Qatar Airways’ Latest UK Promotion & Why You Should Ignore It

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Qatar Airways has been sending out emails publicising its latest UK promotion which they’re calling a “Valentine’s Companion Offer”. The offer is simple – book flights on certain routes before the end of the day on 11 February and 2 people can fly in Business Class at a special rate.

The problem is that the offer is nothing short of terrible…and I’m going to show you why.

First of all let’s take a look a the promotional prices Qatar Airways is offering for this “special occasion”

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The T&Cs of the promotion say this: “Book by 11th February and travel between 15th February and 15th June 2016″ (to get the prices advertised above) so, presumably these are the best offers that Qatar Airways has for travel between these cities for those dates.

Taking London – Dubai as an example:

The best price Qatar Airways is offering under this promotion is £3,115 for two people traveling in Business Class…..which is the same as saying £1,557.50 per person.

Apart from the fact that this doesn’t sound like a particularly exciting price to me there is one other major issue….you can fly from Brussels to Dubai, on Qatar Airways, in Business Class for £727.20 per person.

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Allow me to emphasise that.

You can fly two people from Brussels to Dubai, in Business class, for less than half of what the Qatar Airways UK offer says it will cost you.

Why wouldn’t someone just get a cheap ticket from London to Brussels and catch the Qatar Airways Business Class flight form there? The savings would pay for a very nice hotel in Dubai.

The bad deals aren’t limited to the London-Dubai route….there are Business Class flights, on Qatar Airways, between Stockholm and Bangkok for £892.40/person……

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….when the Qatar Airways UK “offer” has the best price at £1,707.50/person!

Qatar Airways is offering Manchester to Shanghai at a “bargain” £1,675/person in Business class….but you can fly Qatar Airways Business Class between Brussels and Shanghai for £1,032.60/person!

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That’s a saving of over £600/person.

Just in case you think I’m cherry-picking my dates, here’s a month’s worth of availability from Brussels at that rate. Pick a date that suits you and fly:

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Do you live in Birmingham? Were you thinking of take the other person in your life to Bali for a nice trip? If you were then Qatar Airways will happily give you a special rate of just £1,807.50/person to fly Business Class from Birmingham to Bali.

But why would you do that when you can fly the same airline, in the same cabin of travel, from Paris to Bali for £1,153.90/person?

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A return flight to Paris won’t cost more than around £100/person so that would leave you over £1,100, between two people, to spend on food/accommodation or whatever else you’d like to spend it on. It makes no sense to fly from Birmingham.

Bottom Line

I guess the moral of all of this is to make sure you check all your options before deciding that an airline “offer” is a good idea….because this one is truly awful.

Yes, I know that some people will like the convenience of traveling from their local airport rather than positioning themselves for a cheaper flight….but just how much are you prepared to pay for that convenience? In the case of the London – Dubai route you’d be paying over double.

In some cases you may need to fly to the jumping off point the night before the Qatar Airways Business Class flight departs and so you’ll have to pay for an airport hotel…but even then all of these deals I’ve highlighted above are still considerably cheaper than flying from the UK.

It is very, very rare to find a premium cabin offer (for flights from the UK) that is cheaper than an equivalent flight from a European city. Sometimes the cost of getting to that European city or the cost of an airport hotel can make the price difference not worth the bother but you should still always check your options…because you never know when you can get a truly great fare.