How to Link British Airways and Qatar Loyalty Programs

In 2022, Qatar Airways replaced its old frequent flyer miles—Qmiles—with Avios.

Avios is the rewards currency shared by multiple airlines, including Iberia, Aer Lingus, British Airways, Qatar Airways and, as of March this year, Finnair. You can use Avios for sweet-spot redemptions across all of these programs as well as with Oneworld alliance members and specific airline partners.

To transfer Avios between Qatar and British Airways, as well as between Qatar and other Avios-earning airlines, you need to link your Qatar and British Airways accounts together.

Let’s take a look at how to link your Qatar and British Airways accounts and the benefits of doing so.

Link Your British Airways Executive Club Account with Your Qatar Airways Privilege Club Account: A Step-by-Step Guide

To link your accounts together, you need to first begin by logging into your Qatar Airways Privilege account. Click on the profile icon in the upper right and select Dashboard.

On the dashboard, you’ll then want to click the “View my Avios Balance” button.

On the Manage Your Avios page you’ll see the option “Link account” next to British Airways Executive Club. Click that and a pop-up will appear.

On the pop-up, you will be asked to confirm that you want to “Link accounts” and that in doing so you agree to the terms and conditions.

From here, you’ll be redirected to the British Airways Executive Club page where you’ll be prompted to log into your Executive Club account. This verifies that you are indeed the account owner and that the details match between accounts.

Once you’ve logged into your BA Executive Club account, that’s it—you’ve now linked your Qatar and BA frequent flyer accounts.

If you head back to your Qatar account, you’ll now be able to see both your Qatar Avios balance, BA Executive Club Avios balance and your total combined Avios balance, all in one place.

If you want to transfer Avios between accounts, you can now do this by going to the “Combine Avios” section. Here you’ll be able to specify how many Avios you want to transfer and from which account. Transfers are 1:1 and tend to process instantly.

Keep in mind that you can also link your Qatar and BA accounts through your BA Executive Club account, by going to the “Combine my Avios” tab.

In either case, you’ll need to make sure that your personal details—including forename, surname and date of birth—match across your Qatar and BA accounts.

The Benefits of Linking Your BA Executive Club Account with Your Qatar Privilege Club Account

Linking your BA Executive Club account with your Qatar Privilege account enables you to take advantage of the sweet spot award redemptions.

Transferring Avios to your British Airways account can let you benefit from the following flight redemption opportunities.

Domestic American Airlines award flights booked through British Airways are a great use of your Avios. Taxes, fees and Avios required are comparatively low and offer you significant savings on flights across the U.S.

Likewise, British Airways Reward Flight Savers enable you to reduce the amount you pay in taxes and fees for a higher fixed number of Avios. Reward Flight Savers are great for short haul flights within the UK, Europe, North Africa and the Caribbean. They’re also a neat way of avoiding British Airways’s exorbitant taxes and fees on long-haul flights.

Alternatively, you can transfer Avios to your Qatar Privilege account to take advantage of its award-winning business class experience in its Qsuite. You can also end up paying less in Avios for connecting flights when you book through your Qatar Privilege account.

Transfer Avios to Other Airlines

Transfers between British Airways and Qatar Airways are a solid way to get the maximum benefit out of each program’s sweet spots. But don’t forget about other airlines who will accept transfers of your hard-earned Avios.

The Aer Lingus AerClub, British Airways Executive Club, Iberia Plus and Qatar Privilege Club all use Avios as their frequent flyer miles currency. That means it’s possible to transfer Avios between all of these programs.

While you can’t transfer Avios directly to your Qatar account from your Iberia or Aer Lingus accounts, you can get around this by using your British Airways account as an intermediary. Simply transfer your Iberia or Aer Lingus Avios to your British Airways account and from there you can transfer them to your Qatar account.

Transfers between all four programs occur at a 1:1 ratio, meaning your Avios retain their value.

You can transfer your Avios from your British Airways account directly to Aer Lingus, Iberia Plus and Qatar Airways. To transfer Avios from your Aer Lingus account to Iberia or British Airways, it’s easiest to do this through Avios.com. To transfer Avios to British Airways and Aer Lingus from your Iberia Plus account, it’s best to do it directly from your Iberia Plus account.

Keep in mind that if you have signed up for an Iberia Plus account within the last 90 days, you won’t be able to transfer Avios to or from your account.

Final Thoughts

With a few simple steps, you can connect your British Airways Executive Club and Qatar Airways Privilege Club accounts. This makes transferring Avios from one account to the other easy and enables you to use your British Airways account as an intermediary to transfer Avios to Aer Lingus and Iberia Plus.

For more points and miles tips and tricks, stay tuned with 10xTravel.