You Can Now Book Qatar Airways Using Aeroplan—But There’s a Catch

This morning, Virgin Australia released award seats on the wet-leased Qatar Airways flights from Sydney, Brisbane, Melbourne, and Perth to Doha.

While the Qatar Airways x Virgin Australia partnership is unique, Velocity Frequent Flyer also has a partnership with Air Canada’s Aeroplan program, making award space from either airline available to members.

Normally, it wouldn’t be possible to redeem Aeroplan points for Qatar Airways flights, as there is no direct partnership between them, and Aeroplan is part of the Star Alliance.

However, due to the wet-lease agreement, the flights out of Australia are operated by Qatar Airways but coded with Virgin Australia (VA) flight numbers.

This has created a unique opportunity to book seats from Australia to Doha and vice versa using Aeroplan points.

Ironically, fewer Aeroplan points are required for these redemptions, and the taxes are significantly lower.

For example:

• Perth to Doha costs 80,000 Aeroplan points + CA$129 in taxes, compared to 89,500 Velocity Points + $471.79 in taxes and fees.

• Similarly, flights from the east coast to Doha are priced at just 110,000 Aeroplan points + CA$150 in fees, compared to 119,500 Velocity Points + $459.76 in fees.
  

Summing Up

It’s great to see alternative options for redeeming Qatar Airways flights to and from Australia. That said, I don’t value Velocity Points higher than Aeroplan Points, so whether this represents good value is debatable.

However, this development will undoubtedly open up new opportunities for our friends in the US and Canada, who have easier access to Aeroplan Points. They can now snap up award seats from Velocity Frequent Flyer with significantly lower fees to boot!