Qatar Airways has quietly increased the surcharges payable when you redeem Avios on many of its flights.

Avios are the transferrable points currency of frequent flyer programs including Qatar Airways Privilege Club and British Airways Executive Club.

Previously, when using Avios to book Qatar Airways flights, the Qatari Oneworld member just added on legitimate third-party taxes and a fixed “award segment fee” that applied per sector. This was a fairly reasonable USD35 (~AU$52) per sector in Economy Class, or USD70 (~AU$104) in Business or First Class.

Last weekend, without notice, Qatar Airways changed these surcharges.

Qatar Airways has changed its reward flight surcharges

Instead of a fixed fee that applied for each sector, Qatar Airways now charges a “Redemption Fee” that varies based on the route. In general, the charges are higher on longer routes.

After a bunch of bloggers noticed that Qatar’s reward flight surcharges had suddenly increased drastically last Saturday, Qatar Airways clarified that some of the large fee increases had been in error. However, the airline acknowledged that it had changed its reward fee structure.

Qatar Airways was quick to point out that it had actually decreased the surcharges on some of its shortest flights by up to 15%, and that some remained unchanged. That may be true, but it increased surcharges on its longer flights – especially to/from Australia and New Zealand.

This is what Qatar Airways had to say:

Qatar Airways Privilege Club sincerely apologises for any inconvenience our valued members may have faced during the rollout of our revised reward fees policy earlier today. The reward fees that were displayed for booking Qatar Airways award flights were higher than intended. The issue has since been resolved and the correct reward fees, as per the revised policy, are now being reflected and applied for all Qatar Airways award flight bookings.

Qatar Airways Privilege Club has transitioned our reward fees policy for redeeming Qatar Airways award flights from a sector-based model to a distance-based structure, effective today. Reward fees have decreased up to 15% or remained unchanged for several of our most popular short and medium-haul routes while others have increased representative of the distance travelled.

What are the new Qatar Airways redemption fees?

Below are a few examples of the new taxes, fees & charges on one-way Qatar Airways redemptions made using Avios. The full amount of taxes & charges is shown first. The “Redemption Fee” component of this amount is shown in brackets.

To give you an idea, the full amount of taxes & charges on a one-way Business Class redemption from Melbourne to London (via Doha) used to be around $360. So, the new co-payment is around $174 higher on this route (an increase of almost 50%).

Velocity’s carrier charges

When redeeming Virgin Australia Velocity points to fly Qatar Airways, Velocity Frequent Flyer adds its own carrier charges which are set directly by Velocity:

On long-haul Economy redemptions, Velocity’s carrier charges are now lower than what you’d pay when booking directly through Qatar Airways Privilege Club. But Velocity’s charges, which are per sector, are still higher on premium cabin reward bookings.

Qatar Airways is now calling these “Reward Fees”

Interestingly, Qatar Airways isn’t even pretending that these additional charges on reward bookings are fuel surcharges, insurance charges or some other term that makes it look like it’s something other than a junk fee going directly to the airline.

When you book a reward flight on the Qatar Airways website, it now uses the term “Redemption Fee” to describe the airline-imposed charges:

But in its statement over the weekend, the airline called these charges “reward fees” multiple times. I appreciate the honesty, even though “reward fee” seems like a bit of an oxymoron. I don’t think most people would consider paying extra fees for the privilege of redeeming their points to be “rewarding”…

On the plus side, Qatar Airways’ on-board product is very good! They’re even now serving caviar in Business Class on some routes. And the airline has reasonable award availability when booking far in advance using Avios.

How Qatar’s charges compare to Etihad and Emirates

Qatar Airways Privilege Club still has better overall reward flight pricing than Etihad Guest and Emirates Skywards, when redeeming points to fly with those programs’ respective airlines.

On a one-way redemption from Melbourne to London in Business Class, for example, you could expect to pay the following amounts with the programs of the three major Middle Eastern Airlines:

Although Etihad Guest has lower charges, the number of miles required for this redemption is much higher. And Emirates Skywards charges both more miles and much higher fees.

Matt Graham

The editor of Australian Frequent Flyer, Matt's passion for travel has taken him to over 90 countries… with the help of frequent flyer points, of course!
Matt's favourite destinations (so far) are Germany, Brazil & Kazakhstan. His interests include economics, aviation & foreign languages, and he has a soft spot for good food and red wine.

You can connect with Matt by posting on the Australian Frequent Flyer community forum and tagging @AFF Editor.