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It was just announced that Qatar Airways was ditching their old currency and adoption Avios. If you’re unfamiliar with Avios, it’s the backbone of British Airways, Iberia, and Aer Lingus. While each airline maintains its own Avios program, they’re all subsidiaries of parent company IAG of which Avios is the main currency. You can use Avios to move points between the subsidiary airlines, and with this news, I’m hopeful Qatar Airways will be too. It’s also worth noting that Qatar owns a large stake in IAG…so this isn’t that out of the blue.
Here’s what we know so far:
- All Privilege Club Qmiles will be converted 1:1 into Avios
- The current award chart is staying the same
Currently you can transfer Citi Thank You into Qatar Airways
Will we see Avios become transferrable to Qatar?
You can currently move Avios around between British Airways, Iberia, and Aer Lingus. Will we soon be able to move them to Qatar Airways? Let’s hope so… but there wasn’t any news on that
Often Avios are on a transfer bonus from Amex and Chase. Will Qatar follow suit?
Currently, Qatar Airways is a transfer partner of Citi Thank You points. But, who knows, this could change. But even if it doesn’t, it could potentially be possible to move them into say British Airways during a transfer bonus and then into Qatar Airways.
Sample Redemptions that are of interest
Flying QSuites could be an interesting option now…
70k in Business Class one way between Doha and the following cities
- Atlanta
- Chicago
- Dallas
- Houston
- LAX
- Miami
- New York JFK
- Philly
- Dulles
Overall
Who knows what will happen, but this certainly isn’t bad news.
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 75,000 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
- Points are transferrable to 14 Ultimate Rewards partners
- 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.
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