In a big move announced today, Qatar Airways has said that it is moving towards adopting Avios, which is the rewards currency of the International Airlines Group airlines such as British Airways and Iberia, as its rewards currency in March 2022. A new page showed up on the Qatar Airways website this morning, and it shared the news.
Avios is the reward currency of British Airways Executive Club, AerClub, Iberia Plus, Vueling Club, and the new reward currency of Qatar Airways effective March 2022 onwards (exact date undecided). Whenever the transition happens, QMiles will be converted 1:1 into Avios for all outstanding QMiles.
Do note, however, that Qpoints and Qcredits will continue as earlier, and there will also be no change to the current QMiles expiry rules when the currency switches to Avios. Qatar Airways is also confirming that there will be no change to their award charts going forward.
There will be a further announcement in the coming weeks which will tell us more about how the new relationship will work.
Why this and why now?
While Qatar Airways is not owned by the International Airlines Group, and neither is it buying a stake in IAG Loyalty (for now), this is an interesting move nevertheless. IAG does have stakes in IAG airlines such as British Airways. Qatar Airways might be using the scale of Avios to spread itself into the western markets such as in Britain and other parts of Europe, wherever Avios is really big anyways.
You can find out more details on this special Avios page of the Qatar Airways website.
Sign up for free QMiles
While I will be writing a special post later as well, you can currently sign up for a free account on Qatar Privilege Club and get 2000 QMiles as well. You receive 2000 Qmiles instantaneously, which could be transferred to 2000 Avios at some point in time. When you fly Qatar Airways by September 30, 2022, you can get an additional 3,000 to 5,000 miles as well.
Bottomline
As of March 2022, Qatar Airways Privilege Club will adopt Avios as its points currency, replacing Qmiles. The way that status is earned will remain unchanged, however, and redemption rates aren’t expected to change either.
What do you think of Qatar Airways transitioning to Avios as its points currency?
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It’s now been confirmed by Qatar Airways Privilege Club that Avios “will be fully transferable between Privilege Club and British Airways Executive Club”, this allows travellers on both airlines to pool their Avios into a single account.
In addition, BA and Qatar Airways will increase the number of Avios-based reward seats across their flights, to accomodate an expected jump in demand once both airlines are sharing a common currency’.