Qatar Privilege Club is part of the same Avios family as British Airways and others, but each program adds a little of its own flavor.

Updated May 26, 2026. Includes the new redemption option for Philippine Airlines.

For this post, I’m not going to get into the details of the elite status aspect of the program and instead focus on the redemption side of the program.

Many bank programs transfer to Qatar Privilege Club

There are currently a total of 5 banks within the United States that allow transfer over to Qatar Privilege Club Avios:

• American Express Membership Rewards
• Bilt Rewards
• Capital One
• Citi ThankYou
• Rove

All programs transfer at a 1:1 rate (except certain cards with Citi ThankYou) and all should transfer points instantly.

Keep in mind that with Avios programs, you can freely transfer your points amongst other programs that use Avios as a currency. In addition to Qatar Privilege Club, those programs are:

• Aer Lingus AerClub
• The British Airways Club
• Finnair Plus
• Iberia Plus

This adds a lot of flexibility to your award planning and helps protect you from devaluation. Don’t like what happens in one program? You can transfer your points out to another program. These programs usually don’t devalue all at the same time as they are mostly run independently from each other.

Award space is released 361 days in advance

Qatar Avios is one of the programs that releases space far in advance–almost an entire year in advance–at 361 days before the desired date of travel. To be specific, you’ll find that space released at 3AM local time in Doha, Qatar. (If you’re trying to time this to your local time, be advised that Qatar does not observe Daylight Savings Time.)

There are no set guarantees for the number of award seats found on each flight. But you might have the best luck to grab it between 361 days and 331 days (when partners like AA might have access). You might also find that some extra award space is released close to departure, but again it’s not a guarantee.

Qatar is very streaky with awards that are released. It seems like the floodgates open at random times throughout the year and might impact only a few airports. That could mean Qatar is better suited to a potential improving option for you on your award flights. You book something else to get to your destination but it isn’t great, and if/when Qatar releases space, you book Qatar and cancel the other flight.

There is no award chart for Qatar Avios on its own flights

Sadly, Qatar does not release an award chart for its own flights. They do offer an online tool where you can get a sense of what award prices cost without needing to perform actual searches. Or at least that’s the theory of it. I couldn’t seem to get the tool to work properly for calculating award prices. So instead, I stuck to running searches.

A quick comment: Qatar has both standard and Flexi awards. Flexi redemptions allow for expanded award seats on a given flight but will cost twice the Avios price. You might wonder why bother paying twice the price for an award, but if you want more seats on a flight, this might be the solution for you.

Typical redemption prices on sample segments

Let’s take a representative approach and show the pricing for some sample non-stop segments:

• Continental U.S. to Doha: 35,000 Avios in economy, 75,000 Avios in business
• Europe to Doha: 21,500 in economy, 43,000 in business
• Turkey to Doha: 17,500 in economy, 35,000 in business, 52,500 in first
• Maldives to Doha: 17,500 in economy, 35,000 in business, 52,500 in first
• Egypt to Doha: 13,000 in economy, 39,000 in first
• Johannesburg to Doha: 26,000 in economy, 56,500 in business
• Japan to Doha: 30,000 in economy, 60,000 in business
• Australia to Doha: 35,000 in economy, 70,000 in business

Roughly speaking, the award cost generally scales with distance, as you would come to expect.

It should be noted, though, that connections aren’t simply the additive price of two one-way flights. As an example, Australia to Doha to the Maldives will run you a price of 42,500 Avios in economy or 85,000 Avios in business. The additive price would have been 52,500 in economy or 105,000 in business.

What about if you mix cabins? Taking economy on the longhaul flight but business on the shorthaul doesn’t offer much savings. And taking business on the longhaul but economy on the shorthaul somehow costs more than business all the way? Some programs give a discount for taking mixed cabin awards, but it simply doesn’t seem compelling with Qatar.

Qatar is in the oneworld alliance and has other partners

Pricing for most oneworld airlines and most partners

Qatar Airways has a distance-based award program for partners. While there used to be published award charts, I’m not seeing them publicly available anymore. Instead, we just have to perform a bunch of award searches to establish the chart, along with knowing the distance bands they used to display.

Below is the award chart for most oneworld airlines (except American and Alaska). The chart also applies for most non-alliance partners (like LATAM or Oman, but not JetBlue).

I should also note that British Airways flights are more expensive than this chart indicates. For example, London to New York prices out at 25,000 Avios while the chart above would only suggest 20,750 Avios. If you’re booking British Airways awards, do yourself a favor and just transfer your Avios to British Airways and book with them.

Special pricing on American and Alaska

On shorter distance flights with American and Alaska, you’ll be looking at the following charges. Flights above 3,000 miles in length will follow the same pricing as other oneworld airlines.

For what it’s worth, this is cheaper than what British Airways charges on American or Alaska flights.

Special JetBlue pricing

JetBlue redemptions are also following a unique structure. I’d say you’re best off just ignoring the Business pricing on flights 2,000 miles in length and fewer. While Qatar seems to have pricing established, you’re typically not going to find JetBlue Mint on flights that short.

Philippine Airlines is the newest inclusion

What’s unique about having Philippine Airlines as a partner is that it’s not part of any airline alliance. Thus, it’s actually difficult to find award flights on their flights. But guess what? That difficulty translates into generally excellent award availability, even across long-haul routes. Their location within Asia also makes it a natural connection point between North and South Asia or between Asia and Australia.

Qatar Avios has reasonable award change/cancel fees

If you’re looking to cancel or change your award flight booked with Qatar Avios, you’ll find the cheapest rates if you do it more than a day in advance ($25). Changing or canceling your flight between 3 and 24 hours before departure, the fee increases to $100. If you hold Gold or Platinum status with Qatar, there are no award fees you’ll have to pay on your own travel.

Which routes feature Qsuites in business class?

Qsuites is Qatar’s remarkable business class product that offers the ability to open up the walls between four interior seats and have a relaxing flight for the whole family. We’ve flown the product and absolutely loved it. But not all business class flights offer the Qsuites product. So, how do you know which flight is the right one?

Unfortunately, there’s some inconsistency in this regard. Even if you’ve chosen a route that typically features the Qsuites cabin, Qatar is known for last-minute equipment swaps. This might boot you out of Qsuites and into a standard business class cabin. It also might change your assigned seats to where you’re no longer in the correct seating arrangement (what I assume happened to us).

If your aircraft is the A350-1000, then you’re likely fine: all of those planes have the Qsuites cabin and it’s not as likely your plane will be swapped for a different plane type. But what about the other aircraft types? Unfortunately, every other type than the A350-1000 features a mixed bag of some planes having Qsuites and others that do not.

To be safest, you’ll want to look at the seat map. Any flight that shows seats facing forwards and backwards is the correct cabin for Qsuites.

But do remember to check your flight details often after booking. If you get moved out of Qsuites and into regular business, there might not be much recourse to change your flight. But award space might open up for an alternative that works for you and you can switch yourself by canceling and rebooking.

What are the sweet spots of Qatar Avios?

Fly on Qatar Airways

Qatar releases the most award space to its own members. If you have intentions of flying Qatar’s impressive Qsuites, you’ll want to accrue Qatar Avios. Connections cost less than the price of each segment individually, so consider using them if you’re trying to fly to Africa or the Indian Subcontinent. I wouldn’t consider flying Qatar to get to Europe from the United States–too far out of the way and the pricing is not favorable.

One thing to note is that British Airways only charges 70,000 Avios from the United States to Doha in business class. So it really depends on where you’re going as the programs do charge different amounts. Connections should be booked via Qatar but nonstops are worth booking with British Airways.

Looking to fly in Qatar’s first class cabin to gain access to their first class lounge at Doha? Connect in the Middle East for not much of an upcharge. (Doha to London is 43,000 Avios, and only a 2,000 upcharge to connect in first class to Muscat).

Fly on JetBlue

JetBlue has a good Mint product available on transcontinental flights within the United States and between the U.S. and Europe. Pricing is cheaper than what JetBlue would charge in its own program. And if you need to connect (say, Los Angeles to New York to London), pricing isn’t terrible at 95,000 Avios for business class.

Even economy awards aren’t a terrible price compared to cash rates. You might not appreciate the stopover if connecting (and paying 35,000 for the privilege of doing so), but the nonstop economy rates aren’t bad at all.

Now if you could find Mint to somewhere in the Caribbean? That might only cost you 26,000 Avios according to what Qatar Avios charges and would be a steal.

Short flights between expensive city pairs

Typically when you think of expensive cities to fly between that are near each other, it will generally mean you’re flying between two countries. You don’t have to worry as much about flights that aren’t nonstop like British Airways since the pricing isn’t additive, but it still helps. Think flights like Japan to South Korea, Hong Kong to Southeast Asia, Australia to the South Pacific. Even Morocco to Europe or parts of the United States might not be bad.

This concept also helps if you’re looking to fill in the gaps of another award you have priced elsewhere. Say you have an award booked with another program from the United States to Japan, and then a separate award from South Korea to Europe. How are you getting from Japan to South Korea? You could certainly pay cash for a flight, but it’s also worth it to use your Avios to price out an option that works for you. Fill in that gap with a program that offers better pricing on short distance travel.

Using Philippine Airlines as a reliable backup

Award pricing on Philippine Airlines is higher than pricing on Qatar’s oneworld partners. But, that’s not why we like the thought of flying Philippine Airlines. It’s more of having a reliable backup when you want a business class flight and there isn’t much else you can go with. However, there are two nuances to be aware of.

First, pricing is actually better and consistent with oneworld partners if you book a codeshare. Sound weird? Well, look at the photo below. Both of these flights are the same flight and both are on Philippine Airlines. But what’s the difference? The more expensive option is booked on a “PR” flight number (PR684) while the cheaper option is booked on a “QR” flight number (QR4946). That’s literally the only difference. If you can find these codeshares, you could potentially save money on your Philippine Airlines flights.

Second, check the cash price of the flights. Philippine Airlines is known to have low cash rates, even in business class. Before you jump in and book that flight with Avios, do yourself a favor and make sure it’s worth it to use points.

Book difficult Japan Airlines (JAL) flights

The same logic applies here as it does with booking JAL flights with Air France miles and British Airways Avios.

Where this especially comes into play is if you really want to fly Japan Airlines. Qatar Airways allows you to be able to book awards 361 days in advance. Meanwhile, American Airlines can book 331 days out. Would you want to book with Qatar Airways? Well, if you wanted a high-demand route and absolutely wanted to book it before most other programs, you can do it with Qatar Airways.

No, this isn’t going to be the cheapest rate available (hello, American), but you’ll reliably find award space. Plus it’s certainly helpful to be able to transfer in points from most bank programs to top your account off.

Now, if you’re willing to gamble, what you can do is book your awards first with Qatar Airways. Then, at some later date (say, 200-300 days out), cancel your Qatar Airways award. The JAL award space might become bookable for partner awards once again. If it is bookable, scoop it up with your AA miles at a much more reasonable price (60,000 AA miles).

Just note that there is a non-zero risk that the award flights don’t reappear (in fact, the last time I canceled awards on JAL in 2023, they didn’t come back). But it could be worth the gamble.

Infant pricing

Back when we flew internationally with an infant, we ended up sometimes paying a pretty penny to allow our child to sit in our lap. Without getting into the debate on the safety of the lap child, I can say it sometimes got expensive.

With most airlines, you would be forced to pay 10% of the cash price of the ticket. Say you found a flight for 75,000 miles in business class one-way. But if you want to bring your lap infant, you’d have to pay 10% of the cash fare, which could be thousands of dollars. A one-way flight is painfully priced high, and you might pay less if doing a roundtrip, but it’s still quite a dent. I’d say the rough average of what we paid for an infant was around $600 for the ticket.

For award flights flown on Qatar, you’ll pay 10% of the mileage price of the ticket. Take the below example of London LHR to Doha DOH:

For flights on partner airlines, Qatar says booking lap infants is not possible for awards. I have to guess that it means you’ll be forced to pay 10% of the cash fare on those redemptions.

How to Best Search for Availability?

Let me be honest up front: I don’t like the Qatar Airways website when doing searches for award travel. There is no easy calendar functionality and, in some cases, you’ll need enough Avios for the flight before you can see results.

In almost all cases, it’s better to just go to the British Airways website for most of your needs. I find British Airways is a little bit easier to use, especially when it comes to booking other oneworld airlines.

Just keep in mind that the price shown with British Airways Avios isn’t necessarily the price you’d pay with Qatar Avios. The other thing to note though is that British Airways doesn’t partner with all of the same non-alliance airlines as Qatar does. So British Airways is generally good enough but won’t be perfect.

If you’d prefer to use other award tools, options like SeatSpy, Seats.aero, or the free point.me tools might help you find that elusive award space.

Do Points Expire?

Yes, Qatar Avios expire after 36 months of inactivity. It’s simple enough to transfer in points from a bank to extend their life. But be advised that simply bringing in Avios from other programs like British Airways won’t help extend their expiry.

If your Avios do expire, you do have the option to restore them to your account for the painful price of 1.5 cents each. Hopefully you don’t need this option but it’s far better to have it available than to not have the ability to restore them.

Suggested reading:

• Review: Qatar Airways A350-900 Qsuites
• Review: Al Mourjan Business Lounge – Doha
• Why You Need to Collect British Airways Avios