NEW: Earn and redeem Avios on Garuda Indonesia flights!

A new airline has joined the Avios ecosystem – Garuda Indonesia.

Even though it is a member of the competing SkyTeam airline alliance, Garuda went live yesterday as an Avios ‘earn and burn’ partner.

Given the paucity of British Airways flights to Asia, this is a new opportunity to use your points to get to Jakarta, Bali and potentially other parts of Asia and Australia.

The only snag is that Amsterdam is the only starting point in Europe.

Whilst there has been no publicity, Garuda Indonesia is now a partner of Qatar Airways Privilege Club.

Note that, for clarity, you cannot book Avios redemptions on Garuda via ba.com and you cannot credit Garuda cash flights to British Airways Club. Everything must be done via Qatar Airways.

You will need to open a Qatar Airways Privilege Club account if you don’t already have one, and link it to your British Airways Club account. This HfP article explains how to do it.

When redeeming, you do NOT need to transfer Avios into your Qatar Airways account. They will be automatically withdrawn from your linked BA account when you redeem.

One downside is that you can only spend Avios in your own personal British Airways Club account. Qatar Airways Privilege Club cannot withdraw Avios from members of your household account, only from your own. This means that you must, personally, have enough Avios for a redemption.

Where does Garuda fly?

As well as 37 domestic destinations, you can fly between Jakarta and:

• Europe – Amsterdam

• Middle East – Doha, Medinah, Jeddah

• Asia – Bangkok, Guangzhou, Hong Kong, Kuala Lumpur, Seoul, Shanghai, Singapore, Tokyo

• Australia – Melbourne, Sydney

Note that there are no flights to London.

How much are Garuda Indonesia redemptions using Avios?

Here is the Qatar Airways partner chart for redeeming Avios (click to enlarge):

Amsterdam to Jakarta is 7,055 miles so you are at the bottom of the chart:

• Economy – 51,500 Avios each way

• Business – 154,500 Avios each way

You cannot use American Express or Barclaycard vouchers on these flights.

If you are connecting to Bali or elsewhere, you need to price each flight separately. You do NOT add together the total mileage of both flights and use that number to find your price.

What are the taxes and charges?

We don’t know.

Garuda availability does not seem to be loaded into the Qatar Airways website yet. The only flights I can find are those which connect Doha and Jakarta and which are Qatar Airways codeshares.

(Whilst not all Qatar Airways partner airlines are bookable online, I believe that Garuda will be.)

How many Avios do I earn on Garuda Indonesia cash flights?

As well as redeeming Avios on Garuda, you can also earn.

When credited to a Qatar Airways Privilege Club account, you will receive (click to enlarge):

Earning rates are based on a percentage of miles flown, so a discounted return economy flight from Amsterdam to Jakarta would earn roughly 5,000 Avios. Book a flexible business class ticket and you’d receive roughly 25,000 Avios.

Of course, because Garuda Indonesia is part of SkyTeam, you can also credit a cash flight to any SkyTeam frequent flyer programme. This includes Virgin Atlantic Flying Club and Air France KLM’s Flying Blue.

You can see how many Virgin Points you would earn from a Garuda cash flight here. Elite members of Virgin Flying Club will receive a status bonus on top.

Conclusion

This partnership is a bolt from the blue, but a welcome one.

It opens up new opportunities to use your Avios to travel around Asia and opens up another potential route to Bali. It’s just a shame that Garuda does not currently fly to the UK.

You can find out more on the Qatar Airways partner page here – click on ‘Partner Airlines’.