Qatar booking with Avios. An idiots guide needed.

[Granite]

So I have 350k plus of Avios which I have linked to my Qatar account and I wish to book a flight, pay or part pay with Avios and gain BA tier points The question is how do I do this ? Via the BAEC site or the QATAR site. I will also probably be starting the QATAR leg out of Oslo or Stockholm to take advantage of the cheaper deals. Thanks Granite.

[Aston100]

This gets my support.

[The Savage Squirrel]

+1. I’ve had a look at some things and how they now compare, but to be honest I’m hoping for the HfP redemption analysis as it’s way more comprehensive than mine!

[memesweeper]

… and a look at any value they offer with Avios + cash (and/or cash + Avios)

[JDB]

Granite wrote:

So I have 350k plus of Avios which I have linked to my Qatar account and I wish to book a flight, pay or part pay with Avios and gain BA tier points The question is how do I do this ? Via the BAEC site or the QATAR site. I will also probably be starting the QATAR leg out of Oslo or Stockholm to take advantage of the cheaper deals. Thanks Granite.

One particular feature of the QR ‘part pay with Avios’ they are pushing is that, per the brief terms, they say: “Avios used for Cash + Avios tickets are non-refundable” so it appears that if you buy say a Business ‘Comfort’ fare, and cancel having paid partly with Avios, you would suffer both the cash penalty and lose your Avios.

[memesweeper]

and this, @JDB, is exactly why we need a guide of the quality that @rob can produce 🙂

[polly]

Yes, we have touched on this elsewhere. QR are quite tricky, evasive etc. not always up front with info. It’s why we moved from QR to BAEC when Rob started the site. We found their CS very difficult. Not really understanding their own system etc. it truly was like dealing with 12 yr olds. Took a week to reply to emails.
Saying that, we have had some great trips over the past few years and enjoyed their J seats a lot. And retained silver after Amex plat dropping CX gold.
And praise where praise is due. Great service, whilst not always agreeing with their country’s activities. However, now they are part of avios, we will need clear information to use them probably. One reason we don’t use IBeria is their weird cancel-policy, or have l that wrong…
So yes Rob, it would be much approving forward… thank you.

[Entitled]

Another vote for this.

[Amy C]

Total agreement here. I would love one!

[John]

Part pay with avios is where you book a paid flight and sell some of your avios back to BA / QR to reduce the price. It is not a redemption (award) flight.

As far as I can tell, if you use the BA website, you can only book QR flights where the itinerary involves LON-DOH. You can use PPwA for these.

If you want an itinerary involving QR flights OSL-DOH etc, you will have to do it on the QR website.

(Redemptions on routes of both airlines can be done with both BA and QR, at least if BA’s website recognises the airports, if not then they could be done on the phone.)

Booking is completely separate to collecting tier points. To collect tier points with BA, the only requirement is that your BAEC number needs to be in the booking at the time of flying, it doesn’t matter where you booked or which airline issued the ticket or which airline is operating the flight (as long as in oneworld or a BA partner).

However, if you book on the QR website when signed into QRPC (which would be required to PPwA), the booking would have your QRPC number attached. I am not sure if QR allows you to remove it on their site. But I use the RJ (Royal Jordanian) website to remove one oneworld FFP and add another, including on redemption tickets; I do this in order to use my BA status benefits on redemptions from other FFPs. (Finnair’s website used to work too but I have lately found that it often doesn’t work.)

I have also read once a QR booking has a QRPC number attached it tends to be “sticky”, meaning that it doesn’t really get removed even if you can’t see it any more, and your avios/status earning still get credited to QRPC. But I have no personal experiences here.

[polly]

@John
That’s a great update. Can personally confirm that QR own website will definitely allow you to replace their QRPC no with your BAEC no. Have done this even at the gate one time in a panic in T4. Had just glanced at the BP and noticed it as QRPC. Very helpful, even tho we were already boarding… it seems it had reverted to the QRPC no when we had made a change in the booking. So, something to watch out for.
We have booked QR from DUB to HKT for Jan23, and have already inserted our BAEC nos in the booking, and chosen seats etc…
But it’s the intricacies expressed above, like changes, cancellation rules, refunds etc that can be tricky. Not a whole lot explained on their website. Saying that, l did get some really helpful people based in Poland before. Used their no exclusively to call for years. Plus, the very odd Doha csa can be extremely knowledgeable.