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Qatar Airways is running a flash Avios sale in which it’s offering bonuses of up to 50% for Avios purchases made through 8 September (Monday). The price you’ll pay per Avios will vary depending on how many Avios you buy, but unlike some other Avios sales, it won’t vary depending on where your Qatar Airways account is based.
For some people, there could be a good deal here.
Key terms & conditions
- The promotion is running through 23.59 GMT+3 on 8 September 2024
- A maximum of 225,000 Avios may be purchased (not including bonus Avios)
- Bought Avios are non-refundable and non-transferable
- Avios Points are issued subject to AerClub Terms & Conditions
Full terms and conditions can be found on the sale page
The promotion
This is the promotion that I’m seeing in my account and as it doesn’t appear to be targeted, this should be the promotion that you see too.
- Buy 1,000 – 4,000 Avios and get no bonus
- Buy 5,000 – 15,000 Avios and get a 20% bonus
- Buy 16,000 – 34,000 Avios and get a 30% bonus
- Buy 36,000 Avios or more and get a 50% bonus
With 250,000 Avios on offer (pre-bonus), a maximum of 375,000 Avios are available in this sale.
The numbers
My Qatar Airways Privilege Club membership is registered to my UK address because the some sales open to UK-based accounts are better than those open to accounts based in the US (not the case here), but I’ll show you pricing for both UK and US accounts.
The way the promotion has been structured, the price per Avios gets better every time the bonus increases (obviously), but it doesn’t vary within each band.
What this means is that as long as you buy 36,000 Avios, you’ll be buying Avios at the best price this sale is offering.
Here, for example, is what it would cost to buy 36,000 Avios and 250,000 Avios if your account was based in the UK.
In both instances, you would be purchasing Avios at ~1.17p each (or 1.53 cents).
And here’s how much it would cost to buy Avios in this sale if your Privilege Club account is based in the US.
375,000 Avios at a cost of $5,750 comes to 1.53 cents/Avios (remember, you only have to buy 36,000 to lock in this price).
Is this a good deal?
As always, this comes down to what the Avios will be used for and when they’ll be used.
Let’s get this important point out of the way before I go any further – If you have no immediate use for any Avios that you buy, you shouldn’t be taking part in this sale. It’s never a good idea to stockpile miles and you never know when a program will decide to implement a sudden and painful devaluation (my golden rule applies).
The best use of Avios is often to be found on short-haul flights within Europe (where taxes and fees are capped) or within regions elsewhere in the world where taxes are naturally low.
They can, however, also be put to good use on Aer Lingus Business Class flights to/from the US and on Iberia Business Class transatlantic flights as both Aer Lingus and Iberia charge considerably lower fees for Avios bookings than British Airways.
They can also, in certain cases, be used for good long-haul flights with Qatar Airways and Finnair.
Don’t forget that Avios held in a Privilege Club account can be transferred to all the other airlines that use Avios (often via the British Airways Executive Club) and they can be transferred back again too.
If you’re thinking of buying Avios in this sale, the sensible thing to do is to is this:
- Check that awards are available on the route(s) you’d like to book.
- Price up the reward flights you’d like to book (based on the cost of the Avios you plan to buy) and compare that to the actual cash fare and to whatever price you would normally be prepared to pay for that booking.
If the cost of booking the reward flight is cheaper than the cash fare and is at least as low as the price you’d normally be willing to pay, then buying Avios in this sale should work out well. Otherwise, move on.
Anyone with a British Airways 2-4-1/companion voucher may do well in this sale too.
Don’t forget that you’ll still have to pay any taxes and fees due on the second ticket, but with two people flying for the Avios cost of one, buying Avios in this sale and then moving them across to British Airways (so you can use a 2-4-1/companion voucher) may be an economical way to book a nice trip – you just have to check the numbers to see if the costs work out in your favor.
Use the right credit card
Use the right credit card
Qatar Airways Avios sales are processed by Points.com so that eliminates the scope to earn a travel/flight/airline bonus by using a credit card that offers bonus points for shopping in one of those categories (e.g. The Platinum Card® from American Express – terms apply).
With that option closed off, this makes this sale a good opportunity to use a credit card on which you’re working towards a strong welcome bonus.
If you’re not working towards a card’s welcome bonus, the The Blue Business® Plus Credit Card from American Express which offers 2 points/dollar on the first $50,000 of purchases in a year (1 point/dollar thereafter – terms apply) would be one of the better options to use.
Bottom Line
At 1.17p or 1.53 cents per Avios, this isn’t a fantastic deal, but it’s not a bad deal either. Personally, I have a relatively low valuation of Avios (~0.75p/1.0 cents) but I still often get over 1.54p/2.0 cents per Avios in value when booking reward flights, so there’s definitely scope for this sale to be of use – you just have to make sure that you do your due diligence and that you run the numbers to check that you’re coming out ahead.
