Avios is the common loyalty points currency of six frequent flyer programs including British Airways Executive Club and Qatar Airways Privilege Club.

You can transfer Avios between your accounts with many of these participating loyalty programs at a 1:1 rate. At the same time, each of the frequent flyer programs using Avios has slightly different partners and reward flight prices. This creates some interesting loopholes and opportunities!

Most of the airlines using Avios are part of the Oneworld alliance (and those that aren’t are not in any alliance). The Oneworld alliance includes Qantas, which means you can already redeem Avios for Qantas flights.

In 2022, Qatar Airways launched a new partnership with Virgin Australia. This meant that, for the first time, you could also redeem Avios to book Virgin Australia flights via Qatar Airways Privilege Club. But it wasn’t a simple booking process… until now!

Virgin Australia award seats now appear on Qatar Airways’ website

The good news is that some Virgin Australia award flights now appear when searching on the Qatar Airways website. You can book Virgin Australia awards with Privilege Club Avios in the same way that you’d book British Airways, American Airlines or Malaysia Airlines flights.

You can get reasonably good value on Avios redemptions, particularly when booking Business Class on routes covering less than 2,000 miles in distance such as Perth-Melbourne.

On routes up to 650 miles in distance, such as Sydney-Brisbane, a Business Class award costs 12,500 Avios + $34.39.

You can also book Economy Class on the same route for 6,000 Avios, although the taxes & charges are substantially higher. (It’s not really clear why the taxes & charges on the below Economy redemption are $76.68 – this seems like it may be an error.)

Some routes still cannot be booked online

Unfortunately, not all Virgin Australia destinations are available to book online. That’s because you simply cannot select some destinations from the drop-down list when searching for award flights on Qatar’s website. Airports like Hobart or Launceston simply don’t appear as options.

To book a flight on a route that isn’t available online, you would still need to call Qatar Airways Privilege Club.

A different (and annoyingly complicated) procedure applies if you want to redeem Qatar Airways Avios for Qantas flights. We explain this process in our guide to using Qatar Avios. But rather than doing this, you might as well just transfer your Avios into your British Airways Executive Club account if you want to book a Qantas flight. Then, simply book your Qantas award flight on the British Airways website.

Privilege Club award pricing

Qatar Airways Privilege Club prices most partner airline awards according to the following chart:

Note that Avios awards are priced as point-to-point flights. If you wish to book a connecting itinerary consisting of two flights, you’ll be charged the sum of the individual sectors.

Transferring Avios into Qatar Airways Privilege Club

Although Avios is the common currency of six airline loyalty programs, only Avios held with Qatar Airways Privilege Club can be redeemed for Virgin Australia flights.

Privilege Club also has several other unique partner airlines that you can’t book through other Avios programs, including JetBlue.

If you have Avios with British Airways, simply transfer those Avios to Qatar Airways and then book through Privilege Club. If your Avios are with a different affiliated program, transfer them first to British Airways and then from there to Qatar Airways.

As a reminder, Australians can also now transfer Amex Membership Rewards points into Privilege Club.

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.