Buying Qatar Avios with a bonus

[JayTee]

Hello.
Can someone suggest the best way to purchase avios points to use on Qatar Airways. Qatar privilege club allows members to buy points but the cost is exorbitant. I have an amex card but unfortunately Qatar is not a partner I can transfer points too.

Does anyone have any tips?

Anything I should be mindful of ?

 

[RooFlyer]

You can buy BA Avios under various promotions, sometimes at a good discount, and they are transferrable to QR Avios (and back and forth, 1:1).

Edit: see also here: Buy Avios for British Airways, Iberia and Qatar Airways - Point Hacks

 

[JayTee]

By QR points I guess you mean Avios? You can buy BA Avios under various promotions, sometimes at a good discount, and they are transferrable to QR Avios (and back and forth, 1:1).

Thanks Roo. I tried buying the points when they had a promotion but it said I need to have at least ' one point ' in my account. I have zero

 

[RooFlyer]

Do you know someone in the UK? You can earn Avios via Nectar at Sainsburys, for example. - it was a recent promo. If they buy on your behalf that'll get you started.

Or buy the minimum number of (expensive) QR avios, transfer to BA and then buy there?

 

[JayTee]

Do you know someone in the UK? You can earn Avios via Nectar at Sainsburys, for example. - it was a recent promo. If they buy on your behalf that'll get you started.

Or buy the minimum number of (expensive) QR avios, transfer to BA and then buy there?

ahhhhhhhh...

I like that tip of buying the Min through QR and transferring to BA ( very clever) !!

Thank you.

One other thing, are award fight availability on QR restricted at the moment ?. I cant see any availability for next year.. Weird

 

[RooFlyer]

One other thing, are award fight availability on QR restricted at the moment ?. I cant see any availability for next year.. Weird

There's a thread about it for QF, which also brings in other airlines. World Cup in Qatar in Nov is screwing things up on QR itself for H2 this year.

QR withholding award seats from Qantas?

Can AFF reach out to QF to ask what is going on? QF started releasing 2 award seats for flights to/from Aus airport a few months ago, then there was no availability on the QR network for a few weeks. It came back for a short period when Canberra flights launched and now everything is gone...

www.australianfrequentflyer.com.au

 

[VPS]

If you've missed out on buying this time and you don't know anyone in the UK you can buy something online and earn Avios points

If you know someone else with Avios you may be able to send them some or get them to send some to you

Your Avios stay with you as long as you collect, spend, purchase or share at least one Avios every 36 months — any longer and your Avios will expire and be removed, so remember to take action before those three years are up.

There are number of stores you can buy things at to get Avios points (similar to the Qantas Mall) including Book Depository.

There are a couple of other threads

How to prevent AVIOS from expiring

I have 55K AVIOS expiring within 5 months...been keeping them for a rainy day :) Apart from redeeming a QF flight or buying AVIOS, any suggestions for an easy and cheap way to keep my AVIOS from expring? thanks

www.australianfrequentflyer.com.au

Need help with expiring avios points

I have about 20k worth of avios points expiring in 2 weeks and wanted to ask what would be the easiest way to earn a few points just to extend the expiry for another 3 years. Any tips would greatly help. Currently looking at transferring Accor Rewards points to Qatar and then to avios but not...

www.australianfrequentflyer.com.au

Good luck

 

[scoobs214]

@JayTee - if you have an au amex you could just transfer some points to Marriot then transfer those Marriott points to BA avios and onward to QR? Granted it's not the best conversion (altho Marriott has a 50% extra deal on atm) but it would get you a few avios in your QR account.

Otherwise I collect BA avios as my main fflyer currency and use the British Airways Estore all the time even tho I'm currently based in Australia. They have hundreds of online stores you can collect avios with and a lot are relevant for Australia, like booking.com, selfridges etc. Just choose one that credits avios fast and buy a small item and you'll get some in your BA account then transfer to QR.

I use the Estore all the time, most sites you can even spend in AUD and still get the avios (based on the GBP amount tho)

Hope that helps

 

[JayTee]

@JayTee - if you have an au amex you could just transfer some points to Marriot then transfer those Marriott points to BA avios and onward to QR? Granted it's not the best conversion (altho Marriott has a 50% extra deal on atm) but it would get you a few avios in your QR account.

Otherwise I collect BA avios as my main fflyer currency and use the British Airways Estore all the time even tho I'm currently based in Australia. They have hundreds of online stores you can collect avios with and a lot are relevant for Australia, like booking.com, selfridges etc. Just choose one that credits avios fast and buy a small item and you'll get some in your BA account then transfer to QR.

I use the Estore all the time, most sites you can even spend in AUD and still get the avios (based on the GBP amount tho)

Hope that helps

Hey Scoobs

What is estore? Do you have the link.

Also, those online booking websites and Selfridges, where do they say how many avios will be credited?.. Do I need to set up an account and record my avios membership number ?

 

[Dave G]

HI All - just received an email - 30% Bonus when transferring from Citibank...
Quite a few around the world are in the list - but not Aus Amex and Commbank...

https://www.qatarairways.com/en/Privilege-Club/offers/convert-rewards-to-avios.html?cid=EMALL873520#terms

 

[Duffa]

Great offer. If only there were awards on which to spend them. J seems to have dried up again.

 

[Hunter4vr]

Great offer. If only there were awards on which to spend them. J seems to have dried up again.

I’ve gotten about 6 seats between Europe and Australia in the last year, there’s definitely less availability than before but it is not even remotely as bad as QF.

 

[levelnine]

T-365 availability has become very sporadic. You now often have to wait for QR to release batches of award seats, but they release way more than QF.

 

[flyguy77]

Great offer. If only there were awards on which to spend them. J seems to have dried up again.

Probably due to the fact now everyone with Amex Rewards can book them...

 

[tinkybelle]

This is only for Citi prestige card not the premier card

 

[Big Dragon]

Thanks for the fantastic Info!! I'm new here and if anyone is interested and can take the time to analyse what I am proposing I would appreciate it.
I have a trip to Ireland in August and think I have figured out a way to get there business class only paying economy fares.
If I join Amex Platinum $1450 - 225,000 amex points (125,000 Avios), buy 26,000 Avios ($830) that should give me 151,000 avios (including the 50% bonus for the promotion from Qr) then that leaves me only 29,000 avios short of return business class to Europe flying Qatar. I have 100k of Qantas FF points available, so can I convert these to make up the shortfall?? I've no idea if i'm on the right track here so don't go too hard!! I can easily spend the 5k in 3 mths to get the bonus Amex points so if you can help with advice pls??
Thks

 

[RooFlyer]

Thanks for the fantastic Info!! I'm new here and if anyone is interested and can take the time to analyse what I am proposing I would appreciate it.
I have a trip to Ireland in August and think I have figured out a way to get there business class only paying economy fares.
If I join Amex Platinum $1450 - 225,000 amex points (125,000 Avios), buy 26,000 Avios ($830) that should give me 151,000 avios (including the 50% bonus for the promotion from Qr) then that leaves me only 29,000 avios short of return business class to Europe flying Qatar. I have 100k of Qantas FF points available, so can I convert these to make up the shortfall?? I've no idea if i'm on the right track here so don't go too hard!! I can easily spend the 5k in 3 mths to get the bonus Amex points so if you can help with advice pls??
Thks

Welcome to AFF @Big Dragon Others here will be able to give you a more complete answer, but you most definitely cannot convert QFF points to Avios (or anything else). But you may be able to buy a separate segment with them.

Think about getting a cheap fare to/from SIN, CGK or BKK (points if you can, but cash if not), then your QR flight from there - much better availability and you'll probably have enough.

Are you a member of QR Priv Club? You'll need to be and they MAY need you to have Avios in your account prior to buying any. May not - check T&Cs.

 

[Big Dragon]

Welcome to AFF @Big Dragon Others here will be able to give you a more complete answer, but you most definitely cannot convert QFF points to Avios (or anything else). But you may be able to buy a separate segment with them.

Think about getting a cheap fare to/from SIN, CGK or BKK (points if you can, but cash if not), then your QR flight from there - much better availability and you'll probably have enough.

Are you a member of QR Priv Club? You'll need to be and they MAY need you to have Avios in your account prior to buying any. May not - check T&Cs.

Excellent, and many thanks for the tip.

 

[RooFlyer]

Excellent, and many thanks for the tip.

if you do end up going on separate tickets, make sure you travel to SIN/BKK etc at least the day before, to take account of possible delays leaving Australia. if you miss the onward QR flight, you'll be unprotected and a 'no show'.

 

[JayTee]

if you do end up going on separate tickets, make sure you travel to SIN/BKK etc at least the day before, to take account of possible delays leaving Australia. if you miss the onward QR flight, you'll be unprotected and a 'no show'.

100000% correct