Qatar Airways has simply made adjustments to the redemption charges that it expenses when reserving award tickets. We’re not speaking about change or cancelation charges, however moderately concerning the provider imposed charges it’s important to pay in money when redeeming Avios.
Qatar Airways updates redemption ticket surcharges
Prior to now couple of years, we’ve seen Qatar Airways make important adjustments to the way it releases award availability. Again within the day, this system launched the identical quantity of award house to all companion applications because it did to its personal Qatar Airways Privilege Membership members, so redeeming on Qatar Airways was an actual candy spot of applications like American AAdvantage or Alaska Mileage Plan.
That’s now not the case, as these days Qatar Airways makes most premium cabin award house accessible solely to these accruing Avios currencies, whether or not it’s Qatar Airways Privilege Membership or British Airways Government Membership.
That hasn’t been the worst factor on earth, since thankfully redemption charges for Qatar Airways premium cabins have been fairly enticing. Moreover, Avios are a minimum of very easy to accrue with transferable factors currencies.
One draw back to redeeming Avios for journey on Qatar Airways is that this comes with some redemption surcharges. As of at present (Sunday, September 15, 2024), Qatar Airways has modified the way it expenses charges on reward tickets. Whereas they had been beforehand charged based mostly on the variety of segments flown, they’re now charged based mostly on the gap flown.
The airline states that surcharges on some rewards have decreased in value by as much as 15%, some have remained unchanged, and a few have elevated. As you’d anticipate, the extra distance you journey, the dearer a redemption might be in money.
Notice that these redemption charges apply when reserving by means of Qatar Airways Privilege Membership or British Airways Government Membership, or some other program that passes on surcharges. Applications like American AAdvantage and Alaska Mileage Plan don’t go on surcharges.
So, what are charges like beneath the brand new system?
- A Male to Doha to Miami enterprise class award now comes with a $250 redemption price, along with authorities imposed taxes and costs
- A Jakarta to Doha to New York enterprise class award now comes with a $250 redemption price, along with authorities imposed taxes and costs
- A Chicago to Doha enterprise class award now comes with a $200 redemption price, along with authorities imposed taxes and costs
- A Perth to Doha top notch award now comes with a $200 redemption price, along with authorities imposed taxes and costs
- A Frankfurt to Doha to Bangkok financial system class award now comes with a $90 redemption price, along with authorities imposed taxes and costs
Notice that when Qatar Airways first began rolling out these updates in a single day, the airline erroneously confirmed greater prices than meant, and that has now been fastened. So the pricing you see now must be correct, and according to what the airline intends. For instance, earlier I noticed some routings with $500 surcharges, and people have now been lowered to $250. So it’s a minimum of excellent news that this isn’t as dangerous as we first suspected.
I’m not a fan of the redemption surcharge idea
I’d say these adjustments to Privilege Membership redemption charges are reasonably dangerous, although actually, a minimum of they weren’t worse, as we had initially feared. For probably the most half, we’re seeing will increase of not more than $50-100 one-way, and never all routings are going up in worth.
Nevertheless, I can’t assist however be annoyed by the final existence of those surcharges. Whereas it’s not unusual for some airways to go on provider imposed surcharges on award tickets, sometimes these surcharges replicate those that may be charged when reserving a income ticket. Within the case of Privilege Membership, although, these charges don’t even replicate the provider imposed surcharges on income tickets, however moderately it’s a redemption price.
These charges aren’t truly based mostly on something, they’re simply meant to enhance the economics of redemptions for the airline.
It simply appears odd to basically make each award reserving a money & factors redemption of kinds, the place you’re charged some arbitrary money quantity along with the Avios. On the plus aspect, a minimum of Qatar Airways’ surcharges stay downright affordable, in comparison with what Emirates expenses on its Skywards redemptions.
Backside line
Qatar Airways has simply adjusted the money charges it has on award redemptions. These charges have gone from being section based mostly to being distance based mostly, so you possibly can anticipate that awards protecting an extended distance might be extra pricey than earlier than. This is applicable when reserving by means of Avios currencies, whether or not it’s Qatar Airways Privilege Membership or British Airways Government Membership.
There’s nonetheless a lot of worth available with Qatar Airways Privilege Membership, because the redemption charges are affordable, and it’s additionally straightforward to rack up Avios.
What do you make of Qatar Airways adjusting its redemption charges?
