What new Avios earn and spend partners did Qatar Airways bring?

Back in March 2022, Qatar Airways officially adopted Avios as its frequent flyer currency. Qmiles were no more.

You can link your British Airways Executive Club account with your Qatar Airways 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 opened up from this partnership, as long as you have a Qatar Airways Privilege Club account. In this article we want to remind you of the new possibilities for earning and spending Avios on flights, hotels and car hire.

Part 1: Additional airline partners

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

In this section I want to look at Qatar’s exclusive 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 has a codeshare deal with Bangkok Airways but (once BA flights restart this winter) you can only earn Avios on Bangkok Airways if they have a BA flight number and connect to a BA long-haul service.

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

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

Earn and spend Avios with jetBlue

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

You can earn and spend Avios on jetBlue transatlantic flights in Qatar Airways 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.

Here is our recent view of jetBlue’s Mint business class seat from London Heathrow. We reviewed the larger Mint Suite seat on our return.

Earn and spend Avios with LATAM

Latin American carrier LATAM was part of oneworld, and so a full 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 and spend Avios in British Airways Executive Club when flying with LATAM Chile (LA), LATAM Colombia (4C), LATAM Ecuador (XL), LATAM Peru (LP) and LATAM Brasil Airlines (JJ). You will not earn BA tier points on LATAM flights.

Before the new BA website was launched this year, ba.com had a note saying that you cannot earn Avios via British Airways on LATAM flights which operate wholly within Peru, Chile, Ecuador or Argentina. This note is no longer there – it isn’t clear if there has been a change in the rules or if this is an oversight.

There are no stated exclusions to earning Avios in Qatar Airways 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 won’t earn Qpoints (status points) with Qatar Airways Privilege Club unless your LATAM flight has a QR flight number.

You can redeem Avios on LATAM flights via British Airways Executive Club or Qatar Airways Privilege Club. It isn’t clear if there are differences in the LATAM subsidiaries which are bookable via the two programmes.

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 Airways 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.

Oman Air is due to join the oneworld airline alliance later in 2024 so you will be able to earn and spend Avios with them via British Airways Executive Club from that point.

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 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 Airways Privilege Club.

Earn and spend Avios with Virgin Australia

Virgin Australia is the newest Qatar Airways Avios partner.

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

Additional 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 meant that you can now earn and spend Avios on another FIVE airlines:

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

You can also earn and redeem with LATAM on more routes than you can via British Airways and earn and spend Avios with Oman Air on the Doha – Muscat route.

Part 2: Additional hotel partners

In this section I want to look at how you have additional hotel partners for earning Avios if you open a Qatar Airways Privilege Club account.

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 Airways 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 Airways 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 Airways Privilege Club for eligible stay in Rotana Hotels and 250 Avios for eligible stays 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 Airways 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 Airways Privilege Club partnership.

Additional hotel partners summarised ….

Qatar Airways Privilege Club didn’t bring a huge amount to the table in terms of new Avios hotel partners.

The key one is Shangri-La Hotels & Resorts which became 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: Additional car rental partners

In this section I want to look at how earning Avios from car rentals is now far easier than it was if you open a Qatar Airways Privilege Club account.

For many years, 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 Airways Privilege Club and not Executive Club.

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

Unless you are spending over £250 (base rental, not total cost) Qatar Airways 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 Airways 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 Airways 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 

Now that Virgin Flying Club has scrapped its flat rate offer of 1,000 miles per Hertz rental, Qatar Airways Privilege Club is your best option for short cheap rentals.

The Hertz website is here.

Earn Avios with SIXT

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

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

The SIXT website is here. Note that pre-paid rentals do not earn miles with any SIXT partner.

Earn Avios with Rentalcars.com

Finally, Qatar Airways 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.

Additional 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 Avios deal with Qatar Airways Privilege Club means that you can now earn Avios from Europcar, Hertz and Sixt too.

Conclusion

Too many people don’t realise what big improvements the adoption of Avios by Qatar Airways Privilege Club brought to their ability to earn and spend Avios.

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

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How to earn Avios from UK credit cards (September 2024)

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: Until 26th September 2024, sign up for FREE Barclaycard Avios Mastercard and you will receive a sign-up bonus of 10,000 Avios. This is double the usual bonus! You only need to spend £1,000 within 90 days. Our full review is here. Click here to 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. These points convert at 1:1 into Avios.

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.

There is also a British Airways American Express card for small businesses:

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.

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 22nd October 2024, the bonus on American Express Business Platinum is increased to up to 80,000 Membership Rewards points, worth 80,000 Avios. You will receive 8 points per £1 spent for the first three months, on up to £10,000 of spending. Click here to read our full card review. Click here to apply.

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 22nd October 2024, the bonus on American Express Business Gold is increased to up to 40,000 Membership Rewards points, worth 40,000 Avios. You will receive 4 points per £1 spent for the first three months, on up to £10,000 of spending. The card is FREE for your first year. Click here to read our full card review. Click here to apply.

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