Qatar Airways launches Avios Subscription with status points – is it worth a look?

If this article sounds familiar, it’s because it is only six weeks since we wrote a very similar one about Finnair Plus.

The Finnair Avios Subscription was the same as the British Airways version in terms of price, coming in at around 0.99p.

Qatar Airways has now jumped in too, and with a twist – the top package comes with Qpoints towards elite status.

You can learn about the UK version of Avios Subscription which we covered here. The Finnair version is here.

What is Privilege Club Pro?

Qatar Airways has given its subscription a name – Privilege Club Pro.

You can choose to pay a monthly or annual fee (paying annually gets you 12 months for the price of 10) and in return you will receive 2,000, 7,500, 15,000 or 20,000 Avios per month.

This is how it works out, paid annually:

• 2,000 Avios per month for £385 = 1.6p per Avios

• 7,500 Avios per month for £1,002 = 1.1p per Avios

• 15,000 Avios per month for £1,850 = 1.02p per Avios

• 20,000 Avios per month for £2,698 = 1.12p per Avios plus ….

The price is converted for you based on the currency of your home address. I have used £ above because that is what I am shown.

It’s worth noting that the exchange used is deliberately poor – the top package is $3,500 so, using spot rate, it should only cost you £2,592. Instead, Qatar Airways adds 4%.

Without the dodgy 4% FX fee, the 15,000 Avios per month package would be £1,778 and not £1,850, or 0.99p per Avios. This equals the price charged by British Airways and Finnair.

The top package comes with tier points

There is a reason that the 20,000 Avios per month package is, on the face of it, a worse deal than 7,500 Avios or 15,000 Avios package.

The top package comes with 5 Qpoints per month towards elite status. Over a year, you would receive 60 Qpoints.

What does 60 Qpoints get you?

Here are the Qatar Airways Privilege Club status targets:

• Silver – equivalent to BA Bronze / oneworld Ruby – 150 Qpoints (135 Qpoints to renew)

• Gold – equivalent to BA Silver / oneworld Sapphire – 300 Qpoints (270 Qpoints to renew)

• Platinum – equivalent to BA Gold – oneworld Emerald – 600 Qpoints (540 Qpoints to renew)

60 Qpoints from an Avios Subscription would get you 40% of the way to Silver (but that’s not worth much – albeit you DO get lounge access when flying Qatar Airways in London and Doha), 20% of the way to Gold (lounge access across oneworld) and 10% of the way to Platinum (premium lounge access across oneworld, eg Galleries First at Heathrow T5).

You are paying (assuming the Avios are worth 1p each for simplicity) £298 for those 60 Qpoints. This is based on paying £2,698 for a package which gets you 24,000 Avios plus 60 Qpoints.

You MUST fly Qatar Airways to earn status with them. 20% of your Qpoints must come from Qatar Airways flights – failing this, you must have flown at least four one-way cash flights on Qatar Airways. You will not get promoted otherwise even if you have the Qpoints.

Is this worth it? Up to you

Qatar Airways has been fairly clever here.

If you only want the Avios, you can take the 15,000 Avios per month package and pay virtually the same as you’d pay with a British Airways or Finnair Avios Subscription.

If you want to add some status points on top, you can do, by taking the top package. It’s up to you whether 60 Qpoints are worth £298. If you would otherwise end the year 60 Qpoints short of tier promotion, they are very valuable. If they end up making no difference to your tier status, you’ve wasted your money.

There’s another snag of course. It is now July. If you already have Privilege Club status then you will be part of the way through your renewal period, so you won’t get the benefit of the full 60 Qpoints. It is slightly different if you are working towards a higher status level because it is based on the points you earned in the previous 12 or 24 months.

For UK residents who are not interested in Qatar Airways Qpoints, you should stick with the British Airways Avios Subscription since – at 0.99p per point at the highest level – it is cheaper than the Qatar Airways version at 1.02p due to the dodgy exchange rate used.

(If the $ moves sharply against the £ we will look at this again as the situation may change.)

You can find out more on the Qatar Airways website here, although you need to log in to see pricing.