How to turn your Qatar Airways Avios into free flights

When Qatar Airways adopted Avios frequent flyer points as the ‘rewards currency’ in its Privilege Club loyalty program, the airline also unlocked powerful new ways to use those Avios.

For example, as Avios are also used by British Airways, Iberia and Air Lingus, you can combine Avios scattered across several airline programs into a single larger pool.

That in turn makes it easier to spend those Avios on an ‘award’ or ‘redemption’ booking with Qatar Airways or other Oneworld airlines such as British Airways.

Your Qatar Airways Avios can take you almost anywhere in the world.

How to transfer Avios between airlines

A key benefit of Qatar Airways’ shift to Avios is the ability to transfer Avios between airline loyalty programs, such as from your British Airways Executive Club to Qatar Airways Privilege Club (or vice versa).

With no fee, no minimum transfer amount and no balance limitations, this is ideal for keeping all your Avios in one place or moving them to whichever airline you need to redeem them on.

Start by heading to the Qatar Airways Avios page, then scroll down and click the Link my accounts button.

Link your frequent flyer accounts to manage all your Avios in one place.

This will redirect you to the Avios balance page on the all-in-one ‘dashboard’ of your Qatar Airways Privilege Club account; under the Link your accounts heading you’ll spy a tile for linking your British Airways Executive Club account to your Qatar Airways Privilege Club account.

Clicking the Link accounts button sets up a quick login process for your BAEC account. Note that your given name, family name and date of birth on both your Executive Club and Privilege Club accounts must match in order for them to be linked. If you’re in doubt, you can always check this helpful FAQ page.

It's easy to link your Qatar Airways and British Airways frequent flyer accounts.

Your BA and QR accounts will now be linked, and the Qatar Airways Privilege Club dashboard will display your total Avios balance across both airlines – although no Avios have yet been moved between them.

The Dashboard shows the total number of Avios across all linked accounts,

To transfer Avios across from your BAEC account, scroll down the page and click the Combine Avios button.

Select how many Avios to move from your Executive Club account to your Privilege Club account – it’s a straight 1:1 transfer with no fees – and click the Move my Avios button.

After another login at your BA Executive Club account to verify the process, your Privilege Club dashboard will reflect your new Avios allocation – and the Spend Avios button puts you one step away from booking a Qatar Airways flight with those Avios, either in full or as part of a Cash+Avios booking.

How to redeem Avios on the Qatar Airways website

With your Qatar Airways Privilege Club account topped up with Avios, one of the best ways to put them to use is by booking a Qatar Airways flight.

Log onto your Privilege Club dashboard and from the side menu, select the Spend my Avios option. You’ll see tabs to Redeem on Qatar Airways/British Airways and Redeem on partner airlines (this includes all Oneworld member airlines plus other Qatar Airways partners such as Bangkok Airways and South America’s LATAM), as well as using your Avios to upgrade on Qatar Airways.

For now, let’s stick with the initial default to Redeem on Qatar Airways/British Airways: enter the route you’re interested in, along with the travel date (this can be changed later) and click the Show flights button.

The next screen will show your flight options and their availability in Avios (along with the cash surcharge component covering fees and taxes).

You can click through the dates shown along the top of the screen to examine other travel dates, in case there’s better availability – the redemption booking window also handily flags the lowest price in Avios across the week.

(And remember, if there aren’t quite enough Avios in your account for that flight, you can select a combination of Avios and Cash as your payment method.)

As you’ll see, you can use Avios to redeem against a Qatar Airways journey in the comfort of Qsuite business class all the way from Sydney, Melbourne or Brisbane to London (for 90,000 Avios), or for a short hop on British Airways such as between London and Dublin (for 9,250 Avios in economy or 15,000 Avios in business).

You can even use your Avios on Qatar Airways’ flights between Adelaide and Auckland, starting at a low 35,000 Avios in economy or 70,000 in Qsuites business class for the four-hour jaunt.

If you’re unsure of how far your Avios can take you, fire up the online calculator, click the Book an award flight tab and enter your desired route, travel class, airline and Qatar Privilege Club status level.

Join Qatar Airways Privilege Club and earn up to a 5,000 Avios bonus

If you’re not already a member of the Qatar Airways Privilege Club loyalty program, right now is the best time to join. Sign up using the promo code PCAUNA22 by December 31, 2022 and take your first Qatar Airways flight as a  Privilege Club member by July 31, 2023 to earn an additional 2,500 bonus Avios in economy or 5,000 bonus Avios in business or first.