In unexpected news yesterday, we discovered that Qatar Airways will be launching two new credit cards. Qatar launching two new credit cards wasn’t the most unexpected aspect of it though – the card issuer was. That’s because it’ll be Cardless issuing both of these new cards.
It’s been two years since Qatar Airways moved over to using Avios as its rewards currency. The other three main airlines that use Avios – British Airways, Iberia and Aer Lingus – all have their credit cards issued by Chase. I imagine most people expected that if and when Qatar launched a cobranded credit card it would be Chase that did that, hence why Cardless getting the gig was such a surprise.
The card isn’t open for applications yet, but you can join a waitlist to ensure you’re one of the first people who can apply for the card. They’re adding an incentive for doing so too; similar to when the Aeroplan card launched a couple of years ago, you can earn bonus points for joining the waitlist and subsequently applying once given the opportunity.
We don’t know yet what the standard welcome offer will be for the two cards – one of which will be a Visa Infinite card and the other being a Visa Signature. However, View From The Wing has confirmed that joining the waitlist will get you an additional 10,000 bonus Avios if applying for the Visa Infinite card or an additional 5,000 bonus Avios if applying for the Visa Signature card.
In addition to not knowing what the standard welcome offer will be on the two cards, we’re also currently in the dark as to all kinds of other elements:
- Minimum spending requirements
- Earning rates & bonus categories
- Card benefits
- Annual fees
- Ability to earn status (or not) via spend on the card(s)
The ability to apply for the cards should be coming in early May, so we’ll presumably only have to wait another three more weeks or so to get more information about the cards, if not sooner.
Even if you’re not sure you’ll definitely want to apply for one of these cards, there’s no harm in signing up for the waitlist because it doesn’t obligate you to apply for the card once it’s available.
Your Wishlist
Seeing as we know very little about card features, feel free to speculate in the comments about which features you think the cards might have, or share what would entice you into applying for one of the cards.
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