You Can Now Redeem Avios on Philippine Airlines
You can now earn and redeem Qatar Airways Privilege Club Avios on Philippine Airlines flights, thanks to a new partnership between the two airlines.
Philippine Airlines flies from both Sydney and Brisbane to Manila, but there aren’t many ways to book seats on these flights using points or miles. The only practical option, until now, was to use Philippine Airlines Mabuhay Miles. But there aren’t really any ways to earn those in Australia.
This new partnership also means that passengers buying commercial tickets on Philippine Airlines can now credit those flights to Qatar Airways Privilege Club, and earn useful Avios.
Philippine Airlines flies Airbus A330s between Sydney and Manila, and its Airbus A321neo LR between Brisbane/Perth and Manila. Both have lie-flat Business Class seats. (For what it’s worth, Qantas will fly its A321XLR on the Brisbane-Manila route from October – which does not have lie-flat Business seating…)
Philippine Airlines award availability & pricing through Privilege Club
The good news is that award availability on Philippine Airlines is pretty good. Economy seats are available on many flights, and there’s fairly decent availability in Business Class too – especially between Brisbane and Manila.
The taxes & carrier charges payable when redeeming Qatar Airways Avios on Philippine Airlines flights are also quite reasonable.
Unfortunately, there is a catch. Qatar Airways is charging around 33-50% more Avios for Philippine Airlines redemptions, compared to what you’d pay when redeeming Avios on most other partner airlines.
For example, if you used Qatar Avios to fly from Manila to Hong Kong, you’d pay more to fly on Philippine Airlines compared to Qatar Airways’ Oneworld partner Cathay Pacific. (The carrier charges on the Philippine Airlines flight are also a bit higher than on Cathay Pacific, but still reasonable.)
Given the decent availability, you could also consider using Avios if you’re looking for Business Class seats across the Pacific.
Avios pricing between Australia and the Philippines
From Sydney to Manila, you could expect to pay 45,000 Avios one-way for Economy or 90,000 Avios one-way for Business on Philippine Airlines, plus $136 in taxes & charges.
Direct flights from Brisbane to Manila cost the same number of Avios, and around $4 less in taxes. Flying in the other direction, from Manila to Australia, the same amount of Avios is required but the taxes & charges are around $269 one-way.
While this could be a convenient option if you want a direct flight from Australia to the Philippines, it’s worth noting that Privilege Club charges the same number of Avios to fly Qatar Airways all the way from Australia to Europe. So, the value doesn’t quite stack up as much as it should…
Domestic redemptions unavailable on Philippine Airlines
Unfortunately, Qatar Airways isn’t making Philippine Airlines award seats available online for domestic routes within the Philippines.
Booking connecting itineraries with Qatar Avios
Note that the Qatar Airways website doesn’t handle connecting award itineraries well, unless you want to fly via Doha. To get around this, use the multi-city booking tool or call Qatar Airways.
The Avios price will be the sum of the two individual sectors. But at least you’ll have both flights on the same ticket.
Strange pricing on the Doha-Manila route
While researching for this article, I searched on the Qatar Airways website for award seats between Doha and Manila. As you can see, there are two identical flights listed below that are operated by Philippine Airlines but have different pricing:
The cheaper option departing at 01:30 happens to be a codeshare with a QR flight number that’s operated by Philippine Airlines. Privilege Club is pricing the codeshare at the same rate as the Qatar Airways-operated options, i.e. 50% cheaper. (The taxes & charges are the same on all options.)
Personally, I’d probably just pick the Qatar Airways operated flight anyway on this route for the better product. 😉
How to acquire Qatar Airways Avios
There are a few ways to earn Qatar Airways Privilege Club Avios in Australia.
One option is to transfer Amex Membership Rewards or PayRewards points to Privilege Club. Another method is to simply buy Avios. You can do this either with an Avios subscription, or by purchasing them during one of Qatar Airways’ regular discount or bonus Avios offers.
You can transfer Avios between your own accounts with any of the other six airlines that use this as their reward currency, including The British Airways Club.
Don’t forget that you can also redeem Qatar Airways Avios to fly with Oneworld airlines, Virgin Australia, and other unique partners including Garuda Indonesia, RwandAir, Xiamen Air and South Africa’s Airlink.
