Known for its luxury service and world-class experience, Qatar Airways is a key player for Australian travellers. With its oneworld partnership and the Privilege Club loyalty program, Qatar Airways offers plenty of value for frequent flyers. Uniquely, Qatar Airways also partners with Virgin Australia, allowing you to access benefits with both Qantas and Virgin Australia status. Find tips and advice below for travelling with Qatar Airways and making the most of Privilege Club and its partnerships.
Qatar Airways’ new route to Canberra could be dead in the water before it even started. In July of this year, Qatar Airways announced that it would launch daily flights from Doha to Canberra via Melbourne from 1 October 2022. But shortly before this route was due to launch, the Qatari airline announced that the … Continued
It’s just over a month since Virgin Australia and Qatar Airways launched a new strategic partnership. As well as earning and redeeming points on each others’ flights, this agreement promises Velocity Gold, Platinum and Beyond members access to priority check-in, priority boarding and lounges when flying with Qatar Airways. It’s a great value-add to the … Continued
Update (28 September): It appears that Cathay members may also now be subject to the 119/249 day rule. Members of Qatar Airways Privilege Club and British Airways Executive Club can still redeem Avios for Qatar Airways flights up to 355 days in advance. Until recently, it was possible to redeem Qantas points for most Qatar … Continued
Both Qatar Airways and Emirates will soon upgrade their daily Boeing 777 flights to Perth to Airbus A380s. This is good news on multiple levels. As well as more capacity in the market and an upgraded experience for travellers, Qatar Airways has just released a bunch of First Class award seats on the Doha-Perth route … Continued
This week, Qatar Airways launched a new strategic partnership with Virgin Australia. But as a member of the Oneworld alliance, Qatar Airways already partners with Qantas – Australia’s other major airline. This creates a unique situation where members of both Virgin Australia Velocity and Qantas Frequent Flyer can earn points, earn status credits, redeem points … Continued
In some exciting news for Australian frequent flyers, Virgin Australia’s unlikely new partnership with Qatar Airways is taking off from 6 September 2022. Under the new partnership, Velocity Frequent Flyer members can earn points and status credits, redeem points and receive reciprocal status benefits on Qatar Airways flights. The Doha-based Oneworld airline was voted the “world’s … Continued
Update (24 September): Limited Qatar Airways award availability has returned to the Qantas website, but only for certain travel dates and cabin classes. It appears that Qantas Frequent Flyer members now only have access to the full suite of Qatar Airways award availability for Economy bookings up to 249 days in advance, and Business/First Class … Continued
Qatar Airways will add a second daily service between Doha and Melbourne from 1 October 2022, with the service continuing from Melbourne to Canberra. The daily Canberra-Melbourne-Doha flights will be operated by Qatar Airways’ Boeing 777-300ER with Qsuites in Business Class. This will be the schedule: QR989 Canberra 14:30 – Melbourne 15:45 / Melbourne 17:15 – … Continued
Qatar Airways is no longer giving reduced access to Business Class reward seats on its Australian flights to Qantas Frequent Flyer members. It comes as Qatar Airways also switches its points currency to Avios, and British Airways Executive Club drastically reduces the cost of reward seats on Qatar Airways flights. Qantas Frequent Flyers now have … Continued
Update (25 March 2022): There have been some changes to the Qatar Airways award seat access given to Qantas Frequent Flyer members. Qatar Airways Business Class is popular with many Australian frequent flyers, especially as all flights to Australia will soon feature the airline’s award winning Qsuites product at the front of the plane. Qatar … Continued
Qatar Airways’ Privilege Club program will adopt Avios as its main reward points currency from next month, in a surprise move that almost nobody in the industry anticipated. Privilege Club will remain the frequent flyer program of Qatar Airways. The Qatari airline’s frequent flyers will also continue to earn Qpoints for the purpose of earning … Continued
Qatar Airways, Emirates and Cathay Pacific are among the latest group of airlines to provide a second year of tier status extensions to their frequent flyers. Almost every airline gave a 12-month status extension to their top-tier members in 2020, due to the COVID-19 pandemic and associated travel restrictions which made it very difficult for … Continued