Qatar Airways is one of the best airlines on the planet and stands out, particularly with its famous Qsuite (discover our reviews on board the A350 and the B777-300ER). Qatar Airways also has a pervasive network, and it is possible to fly anywhere around the world from Montreal or Toronto on its wings.
The Qatar Airways frequent flyer program is the Qatar Airways Privilege Club. It is possible to earn and book flights on Qatar Airways or Oneworld partners within this program.
The link to register for the Qatar Airways Privilege Club program is here. There is no charge for creating an account.
Students between 18 and 30 may be eligible for the Student Club. Privileges offered are preferential fares, excess baggage, flexibility to change a flight, free wifi, grade snack gift, etc.
In the Qatar Airways Privilege Club, there is a basic status and three elite status levels: Burgundy, Silver, Gold and Platinum.
To achieve elite status, you must earn a certain number of Qpoints when flying on Qatar Airways or its partners. The number of Qpoints that must be earned is in 12 months and not per calendar year.
Then, the number of Qpoints required is slightly lower to requalify for status afterward. If you are short a few Qpoints to qualify or maintain an Elite status, you can purchase them once in a 36-month period.
Finally, at least 20% of the Qpoints earned must be from Qatar Airways flights or travel on at least four segments with them.
Qpoint: currency to obtain and maintain elite status
Qcredit: currency for upgrades, excess baggage, payment of taxes and fees on a reward flight
Avios: a newly adopted currency to buy flight rewards
In addition to the benefits of Silver Elite status, you will have:
In addition to the benefits of Gold Elite status, you will have:
Up to 9 family members can be linked to a Qatar Airways Privilege Club account. These individuals must be a spouse, children over the age of 2 and your parents.
Each person will have their own membership card and the miles earned will be deposited into the same account. This makes it easier to manage the earning, and some privileges of an Elite status can be shared. Only the primary cardholder will be able to make reservations for award tickets with bundled points.
This means that if you join the program – and every member of your family – during a promotional period, you can combine your miles into one account!
Qatar Aiways announced in March 2022 that its currency is now Avios. The first way to earn Qatar Airways Privilege Club miles is by booking a cash flight with Qatar Airways or its partners.
On Qatar Airways flights, program members can earn between 50% and 300% of actual miles flown depending on the fare class of the ticket. For elite members, it is possible to earn bonus miles.
On Oneworld partner and member flights, mileage earning varies by airline. For example, with American Airlines, you can earn anywhere from 25% to 150% of your miles.
While it is easier to earn Aeroplan points in Canada, there are several different ways to collect British Airways Executive Club Avios miles through credit card transfer partners.
British Airways Executive ClubAvios Miles can be combined with Qatar Airways Privilege Club Avios Miles.
When transferring Marriott Bonvoy points to the Qatar Airways Privilege Club program, a bonus of 5,000 miles is awarded. So, in this situation, a 60,000-point Marriott Bonvoy redemption is equivalent to 25,000 miles.
Then, by using an American Express Cobalt® Card on a daily basis, you can easily amass 5X British Airways Executive Club Avios miles per dollar… and therefore Qatar Airways Privilege Club Avios miles per dollar!
American Express Membership Rewards points transfer easily to British Airways Executive Club Avios miles.
This is the easiest and fastest way to earn miles outside of credit card welcome bonuses.
Finally, on the HSBC Rewards and RBC Rewards side, occasional transfer bonuses are pretty attractive. You can earn up to a 40% bonus when you transfer with British Airways Executive Club Avios miles. Therefore, in Avios miles from Qatar Airways Privilege Club.
Qatar Airways Privilege Club miles will be put to best use when booking flights on Qatar Airways. Being a member of Oneworld, the miles can also be used on a large number of partners like American Airlines, Cathay Pacific, British Airways, Qantas etc.
In addition to Oneworld airlines, Qatar Airways Privilege Club miles can be used on :
The Qcalculator tool makes it possible to get an overview of the cost required for a flight. Here is an estimate for a one-way flight from Montreal to Doha. We can see that it takes 70,000 miles for this segment in business class.
Qatar Airways Privilege Club does not have a chart that summarizes the number of miles required to book Qatar Airways. You will have to use the Qcalculator.
The significant advantage of the Qatar Airways Privilege Club program is that the mileage rate is fixed by destination (zone) and is not based on distance travelled as it is with British Airways Executive Club. Will this change? Maybe, but we hope not!
When we search for a flight, we can see that the number of miles required is 66,500 miles, as Gold Elite members get a 5% discount on award ticket prices.
Here are some examples of the cost in miles for one-way flights on Qatar Airways from Montreal. However, low rates are becoming rare, which may imply a silent devaluation of the program.
Unlike flights operated by Qatar Airways, when using the Qatar Airways Privilege Club program to book on partner airlines, pricing will be based on the distance flown.
According to the Qcalculator, the price for a one-way ticket between Montreal and London-Heathrow (3249 miles) on British Airways will be 35,000 miles in economy class.
While with British Airways Executive Club, it will cost from 13,000 Avios miles for the same flight (depending on the “off-peak” or regular price).
Miles can also be used to upgrade to business or first class or to pay for excess baggage. Again, the Qatar Airways Privilege Club Qcalculator provides an estimate of the number of points required.
Here, you can see the different prices according to the ticket’s fare class paid in money. For some economy classes, the cost for an upgrade can be more expensive than booking your flight directly in business class with miles!
Qatar Airways Privilege Club “Easy Deals ” are the best use of your miles. These monthly promotions are for select destinations and dates and you can receive up to 50% off the normal miles required.
If you have fixed travel periods and cannot find availability on standard award tickets, you may want to look into Flexi Awards. In this case, the cost in miles will be higher, but it will be possible to book with miles if there is space on the flight.
Just a reminder, not all seats are eligible to be purchased with miles on Qatar Airways.
Here are some nuances to know about the program:
We recommend that you use another search tool (such as American Airlines AAdvantage or British Airways Executive Club) and check with Qatar Airways that this route can be booked with miles before proceeding with transfers.
You can also use tools like Point.me or Seats.aero to find availability.
Finally, it is possible to redeem miles for merchandise at the Doha airport duty free store, hotel nights, car rentals, etc.
However, we always recommend using points for what they were designed for. Qatar Airways Privilege Club miles are airline points. Therefore, they should be used for airline tickets to get the best value.
This is one of the most restrictive lounges in the world: only passengers holding first-class tickets from (or to) Doha can access it free of charge.
Indeed, even when traveling on the famous Qsuite, you will not have access to this lounge at no cost. However, it is possible to pay for an entrance if you are travelling on a Qatar Airways business class flight. The rate is 600 QAR (〜210 $) for a 6-hour block at Al Safwa lounge
However, there is a trick to getting around this fee! When purchasing a business class ticket to a Middle East destination through Doha, the regional flight segment will be in first class.
For example, you can book a business class flight from Montreal to Dubai on Qatar Airways Privilege Club for 75,000 miles and enjoy the Al Safwa lounge during your stopover! The flight between Doha and Dubai will be tagged first class.
The Qatar Airways Privilege Club program gained in popularity after adopting the Avios currency.
It is possible to combine British Airways Executive Club Avios Miles and Qatar Airways Privilege Club Avios Miles. So transfer your American Express Membership Rewards, HSBC Rewards or RBC Rewards points directly to this program!
Savings are here:
