Qatar Airways to adopt Avios, dropping Qmiles
 

Qatar Airways has just announced that it is to adopt Avios as its reward currency.

Here's a cut and paste from my own article:

"Qatar Airways has announced that it is to adopt Avios as its reward currency. From some point in late March, the airlines will drop Qmiles, the currency of its existing loyalty programme. If you currently have a Qatar Privilege Club account, your existing Qmiles balance will be converted into Avios at the rate of 1:1. If you have a Qatar Privilege Club account, note that Qpoints and Qcredits will not change. There will also be no change to the current Qmiles expiry rules when the currency switches to Avios.

It's not clear what this means to UK Avios collectors. The announcement this morning has been done to give Privilege Club members the required advanced notice of major changes to the programme. There will be a further announcement in a couple of weeks which will let us know exactly how the new relationship will work in practice. You can, of course, already use Avios to book flights on Qatar Airways. To that extent, this is not a revolutionary change.

We don’t know if it will be possible to use ‘Combine My Avios’ to move Avios directly to and from British Airways Executive Club and Qatar Privilege Club. Even if you can, why would you? The benefits won’t be totally clear until we compare reward charts, taxes and charges. Qatar Airways has promised its members that its own reward charts will be unchanged.

If you can move Avios between the programmes, it will open up new partnership opportunities. You can convert Qmiles into Accor Live Limitless points, for example, so it may soon be possible to move Avios into Accor points. Privilege Club has different hotel and car hire partners to British Airways, which would broaden your collecting opportunities.

Some readers may find it more profitable to credit flights to Privilege Club and not Executive Club. Unless the schemes are fully aligned, certain classes of ticket on certain airlines will earn more Avios in one scheme than the other. Some readers may find they want to earn status in Privilege Club instead of Executive Club, given that they no longer need to give up earning Avios to do so.

We’ll obviously be looking at all this in detail as more information emerges.

All we know officially for now is that:

“IAG Loyalty and Qatar Airways are working to introduce new customer benefits from the partnership, as well as more ways to earn and collect Avios around the world in the coming months.”

Qatar Airways Group Chief Executive His Excellency Mr Akbar Al Baker, said:

“The transition from Qmiles to Avios marks a ground-breaking new era for Privilege Club, enabling our loyal members to participate in the most compelling loyalty network and the largest portfolio of partners in the industry. As the World’s Best Airline, Qatar Airways continues to redefine loyalty through the adoption of exciting digital innovations to create unique world-class experiences for our members. We look forward to revealing more details of this exciting change over the coming weeks, as we explore even more ways to reward our valued members both on and off the ground.”

For clarity, Qatar Airways is not buying an equity stake in IAG Loyalty. It will remain a wholly owned subsidiary of International Airlines Group. It’s not clear, economically, how the swap from Qmiles to Avios will be treated in terms of the Qatar Airways balance sheet.

PS. Here’s something you can do whilst you wait

Qatar Privilege Club is, until 31st March, offering 2,000 Qmiles as a bonus for signing up. You don’t need to take a flight. You receive the Qmiles immediately. In late March, these 2,000 Qmiles will become 2,000 Avios. There is a good chance that you will be able to move them across to British Airways Executive Club. If you DO take a Qatar Airways flight before 30th September, however, you will earn between 3,000 and 5,000 additional bonus Qmiles depending on your travel class."

Our full article which includes relevant links is here: https://www.headforpoints.com/2022/0...s-drop-qmiles/

Official press release now available: https://www.qatarairways.com/en/pres...Press-releases

https://www.executivetraveller.com/news/qatar-avios

Wouldn't be surprised if Avios will possibly be applicable to buy upgrades on QR flights. QR probably wants all those BA account Avios to be useful to buy upgrades on QR flights.

Would be very bizarre if Qatar didn't let you upgrade flights with its very own reward currency :)

Just a few more updates on this

* QR confirms its Avios will be fully transferrable to BAEC (for example), allowing frequent flyers to pool all their Avios into a single account
* the airline also promises there will be no subsequent revaluation – aka the dreaded devaluation – on redemption rates after it moves from Qmiles to Avios: "There is no revaluation. QR is not changing its value grid."
* QR confirms that its Avios will be redeemable on A380 F (just in case some were wondering if that might not be the case)
* QR and BA will increase the number of Avios-based reward seats across their flights, to accomodate an expected jump in demand once both airlines are sharing a ‘common currency’.
* Asked "Will QR redemption bookings have the same flexibility if made with Avios as they do today when made with Qmiles?" – the spokesperson says "Yes, the great value proposition is upheld and there are no change in pricing or fare rules."

More at https://www.executivetraveller.com/news/qatar-avios

Well, I've gone and joined Privilege Club and received my 2,500 Qmiles.

They'll be transferred elsewhere once everything is in place.

Great news! QR is the best airline that i have flown.

[Deleted]

I haven’t looked at the QR redemption chart. Will there be arbitrage possibilities? Eg redeeming a LHR-SYD flight is cheaper when done from a QR account vs a BAEC account?

will QR keep low taxes on reward flights? Booked QR w/ Qmiles Bus flight to Europe - $39 in taxes.

Points might stay the same, but they could monkey around with the taxes.

What about cancellation fee? I think QR only charges $25-30 for cancel / change.

Let's see..

They can't monkey around with taxes; they can monkey around with carrier surcharges.

I'm sceptical about this. BA just doubled its reward seat allocation last year to 4J, 2W and 8Y. I can't see this being increased further, especially given that I suspect the major flow will be from BAEC redeeming on Qatar and not vice versa.

Super, that's basically 10k free Avios for my family... be very interested to see what the Avios/fees total is for a Y-J upgrade to DXB. I'd be more than happy to go indirect if the pricing is reasonable, especially given the lack of BA J Avios availability right now...

2,500?
The article above says only 2,000

Sadly I joined in 2016, so no bonus for me. I suppose I could get the OH to join, though!