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Hi all,
Looking for a bit of advice as I’m doing a bit of prep for a solo Reward Flight booking with Qatar as I’ve never flown with them and only ever done Avios bookings with BA before. I have fixed dates in 2026 flying outbound EDI-MLE on a Friday and inbound the following Saturday. Unfortunately I won’t be able to get a BA 2-4-1 voucher in time so from reading here I think Qatar is my best option.
1. The price is 65k Avios each way in business via Doha. I’ve already created a Qatar account and linked it to BA but do I need to transfer over 130k in advance to Qatar’s reward scheme and how long does it take?
2. Should I book the outbound as a one way ticket 360 days in advance and then the inbound 8 days later?
3. If the EDI-DOH leg is on a Friday but the DOH-MLE leg is in the early hours of Saturday, will I actually need to wait until 359 days in advance to make the booking?
4. Will BA Silver status allow me to select seats for free at the time of booking?
5. Is there anything I should look out for in terms of the aircraft when selecting each leg (looking at 2025 I’ve seen some DOH – MLE flights have an A320 and some a 777)Sorry if there are any stupid questions in there. Thanks for your help in advance, this website has been a huge help to me with BA bookings in the past.
You can link your QR and BA accounts so no need to transfer avios. I think Rob has done an article on this.
Definitely book as soon as the seats are released, which can be a full 12 months out on QR. Also be aware that at peak times QR often only releases double avios-priced seats on high-demand routes – when is your trip?
If seats don’t seem to be available, you may also have luck booking separate sectors. You could, e.g. book EDI-DOH in business class and DOH-MLE in economy as it’s only 5 hours or so.
You may need to contact QR after booking for seat selection as they don’t always recognise BA status (having said that, I think you may get free seat selection in business regardless).
I would forget about the plane as this can (and often does) change between booking and flying!Thanks for the quick reply – it’s leaving 6th Feb 2026
That’s off-peak in the U.K., but QR may have its own ideas. It might be worth looking at prices for Feb 25 on routes where there still seats available and trying to gauge if there’s anything unexpected going on!
As NL says, seat selection is free immediately after booking when flying Qatar Business, well I know for sure it is on reward tickets anyway – regardless of status
Thanks for the tip – yes those dates show as off peak in Feb 2025. Thanks also for confirming re seat selection – good to know!
I meant off-peak as in not in school holidays/Xmas, etc; if it’s a period that QR sees as high demand (and Maldives are very popular in Feb), they may well start doubling the avios prices!
Ah I see. Thankfully half term is the following week.
Just a quick update and data point in case it’s helpful for others. I managed to get seats in business for 65000 Avios each way plus £412 tax out and £366 tax back (charged in USD). Free seat selection at the time of booking just after midnight 360 days out. The Saturday outbound flight sold out almost immediately but the Sunday return flight still had seats available the next morning. Linked my Qatar account to BA in advance and it just did a check as part of the booking process where I had to enter my BA password to confirm the Avios transfer.
Thanks again to everyone for their guidance above.
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