We may receive a commission when you use our links. Monkey Miles is part of an affiliate sales network and receives compensation for sending traffic to partner sites, such as CreditCards.com and CardRatings. This relationship may impact how and where links appear on this site. This site does not include all financial companies or all available financial offers. Monkey Miles is also a Senior Advisor to Bilt Rewards. Terms apply to American Express benefits and offers. Enrollment may be required for select American Express benefits and offers. Visit americanexpress.com to learn more Opinions, reviews, analyses & recommendations are the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, endorsed or approved by any of these entities.
Bilt continues to improve the program by adding more ways to transfer your points to valuable partners. ( I am a Bilt advisor and Investor ) Earlier this month they added Japan Airlines and now we learn that Qatar Airways Privilege Club has been added. This provides easy and direct access to some incredible bookings on Qatar Airways, including their QSuites, which are oft ranked best business class in the world, with a simple, direct transfer.
It’s important to note, Bilt is also partners with British Airways, Iberia, and Aer Lingus which utilize the Avios award currency, and that program facilitates the movement of points between the various currencies – so technically you could have used this backdoor to move points into Qatar without a direct transfer ).
The full list of Bilt Rewards transfer partners:
Using Qatar Airways Avios
For all partner flights Qatar Airways utilizes a distance based award chart that is pretty much the same as British Airways does; however, if you can find different pricing, fees, change fees, etc using each program so it’s beneficial to price check. You can learn how to link and move between each Avios program here
First thing, connect your British Airways and Qatar Airways accounts for ease of use – link accounts here
As long as you link your British Airways and Qatar Airways accounts, the Avios that live in either account will show up in both. That means that you can draw off the balance to book flights in either portal – at booking it will ask you to log in to your account for the transfer, regardless of which program you’re using. For instance, if your Avios are in your BA account and you wish to book via Qatar Airways, at the time of redemption, you’ll be asked to log in to your BA account and the points will phsycially move to Qatar to complete the booking. The same goes the other way.
Once you link, your account will look like this when you check balances – this will facilitate booking with either Qatar or BA.
- This makes it much easier to book QSuites with Qatar Airways pricing since British Airways is a partner of a few flexible currencies and Qatar Airways isn’t.
- You can book Qatar Airways and British Airways on the portal, but you’ll need to phone in to make other bookings
- One thing I’ve noticed is that not all BA space populates on the Qatar website
Booking Qatar Airways Qsuites
This is probably the best way to utilize Qatar Airways Avios since the taxes and fees are lowest through their own program, as well as the change and cancellation fees relative to the other Avios programs. The easiest and broadest way to find QSuites award space is via Seats.Aero QSuites tool which you can find here
- One Way from US to Doha
- 70k Avios
- One way to the Maldives on QSuites from the US
- 105k on British Airways Avios
- 85k on Qatar Airways Avios
You can see the variance in rates below:
Book JetBlue with points
When they first dropped, rates were quite a bit less, and some lucky people were able to take advantage. Qatar quickly changed their pricing. I still think this is a great deal tho…78k + 261 pounds from London to NYC is amazing and will likely be something I take advantage of considering how often BA has transfer bonuses and as soon as you has BA Avios they show up in your Qatar account ( as long as they are linked )
- Sweet Spots –
- Mint: ( these were initially 62k )
- East Coast to Europe = 78k + $10
- London to East Coast = 78k + £261
- Econ
- Domestically starting at 8500 Avios
- East Coast to Europe at 25k Avios
- Mint: ( these were initially 62k )
Overal
I could go down a rabbit hole of booking and transferring, but I’d say these are some of the ways I’ve found a lot of value recently! What do you think about this latest addition to Bilt Rewards?
Opinions, reviews, analyses & recommendations are the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, endorsed or approved by any of these entities.
Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card
Welcome Offer
Earn 60,000 bonus points after you spend $5,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening.
Annual Fee
$95
Points Earned
Transferrable Chase Ultimate Rewards
- 5x on all travel purchased through Chase Travel℠
- 3x on dining, including eligible delivery services for takeout & dining out
- 3x on select streaming services
- 3x on online grocery purchases
- (excluding Target, Walmart and wholesale clubs)
- $50 Annual Chase Travel Hotel Credit via Chase Travel℠
- The begins immediately for new cardmembers and after your account anniversary for existing cardmembers
- 2x on all other travel
- 10% Anniversary Points Boost
- each account anniversary you’ll earn bonus points equal to 10% of your total purchases made the previous year
- Chase Sapphire Preferred continues to redeem at 1.25c in the Chase Travel℠ and the slew of other benefits remain in tact including Auto Rental Collision Damage Waiver ( primary ), purchase protections, etc.
- Points are transferrable to 14 Ultimate Rewards partners
- Redeem in Chase Travel℠ for 1.25 cents per point
- No foreign transaction fees
- Suite of Travel and Purchase Coverage
- Auto Rental Collision Damage Waiver is my favorite
- Complimentary DashPass which unlocks $0 delivery fees & lower service fees for a min. of one year when you activate by 12/31/27. Plus, a $10 promo each month on non-restaurant orders
- $95 Annual Fee
We keep an up to date spreadsheet that lists the best ever offers: You can find that spreadsheet here.
Historically 80k is a very, very good offer and hit in both 2022 and 2023. In 2021, we saw the offer hit an all time high of 100k. Who knows if that will ever come back.
Main Cast:
Cards that earn flexible points and should be used on the bulk of your purchases.
Supporting Cast:
Cards that earn fixed points in the currency of the airline/hotel and can not be transferred at attractive rates. These cards yield benefits that make it worth keeping, but not necessarily worth putting a lot of your everyday spend on.
The Chase Sapphire Preferred® is exceptional starter card and offers transferrable Ultimate Rewards, and pairs well with other Chase cards.
If you carry this card alongside Chase’s cashback cards like the Chase Freedom Flex® and Chase Freedom Unlimited® or the business versions: Ink Business Cash® , Ink Business Unlimited® you can combine the points into Preferred account and transfer into hotel and airline partners
Annual fee is quite low at $95 a year + you get a 10% anniversary bonus on points + $50 hotel credit in Chase travel.
The responses below are not provided or commissioned by the bank advertiser. Responses have not been reviewed, approved, or otherwise endorsed by the bank advertiser. It is not the bank advertiser's responsibility to ensure all posts and/or questions are answered.