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Double Avios with Qatar Airways and Iberia
If you are flying with Qatar Airways or Iberia in the next three months, there’s a double Avios reciprocal offer between Qatar Airways and Iberia which may apply.
You can view the Qatar Airways offer here.
- Book between August 15 and November 30
- Fly between September 1 and November 30
- The flight must be operated by Iberia, and IB or QR coded
- Eligible flights credited to the Qatar Airways Privilege Club receive double Avios
The same offer from Iberia doesn’t have a landing page, but I’ve received email communication on this. If you fly on Qatar Airways and it’s QR or IB coded, you receive double Avios if credited to Iberia Plus.
It’s a weird offer as you must credit your flight to the other program to benefit. Anyway it’s worth keeping in mind, although beware that the two programs may have different accrual ratios, and the tier points are not shared between them.
My review of Cathay Pacific First Lounge, London Heathrow Terminal 3
After returning to the Qantas Lounge after more than two years, I spent the most of my afternoon in the Cathay Pacific Lounge, since I could only enter the American Express Centurion Lounge from three hours before my flight departure.
Cathay’s Lounge is coded Lounge C, situated to the left of the Qantas Lounge. I have been here quite a few times, and it’s probably my favourite lounge at Heathrow.
Thanks to my BA Gold status, I could access its First Class Lounge. They share the same entrance, but once you are in you either head straight for Business, or turn right for First.
The lounge itself is, to be honest, quite compact.
With a selection of snacks and drinks on the counters.
The actual thing that stands out is its restaurant service, which isn’t available in the Business Class Lounge.
If you fancy sitting down for a proper dinner, it’s a good place to be at. There are a bit more food choices here than in the Business Class Lounge, but not significant.
I’m quite impressed by its wine list, which I forgot to take a photo of.
After lunch, I quickly moved myself to the Business Class Lounge for the rest of the afternoon. To be honest I favour it heavily over the First Class Lounge, as it’s much more spacious, plus has a proper bar and multi-purpose seating areas. If you only have access to the Business Class Lounge – don’t worry, you haven’t missed much.
My review of Qantas Lounge, London Heathrow Terminal 3
Heathrow Terminal 3 is a great place for lounge hopping if you are flying a Oneworld airline. Prior to trying out to new Amex Centurion Lounge, I spend some time in the good old Qantas Lounge and Cathay Pacific Lounge too.
Qantas Lounge is labelled Lounge B.
The ground floor is closed at the moment, which used to be the beloved restaurant and bar.
There’s also a bar upstairs, although not quite as fancy.
Seats next to the bar are best for runway view.
There’s enough room on the first floor. What I don’t like is they spread out everything across the floor, and there’s no separation between dining area, business centre or relaxation area etc.
It could be tricky to find a private place for making phone calls or working quietly.
Breakfast / Lunch buffet is served at the time.
The chicken tikka masala is pretty good.
The most popular feature of the Qantas Lounge is a-la-carte dining in the ground-floor restaurant, which is missing for now, and I don’t know for how long. Considering this, I don’t really see a reason of choosing Qantas over the Cathay Lounge, although food-wise it seems that Cathay never changes their menu, so Qantas could be a refreshing alternative.
Save Avios with British Airways’ Multi-Carrier Award
The Oneworld alliance has a unique feature called Multi-Carrier Award, which means if an itinerary involves multiple airline partners, the pricing of the award will adopt a different chart, and it could cost significantly less than travelling on a sole airline.
Airlines have different definitions of multi-carrier and also different pricing systems. You could find BA’s relevant page here. Basically it applies whenever your itinerary includes at least two Oneworld airlines (whether BA is one of them or not), and the following chart is for economy class redemption:
The only deciding factor is your travel distance, whether it’s one-way, open-jaw or return. In general the longer you travel the sweeter the deal becomes, and for other cabin classes you simply multiply the Avios by a factor accordingly:
- Premium Economy: 1.5x
- Business: 2x
- First: 3x
By comparison, the multiplying factors of BA’s regular redemption chart for long-haul flights are roughly 2x, 3x and 4x, although it’s just approximation and varies by distance.
It doesn’t take a genius to tell multi-carrier awards on business or first class can have tremendous value, although the latter is probably much less practical due to availability. An ultra-long 50,000-mile around-the-globe trip in business class costs only 480,000 Avios, plus other fees.
BA’s website can actually price such awards correctly. For example if you want to book Tokyo Narita – Kuala Lumpur – Singapore:
The first option which is a multi-carrier award, costs 35,000 Avios in economy and 70,000 Avios in business. The second option on the other hand, falls into BA’s regular partner redemption and costs 26,750 Avios and 74,500 Avios respectively.
Unfortunately BA’s award search engine doesn’t handle open-jaw or complex itineraries, which are what multi-carrier awards are designed for. You’ll have to come up with your itinerary, make sure there’s availability for each segment yourself, and than call BA’s customer service to book.
Qatar Airways to adopt Avios as its loyalty currency, and free 2,500 Avios for everyone
Qatar Airways, out of nowhere, has announced its decision to switch its loyalty program currency from Qmiles to Avios.
[Implications]
There are currently four airlines using Avios as their currency:
- British Airways
- Aer Lingus
- Iberia
- Vueling, which is a subdivision of Iberia
Although no more details are disclosed yet, we believe that Avios will work in a similar fashion with Qatar Airways. Qatar Airways will have its own partners and rates for earning / spending Avios, but a member’s accounts between all airlines can be linked and Avios can be transferred between them. Otherwise it makes no sense to have one Avios program totally separated from the others.
Existing Qmiles will become Avios at 1:1 ratio. Qpoints and Qcredits will remain in place.
The new move benefits us in four ways:
First, Qatar Airways has a few airline partners that aren’t part of Oneworld. You’ll soon be able to redeem your Avios on flights with:
- Bangkok Airways
- JetBlue
- MEA
- Oman Air
- RwandAir
Second, Qatar Airways has a different redemption chart with British Airways, and redemptions on certain route may be considerably cheaper. You could move your Avios over from BA and save, like what many are already doing with Iberia’s MAD-JFK route.
Third, Qatar Airways also has some exclusive non-airline partners. For example, you could convert Qmiles to Acoor points, although the ratio isn’t appealing.
Last, if you fly a lot with Qatar Airways, you may want to credit your flights to their Privilege Club instead of BA’s Executive Club to enjoy better benefits, while still earning Avios.
[Promotions]
If you are not a member of the Privilege Club yet, register using this link gives you 2,500 Qmiles straightway, which will become 2,500 Avios at some point. You’ll earn an additional 5,000 Qmiles if crediting an eligible QR flight by September 30.
If you are a student, don’t forget to participate in their Student Club program, which offers up to 20% discount on air fares, plus other benefits including additional check-in allowance and fast track status.
7,500 Bonus Miles and Qatar Airways Silver Fast Track
Qatar airways has re-launched their sign-up offer from last year. It makes sense to sign up if you intend to fly with them in the next few months.
The offer page is here. To participate you need to enter code OALSMH121 (which is already pre-populated) during the sign-up process.
You’ll receive 2,500 bonus miles straightaway when your account is created. And after your first revenue flight operated and marketed by Qatar Airways, you’ll receive a further 5,000 bonus miles plus 50 Qpoints.
7,500 bonus miles is a good welcome gift, and 50 Qpoints is no doubt an icing on the cake – starting from scratch you need 150 Qpoints to reach Privilege Club’s Silver status.
Qatar Airways has recently reverted its huge devaluation to the Privilege Club program, and it’s not a bad idea to join if you fly frequently with them. You need to sign up by September 30, and take the first flight by December 31.
How to Change Your BA 50%-off Avios Tickets
The BA award ticket sale last October had up to 50% off on a lot of long-haul routes, and many of us took a punt at it. Unsurprisingly many of these flights have been cancelled (or will be), and it’s important to know what your rights are under such circumstances.
[Refund]
If you don’t mind losing the very good deal, you can of course just cancel the trip and ask for a refund.
Note that there’s still no refund option online and you must call. From my personal experience though, the refund comes through very quickly.
[Future Travel Voucher]
When your flight is cancelled, besides accepting a refund they’ll also push you to accept a Future Travel Voucher, or FTV.
Although it may make sense to accept one on few occasions, don’t do it if it’s a ticket from last year’s sale. An FTV is basically a voucher that carries all values of your previous ticket, which may include Avios, taxes and surcharges, seat selection fee etc.
It will act as part-payment towards your future booking. It means, if you accept a FTV and go on making a new booking, you’ll end up paying the current (full) price.
[Rebooking Online]
This is the best and most convenient option. Simply login to BA’s website and then rebook by selecting a new date:
You cannot change the origin or destination of your trip, however you won’t need to pay any fare difference either. You should be able to choose any flight on sale, as long as there are (reward) seats available.
[Rebooking over Phone]
It appears that online rebooking only works for direct flights though. If your flight has stop(s), or the trick above doesn’t work for you whatsoever, you must call BA’s customer service to rebook.
The biggest limitation here is, your trip must start by the original booking date + 365 days. As last year’s sale was in October, your trip will have to take place in October 2021 at the latest. It seems to be a restriction that cannot be bypassed if you rebook via the customer service.
My JER-LHR-HKG flight next week has been cancelled, and I called this morning to change my flight. As the current situation stands, I’m hoping to rebook to as far in the future as possible, which is mid October.
However, the agent from You First told me that BA will only fly to LGW from Jersey in October, which obviously is very inconvenient for my connecting flight to Hong Kong. I inquired about dropping the first leg so that I could start my trip in LHR instead, and was quoted £148 fare difference due to taxes.
I didn’t just give up and asked for a word with the supervisor. Another 15 minutes and the same agent came back telling me that their manager has agreed to move my flight and waive the charge, result! Unfortunately the trip still needs to take place by mid October or I’ll have to pay full Avios.
Hope my tips help.
Iberia Gift Card Sale – Save 25% off Your Next Flight Bookings
Iberia is running a promotion on its gift cards (again!) and it may be interesting to some.
You can check the offer here and click the Buy Now button to make a purchase. The gift cards provided in the link are in GBP, however you can switch the country if you want options in EUR or USD.
Until 14 February, you can enjoy a 25% discount when you buy gift cards, and there doesn’t seem to be a limit on the amount.
- Can be used against Iberia / Iberia Express / Air Nostrum flight bookings
- Revenue bookings only, i.e. not award flights
- The flight must take place by 31 December 2021
25% is a very decent offer, and remember that it means additional savings on whatever cheap bargains you find. The snag of course, is that you must fly by the end of this year, which can be tricky to many of us.
If you are frequent traveller to or from Spain, the deal might make sense as I expect intra-Europe travel resume to some extent in a few months’ time.