Qatar Airways Releases Business Class Seats to Qantas Frequent Flyers
It appears Qantas Frequent Flyers can once again use their points to book Qatar Airways seats in business class, a welcome change!
It appears all it took was a bit of geopolitical instability for Qatar Airways and Qantas to kiss and make up. Today, we noticed Qatar Airways released two seats in business class to Qantas Frequent Flyers on the Perth to Doha route. For the last few years this has been zero, even though both Qantas and Qatar Airways are Oneworld members. Both airlines have been staunch rivals, mainly due to Qantas lobbying against Qatar Airways' slots to and from Australia. In return, Qatar Airways has been actively blocking Qantas Frequent Flyers from redeeming their points for business class flights. First there were "some" seats, usually three months before departure. Later in the feud, this dropped to zero.
Things seem to be looking up. It's hard to tell if this is due to both airlines working to fix relations or if it's just a test to see if empty seats can be filled via an extra marketing channel.
The two flights we uncovered are extremely last-minute. One departs today and the other on the 15th.
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How to Book Qatar Airways Flights with Qantas Points
Booking these Classic Flight Reward seats in business using your Qantas points is very straightforward.
Head over to the Qantas website, make sure you're logged in, and then either book by toggling the "rewards" button or search via Multi City
(my preferred method), which gives you a much more extensive calendar view of availability.
How Many Qantas Points Do You Need to Fly Qatar Airways Business Class?
The route bookable on Qantas is Perth to Doha. This flight will set you back 108,000 Qantas Points + A$667 in taxes and fees.
Got Velocity Points? Use Them Instead
If you've got Velocity Points sitting in your account, this is where you should be spending them. The same Qatar Airways business class seat from Perth to Doha costs just 89,500 Velocity Points + A$375.41 in taxes and fees through Virgin Australia. That's around 17% fewer points and almost A$292 less in cash compared to the Qantas redemption. Velocity's partnership with Qatar Airways is one of the strongest deals in the program. If you've got balances in both, go Velocity every time.
Pricing Glitch
When researching this article, I found that Qantas is mispricing the points cost when you book via the regular booking window.
Let's call it a "rookie tax" as most points pros will always use Multi City to book. When you book through the default flight search, the flight prices at 125,400 Qantas Points, which is incorrect.
Qantas uses a distance-based award chart and if we check the miles flown, we come in at 5,789, which falls in zone 6 on the award chart. This is likely just a bug, but it's worth noting as no doubt it happens on other routes too.
Summing Up
It's nice to see Qatar Airways releasing some business class seats again to Qantas Frequent Flyers. Let's hope the trend continues and both airlines work on mending relations. After all, they are Oneworld partners.
