Is the new Qatar Airways Avios award flight finder any good?

Qatar Airways has launched a new version of its award flight finder tool. This sits on its website (click here, log in required) and is meant to make the job of finding Avios reward seats on Qatar Airways flights easier.

Does it do the job?

No, at least not for business class. Let me explain why.

The first issue with the new Qatar Airways award flight finder tool is that you need to log in to use it. Because of the security arrangements in place, you need to go through 2FA, waiting for a PIN code to appear via an email or text message.

The system also logs you out fairly quickly if you aren’t active, meaning that you need to go back through the 2FA process again before you can continue.

You may not be a fan of Virgin Atlantic’s new dynamic reward pricing, but give them credit for one thing – you can find out in seconds, via a direct link on their home page, that an Upper Class seat to Cape Town costs 700,000 Virgin Points on many days ….

Once you have logged in, the user experience starts off well. For a start, it accepts ‘LON’ as a destination, meaning that it will consolidate results from both Gatwick and Heathrow. (You can also just use LGW or LHR if one is more convenient or you want to enjoy the lounges in Heathrow Terminal 4.)

You can search by month, and once you have the results it is easy to toggle backwards or forwards by a month.

It consolidates Business and First as ‘Premium’ when selecting travel class, which makes sense as you won’t necessarily know which routes have First.

It’s only when you click search that you get to the big problem. Here are the results from London Airports to Bangkok for October 2025 in Business or First for two people:

Availability looks great!

Except ….

The majority – possibly all – of these dates only have ‘Flexi’ availability in business class. Two business class returns to Bangkok cost 600,000 Avios under ‘Flexi’ pricing vs 300,000 Avios on a standard day.

This is, let’s be honest, a pretty major thing which you’d like to see upfront.

What Qatar Airways needs to do is put the cost of the cheapest flight on each day under the green button. It is then very clear which days have ‘Flexi’ pricing and which have standard pricing.

In economy, you DO see the exact fare

What’s odd is that, if you search for economy Avios flights, you DO see the cheapest price for each day.

Here is an identical search, London Airports to Bangkok for October 2025, looking for an economy ticket for one person:

You can clearly see which days have standard Avios availability at 37,500 Avios one-way and which are ‘Flexi’ at 75,000 Avios one-way.

Even better, if you select a day and click ‘Continue’ you are immediately taken to the booking page for that day. It’s quite slick.

In a perfect world, we would have the outbound and return results shown side by side. At present, you need to select an outbound date before you see the return dates. This is a bit of pain when trying to line up a trip where both flights are on cheaper dates.

Conclusion

Version 2 of the Qatar Airways award flight finder tool still doesn’t do the job for anyone looking for a business class reward flight.

The key thing it needs is to show the cost of the cheapest business class flight on any particular day, or at the very least indicate when only ‘Flexi’ fares are available.

Next up should be a way of showing outbound and return availability side by side.

As a more advanced step, it would be useful if the tool suggested other departure and arrival points. A message saying ‘We also fly from Manchester, Birmingham and Edinburgh’ and ‘We also fly to Phuket and Krabi’ when you search for London to Bangkok would help people find alternatives if their first choice isn’t available.

You can try out the Avios award flight finder tool on the Qatar Airways website here.

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How to earn Avios from UK credit cards (September 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.

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 14th October 2025, the sign-up bonus on the American Express Preferred Rewards Gold Credit Card is doubled to 40,000 Membership Rewards points. This would convert to 40,000 Avios! The spend target is changed to £5,000 within SIX months of approval. T&C apply. Click here to apply.

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 14th October 2025, the sign-up bonus on The Platinum Card from American Express is increased to 80,000 Membership Rewards points. This would convert to 80,000 Avios! The spend target is changed to £10,000 within SIX months of approval. T&C apply. Click here to apply.

Run your own business?

We recommend Capital on Tap for limited companies. You earn points worth 0.8 Avios per £1 on the FREE standard card and 1 Avios per £1 on the Pro card. 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.

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 14th October 2025, the sign-up bonus on The American Express Business Platinum Card is increased to 120,000 Membership Rewards points. This would convert to 120,000 Avios! The spend target is changed to £12,000 within three months of approval. T&C apply. Click here to apply.

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 14th October 2025, the sign-up bonus on The American Express Business Gold Card is TRIPLED to 60,000 Membership Rewards points. This would convert to 60,000 Avios! The spend target is changed to £6,000 within three months of approval. The card remains free for the first year. T&C apply. 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.