be updated quickly if the deal is pulled.

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