The Complete Program Guide – Forbes Advisor

Anyone can join Qatar Airways’ free Privilege Club loyalty program. Signing up only takes a minute or two and once you’re signed up, you can start collecting Avios.

Flying with Qatar Airways

You can earn Avios every time you fly with Qatar Airways. The number of Avios you earn depends on the booking class and the distance flown. Elite status also plays a role in how many Avios you can earn, but more on that later.

The easiest way to work out how many Avios you’ll earn when flying with Qatar is to use Qatar’s My Calculator feature. Simply enter information such as your flight’s origin and destination, travel class and your elite membership status, and Qatar’s calculator will show you how many Avios you’ll earn with your itinerary.

For a round-trip flight with Qatar Airways in Economy Class departing from Doha (DOH) and arriving in New York (JFK) as a Burgundy member, you will receive between 3,346 Avios for a single Economy seat and 13,382 Avios for a full-fare Economy Class seat.

Status miles

Elite status is how airlines reward their most loyal customers. The more you spend and fly with the airline, the more bonuses and perks you receive.

At Qatar Airways, status is divided into four levels: a basic membership level and three elite levels. Higher levels bring bonus Avios, depending on status.

These are the Elite status levels and their respective bonus Avios earning rates:

• Silver: 25% tier bonus
• Gold: 75% tier bonus
• Platinum: 100% tier bonus

Earnings status

To achieve elite status with Qatar Airways, you must earn Qpoints instead of Avios. Qpoints can be earned by taking eligible flights with Qatar and Oneworld partners. The number of Qpoints earned depends on the booking class of the flight.

A different number of Qpoints is required to qualify for each elite status level.

• Silver: Earn 150 Qpoints within any 12-month period
• Gold: Earn 300 Qpoints within any 12-month period
• Platinum: Earn 600 Qpoints within any 12-month period

If you already have a status and want to maintain it, the requirements are slightly lower:

• Silver: Earn 135 Qpoints in 12 months or 270 Qpoints in 24 months
• Gold: Earn 270 Qpoints in 12 months or 540 Qpoints in 24 months
• Platinum: Earn 540 Qpoints in 12 months or 1,080 Qpoints in 24 months

To find out how many Qpoints you will receive for a qualifying flight, you can use Qatar’s My Calculator. In the same way, you can also see how many Avios you would earn for your flight.

In the middle column you can see how many Qpoints you can collect for a flight. For this specific flight from Doha (DOH) to New York (JFK) you can collect up to 80 Qpoints for an economy booking as a Burgundy member.

In addition to the Qpoint requirement, to retain their status, members must earn at least 20% of their Qpoints on flights operated and marketed by Qatar Airways or fly at least four segments on flights operated and marketed by Qatar Airways during the preceding 12 months or within the preceding 24 months.

Flights with partners

As a Oneworld partner, Privilege Club members can collect Avios and redeem them on all Oneworld partner airlines.

In addition, Qatar works with several airlines that are not part of the alliance. Members can earn Avios on all non-alliance partners. However, flights on non-alliance partners are not eligible to earn Qpoints.

Oneworld alliance partner

Qatar’s non-alliance airline partners

Qatar Airways also has partnerships with eight non-alliance partners.

• Thai Airways
• JetBlue
• Latin America
• MEA Middle East Airlines
• Qatar Airways
• S7 Airlines
• RwandaAir
• Virgin Australia

You can also use Qatar Airways’ calculator to find out how many Avios and Qpoints you will earn when flying with one of Qatar’s many partners.

However, instead of using Qatar Airways as your default airline, select one of their partners from the options menu.

For a round-trip flight from London (LHR) to New York City and back with British Airways, you can earn up to 6,912 Avios and 50 Qpoints for Economy Class travel.

For a one-way economy flight with JetBlue from Orlando, Florida (MCO) to New York City (JFK), you will receive zero Qpoints but up to 1,888 Avios, regardless of booking class.

Credit card spending

Credit cards

Qatar Airways offers two co-branded credit cards for U.S. travelers in partnership with Cardless, a San Francisco-based fintech company. There is the Qatar Airways Privilege Club Visa Signature with an annual fee of $99.* Variant and the $499 annual fee Qatar Airways Privilege Club Visa Infinite Credit Card* variant. Both cards earn you more points on Qatar Airways and restaurant purchases, and have the opportunity to earn Qpoints on your everyday purchases. The Visa Signature variant includes one year of Silver Elite status, while the Visa Infinite variant includes one year of Gold Elite status. For the most loyal Qatar Airways flyers, a Privilege Club credit card can be a great way to earn points quickly.

Transfer partner

Qatar Airways partners with three transferable currency programs: Citi ThankYou® Points, American Express Membership Rewards® and Marriott Bonvoy.

You can convert your Citi ThankYou points and Amex Membership Rewards points into Avios at the following rates.

• City: 1 ThankYou point to 1 Avios
• American Express: 1 Membership Rewards point to 1 Avios

Best CitiBank Cards to Earn ThankYou Points

Read more. The best Citi credit cards

Best Cards for Earning American Express Membership Rewards

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Best Cards for Earning Marriott Bonvoy Points

Read more. Which Marriott Bonvoy card is right for you?

Hotel transfer partner

Some hotel programs allow you to convert points into Avios. Prices vary from company to company, but the unfavorable exchange rate remains constant. As a rule of thumb, if you use your hotel points for free nights, you’ll get more for your money than if you transfer them to an airline.

If you do have hotel points that you can’t use for award stays, it might make sense to transfer to an airline like Qatar. Each of these hotels allows you to convert points to Avios.

• ALL-Accor Live Limitless: 2,000 ALL Reward Points to 1,000 Avios. Minimum transfer of 2,000 points
• Hilton Awards: 10,000 Hilton points to 1,000 Avios
• Shangri-La Hotels: 1 Shangri-La Circle point to 1 Avios. Minimum transfer of 1,000 Shangri-La Circle points
• World of Hyatt: 2.5 World of Hyatt points to 1 Avios. Minimum transfer of 5,000 Hyatt points
• Marriott Bonvoy: 3 Bonvoy points to 1 Avios. Earn 5,000 Avios for every 60,000 points converted.

Buy Avios

Buying points isn’t usually a great way to get the most out of your points, but there are situations where it can make sense. For example, if you need to book an award ticket but don’t have enough points, buying Avios can be an option to top up your account.

You can buy Avios online through Qatar’s website. Costs start at $28 per 1,000 Avios and the price per thousand goes down as you buy larger quantities. There is a purchase limit of 250,000 Avios per year.

Combine Avios

You can also link your Qatar Privilege Club account with your British Airways Executive Club account and combine your Avios.

When you sign up for a Privilege Club account, you will be asked if you want to link your British Airways account. If you select yes, you will be taken to the British Airways website where you will need to log in and accept various terms and conditions. Once the process is complete, you will be able to see your combined Avios in your Qatar Privilege Club dashboard.