A few days ago, Qatar Airways rolled out a significant increase in award booking fees. As we mentioned in our last post, we saw fee increases of over 172%, which was substantial. We reached out to Qatar Airways for comment and received the following response:
“Qatar Airways Privilege Club sincerely apologises for any inconvenience our valued members may have faced during the rollout of our revised reward fees policy earlier today. The reward fees that were displayed for booking Qatar Airways award flights were higher than intended. The issue has since been resolved and the correct reward fees, as per the revised policy, are now being reflected and applied for all Qatar Airways award flight bookings.
Qatar Airways Privilege Club has transitioned our reward fees policy for redeeming Qatar Airways award flights from a sector-based model to a distance-based structure, effective today. Reward fees have decreased up to 15% or remained unchanged for several of our most popular short and medium-haul routes while others have increased, representative of the distance travelled.”
Qatar Airways Adjusts Award Pricing Model
It appears that Qatar Airways has shifted their award pricing from a zone-based calculation to one that charges fees based on the distance flown. As a result, some redemption fees have decreased, while others have risen.
In my testing, I found that a booking I made from MIA-DOH-BKK, which originally had redemption fees and taxes totalling €189.56, has now increased by a more modest (but still significant) 51.35%, bringing the total to €286.90 instead of the expected 172% jump.
Final Thoughts
It’s reassuring to see Qatar Airways act swiftly to address this error, likely in response to the widespread outcry within the travel community. Overall, the actual update represents a moderate increase in fees, especially for long-haul travel, which likely accounts for the majority of redemptions. On the other hand, a smaller segment of travellers will benefit from reduced fees on shorter Qatar Airways flights.
