Qatar Airways is likely one of the world’s most premium airways, with a wonderful business-class product and nice lounges at its hub in Doha (DOH). The airline has an enormous route community as effectively, with U.S. gateways in most of the nation’s main cities like Chicago (ORD), New York-JFK, Philadelphia (PHL) and others.
The Oneworld member has its personal loyalty program referred to as Privilege Membership. With this loyalty program, you’ll be able to earn and redeem miles when flying Qatar Airways and its Oneworld companions. Plus, it has three elite standing ranges that give frequent flyers particular privileges like lounge entry and entry to most well-liked seating. Better of all, Qatar considerably lowered its award costs by as a lot as 49% this week, in response to One Mile at a Time.
New to Privilege Membership? You’re in the correct place. Right here, I’ll run by incomes and redeeming Qatar miles and focus on Privilege Membership’s elite standing tiers.
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In This Put up
Program companions
Being a member of the Oneworld alliance, Qatar Airways has a variety of completely different airline companions each inside and outdoors of the alliance. You’ll be able to earn and redeem factors on all of those airways — right here’s a fast overview.
American Airways
Dallas-based American Airways has hubs across the U.S., together with cities like Chicago, Philadelphia, New York Metropolis and Los Angeles, amongst others. You’ll be able to earn and redeem Qatar miles on all of American’s routes. See the American accomplice web page for extra info.
Bangkok Airways
Bangkok Airways is one among Qatar’s non-alliance airways. The Thai airline relies in Bangkok and operates a community of home flights in Thailand in addition to a small variety of short-haul, worldwide routes. Try its accomplice web page for incomes and redeeming data.
British Airways
British Airways is likely one of the world’s largest airways, working lots of of routes from its hub at London-Heathrow (LHR) airport. You’ll be able to view up-to-date details about the airline’s Oneworld partnership with Qatar on its accomplice web page.
Cathay Pacific
The Hong Kong-based Cathay Pacific affords service to most of the world’s largest cities like New York, London and Tokyo — and affords an unbelievable first-class product. Be taught extra about incomes and redeeming Qatar miles on Cathay Pacific on its accomplice web page.
Finnair
Finnair is one other Oneworld accomplice that has a worldwide route community from Europe to Asia, North America and past. As you’d anticipate, you’ll be able to earn and redeem Qatar factors with the airline — examine the Qatar web site for extra info.
Gol Airways
Gol is a Brazillian service that has a nonalliance partnership with Qatar Airways. You’ll be able to be taught extra about mentioned partnership on the Qatar Airways web site.
Iberia
Flying to Spain? You’ll be able to earn and redeem Qatar miles once you fly with Madrid-based Iberia. Test the airways’ accomplice web page for extra info. Like Qatar, Iberia is a Oneworld service.
Japan Airways
Japan Airways — generally known as JAL — is likely one of the largest airways in Japan. Test the airline’s Qatar Airways accomplice web page for extra info.
LATAM
LATAM might now not be a Oneworld member, however Qatar determined to maintain its partnership with the South American airline. You should use your Qatar miles to redeem for flights on the service and earn Qatar miles on paid fares. Try Qatar’s LATAM accomplice web page for up-to-date data on this partnership.
Malaysia Airways
Malaysia Airways is an Asian Oneworld service primarily based in Kuala Lumpur. You’ll be able to fly the airline round Europe and to pick out cities elsewhere on the earth. Test its Qatar accomplice web page for extra info on incomes and redeeming Qatar miles.
MEA Center East Airways
Center East Airways — MEA for brief — is a Lebanese airline that provides flights round Europe and the Center East. MEA is part of the SkyTeam alliance however has a non-alliance partnership with Qatar. Be taught extra about incomes and redeeming Qatar factors on the airline on its accomplice web page.
Qantas
Qantas is Australia’s largest airline, working an enormous worldwide and home route community. You’ll be able to be taught extra about incomes and redeeming Qatar factors on Qantas’ accomplice web page.
Royal Air Maroc
Royal Air Maroc is the most recent member of the Oneworld alliance. You’ll be able to earn and redeem Qatar miles on the service’s flights to and from its Casablanca (CMN) hub and past. See its accomplice web page for extra particulars.
Royal Jordanian
Royal Jordanian relies in Amann, Jordan and affords flights to main cities in Asia, Europe, North America and the Center East. See its Qatar accomplice web page to be taught extra concerning the airline and learn how to earn and redeem Qatar factors when flying.
S7 Airways
S7 is a Russian airline with an in depth home route community. You’ll be able to be taught extra about its Oneworld partnership with Qatar Airways by visiting its accomplice web page.
SriLankan Airways
SriLankan Airways is a Oneworld airline primarily based in Colombo (CMB). It has a strong route community, and you may earn and redeem Qatar factors on all flights. See the airways’ accomplice web page for extra info.
Qatar Airways elite standing
Qatar Airways has three elite standing tiers: Silver, Gold and Platinum. You’ll be able to qualify for these tiers by incomes a sure variety of Qpoints. These are earned once you fly with Qatar Airways and its companions — you’ll be able to view how a lot every route earns utilizing the Qcalculator.
Right here’s what number of Qpoints you’ll have to qualify for every tier. You could earn these inside a single 12 month interval. When you’ve certified for Silver, you’ll be able to improve by incomes the next variety of factors inside 12 months of incomes Silver. That is thought-about your “renewal date”.
Apparently sufficient, fewer Qpoints are required to resume your elite standing. You’ll be able to both earn a smaller variety of Qpoints in a 12-month interval or the next quantity in a 24-month interval — every calculated out of your renewal date.
If you happen to fail to satisfy renewal necessities, you’ll drop to the tier you probably did qualify for. For instance, if you happen to’re a Platinum member and solely earned 700 Qpoints in a 24-month interval, you’ll drop to Gold standing.
Moreover, you need to earn at the least 20% of your Qpoints on flights marketed or operated by Qatar Airways to qualify. Alternatively, you’ll be able to fly 4 segments on 12-month renewals or eight segments on 24-month renewals on Qatar Airways to satisfy this requirement.
Qatar Airways Silver elite standing advantages
Silver is Qatar’s lowest elite standing tier, but it surely comes with a handful of fascinating advantages. These embrace:
So far as low-tier standing goes, Silver affords fairly strong advantages. Vacationers primarily based exterior of Doha gained’t be capable to use them with a lot frequency, nevertheless, so we solely advocate incomes it if you need to use the advantages regularly.
Qatar Airways Gold elite standing advantages
Issues get a little bit extra fascinating with Gold standing. This tier consists of Oneworld Sapphire standing, providing you with advantages on different Oneworld carriers like American Airways, British Airways and — quickly — Alaska Airways.
Gold standing consists of all Silver advantages plus the next:
Gold standing is considerably extra highly effective than Silver standing, particularly on accomplice airways. You’ll be able to entry all Oneworld business-class lounges — together with American’s Admirals Golf equipment — regardless of the place you fly. That is an incredible perk for individuals who journey incessantly.
Associated: How do I earn elite standing with an airline alliance?
As well as, you’ll earn 40 Qcredits once you qualify for standing. These may be redeemed for upgrades, checked baggage and visitor lounge passes. You’ll be able to redeem Qcredits on the Account web page on the Qatar Airways web site.
Qatar Airways Platinum elite standing advantages
Lastly, we’ve Platinum, Qatar’s top-tier elite standing. That is the crown jewel of all Qatar elite standing tiers, providing one of the best advantages and most premium expertise. The tier consists of all Gold standing advantages plus:
This tier consists of 60 Qcredits each time you qualify. Like Gold, you need to use these for upgrades, lounge entry and extra.
Whereas these advantages are nice, they’re not as precious as different top-tier Oneworld elite statuses. For instance, American Airways Government Platinum standing consists of the identical Oneworld advantages, plus improve certificates and complimentary home upgrades on American Airways.
So whereas these advantages are nice, we solely advocate chasing this tier if you happen to reside in Qatar and incessantly fly Qatar Airways out of Doha. In any other case, look into incomes American elite standing or standing with one other Oneworld service primarily based in your house nation.
The right way to earn Qatar Airways Privilege Membership miles
Qatar Airways miles aren’t the most well-liked right here within the U.S., so there are solely restricted methods to earn. It received much more restricted after Capital One eliminated Qatar as a switch accomplice earlier this 12 months, however there are nonetheless a few intriguing incomes strategies. Right here’s a glance.
Switch factors from Citi ThankYou
The best manner for U.S. vacationers to earn Qatar miles is utilizing your earnings from choose Citi ThankYou Rewards bank cards. Factors switch to Qatar at a 1 to 1 ratio, and transfers often take round two days to course of.
You’ll be able to earn transferable Citi ThankYou factors with the Citi Premier® Card and Citi Status® Card — and when you’ve got one (or each) of those playing cards, your earnings from the Citi® Double Money Card can even be transferable. Every of those playing cards have various welcome bonuses and bonus classes, with the Status incomes a large 5x factors per greenback spent on eating and airfare.
The data for the Citi Status has been collected independently by The Factors Man. The cardboard particulars on this web page haven’t been reviewed or supplied by the cardboard issuer.
Switch from Marriott Bonvoy
Alternatively, you’ll be able to switch Marriott Bonvoy factors to Qatar Privilege Membership at a 3 to 1 ratio plus a 5,000-mile bonus once you switch 60,000 factors. This implies a 60,000 switch equals 25,000 Qatar miles, which is a pleasant chunk of miles.
There are a selection of the way to earn Marriott Bonvoy factors. The best manner is by spending on a Marriott bank card — right here’s a take a look at their present affords:
Earn with different companions
Qatar has a variety of different incomes companions too, like rental automotive corporations and lodges. Try the airline’s accomplice web page to see all the opposite methods you’ll be able to earn Qatar miles in your journey purchases.
Redeeming Qatar miles – “qcalculator qatar”
You’ll be able to redeem Qatar miles for flights on each Qatar Airways and its numerous companions. This system was massively devalued in 2018, however the airline not too long ago introduced it was considerably lowering the speed of awards. The airline, which elevated redemption charges as much as 77% two years in the past, is now claiming it’s lowering its award costs by as a lot as 49%.
Associated: A assessment of Qatar Airways’ Qsuite enterprise class on the 777-300ER
Earlier than we leap into particular redemptions, there are a couple of nuances you have to be conscious of earlier than you switch miles. Right here’s a fast record:
Maybe essentially the most annoying factor about Privilege Membership is you can’t lookup tickets except you’ve sufficient miles in your account to really e-book it. This makes discovering award area powerful — except you have already got an enormous stability.
Which means you’ve two choices for locating award area: calling Qatar Airways or utilizing one other Oneworld search instrument. I like to recommend utilizing AA.com to search out award area after which calling the airline to verify that it’s truly bookable earlier than transferring factors from Citi.
Reserving Qatar Airways flights with miles
Right here’s the place issues get bizarre. The airline doesn’t publish an award chart for its personal flights — as a substitute, you’ll need to depend on the Qcalculator. This works the identical because the incomes calculator mentioned earlier, so merely enter your route and sophistication of service to see pricing.
Again in August, a one-way award flight on Qatar’s flagship New York-JFK to Doha route price a whopping 101,500 Qmiles in enterprise class. Now, that very same flight will price you 70,000 Qmiles. You’ll be able to e-book this similar ticket for 70,000 AAdvantage miles.
Is there any logic to how Qatar awards are priced? Not essentially. We priced out a handful of business-class awards departing the U.S. and located flights from New York, Philadelphia (PHL), Chicago (ORD) and Los Angeles (LAX) to Doha now all price 70,000 miles.
Right here’s a fast overview of how a lot flights from North America to Doha price utilizing Qatar miles. Typically, we discovered that these award costs have decreased by 30% to 35%. All costs listed are for one-way tickets.
You’ll additionally pay extra miles for connecting tickets. A business-class flight from New York-JFK to Hong Kong (HKG) by way of Doha prices 95,000 Qatar miles one-way.
So, what about taxes and charges?
Whereas Qatar Airways used to cost a per-segment reserving charge on award tickets, these have since been eliminated. Like AAdvantage, the airline doesn’t move alongside gasoline surcharges, so that you’ll solely pay the price of necessary, government-imposed taxes when reserving Privilege Membership award tickets.
That is one place the place Privilege Membership shines over currencies like British Airways Avios or Asia Miles. Whilst you’ll want fewer miles to e-book by the Asia Miles program, you’ll be charged relatively-high gasoline surcharges. With that in thoughts, all the time price-compare and see if the mileage financial savings is definitely worth the added charges.
Upgrading Qatar Airways flights with miles
You may also use your Qatar miles to improve paid flights operated by the airline. Like award tickets, it’s important to use the Qcalculator to search out the price of upgrading a particular flight — which is dependent upon your route and fare class.
For instance, you’ll be able to improve an O-fare financial system ticket to enterprise class for 55,000 miles one-way. This isn’t less expensive than merely reserving an award ticket, so we typically advocate steering clear of those.
Moreover, you’ll want to discover obtainable improve area with a purpose to improve your ticket. You are able to do this by calling the airline or by making an attempt to improve a ticket on-line. Moreover, on-line stories present that some vacationers have had luck upgrading on the check-in counter. Regardless, improve area has been traditionally restricted.
Reserving accomplice flights with miles
The airline’s accomplice award chart is distance-based, which means that longer flights will price extra miles. We’ve put a replica of the airline’s award chart beneath — this is applicable to each Oneworld and non-alliance companions. This award chart was not affected by Qatar’s most up-to-date award repricing.
You’ll be able to value an award ticket utilizing GCmap.com. Simply enter your route (utilizing airport codes) and take a look at the full mileage listed below the “Distance” header. Then, match the mileage to its respective entry on the award chart.
For instance, a flight from Chicago-O’Hare (ORD) to London-Heathrow (LHR) clocks in at 3,953 miles one-way. Which means you’d pay 100,000 Qatar miles for a one-way enterprise class ticket on American Airways, which is sort of excessive in comparison with different companions.
Routing guidelines for accomplice flights are fairly simple:
Truly reserving these tickets is, once more, sophisticated. You could discover award area utilizing your Oneworld search instrument of alternative after which name Qatar Airways to e-book. Alternatively, you’ll be able to fill out a accomplice award request type on-line.
Different redemption choices
Lastly, you need to use your Qatar miles for merchandise, duty-free objects, lodge stays and extra. We typically advocate staying away from most of these redemptions although. They’ll virtually all the time offer you much less worth than a free flight, usually dropping the worth to half-a-cent per mile or much less.
Backside line
On this information to Qatar Airways Privilege Membership, we walked you thru incomes and redeeming Qatar miles and mentioned particulars on the service’s elite standing program. If you happen to received this far, it’s best to have a great understanding of how this system works and learn how to finest redeem your Qatar miles.
That mentioned, Privilege Membership isn’t one of the best program on the market. Except you actually worth the airline’s elite standing, you’re typically higher off crediting Oneworld flights to a different accomplice.
Some to contemplate are American Airways AAdvantage, British Airways Government Membership and Cathay Pacific Asia Miles. Every of those currencies is simpler to earn within the U.S., and all of them have a tendency to supply higher redemption charges on award tickets.
Function photograph by Jordan Tan/Shutterstock
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