Qatar Airways Privilege Club Program: Everything You Need to Know

Qatar Airways is one of the best premium airlines in the world with an amazing business-class product called Qsuites, a massive route network with a sizable footprint in the United States and some great lounges at its hub airport in Doha, Qatar (DOH).

In March 2022, Qatar Airways Privilege Club abandoned its old rewards currency Qmiles and adopted the Avios currency, which it shares with Aer Lingus, Iberia and British Airways and all other airlines under the umbrella of International Airlines Group (IAG).

This change was incredibly exciting for people who had already earned Avios from other airlines and could now use those Avios for redemptions with Qatar. As a result, the top-of-the-line Qsuite business-class product is infinitely more accessible for people who don’t want to spend a ton of money.

Additionally, Qatar is a member of the Oneworld alliance, meaning that you can redeem your Avios with any partner airline. If you’re able to earn elite status with Qatar Airways Privilege Club, you’ll also earn Oneworld elite status.

There’s a lot to like about Qatar Airways Privilege Club, but the icing on the cake is that you can now use Avios to book Qsuite flights (which would otherwise be expensive) at reasonably affordable rates. However, that’s certainly not the only exciting thing about this loyalty program.

As previously mentioned, you can earn and redeem Avios through any IAG airline. However, we’re focusing on how to earn and redeem Avios through Qatar Airways Privilege Club. Let’s take a look at everything you need to know about this program.

Qatar Airways Privilege Club Overview

Qatar Airways currently operates a network of more than 150 destinations worldwide (many of which are in the United States); its fleet contains 233 aircrafts (with the majority of them being Airbus A320s, one of the best airplanes in the industry); and it won the “World’s Best Airline” award from Skytrax (making it the only airline to win the award seven times).

As previously mentioned, Qatar joined Oneworld in 2013, making it one of the more recent additions to the alliance. Since it was founded in 1999, the Oneworld alliance has grown to incorporate 14 airlines and have its own elite status program.

So, if you earn elite status with Qatar Airways (or any other Oneworld member), then you’ll be able to status match to elite status with Oneworld as well. Oneworld members include the following:

Qatar Airways Privilege Club Elite Status

To earn elite status with Qatar, you’ll need to rack up a certain number of Qpoints, which can be earned by flying either with Qatar or one of its partner airlines. There are three elite status tiers: Silver, Gold and Platinum. Each of these elite status tiers comes with different benefits and requires a different number of Qpoints.

Qatar Airways has a nifty tool called My Calculator that can tell you exactly how many Avios and Qpoints you’ll earn on any flight with Qatar or any of its partners. So, if you’re interested in earning elite status with Qatar, you may want to use this tool before booking flights.

Qatar Privilege Club has an interesting system for award elite status that can get rather confusing for members. Essentially, you’ll need to earn a certain number of Qpoints in any 12-month period to earn an elite status. For instance, if you rack up 300 Qpoints in the period from Jan. 1 to Nov. 2 of the same year, then you’ll earn Gold elite status. After that, Nov. 2 becomes your “renewal date” (the date that you earned your elite status).

To retain your elite status, you’ll need to earn a certain number of points before your renewal date comes around next year (either in the last 12 months or the last 24 months). In the example above, if you want to retain your Gold elite status, you’ll need to have earned either 270 Qpoints in the last 12 months prior to your renewal date or 540 Qpoints in the last 24 months prior to your renewal date.

Here’s a breakdown of how it works for each status tier.

In addition to the tier qualifications above, you will need to have earned at least 20% of your Qpoints or have flown four sectors (within 12 months prior to retention) or eight sectors (within 24 months prior to retention) on flights either marketed or operated by Qatar.

As you can see, earning elite status with Privilege Club can be slightly confusing. However, you can always go to the “Contact us” page on their website and get in touch with Qatar to find out where you stand in terms of elite status.

Anyway, let’s talk about why you would go through all the hassle of trying to understand this elite status program. Here’s a breakdown of the benefits that come at each status tier.

Burgundy

• Ability to earn Avios on flights with Qatar and partners
• Access to Flexi award

Silver

• All benefits of Burgundy status
• 25% tier bonus on eligible flights by Qatar 
• Priority standby, check-in and boarding
• 15 kg. extra bag allowance, or one piece
• Preferred seats
• Lounge access
• Status match to Oneworld Ruby

Gold

• All benefits of Silver status
• 75% tier bonus on eligible flights by Qatar 
• 20 kg. extra bag allowance, or one piece
• 40 Qcredits to redeem for upgrades, excess baggage and much more
• Complimentary Al Maha Gold service
• Discount on online redemptions
• Status match to Oneworld Sapphire

Platinum

• All benefits of Gold status
• 100% tier bonus on eligible flights by Qatar 
• 25 kg. extra bag allowance, or two pieces
• 60 Qcredits to redeem for upgrades, excess baggage and much more
• Avios don’t expire
• Status match to Oneworld Emerald

If you’re wondering about Al Maha Gold service, it’s a service that Qatar provides to Gold and Platinum elite status members at Hamad International Airport (Qatar’s main hub in Doha) to ensure that you have the smoothest travel experience possible.

On arrival, you can sit and relax in their Al Maha Services Lounge while they assist you with immigration and customs clearance. On departure, you can relax in the lounge for up to six hours prior to your flight time. They even have porters and hosts to greet you and assist you with your bag. In terms of elite status perks, Al Maha Gold service is a perk that will really make you feel elite.

Aside from that, the Avios earnings bonuses of 75% with Gold status and 100% with Platinum status are generous and can help you rack up a large balance of Avios quickly. The Qcredits that come with Gold and Platinum status are also a nice perk. Gold status comes with 40 Qcredits, and Platinum status comes with 60 Qcredits, both of which should be enough to upgrade to Qsuite business class on at least one flight segment.

How to Earn Qatar Airways Privilege Club Avios

Most people are probably aware that you can earn Avios when you book flights with Qatar. However, there are many other ways to help build your Avios balance that don’t involve flying, including spending on credit cards, transferring points from other programs and much more.

Since the Avios currency is shared by every member of IAG, you can earn Avios through Aer Lingus AerClub, British Airways Executive Club, Iberia Plus and others. So, if you really want to rack up Avios, make sure you look into all of the different ways you can earn Avios through those programs.

However for the sake of this article, we’re going to focus only on the ways that you can earn Avios through Qatar Airways Privilege Club.

Flying with Qatar Airways or Partner Airlines

Every time you take a flight operated by Qatar or one of its partner airlines, you’ll earn Avios. The specific number of Avios that you’ll earn depends on the fare class you’re booked in and the distance flown. And, as previously mentioned, if you have elite status with Qatar, you’ll be eligible to receive a bonus on your base Avios earnings. Here are the bonuses for all three elite status tiers again:

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

So, for instance, if you were to earn 200 base Avios for a flight, you would instead earn 250 Avios with Silver elite status, 350 Avios with Gold elite status and 400 Avios with Platinum elite status.

Now, if you want to find out how many Avios you’ll earn for a flight, Qatar has an extremely helpful tool called My Calculator that allows you to input your origin, destination, airline, fare class and elite status level and find out exactly how many Avios and Qpoints you’ll earn for that flight.

This tool makes it super easy to find out how many Avios you’ll earn on a flight regardless of what airline or class you’re flying. With most airline rewards programs, you’d have to pore through partner earnings charts to find that information.

Plus, once you enter your flight information, it will tell you how many Qpoints and Avios you could earn for booking every available class on that same flight. So, you may decide that it’s worth upgrading to a different class to earn the extra Avios or extra Qpoints.

The distance of the flight between Doha and New York (JFK) is 6,696 miles. So, as you can see from the example above, those who booked tickets in Economy Lite class would have earned 0.5 Avios per mile; those in Economy Group or Economy Classic would have earned 1 Avios per mile; those in Economy Convenience would have earned 1.5 Avios per mile; and those in Economy Comfort would have earned 2 Avios per mile.

In most cases, it’s not a smart decision to upgrade your flight simply for the purpose of earning more Avios or Qpoints. However, if you need a few more Avios for a specific redemption or you’re right on the cusp of earning elite status, it may be worth it to do so.

Spending with Co-Branded Credit Cards

Like many other airlines, Qatar offers several co-branded credit cards that allow you to earn Avios for spending money on everyday purchases (as well as increased earnings when spending money on Qatar Airways flights and other incidentals). Unfortunately, none of these credit cards are issued by U.S. banks, so we wouldn’t advise signing up for one of these cards if you’re a U.S.-based traveler.

Still, here are all of the cards that Qatar offers:

• Doha Bank Qatar Airways Privilege Club Card
• QNB Qatar Airways Mastercard
• QIB Qatar Airways Visa Card
• Burgan Bank Qatar Airways Mastercard
• Housing Bank Qatar Airways Visa Card

As previously stated, none of the aforementioned cards are offered by U.S. banks, and so they aren’t good options for U.S.-based travelers. However, since all IAG airlines use Avios as their rewards currency, some Avios-earning cards issued by Chase are solid options for those who live in the United States. Here are some great Chase-issued cards that earn Avios:

All three of these cards are nearly identical. They have annual fees of $95. The cards earn 3X Avios when you spend money through any airline that’s a member of IAG, 2X Avios on hotel accommodations purchased directly through the hotel and 1X Avios on all other purchases.

So, if you really want to earn Avios quickly, signing up for one of these cards is one of the best ways to do so. Then, when you rack up a balance of Avios, you move those Avios into your Qatar account and spend them through Privilege Club (if you so choose). We’ll talk more about how to move Avios between frequent-flyer programs later.

Transfer Partners

Apart from earning Avios directly, several programs also allow you to earn points and then convert them into Qatar Airways Avios. Citi ThankYou Rewards is probably the best transfer partner for Qatar Airways Privilege Club because it allows you to convert ThankYou Points to Avios at a 1:1 ratio. Here are some of our top suggestions for Citi cards that earn ThankYou Points:

Getting a card that earns Citi ThankYou Points is probably a better option than signing up for any airline-branded credit card. ThankYou Points can be transferred to many airlines and other rewards programs and can also be spent through the Citi ThankYou Rewards portal, making them a much more flexible rewards currency than Avios. So, even if your end goal is to transfer your ThankYou Points to Qatar Airways Privilege Club, we’d recommend prioritizing a ThankYou Points-earning card over an Avios-earning card.

If you’re a customer of American Express, Capital One, Chase or Bilt, you can also convert your points with any of those programs to Avios. However, you’ll have to do so through the British Airways Executive Club and then transfer those Avios to Qatar Airways Privilege Club. Unfortunately, these programs don’t allow you to convert directly to Qatar Airways Privilege Club, but you can can combine Avios between British Airways and Qatar.

It’s also worth noting that there are a handful of hotel loyalty programs that allow you to convert their currencies to Qatar Airways Avios. Here are the hotel loyalty programs from which you can convert points to Avios:

• ALL Accor: 2,000 ALL Rewards points to 1,000 Avios
• Hilton Honors: 10,000 Hilton points to 1,000 Avios
• Mariott Bonvoy: 3,000 Bonvoy points to 1,000 Avios (plus a bonus of 5,000 Avios every time you transfer 60,000 Bonvoy points at once)
• Shangri-La Hotels: 1 Golden Circle point to 1 Avios (minimum transfer of 2,500 Golden Circle points)
• World of Hyatt: 2.5 World of Hyatt points to 1 Avios

With all of these hotel rewards currencies, it’s usually better to redeem them in their own programs rather than transferring them to Privilege Club. However, if you need a few thousand more Avios for a specific redemption through Privilege Club, it’s nice to have the option to top off your account by transferring points from one of these hotel loyalty programs.

Shopping at Qatar Duty Free

The nation of Qatar is a massive global shopping hub and home to many luxury brands, so it’s no wonder that Hamad International Airport has a gigantic duty free shopping area that spans over 40,000 square meters. Using your Privilege Club membership number, you can earn Avios whether you’re purchasing fragrances, skincare products, fashion, jewelry, souvenirs, luxury gifts or any of the many other products offered at Doha Airport duty free.

Other Retail Partners

Qatar Airways has partnerships with many other retail companies that allow you to earn Avios at varying rates for making purchases with them. Some of these brands include:

• Breitling
• Cole Haan
• Ethan Allen
• Godiva
• Karisma
• Lipault
• M Missoni
• Nespresso
• Nest Home Living
• Samsonite
• Toys 4 Me
• Voulez Vous
• Yamamay
• Yves Delorme

If you want to see how many Avios you can earn with any of the previously mentioned shopping partners, you can see all of their offers on the Qatar Airways website.

Car Rentals

Qatar Airways Privilege Club is partnered with several car rental companies that allow you to earn Avios for booking rental cars. Here’s a breakdown of Qatar’s car rental partners and how many Avios you can earn with each.

Unfortunately, if you choose to earn Qatar Airways Avios on your car rental, you won’t be eligible to earn any rewards from that car rental company. For instance, if you elect to earn Avios for a rental with Avis, you can’t earn Avis points for the same rental. You have to choose one or the other. This applies for all of the previously mentioned rental car companies.

Hotel Stays

As previously mentioned, several hotel rewards programs allow you to convert their points to Qatar Airways Avios. However, several hotels also allow you to earn Avios directly on your bookings.

Here is a breakdown of Qatar Airways Privilege Club’s hotel partners and how many Avios you can earn by booking stays with them.

Accor Hotels

• ALL-participating Accor brands: 10 Avios per €10 spent
• Adagio: 4 Avios per €10 spent
• Adagio Access: 2 Avios per €10 spent
• Ibis, Ibis Style and Mama Shelter: 10 Avios per €10 spent

Booking.com

• 1 Avios per $1 spent

Hyatt Hotels

• 500 Avios when you stay at one of the following brands: Park Hyatt, Andaz, Grand Hyatt, Hyatt Regency, Hyatt Centric, Hyatt Place, Hyatt House, Hyatt Ziva, Hyatt Zilara and The Unbound Collection by Hyatt

Kaligo.com

• Up to 10,000 Avios per night when booking through Kaligo.com
• Qatar Airways cardholders enjoy 20% bonus Avios (up to 12,000 Avios per night)

Marriott Bonvoy

• 2 Avios per $1 spent at The Ritz-Carlton, Autograph Collection Hotels, Marriott Vacation Club, Design Hotels, Sheraton, W Hotels, JW Marriott, Renaissance Hotels, Gaylord Hotels, Le Meridien, St. Regis, Westin, EDITION, Marriott Hotels, Delta Hotels by Marriott, The Luxury Collection and Tribute Portfolio
• 1 Avios per $1 spent at Courtyard by Marriott, Residence Inn by Marriott, AC Hotels by Marriott, Aloft, Fairfield by Mariott, TownePlace Suites by Marriott, MOXY Hotels, Element by Westin, SpringHill Suites by Marriott, Marriott Executive Apartments, Protea Hotels by Marriott and Four Points by Sheraton

Rocketmiles

• 1,000 to 10,000 Avios per night for booking premium hotels through Rocketmiles

Rotana Hotels & Resorts

• 500 Avios for eligible stays at Rotana Hotels
• 250 Avios for eligible stays at Rotana Suites and Resorts

Shangri-La Circle

• 500 Avios per eligible stay at Shangri-La Hotels and Resorts, Kerry Hotels, JEN and Traders Hotels

Trip.com

• 1.5 Avios per $1 spent

In most cases, it makes more sense to earn hotel points on your hotel stays rather than electing to earn Qatar Airways Avios. However, if you tend to fly with Qatar (or another airline that uses Avios) far more than you stay at hotels, then electing to earn Avios for your stay might be a smart move.

Shipping Your Car

One of the more interesting ways to earn Avios is to ship your car from Doha using Qatar Airways Cargo, one of the world’s leading international air cargo services. You’ll earn 5 Avios for every 12 Qatari riyal you spend on shipping your car from Doha using Qatar Airways Cargo.

Buying Avios

As with most airline loyalty programs, Qatar Airways Privilege Club gives you the option to purchase Avios. Unfortunately, this is usually a bad idea. You can buy Avios in increments of 1,000, up to 250,000 Avios per calendar year. The price starts at $35 per 1,000 Avios and goes down to $30 per 1,000 Avios, depending on how many Avios you purchase in a transaction.

You have to have earned at least 1,000 Avios from your date of enrollment in Privilege Club to purchase additional Avios. All purchases of Avios are non-refundable.

How to Redeem Qatar Airways Privilege Club Avios

One of the biggest advantages of the Avios currency is that Avios can be transferred among each of the frequent-flyer programs that use them. That means that you have full access to all of the redemptions offered by Qatar Airways Privilege Club, British Airways Executive Club, AerLingus AerClub, Iberia Plus and more.

For the sake of this article, we’re going to discuss only the ways that you can redeem Avios through Qatar Airways Privilege Club. However, you should understand that you can broaden your redemption options by transferring your Avios between the different loyalty programs that use this currency.

Flying with Qatar Airways

Qatar Airways uses a zone-based award chart to price all award flights on Qatar metal. However, this award chart isn’t published anywhere for the public, you can pretty much figure out their pricing method by searching flights with the My Calculator tool.

We performed a search for award flights from Doha to New York (JFK) and found that you can purchase a first-class ticket for 210,000 Avios, a business-class ticket for 140,000 Avios and an economy-class ticket for 70,000 Avios.

After that, we performed another search for an award flight from Doha to Boston (BOS), which we assume would be in the same zone as New York. Indeed, we found that award flights to Boston were the same prices as award flights to New York, showing that the two are in the same zone.

We also found that flights from Doha to Los Angeles (LAX) and flights from Doha to Montreal (YUL) were the same prices as the two previous flights, implying that the entire continental United States and Canada are part of one zone.

You should be aware that taxes and carrier-imposed surcharges starting at $30 apply and may vary based on dates of travel and fluctuations in exchange rates.

Of course, if you’re looking for a high-value redemption to spend your Avios on through Privilege Club, you may want to consider saving up for a ticket in Qatar’s legendary Qsuite business class. Qsuite seats come with tons of amazing amenities, including complimentary skincare products, a world-class entertainment system and the highest-quality service. Plus, couples can turn their seats into a lie-flat double bed, and families can turn four seats into one giant mega-suite.

Seats in Qsuite business class typically cost thousands of dollars no matter what route you’re flying. However, these aspirational awards are much more accessible by booking with Avios. In many cases, you might be better off booking Qatar Qsuites through one of their airline partners (such as British Airways Executive Club or American Airlines AAdvantage) but there are instances when booking these award tickets through Qatar Airways Executive Club will be the best deal.

For instance, booking Qsuites award tickets from the U.S. to Maldives is usually best done directly through Qatar Airways Privilege Club. According to Qatar’s zone-based pricing model, a one-way ticket from Atlanta (ATL) to Male, Maldives (MLE), will cost 85,000 Avios. The same rate applies to flights to Maldives departing from any U.S. city.

We searched the same flight from Atlanta to Maldives and found that the cash rate was $7,102.

This means that if you were to book an award ticket on that date, you’d be getting a whopping 8.3 cents per Avios in value.

On some of these award flights, you may have to pay several hundreds of dollars in fees. However, even with these high fees, booking award flights in Qsuite business class between the U.S. and Maldives through Qatar Airways Privilege Club is usually still a great deal.

In fact, if you can’t find any award availability in Qsuite business class departing from the airport nearest to you, it may even be worth it to fly to another U.S. city and then fly in Qatar Qsuite business class to your ultimate destination.

Flying with Partner Airlines

Unlike Qatar-operated award flights (which are priced based on zones), partner-operated award flights are priced according to a distance-based award chart, which is published on the Privilege Club website.

Here’s the award chart for partner-operated award flights.

If you want to find out how many Avios a specific partner award flight will cost, you’ll first need to find the distance between your origin and destination. There are several websites out there, such as the Great Circle Mapper, that can help you determine the distance between any two airports. Then, you just need to reference the award chart above and you can find the price of all partner award flights marketed by Qatar.

To book a partner award with Qatar, you’ll have to log in to your Privilege Club account and complete the partner award request form. Here are a few restrictions you should be aware of when booking a partner award:

• Partner award requests aren’t valid for infants.
• Partner award tickets can be booked only on a single airline. Combination of flights between airlines in an itinerary is not permitted.
• A maximum of four sectors on a single airline can be booked on a partner award ticket.
• Stopovers aren’t permitted on partner award tickets.
• Requests must be submitted at least 96 hours prior to your intended date of travel.

Since partner award flights are priced based on distance, your best bet for getting a lot of value out of your Avios is to find short-haul flights that carry high cash prices. For instance, domestic flights within the U.S. can often be rather short in distance but still have high cash prices. Luckily, since Qatar is partnered with American Airlines, you should be able to find some high-value redemptions for American flights within the U.S. using Qatar Avios.

Cash + Avios

Like all of the other loyalty programs that use Avios, Qatar Airways Privilege Club gives you the option to book with Cash + Avios. To do so, you’ll need to log in to your Privilege Club account and search for your flight as you normally would. Then, when you reach the payment stage, you need to select “Cash + Avios” as your payment option. Finally, you can use the slider to select the combination of cash and Avios that you’d like to pay with.

Saving on bookings by using Cash + Avios is usually a pretty decent deal. However, you can probably get more value for your Avios by saving up a little more and spending them on an award flight. Still, Cash + Avios is a great option if you need to book a flight and you want to save some cash. Plus, you’ll still earn Avios on the cash portion of the fare.

Upgrades and Extra Baggage Allowance

You can also use your Avios to pay for upgrades to business or first class or for extra baggage allowance. If you want to know how much a certain upgrade is going to cost you in Avios, you can use the My Calculator tool and enter in your origin, destination, fare class, airline and Privilege Club elite status, and you’ll be presented with a list of upgrades and their prices in Avios.

You can also pay for upgrades using Cash + Points. To do so, you need to select the upgrade you want and then select “Cash + Points” as your payment method when you get to the payment page. You’ll then be able to move the slider to determine what combination of cash and points you want to pay with.

When it comes to paying for extra baggage allowance with Avios, the specific number of Avios you’ll need to use will depend on the specific flight you’re taking as well as the size of the baggage. You can also find this information using the My Calculator tool on the Qatar Airways website.

Hotel Stays and Car Rentals

Qatar Airways Privilege Club also gives you the option to book hotel stays and car rentals around the world using Avios. Unfortunately, these are usually not the best way to get a lot of value out of your Avios. To do so, you can go to the Qatar Airways Privilege Club “Hotel & Car Rewards” page and select whether you want to book a car or a hotel stay.

When booking a hotel, you’ll be required to enter your destination, your check-in and checkout dates and the number of travelers. Then, you’ll be presented with a list of options near the destination that you searched with their prices in Avios. You’ll also be given the option to pay using Cash + Avios.

Unfortunately, booking a hotel through Privilege Club with Avios isn’t typically a good deal. For instance, we found a room at The Bowery Hotel for 168,300 Avios through Qatar Airways Privilege Club.

When we searched the same room on the same night through The Bowery Hotel’s website, we found that the cash rate was $705.

This means that if you were to book this room with Avios, you’d be getting a value of about 0.4 cent per Avios. Getting 0.4 cent apiece in value for this hotel stay redemption is generally considered a bad deal.

When it comes to booking a car with Avios through Qatar Airways Privilege Club, you can go to the “Hotel & Car Rewards” page and select the “Cars” option. Then, you’ll need to enter your pick-up destination, whether you want to drop off the car at the same location or a different location, your pick-up date and time, your drop-off date and time and the age of the driver. Then, you’ll be presented with a list of options and their prices. You can pay either entirely with Avios or with a combination of Cash + Avios.

While renting a car with Avios through Qatar Airways is a nice option to have, it’s usually a bad deal. For instance, we found an economy car from Avis at Portland International Airport (PDX) for 11,400 Avios per day or 22,800 Avios for two days.

After searching for the exact same rental directly through Avis’ website, we found that the cash rate for the same rental would be $69.98 per day.

If you were to redeem your Avios this way, you’d be getting a value of about 0.3 cent per Avios, which is exceptionally low.

Instead of using your Avios for car rentals or hotel stays, you’re better off playing in cash for your car or hotel room and then saving your Avios for a higher-value redemption (such as booking a Qsuites award from the U.S. to Maldives, which can yield more than 8 cents per Avios in value).

Shopping at Oryx Galleria and Qatar Duty Free

If you’re interested in having a unique and exclusive shopping experience that you can pay for entirely with Avios, check out the Oryx Galleria in Hamad International Airport at Qatar Airways Tower 2.

Oryx Galleria is a boutique designed exclusively for Privilege Club members that features hundreds of branded products covering fashion, fragrances, jewelry, electronics, toys, luggage, household appliances, sporting goods and much more. You can pay for everything entirely with Avios, and if you’re a Platinum or Gold elite member, you’ll also be entitled to discounts on redemption rates.

You also can use your Avios to shop at Qatar Duty Free, a massive complex located in the arrival and departure halls of Hamad International Airport. When shopping at Qatar Duty Free, all Privilege Club members will receive a discount. Here are the discounts you’ll receive based on your status with Qatar Airways Privilege Club:

• Burgundy: 10%
• Silver: 15%
• Gold: 15%
• Platinum: 20%

Book Al Maha Services

You can also use your Avios to pay for Al Maha service packages. Essentially, these packages come with concierges that will meet you at your arrival or departure airport (or both) and assist you with your bags, help you gather the necessary documentation and make your travel experience as easy and stress-free as possible in general.

Gift Your Avios

You can gift your Avios to another Privilege Club member, but doing so is almost always a bad idea. That’s because gifting Avios costs a hefty fee. The specific amount of fees you’ll have to pay depends on how many Avios you’re gifting. In general, the more Avios you gift at once, the less you’ll have to pay in fees.

If you do decide that you want to gift Avios to another member, you can gift a maximum of 250,000 Avios in a calendar year, and you must gift Avios in increments of 1,000. Again, gifting Avios is almost always a bad use of your Avios. You’re better off just purchasing an award flight in someone else’s name.

Combine Avios

One of the greatest advantages of the Avios currency is that you can combine Avios between accounts within the four different frequent-flyer programs. For instance, you can move your Avios from British Airways Executive Club to Qatar Airways Privilege Club. This gives you access to the entire list of airline partners for Aer Lingus, British Airways, Iberia and Qatar.

All four airlines that use Avios have their own unique list of partners. So, transferring your Avios from one loyalty program might give you access to new partner award flights. For instance, if you transfer your Avios from British Airways Executive Club to Iberia Plus, you’ll gain access to award flights from LATAM (which aren’t available through Executive Club), a large airline that operates tons of routes between North America and Central and South America.

Another advantage of the Avios currency is that, if you have balances of Avios in separate accounts, you can combine them all into one account. For instance, if you have 100,000 Avios in your Qatar Airways Privilege Club account and 100,000 Avios in your British Airways Executive Club account, you can combine them both into one account for a total of 200,000 Avios.

If you want to move Avios between Iberia, British Airways and Aer Lingus, the easiest way to do so is by signing into Avios.com with your Aer Lingus AerClub credentials. If you want to move Avios to or from your Qatar Airways Privilege Club account, you’ll need to use British Airways as an intermediary, which can get a bit complicated.

The Bottom Line

Qatar Qsuites is one of the finest business-class products in the entire airline industry. So, when Privilege Club converted to the Avios currency in 2022, giving travelers the ability to purchase Qsuites tickets with Avios (instead of having to pay exorbitant cash prices or having to fly frequently with Qatar to rack up Qpoints), it was huge news.

In many cases, the best way to book Qsuite award flights is actually through one of the other Avios-using airline rewards programs (such as British Airways or Iberia Plus). However, there are definitely some Qsuites award flights that are best booked through Qatar Airways Privilege Club (such as Qsuites flights between the U.S. and Maldives).

On top of that, because Qatar is partnered with American Airlines, you can find some great redemptions for domestic flights within the U.S. in any class.

If you’re based in the United States or Europe, Privilege Club probably isn’t the most relevant frequent-flyer program to you. However, if you like traveling luxury, then this is definitely a program that should, at least, be on your radar.

And, of course, one of the best things about earning Avios through Qatar is the ability to transfer this currency between the several programs that use it. So, any Avios that you earn through Qatar can be redeemed through Aer Lingus AerClub, Iberia Plus or British Airways Executive Club. And any Avios earned through those programs can be redeemed through Qatar Airways Privilege Club.