Right now, the only guaranteed people you can book with new award restrictions from Qatar Airways is you, yourself, and you.

Updated September 15, 2026. The requirement to have qualifying activity is now gone, thankfully.

As of June 2026, Qatar Airways adds new award restriction

Back in June 2026, Qatar Airways Privilege Club added an award restriction that limits who you can book flights for with your Avios. Previously, you could book award flights for anyone. However, that’s no longer the case. Any award (including partner awards) are now restricted to the following individuals:

• You, the account holder
• Up to 4 adult Privilege Club members you can add to “My List“
• Up to 6 others who do not have a Privilege Club membership in the “Family & Friends” program

However, there are some restrictions in place for adding people to either list. You, the account holder, additionally need to have had an account for a minimum of 30 days and have qualifying activity (crediting a flight to Privilege Club or spend on a Qatar Airways-branded credit card). All points towards award redemptions will come from your account, not anyone in either program. Anyone you add to either list cannot be a member of someone else’s list and is locked in for 6 months.

Additionally, for the Family & Friends program, each nominee must use a unique email address that isn’t associated with another Privilege Club account or a Family & Friends list. Qatar Airways reserves the right to reject invitations it considers to not be authentic. In other words, we’d caution you from adding a “.” in Gmail to slightly modify your email address.

Simplistically, you can think of the two lists as distinct in the following ways:

• Those in My List will continue to earn Avios and Qpoints as normal in their own accounts.
• Those in Family & Friends will send all earned Avios from flights to you (the Main Member of the group). No Qpoints will be earned on these flights.

Why this is a problematic policy

Let’s walk through some real examples on how this is a troublesome policy.

The issue with just becoming eligible (Update: no longer an issue)

While it may sound “simple” to just credit a partner flight to Privilege Club, it might not be easy. Qatar Airways is part of the oneworld alliance. If you don’t normally fly oneworld carriers, it might be some time before you are able to credit a flight. Do you consider taking a flight specifically to credit to Qatar Airways?

This adds an extra complication if you need to book awards for someone else right now.

Cardless issues the Qatar Airways credit card in the United States. There have been problems some have had with Cardless. Thankfully, they removed the restriction of only having one Cardless product at all. However, they still have a restriction of only allowing one card per “card family” and 60 days between Cardless approvals. There’s also a 45 day cooldown period after a Cardless denial.

Just signed up for a Bilt or Avianca credit card? You’re locked out of a Qatar Airways credit card for a minimum 60 days. And there’s no guarantee they’ll say yes after the period has passed.

Playing in “2 player” mode

We’ve happily engaged in “2 player” mode, where both Jenn and I earn points on our own credit cards. Then, we transfer points to our own accounts and have built up a nice stash of Avios over time. This allows us to book award flights for us and the kids. Unfortunately, it’s now more complicated to use those points.

Let’s say we each have enough points in our accounts to book us and the kids a one-way flight from the United States to Doha, Qatar. Normally, all I would need to do is book all of us in one direction and she would book us in the other direction. Simple, right? Sadly, that’s no longer possible–or at least there’s a big restriction now.

For me to book an award for Jenn and the kids, I need to add them to My List or the Family & Friends program. So, we do that and can book one direction as we did before. But what about the other direction? I need to wait 6 months before doing it again. During that time, award flights will likely get eaten up.

But wait–can’t you just add them all to a list now so that you’re able to quickly kick them off a list later without needing to wait? Yes, but that doesn’t change the baseline restrictions:

• Even if you add them now, you’re effectively frozen from “2 player” mode for 6 months.
• You need to remember who must book awards first.
• And if you engage in swapping people in lists, you better intend to fly what you booked. Canceling and rebooking is not going to be an option–nor is it clear if changing a flight is feasible.

Well, can’t you just always have parent 1 book for child 1 and parent 2 book for child 2? Yes, but that has its own risks. In the event of irregular operations (IROPS), you might get placed on different flights or even different days. Are you and your children fine with this scenario?

Strategies for bypassing the award restrictions

While we’re fine stating the obvious, we just want to make it clear on how you can get around this restriction. However, each alternative still has its own problems and there is no perfect solution.

Credit a flight to Qatar Airways Privilege Club (Update: no longer needed)

All you need to do is fly Qatar Airways or a partner airline (like Alaska or American) and credit your flight to Qatar Airways. It doesn’t matter how few points the flight earns, all that’s required is to credit a flight. After that, you can unlock the ability to book for others. As of this time, the terms don’t state you need to do this more than just once (not once a year).

However, this doesn’t resolve the “2 player” issue described above.

Get a Qatar Airways credit card (Update: no longer needed)

Apply for a Qatar Airways credit card and, if approved, earn Avios on the card. Once you do that, you’ll satisfy the criteria and unlock the ability to book awards for others.

Again, this doesn’t resolve the “2 player” issue described above.

Earn Gold or Platinum status with Privilege Club

Buried in the terms and conditions of My List is this blurb (Section 4.3):

Gold and Platinum Members may book award tickets for members added to their My List, and also have the flexibility to book award tickets for any additional individual of their choice through our Contact Centre or Member Service Centre.

If you have elite status and are willing to call to book awards, you don’t need to bother with adding someone to these lists.

Of course, earning status is another story. The premium Qatar Airways credit card comes with Gold status for a year. After that year is up, you’re going to need to spend a lot of money on the card (potentially over $200,000) to requalify. In other words, grabbing the card to qualify is just a one year trick.

Book Qatar Airways award flights with a partner program

The “easiest” way to bypass this restriction is just to not book with Qatar Airways. Instead, consider booking with other programs. The easiest option might just be booking with British Airways.

You can generally get the same saver award pricing for Qatar Airways flights booking on British Airways’ platform. On the plus side, the programs both share the same currency, so it’s easy to just move your points and Avios over to British Airways to book. But, it’s also important to note that British Airways only allows bookings 355 days in advance. Qatar Airways opens up 360 days in advance. This can leave 5 days where you see an award you want and are unable to book it–but others might.

This tactic also doesn’t help if you need to buy anything other than saver flights. If you need 4 seats but only 2 are saver, you’d still need 2 seats at non-saver rates and British Airways isn’t going to help you there. You’d still need to deal with Qatar Airways and its restrictions.