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Back in June, Qatar Airways announced that it had introduced new rules surrounding Avios redemptions for people other than the person whose Avios are being used. The changes to the existing rules were super-harsh and it looks like some of the flak that Qatar Airways has been taking for this has hit home.
What happened (in brief)
Our full article on what Qatar Airways said and did is here, but as an overview, this is what you need to know:
As of June 2026, anyone who wants to redeem Qatar Airways Avios for someone other than themselves can only do so if:
- That person appears on the Avios “owner’s” My List – a list of just four Privilege Club members who must be 18 years of age or older, hold their own Privilege Club account, and not be on anyone else’s list (a member can only belong to one list). Or,
- That person appears on the Avios “owner’s” Family and Friends list – a list of up to six people* who are over two years of age and who do not have their own Privilege Club account.
The biggest issue here is that to start a My List or a Friends and Family list, the rules say that the main list/group leader must meet the following conditions:
- They must have had an active Privilege Club account for at least 30 days
- They can only have one My List and one Family & Friends list
- They must have:
- Credited a flown flight to the Qatar Airways Privilege Club (this can be a Qatar Airways flight or a partner flight) or
- Credited a transaction from an eligible Qatar Airways co-branded credit card to their Privilege Club account.
For quite a few people, those are very harsh conditions and these new rules didn’t go down well at all.
*There are exceptions to this where F&F lists set up before June 2026 can have more than six members.
Related: How to set up a Qatar Airways “My List” (step-by-step guide)
The minor backtrack
Apparently, Qatar Airways has been receiving a lot of complaints about these new rules (especially from members who hold meaningful elite status with the airline) and, a little surprisingly, the airline has listened and made concessions. [HT: Head for Points]
Now, if you check the My List terms and conditions, you’ll find that it includes a carve out for Qatar Airways Privilege Club Gold and Platinum elite members:
Gold and Platinum Members may book award tickets for members added to their My List, and also have the flexibility to book award tickets for any additional individual of their choice through our Contact Centre or Member Service Centre.
And if you check the My List FAQs, you’ll find this:
As a Gold or Platinum member, do I need to add members to My List to book award tickets for them?
Gold and Platinum members can add members to their List. However, they also have added flexibility to book award tickets for any individual of their choice without adding them to their List. Currently, bookings will have to be made offline through our Contact Centre or Member Service Centre (located in Doha).
This option will be available online soon.
Rob, at Head for Points, says that the online option is expected to go live “from the end of August” and Rob is well enough informed that I expect this to be the case.
Quick thoughts
This is still not going to make a bit of difference to the vast majority of people who are affected by these redemption rules most (by definition, Gold and Platinum elites would have no issue in setting up a My List or a Friends and Family list), but it makes sense for Qatar Airways to backtrack like this.
Qatari families and friendship groups are not known for being small, so the 4-person My List restriction and the Family and Friends restrictions would have irritated quite a few people.
Why annoy your more frequent flyers if you don’t really have to? And this begs the question why didn’t Qatar Airways see this coming and introduce an elite status exclusion from the start?
Nevertheless, as I said, this still leaves us with a lot of people who still have to plan how best to make sure that they can use their Privilege Club Avios on their family and friends, and this applies especially to miles and points fans who never credit flights to Qatar Airways, but who enjoy transferring Avios to the Privilege Club to make the most of the program’s better redemptions.
Related: Not all partner flights will earn Avios with Qatar Airways Privilege Club
Bottom line
Qatar Airways has decided that, perhaps, it went a little too far with the restrictions it introduced surrounding Avios redemptions for anyone but the Avios account holder and it has backtracked. A little.
Privilege Club Gold and Platinum elites can now, again, use their Avios for anyone they wish via the call centers and, from some point in August, should be able to do the same online.
For the rest of us, nothing changes.
