The Master Guide to Booking Qatar Airways Flights Using Qatar Avios

Whether you're saving points by flying economy or aiming to splurge to fly the world's best business class, booking flights with Qatar Avios is a great way to save – and it's becoming the only feasible way to book Qatar's beloved Qsuites.

For years, using American Airlines AAdvantage miles was the go-to way to book Qatar flights using miles – and it may still be the best way to book Qatar Qsuites business class on paper. But Qatar's adoption of Avios miles a few years back – and its closer relationship with British Airways – has opened the floodgates, making it much easier to earn the miles you need to book by transferring credit card points.

That has put Qatar and its Privilege Club program in the spotlight … and travelers are quickly realizing there are some hurdles and quirks to using Qatar Avios. The site can be tricky to navigate and you may need some Avios in your account in order to search for flights. 

We'll walk you through how it works so you can book these flights for yourself with no hassle.

 

 

 

The Basics of Qatar Airways

Qatar Airways is one of the best airlines in the world. And its footprint in the U.S. keeps growing, making it even easier to find a ride.

Qatar currently flies to its hub in Doha (DOH) from 11 U.S. cities and two in Canada.

 

 

• Atlanta (ATL)
• Boston (BOS)
• Chicago-O'Hare (ORD)
• Dallas-Fort Worth(DFW)
• Houston-Intercontinental (IAH)
• Los Angeles (LAX)
• Miami (MIA)
• Montreal (YUL)
• New York (JFK)
• San Francisco (SFO)
• Seattle (SEA)
• Toronto (YYZ)
• Washington, D.C.-Dulles (IAD)

Aiming to fly in the renowned Qatar Qsuites? All of Qatar's flights from North America are currently scheduled with these fancy suites. While there's always a chance there could be an aircraft swap, your chances of flying in a Qsuite to or from the U.S. and Canada are pretty good.

Onward flights between Doha and other destinations across the globe can be hit or miss on whether you'll be flying in a Qsuite or another variation of Qatar's business class, but all of them have lie-flat seats.

Thrifty Tip: If you're using the Legrooms extension while searching through Google Flights, it should tell you whether your business class fare gets you an “individual suite” – that's what you want.

Don't live near one of these gateways? You can always book a separate positioning flight to one of these cities and book a separate award ticket through Qatar. And that's important: When booking flights using Qatar miles, you cannot mix airlines on one ticket. That means you'll need to depart from one of Qatar's North American gateways to book Qatar flights through Qatar Privilege Club.

 

 

Read our full review of Qatar Airways Qsuites!

While Qsuites get all the fanfare (and rightfully so), Qatar Airways economy is a treat, too. You get at least 32 inches of legroom in wider seats than you'll find on many other airlines. Plus, the food, service, and onboard entertainment are top-notch.

 

 

As of publication, Qatar doesn't fly any of its Airbus A380s equipped with Qatar Airways First Class to or from the U.S. And it's unlikely that will change.

 

Why You Should Book with Qatar Privilege Club

British Airways and Qatar Airways charge the same number of miles to fly Qatar's nonstop flights between North America and its hub in Doha (DOH).

It'll cost you 35,000 Avios and about $150 for a one-way economy flight whether you book these nonstop flights through British Airways Executive Club or Qatar Airways Privilege Club. Up in business class, it's 70,000 Avios and roughly $250 in taxes and fees either way.

So, why book through Qatar instead of British Airways? Most importantly, Qatar can book these seats up to 361 days in advance, while British Airways only has access starting 355 days in advance. These extra six days are now absolutely crucial if you want to book Qatar's Qsuites.

Qatar typically releases two business class award seats per flight as soon as the schedule opens, and once those are booked, they generally won't release more seats. This means these seats are often already booked by the time you'd be able to book with British Airways Avios – let alone with American AAdvantage miles, which only get access up to 331 days in advance.

Read More: The #1 Rule If You Want to Fly Qatar Qsuites

But there's another reason to book with Qatar Avios. If you want to make a connection and go beyond Doha, searching and booking on Qatar's website will allow you to book more routes – British Airways' site won't always show the same flights you can book on Qatar's site.

Let's say you want to continue onward to somewhere like Dubai (DXB), Cairo (CAI), the Maldives (MLE), or go as far south as Cape Town (CPT). British Airways' site may not show these options on its site – especially if you're trying to connect all the way to Bangkok (BKK) or elsewhere in Southeast Asia.

Qatar generally prices award tickets on its own flights by region. You can look up how many Qatar Avios it will take for a saver award on your specific flight by entering your route in Qatar's calculator.

 

 

It's the same rate no matter which airport you depart from in North America. And roundtrip flights are simply double the price of a one-way. Some popular destinations to fly Qatar beyond Doha include:

• Abu Dhabi (AUH), Dubai (DXB), and Muscat (MCT): 37,500 economy; 75,000 business each way
• Amman (AMM), Cairo (CAI), and New Delhi (DEL): 40,000 economy; 80,000 business each way
• Maldives (MLE), Nairobi (NBO), and Seychelles (SEZ): 42,500 economy; 85,000 business each way
• Bangkok (BKK), Cape Town (CPT), and Johannesburg (JNB): 47,500 economy; 95,000 business each way

Looking for another route? Just plug it into the calculator to look up the number of miles required for a saver award.

Note: Qatar charges a per-segment fee. Connecting flights generally incur total taxes and fees of around $350 each way for business class tickets.

While these fees are more than what American Airlines charges for award tickets, it's still an incredibly cheap way to fly Qatar's Qsuites – especially considering how much easier it is to earn Qatar Avios than American miles, along with the fact that it's nearly impossible to find award availability with AA miles these days.

Planning to book a partner airline – such as American Airlines or LATAM – with your Avios? It's almost always cheaper to book these with Qatar Avios compared to what British Airways charges – whether that's the number of Avios required, the taxes and fees, or both.

While I'll focus on booking Qatar flights in this guide, you can follow the same steps outlined here to book cheaper partner award tickets, too.

Now that you know where you can fly and how many miles your flights will cost, let's get to the nitty-gritty of how to actually book these flights with Qatar.

 

Step 1: Sign Up and Link Accounts

To get started, you'll need to sign up for a free account with Qatar.

 

 

If you don't already have a British Airways account, you'll first want to sign up for a British Airways Executive Club account as well so you can link the two accounts.

We highly recommend that you create these free accounts now if you haven't already. There is a new requirement that your account must be at least 30 days old before you can transfer Avios from that account to another.

By linking your accounts, you'll open up more transfer opportunities since you can transfer points from Chase Ultimate Rewards and Wells Fargo instantly to British Airways. You can also now transfer Amex Membership Rewards, Bilt Rewards, Capital One Venture miles, and Citi ThankYou points directly to Qatar Airways.

Amex, Bilt, and Capital One also transfer to British Airways, and we frequently see transfer bonus opportunities. This means it's sometimes best to transfer points from these banks to British Airways to take advantage of any bonus points, then pool your Avios with Qatar to book.

 

How to Link Qatar and British Airways Avios

It's fairly easy to link your British Airways and Qatar Airways accounts.

After registering with Qatar, you should get a prompt to link your British Airways Executive Club account. Otherwise, you can always link your accounts on the new Avios transfer hub.

 

 

Simply follow the prompts to link the accounts. Be prepared to create two-factor authentication codes via phone or email with both airlines.

 

 

 

Verifying Your Identity with Qatar Avios

When Avios launched its new website last year, it was easier to transfer between all the airlines. Now, however, Qatar has a new identity verification step. 

 

 

Basically, before you're able to send Avios from British Airways to Qatar, you have to upload a picture of your ID for Qatar to approve the connection between accounts. 

This doesn't happen with any of the other Avios programs, but Qatar requires verification using your driver's license, ID card, or passport.

 

 

Once your accounts are linked, you'll be able to instantly move Avios between British Airways and Qatar. Plus, as long as your accounts are linked, Qatar will be able to pull from either account when booking.

 

 

 

Step 2: Get Some Points to Search

One major hurdle trips up travelers when trying to search through Qatar's site for award redemptions: You may need to have some miles in your account to search for award seats.

This restriction may only apply to brand-new accounts, which have never had any Qatar Avios in their account. For example, I've recently been able to search without any Avios to my name, but I have had Avios in my account in the past. Long story short, your mileage may vary here.

The good news is that you don't need to have the entire amount to book an award just to search. Even if you have just a few miles in the account, you should be able to search to confirm the flights you want can be booked by Qatar before you transfer the full number of points required.

If you're just starting out and both your British Airways and Qatar accounts are empty – and you get an error message saying you need Avios just to search – you'll want to transfer at least 1,000 points (the minimum required by the banks) to be able to search. I'd recommend just transferring the minimum at first because once you transfer credit card points to an airline, they cannot be transferred back.

 

 

Luckily, transferring points to British Airways or Qatar is generally instant. And so long as your British Airways and Qatar accounts are linked, you should be able to begin searching for award flights on Qatar's site without taking any extra steps.

If for any reason Qatar's site isn't letting you search at this stage, just move a few Avios from British to Qatar. There's no minimum required – you could transfer just one mile if you'd like. These transfers are also instant, but unlike your credit card transfer, you can also instantly transfer them back to your British Airways account.

 

Step 3: Search for Flights

Qatar's website can be a bit buggy, but it has improved over the years. Follow these steps closely to avoid errors or higher-priced flights.

 

Find Saver Award Availability

The first step is to pinpoint which dates have the lowest-priced saver award availability.

In the old days, the best way to find saver award availability was to use American's website – it is our favorite site to find availability on oneworld airlines after all. But it's not the old days anymore. While AA's site may still work well to find cheaper economy awards, these days you'll need to get very lucky to find any availability for Qatar business class flights bookable with AA miles.

This has a lot to do with airlines throttling award space for U.S. travelers – but also the fact that American only has access to book flights up to 331 days in advance.

At the time of writing, American's website is currently showing absolutely zero Qatar Airways business class award space between North America and Doha (DOH). In today's day and age, this type of redemption is an absolute unicorn.

 

 

If you do happen to find any nonstop flight between Doha and North America gateways mentioned above, it will always be operated by Qatar. And if American is selling award seats on these flights, you should be able to find the lowest-priced saver awards for those exact dates when booking with Qatar.

But it's not all doom and gloom … while Qatar's business class availabiltiy is still rare, you're not getting the full picture if you only search on AA's site.

You can search on British Airways' website for nonstop flights to/from Doha (DOH). This is a relatively familiar website for many, but it will still require you to search day-by-day, which can be a daunting task when searching for a needle in a haystack.

Some award search tools can help you find Qatar business class availability, but none of them do a great job of tracking Qatar's Privilege Club program, and it can be confusing for beginners to understand what to look for with these tools.

The most tried and true method for finding Qatar Airways business class flights is to search directly on Qatar's website – and you'll want to start looking exactly one year in advance.

 

Start Your Search from Qatar's Homepage

The best place to start is at QatarAirways.com. You'll need to log in to search with Avios.

Be prepared to enter a one-time passcode when you log in. If you're inactive for a few minutes, you'll automatically get logged out and need to go through the process again to log in.

Once you're logged in, you'll see an option to select a checkbox to “Book using Avios.” It's always easiest to search one way at a time.

 

 

If you don't see the price or flights you want right away, you can click “See more dates” to pull up a calendar view. This calendar only works for Qatar Airways flights.

 

 

This calendar has a few quirks. You can toggle between business / first class and economy from the dropdown menu. It will show prices for economy, but for business class it just says “Available” or “Not available.” You'll want to look for the word “Available” written in green – those are the lowest-priced “saver” awards.

 

 

It's worth noting that trying to toggle back and forth from month-to-month on this screen doesn't work – you'll just get a pop-up saying there's no availability. This means you'll need to first search for an exact date in the month you want to see, then click “see more dates” to see that months' calendar view. See more in our video guide.

Once you choose a new date, you can click “Show flights” to see the pricing on that date. Qatar's site will show the total price for all passengers. In the example below, you'll see it's 140,000 Avios to fly business class nonstop from Miami (MIA) to Doha (DOH) for two passengers – or 70,000 per person, which is the cheapest “saver” rate on this route.

 

 

 

Select the Right Flights

Qatar's search may display flights operated by both Qatar and British Airways on the award booking results page. Choose wisely.

You'll want to avoid flights operated by British Airways as those will have extremely high taxes and fees. Instead, look for flights operated by Qatar.

If you're taking a connecting flight to the Middle East, the flights between Doha and the destination in the Middle East will be marketed as first class. You'll still pay the business class rate for these connections – you'll just need to click on the “Mixed Class” column to find them. It's just 75,000 Avios in this example from Chicago to Dubai.

 

 

Thrifty Tip: If you're traveling in business or first class when transiting in Doha to a connecting flight in the Middle East, stop by the Al Safwa First Class Lounge.

 

 

Beware: Qatar also offers “Flexi awards,” which are higher-priced award seats that will be more available than saver award seats. You'll want to avoid these flights if you're looking for the saver rates as Flexi awards are double the price.

 

 

When you find saver seats available, it will be 95,000 Avios all the way to Cape Town (CPT).

 

 

And, one of the best deals you can book with Qatar – just 85,000 Avios one-way to the Maldives (MLE). You can sometimes even book a mixed class flight on this route with Qsuites business class to Doha and then first class on the flight between Doha and the Maldives – for the same price!

 

 

 

Step 4: Transfer More Points to Book

Found the flights you want are bookable through Qatar Privilege Club? Now, it's time to transfer enough points to actually book the flights. Follow the same process as mentioned earlier when you made your initial transfer to be able to search on Qatar's site.

This time, just calculate how many more miles you'll need to book your flights and complete the transfer. All transfers are usually instant, but it may take 1-2 days for transfers from Citi to Qatar.

 

 

 

Step 5: Book Your Flights with Qatar

Once your points have been transferred into your account, go ahead and complete the booking on Qatar's website. You won't need to transfer Avios from British to Qatar. As long as the accounts are linked, Qatar will be able to utilize your full balance of Avios to book the flights.

It will use up all of your Qatar Avios first and then pull from your British Airways account. If Qatar is pulling Avios from your British Airways account, it will ask you to log in to your BA account during the booking process and bring you right back to your booking with Qatar.

If you have any issues booking your flights, you can contact Qatar Airways Privilege Club for assistance by calling 1-800-988-6128.

After the flights are ticketed, relax and grab your favorite beverage. You just booked seats on the best airline in the world! Cheers to that!

 

 

 

Qatar Airways Change & Cancellation Policy

One other reason why booking through Qatar Executive Club is great? A solid change and cancellation policy.

Unlike other airlines that charge you $200-plus to cancel a flight and get your miles back, Qatar award tickets can be changed or canceled for a small $25 fee up to 24 hours before departure. Within three to 24 hours of departure, that jumps to a $100 fee.

Simply navigate to manage your booking on Qatar's website to make any changes or cancel your ticket. All miles will be redeposited and taxes refunded after paying the fee if you choose to cancel. No shows or cancellations within three hours of departure will forfeit all miles and fees.

 

Do British Airways or Qatar Avios Expire?

British Airways and Qatar miles both expire after 36 months of inactivity. You should always aim to use up your miles ASAP, but when that's not possible, there's an easy way to keep them from disappearing.

To extend the activity, you just have to earn, spend, purchase, or share at least one mile to keep all your miles active. A simple transfer from credit card points or purchase through a shopping portal should do the trick.

 

Bottom Line

Qatar's Qsuites are now more attainable thanks to new transfer opportunities with British Airways. Booking these flights with Qatar involves a few extra steps and navigating a tricky website, but it's well worth it to learn this process so you can book flights on the best airline in the world with easy-to-earn points.

The Middle East and the Maldives are calling. And Qatar's Qsuite is waiting for you.