Avios Can Be Redeemed for Qantas or Virgin Flights

[levelnine]

Qatar's partnership with Virgin Australia continues to yield all sorts of exciting benefits for Australians.

Qatar has recently revised its partner award booking table to align with that of BA's partner award booking table.

That means you can now redeem Qatar Avios on Virgin for the same price as BA Avios on Qantas.

Avios can be instantly transferred between Qatar and BA. It means there are some serious sweet spots flying Virgin (eg 22K J flights MEL - PER; 12.5K J flights SYD - MEL).

Note: VA is not yet bookable on Qatar's website. Hopefully that will change soon to avoid needing to call.

 

[Mwenenzi]

And conversely flying VA can get QR avios and flying QF can get BA avios.
But check the fare booking class eligibility.
From memory QF E (deep discount) earns nothing to BAEC.

 

[Human]

That means you can now redeem Qatar Avios on Virgin for the same price as BA Avios on Qantas.

I thought that the new partner table also applies to Oneworld flights -- in other words, you can now redeem Qatar Avios on Qantas for the same price as BA Avios (eg. 6000 Avios for a MEL-SYD flight). Is that correct?

 

[levelnine]

I thought that the new partner table also applies to Oneworld flights -- in other words, you can now redeem Qatar Avios on Qantas for the same price as BA Avios (eg. 6000 Avios for a MEL-SYD flight). Is that correct?

It applies to all Qatar's partners, which include both Qantas and Virgin.

Being able to redeem Qatar Avios on Qantas is not particularly exciting as you can transfer Avios from Qatar to BA and redeem there.

Redeeming on Virgin for the same price is what's genuinely new.

 

[Human]

Being able to redeem Qatar Avios on Qantas is not particularly exciting as you can transfer Avios from Qatar to BA and redeem there

Agreed... unless you're like me and you have not for all money been able to transfer. My name is the same on both accounts (including middle name), address and phone are the same, but I keep getting the "your points can't be transferred because the details on both accounts are not the same" error.

So for me this is now one little less thing to worry about!!

 

[dajop]

Being able to redeem Qatar Avios on Qantas is not particularly exciting as you can transfer Avios from Qatar to BA and redeem there.

Might be a benefit if wanting to use Avios for Qantas Link flights. If you want to redeem BA Avios on Qantas Link, you need to call to make the booking, as availability isn't accessible online. When I checked using QR, I could see availability on QantasLink, but have no avios there so couldn't go past availability check to see if you could make a booking.

 

[Mattg]

Note: VA is not yet bookable on Qatar's website. Hopefully that will change soon to avoid needing to call.

Have you (or anyone else) been successful with redeeming Qatar Avios for VA flights over the phone?

 

[levelnine]

Have you (or anyone else) been successful with redeeming Qatar Avios for VA flights over the phone?

Not yet. The change was only made a few days ago, so haven't had the need for a booking. This site outlines the process: Qatar Airways slashes Oneworld and partner award costs by up to 60%

 

[cathalm8]

Agreed... unless you're like me and you have not for all money been able to transfer. My name is the same on both accounts (including middle name), address and phone are the same, but I keep getting the "your points can't be transferred because the details on both accounts are not the same" error.

So for me this is now one little less thing to worry about!!

Yeah ive been having serious issues as well because i delinked my accounts. Now I can't link my BA and Qatar accounts. Hoping to resolve this in the future.

 

[Mattg]

Just had a look into the process of redeeming for Qantas flights on the QR website.

Looks like, when you search for flights, it just shows all available Qantas flights on that route/date - regardless of whether or not there is award availability. You then need to select your preferred option, indicate an alternate date/time you'd consider if the flight you selected isn't available, and wait for someone to get back to you. In the meantime, the points are blocked from your account but refunded if no seats are available.

It looks like QR, BA and AA flights are the only ones where you can view real-time availability and actually complete an award booking online in the one sitting on the QR website.

This being the case, I guess you might as well just use (or transfer into) BA Avios to redeem for most Oneworld flights. But if you want to book a QantasLink flight, a VA flight, or on another partner which is unique to Qatar (like RwandAir) then using Privilege Club Avios might make sense, now that the partner award chart is the same as BA?

 

[aleks12345]

For people wanting to redeem avios on domestic Qantas flights, are the taxes the same with Qatar avios and BA avios, or is one of the airlines cheaper than the other?

 

[Mwenenzi]

For people wanting to redeem avios on domestic Qantas flights, are the taxes the same with Qatar avios and BA avios, or is one of the airlines cheaper than the other?

Real taxes are the same for all airlines
Award carrier cash surcharges (=profit) can vary between freq flyer programs. A carrier surcharge can trigger real taxes. These tend to be low.