Qatar Airways will drop its Qmiles rewards currency in favour of the Avios loyalty scheme next month.
The airline has announced that from late March, it will adopt Avios as its preferred reward currency for all privilege club members.
It said members will “experience a seamless transition” into the loyalty programme’s new reward currency, with existing Qmiles balances automatically changed to Avios on a ratio of one Avios to one Qmile. For example, if you have 35,000 Qmiles in your account, you will have 35,000 Avios.
Further, there’s no change to Qpoints, Qcredits or the current Qmiles expiry rules after the switch.
What does this mean for Qmile and Avios customers?
Avios is the rewards scheme for British Airways Executive Club, AerClub, Iberia Plus and Vueling Club.
Qatar said customers will be able to collect and spend Avios in the same way as Qmiles; through flights, holidays, shopping and 200 partners including Nectar, American Express and Marriott.
Customers can already use Avios to book flights on Qatar Airways so “to that extent, this is not a revolutionary change”, according to Rob Burgess of frequent flyer website Headforpoints.
More details are set to be announced in a couple of weeks so until then, it’s not clear as to exactly how the new partnership will work in practice. Qatar will email customers with further details soon.
However, Qatar confirmed that the amount of Avios required to book an award ticket or use Cash + Avios will not change.
Burgess added: “We don’t know if it will be possible to use ‘Combine My Avios’ to move Avios directly to and from British Airways Executive Club and Qatar Privilege Club. Even if you can, why would you? The benefits won’t be totally clear until we compare reward charts, taxes and charges. Qatar Airways has promised its members that its own reward charts will be unchanged.
“UK Avios collectors will have to wait a little longer for full details to see what…