How do Qatar Airways ‘double Avios’ Flexi Awards work?

Back in March 2022, Qatar Airways announced that it was adopting Avios as its loyalty currency. You can link your British Airways Club and Qatar Airways Privilege Club accounts via the method we explain here and book Avios flights via the Qatar Airways website.

In most cases, however, you don’t need to book Qatar Airways redemptions via qatarairways.com. The same seats, with the same taxes and charges, are usually available via ba.com.

One exception is ‘double Avios’ redemptions.

Qatar Airways has its own equivalent of the British Airways ‘double Avios for extra availability’ scheme, although there are significant differences.

Using double Avios on British Airways

The BA ‘double Avios’ scheme is called the Gold Priority Reward, explained in this HfP article.

In simple terms:

• only Gold members of The British Airways Club can use it
• you can book any seat, on any flight, for double the normal amount of Avios
• you can book for anyone, not just yourself
• you must book at least 30 days in advance
• only British Airways flights are available
• you can only book by telephone
• pricing is based on the ‘most Avios, least cash’ option shown on ba.com (usually the £1 cash option) which means the flight requires a disproportionately high number of Avios

Using double Avios on Qatar Airways

The Qatar Airways version works totally differently:

• any member of Qatar Airways Privilege Club can use it, regardless of status
• you can book seats on SELECTED flights for double the normal amount of Avios
• you can book for anyone, not just yourself
• only Qatar Airways flights are available
• you can book online

Here is an example from the Qatar Airways website:

This is a one way flight from Manchester to Melbourne on 2nd December.

Note the little ‘Flexi’ logo in the business class box. This means that you can book these seats, but it will cost you double the usual number of Avios.

In this case, for a one-way Business Class flight from Manchester to Melbourne, the cost doubles from 90,000 Avios to 180,000 Avios, plus £480 of taxes and charges.

Does ba.com offer this flight? No. Here is ba.com for 2nd December:

No business class Avios seats are available on Qatar Airways via ba.com because these ‘Flexi’ seats come from additional availability that Qatar Airways reserves for its own members.

ba.com WOULD show the flight if it was available for the standard level of Avios, which for Manchester to Melbourne in business class is 90,000 points, one way.

Is this good value? It’s up to you. In general, the ‘double Avios’ seats are not cheap but if you are Avios-rich and cash-poor you may get good value.

You also, of course, retain the flexibility to cancel your ticket and rebook should an Avios seat at the standard price level appear later.

For Australia and New Zealand, 360,000 Avios for a return business class ticket from the UK on the excellent Qatar Airways is still arguably still a deal at peak time.

At the standard 180,000 Avios return in business class, of course, it’s laughably cheap although availability at this level comes and goes in waves.