Qatar Airways Privilege Club Award Booking Instructions

Qatar Airways is the flag carrier of the Middle Eastern nation of Qatar. Headquartered in the country’s capital city of Doha, Qatar Airways currently has a fleet of over 250 aircraft and operates routes to more than 160 destinations worldwide. The airline also has its own frequent flyer program, known as Qatar Airways Privilege Club, which made headlines in 2022 when it abandoned its old rewards currency and adopted the Avios currency.

The Avios currency is shared among several major frequent flyer programs, including Aer Lingus AerClub, British Airways Executive Club, Finnair Plus and Iberia Plus, which makes Avios an extremely flexible rewards currency. Members of any of these programs can transfer Avios between these programs for free, which is a major advantage.

The Qatar Airways Privilege Club program is also known among points and miles enthusiasts as the best program through which to book Qatar Airways’ heralded Qsuite class, one of the best first class products in the airline industry, with points. And this program is full of high-value award flight redemptions as well.

However, when it comes time to book an award flight, the process can be slightly confusing. So, in this article, we’re going to give you a step-by-step guide on how to book award flights through Qatar Airways Privilege Club as well as how to join the program and quickly earn enough points for an award flight.

Joining Qatar Airways Privilege Club

You’ll need to be a member of the program before you start redeeming Avios for flights through Qatar Airways Privilege Club. So, if you haven’t already, you can enroll in the Privilege Club program by visiting the Qatar Airways website and clicking the “Sign up” button in the top-right corner of the homepage.

Once you’ve done so, you’ll be brought to a new page where you can choose whether to sign up for Privilege Club or Student Club (which is a program that offers special discounts and perks when traveling with Qatar Airways to students enrolled in higher education). Of course, you want to click the “Join now” button beneath Privilege Club.

As a side note, though, you can be a member of both programs. So, after you join Privilege Club, if you’re a higher education student and you think you might want to fly on Qatar Airways in the future, then you may want to also sign up for Student Club.

Next, you’ll have to provide some personal information, including your name, date of birth, gender, email address, phone number, country of residence and more.

You also be asked to either link your Google account to your Qatar Airways Privilege Club account or create a password. Finally, you’ll need to agree to the terms and conditions and then click the “Create an account” button at the bottom of the page.

Once you’ve done all that, you’ll receive a unique Qatar Airways Privilege Club account number which you can use to sign in to your account and to earn Avios through the program. We recommend writing this number down somewhere you’ll remember it.

How to Earn Qatar Airways Privilege Club Avios

As a member of the Qatar Airways Privilege Club program, you’re eligible to both earn and redeem Avios. However, before you purchase an award flight, you’ll need to earn enough Avios to purchase an award flight. The cheapest award flight that we were able to find through the Qatar Airways Privilege Club program cost 9,500 Avios, so you’ll need at least that many Avios before you purchase an award flight.

There are many ways to earn Avios through this program. However, not all earning methods are as effective as others. So, in the following sections, we’re going to take a brief look at the most effective ways to earn Avios through Privilege Club.

Transfer Avios from Other Frequent Flyer Programs

As mentioned above, the Avios currency is used by several frequent flyer programs, including Aer Lingus AerClub, British Airways Executive Club, Finnair Plus, Iberia Plus, Qatar Airways Privilege Club and the frequent flyer programs of several smaller airlines. This means that Avios can be moved freely between all of the programs that use them.

So, if you have a balance of Avios in any of the Avios-using programs mentioned above, you can transfer those Avios to the Qatar Airways Privilege Club program. However, it’s worth mentioning that, when transferring from certain programs, you may not be able to transfer directly to Qatar Airways and will need to use the British Airways Executive Club program as an intermediary.

For example, if you wanted to transfer Avios from Aer Lingus AerClub to Qatar Airways Privilege Club, you couldn’t do so directly. Instead, you’d have to first make a transfer from Aer Lingus to British Airways and then from British Airways to Qatar Airways.

In summary, if you want to earn Avios in the Qatar Airways Privilege Club program, one fast and free way to do so is to transfer Avios that you have in other frequent flyer programs.

Transfer from Credit Card Rewards Programs

Another effective way to earn Avios through the Qatar Airways Privilege Club program is to transfer points from credit card rewards programs. You can transfer points at a 1:1 ratio from Citi ThankYou Rewards, American Express Membership Rewards and Bilt Rewards to the Qatar Airways Privilege Club program.

So, for example, if you had 75,000 Citi points in your account, you could transfer those points to the Qatar Airways Privilege Club program and have 75,000 Avios in your account within minutes.

You can also transfer points from any other major credit card rewards program to another Avios-using frequent flyer program and then transfer those Avios to Qatar Airways.

For example, American Express Membership Rewards, Bilt Rewards, Capital One Rewards, Chase Ultimate Rewards and Wells Fargo Rewards all allow transfers to the British Airways Executive Club program at a 1:1 ratio. So, you could transfer points from any of those programs to British Airways and then transfer those Avios to Qatar Airways.

For most travelers, transferring credit card points to Qatar Airways or one of the other Avios-using programs is going to be the most effective way to earn Avios.

Sign Up for a Qatar Airways Co-Branded Credit Card

Another way to earn Avios quickly that’s particularly appealing to those who fly with Qatar Airways often is to sign up for one of the two Qatar Airways co-branded credit cards (both available through Cardless). With these cards, you can earn Avios for every purchase that you make and receive special perks when flying with Qatar Airways and its partners. The following chart includes everything you need to know about these two credit cards:

In addition to the benefits of these two credit cards mentioned above, both cards also offer welcome bonuses for new cardmembers who spend a certain amount on their card in a certain period of time after account opening.

However, many other frequent flyer programs offer co-branded credit cards, including most of the other programs that use the Avios currency. So, before you sign up for one of these Qatar Airways co-branded cards, you may want to consider whether you’d rather have a card from a different airline instead.

Flying with Qatar Airways and Partner Airlines

You can also earn Avios effectively by taking paid flights on Qatar Airways and its partner airlines. To do so, you’ll need to choose Qatar Airways as your frequent flyer program of choice and enter your membership number either when making your booking or when checking in for your flight.

When it comes to flights with Qatar Airways, you’ll earn Avios based on the distance of your flight, your booking class and your status tier in the Privilege Club. The following table includes how many Avios you’ll earn in each booking class when flying with Qatar Airways:

So, for instance, if you were taking a Qatar Airways flight from Doha (DOH) to New York City (JFK), which has a distance of 6,704 miles (according to Great Circle Map), in Economy Classic (booking class T), you would earn 3,352 Avios (6,704 miles x 50% = 3,352 Avios).

Qatar Airways is a member of Oneworld Alliance, meaning that you can also earn Avios in the Privilege Club program by flying on any Oneworld member airline. Here are the airlines that are currently members of Oneworld Alliance:

• Alaska Airlines
• American Airlines
• British Airways
• Cathay Pacific
• Finnair
• Fiji Airways
• Iberia
• Japan Airlines
• Malaysia Airlines
• Qantas
• Qatar Airways
• Royal Air Maroc
• Royal Jordanian
• SriLankan Airlines

It’s worth noting, however, that you’ll be sacrificing the opportunity to credit flights to other Oneworld Alliance frequent flyer programs when you credit Oneworld flights to Qatar Airways Privilege Club. So, if you’d rather earn miles or Avios with a different Oneworld frequent flyer program (such as British Airways Executive Club or American Airlines AAdvantage), then you may want to credit your flights to that program instead of Privilege Club.

Other Ways to Earn

There are many other ways to earn Avios through the Qatar Airways Privilege Club program, including booking hotel stays, renting cars, shipping cars overseas, shopping duty-free in Qatar and more. However, none of these earning methods are as effective as the methods described above.

But, if you happen to use Qatar Airways Privilege Club as your primary frequent flyer program, then you may want to familiarize yourself with these other earning methods so that you can pick up some extra Avios here and there.

How to Book Award Flights Through Qatar Airways Privilege Club

Once you’ve earned enough Avios to book an award flight through the Qatar Airways Privilege Club program, you can start the process of actually making your booking by visiting the Qatar Airways website and signing in to your account by clicking the “Sign in” button in the top-right corner of the homepage.

Once you’ve signed in to your account, you’ll be returned to the homepage. From there, you can click the “Privilege Club” tab from the toolbar at the top of the page. Then, a drop-down menu will appear and you can select the “Spend your Avios” option from the “Spend” section.

After that, you’ll be brought to a new page where you’ll have to scroll down until you see the “Book an award flight” link. Next to this link, you’ll also see a link to the “My Reward Seat Finder” feature, which allows you to search for award flight availability but not actually book award flights.

Once you click on the “Book an award flight” link, you’ll be brought to the award flight booking tool. From there, the process of booking an award flight is very similar to booking a cash flight. You can enter your flight type (round-trip, one-way or multi-city), departure airport, arrival airport, travel dates, number of passengers and whether you want to search for business and first-class flights. Once all of your search parameters are correct, you can click the “Show flights” button.

From there, you’ll see a list of results that match your search query, which includes any available flights from Qatar Airways as well as its partner airlines. Along the top of the results page, you’ll also see the Avios rates for flights three days before and three days after your selected dates. This may help you find a much cheaper flight if your travel dates are flexible.

With each flight result listing, you can see important information about each flight, including departure and arrival times, layover times, departure airport, arrival airport, aircraft type and operating airline. You can sort these flight results by departure time, arrival time and flight duration.

Then, once you find a flight that suits your needs, you can add that flight to your itinerary by clicking the bubble beneath the fare that you want to book. When you do this, information about your selected fare will appear, including lounge access, change/cancellation policies, accrual of Qpoints and Avios and other fees.

Once you’ve selected your flights, you can click the “Continue” button in the bottom-right corner of the page.

Next, you’ll need to enter some personal information about any travelers on the itinerary, including name, gender, title, date of birth and nationality.

You’ll also need to provide contact details including your phone number and email address, which will be used to receive updates about your flight as well as your confirmation number and boarding pass.

Finally, you’ll need to add payment details to cover any applicable taxes and fees for your award itinerary. It’s worth mentioning here that Qatar Airways Privilege Club has significantly increased the taxes and fees it charges on award flights in the last several years, so make sure to examine the taxes and fees before completing your booking.

Once you’ve added a payment method, you can confirm your flight booking. At that point, you’ll be given a confirmation number, which you’ll need to check in for your flight later. You should also receive a confirmation email with this number to the email address you provided in the contact details section.

You can cancel or change an award flight itinerary up to three hours before your flight. However, you may be charged a fee depending on when you make your change/cancellation and what your status in the Qatar Airways Privilege Club program is. The following chart includes how much you’ll have to pay in change/cancellation fees:

These fees are relatively high, especially if you’re making your change/cancellation at the last minute. So, we recommend not booking an award flight unless you’re sure that you’re actually going to take the flight.

The Bottom Line

The Qatar Airways Privilege Club program is a solid frequent flyer program that is worth getting to know even if you don’t fly with Qatar Airways often. This program uses the Avios currency, meaning you can freely transfer Avios between this program and several other major programs that use this currency. Qatar Airways is a member of Oneworld Alliance, meaning you can both earn and redeem Avios with any Oneworld airline.

Plus, if you ever want to fly in Qatar’s Qsuite first class (which features a lie-flat bed, complimentary sleepwear and slippers and a bespoke amenity bag containing lotions, fragrances and more), the best way to do so is through the Qatar Airways Privilege Club program. So, if you want to experience the finest first-class luxury from Qatar Airways, you’ll have to learn how to book award flights through the Privilege Club program.

Luckily, although booking award flights through Qatar Airways Privilege Club can be a bit confusing, we’ve included a step-by-step guide on how to do so in this article that you can refer to whenever you need.