How to Redeem Qatar Avios for Garuda Indonesia Flights

Avios just became even more useful, with Qatar Airways Privilege Club adding Garuda Indonesia as a new partner airline.

Qatar Airways Privilege Club is one of seven airline loyalty programs using Avios as its currency. You can already redeem Qatar Avios to fly with any Oneworld alliance airline, as well as various niche partner airlines such as Airlink, RwandAir, Bangkok Airways, LATAM and JetBlue.

Now that you can also use Qatar Avios to book Garuda Indonesia flights, this opens up more ways to get from Sydney and Melbourne to Bali or Jakarta in the comfort of lie-flat Business Class.

If you have Avios with British Airways Club, you could even transfer these into your Qatar Airways Privilege Club account on a 1:1 basis (or simply link your accounts) to book a Garuda flight.

As a reminder, you can transfer points from Amex Membership Rewards, CommBank Awards or a Citi Prestige credit card into Qatar Airways Privilege Club.

How to book Garuda Indonesia flights with Qatar Airways Avios

Booking a Garuda flight with Avios is relatively easy, as you can do it on the Qatar Airways website. Simply tick the “Book using Avios” box when searching from the home page:

In general, Garuda Indonesia has pretty good award availability in both Economy and Business Class. This includes on the routes from Sydney and Melbourne to Bali and Jakarta, where the Indonesian flag carrier operates wide-body Airbus A330s with lie-flat Business Class.

How much does a Privilege Club award ticket on Garuda Indonesia cost?

Qatar Airways Privilege Club redemptions on partner airlines are priced on a per-segment basis, according to the distance flown. Flights from Sydney or Melbourne to Bali require fewer Avios than flights to Jakarta due to the shorter distance.

For example, a one-way Economy redemption from Sydney to Bali costs 16,000 Avios + $113.31 in taxes:

To Jakarta, you’d pay 25,000 Avios + taxes:

A Business Class redemption from Sydney or Melbourne to Bali costs 40,000 Avios + taxes:

And a one-way Business award from Melbourne or Sydney to Jakarta costs 65,000 Avios + taxes:

There are no fuel or carrier surcharges; Qatar Airways just passes on the third-party taxes and fees.

Other ways to book Garuda Indonesia with points

As Garuda Indonesia is a SkyTeam member airline, you could also redeem points with any SkyTeam airline for reward seats on Garuda. For example, you could use Virgin Atlantic points.

Garuda also partners with Etihad Airways. You could redeem Etihad Guest miles for Garuda flights, but Etihad’s award pricing on Garuda flights is generally higher – both in terms of the miles and the taxes & charges. Etihad Guest also has a much harsher cancellation policy for award tickets.

Matt Graham

The editor of Australian Frequent Flyer, Matt's passion for travel has taken him to more than 100 countries… with the help of frequent flyer points, of course!
Matt's favourite destinations (so far) are Germany, Brazil & Kazakhstan. His interests include aviation, economics & foreign languages, and he has a soft spot for good food and red wine.

You can connect with Matt by posting on the Australian Frequent Flyer community forum and tagging @AFF Editor.