How to spend and earn Avios on duty free at Doha’s Hamad International Airport

I unexpectedly caught up with the CEO of Qatar Duty Free at the Farnborough International Airshow this week, and he was telling me what a great success the ‘pay with Avios’ feature has been since it launched 18 months ago.

We haven’t covered it since then so I thought it was worth running over it again for the benefit of anyone planning a trip on Qatar Airways via Doha this summer.

The bottom line is that you can use your Avios to pay, in full or in part, for purchases at virtually every shop and restaurant at Doha’s Hamad International Airport – over 170 of them.

In a radical move which remains unique globally, Qatar Airways will award your Avios on cash flights TWO HOURS BEFORE DEPARTURE – allowing you to spend them in Doha during your transit!

To receive your Avios at check in before your flight, you need to be crediting your flight to a Qatar Airways Privilege Club Avios account. If your flight is being credited to a British Airways or Iberia Plus Avios account, the Avios will turn up a few days later as they do now and so won’t be available to spend immediately.

One interesting possibility here is to use the Avios earned on your first flight to upgrade your onward leg after your stopover!

You can also earn Avios on virtually all purchases at Hamad International.

From a UK point of view, the only catch with all this is that your Avios need to be sitting in a Qatar Airways Privilege Club account or you need your British Airways account to be linked to your Qatar Airways one.

This HfP article shows how to link your Qatar Airways Privilege Club and British Airways accounts.

How does the process work?

Full details are on this page of the Qatar Airways website.

This really is an incredibly slick process, and you can only dream of the day that British Airways could set up something like this. Of course, it helps when the airport, the duty free operation and the airline are under the same ownership!

As I noted above, you will receive your Avios around two hours before your flight departs if you are crediting them to a Qatar Airways Privilege Club account.

During your transit in Doha – assuming you are in transit – you simply scan your boarding pass when buying anything in the airport. The cashier will instantly see how many Avios you have in your Qatar Airways Privilege Club account, and you can choose to use some or all of them towards your purchase.

(If you are crediting your flight to British Airways Executive Club or another programme and your Qatar Airways Privilege Club number is not on your boarding pass, you can show your Qatar Airways Privilege Club membership card on your phone instead.)

You earn Avios in the same way – scan your boarding pass to bring up your Qatar Airways Privilege Club account number, or have your membership card scanned.

For security reasons, Avios can only be redeemed from an account which matches the name on the boarding pass.

What is the Avios earn and spend rate at Qatar Duty Free?

The spend rate is not fantastic, to be honest.

You will get 0.65 cents per Avios redeemed, which is currently 0.50p.

This is identical to transferring your Avios to Nectar and spending them in Sainsburys or Argos.

It is, however, a very easy way of spending them.

To be honest, the target market here is less the hardcore HfP Avios collector and more the casual flyer.

Imagine that you check in for your Business Class flight and get a notification saying that you now have, say, £30-worth of Avios credit which you can use during your transit.

It is fairly compelling offer, especially as it allows the occasional flyer to burn 100% of the Avios from their flight during the flight itself. No more sitting around with an orphaned balance which may never be redeemed.

It is also a great way of getting new members involved in the loyalty scheme, especially as research shows that members become more loyal after a successful first redemption.

The Avios earning rate on purchases at Qatar Duty Free is 1 Avios per 5 Riyals (£1.03). These need to be credited to a Qatar Airways Privilege Club account but can be easily moved over to a linked British Airways Executive Club account.

You also get a Qatar Duty Free discount when using Avios

What may tilt the balance is that you will also get a discount on your purchases at Qatar Duty Free when you pay with Avios.

You save:

• Burgundy members: 10% discount (this is the ‘no status’ level you get for signing up)
• Silver members: 15% discount
• Gold members: 15% discount
• Platinum members: 20% discount

Factor in the discount on top of the 0.65 cents per point redemption rate and it looks a lot more interesting.

There are some exclusions to the discount which you can find on this page of the Qatar Airways website.

If you are passing through Doha on a flight soon, it is worth signing up for Privilege Club membership and paying with Avios at duty free purely for the discount.

If you aren’t concerned about earning British Airways Executive Club tier points from your flight, you might as well credit it to your QAPC account and benefit from the instant crediting of your Avios too.

You can also earn status points on your duty free shopping

I won’t go into this in detail because few of our readers are earning elite status via Qatar Airways Privilege Club.

If you, it is worth knowing that you will earn 1 Qpoint for every $100 spent at Qatar Duty Free. See here for full details and exclusions.

Conclusion

Whilst it doesn’t provide the greatest value for your Avios, Qatar Duty Free offers you another way of spending your balance.

If you are buying something which also qualifies for the 10% discount for paying with Avios, the deal becomes more attractive than most other non-flight ways of spending your points.

If you passing through Hamad and decide to buy something, even food and drink, don’t forget to give your Qatar Airways Privilege Club number and earn some Avios back.

You can learn more about earning and spending Avios at Hamad International on the Qatar Airways website site.

PS. If you are reading this but are not a regular Head for Points visitor, please consider signing up for our FREE weekly or daily newsletters. They are full of the latest Avios, airline, hotel and credit card points news and deals to improve how you travel. To sign up, visit this page of the site or click any of the ‘Subscribe’ links on this page. Thank you.

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How to earn Avios from UK credit cards (January 2025)

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.

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, and the standard card is FREE. Capital on Tap cards also have no FX fees.

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.

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