Qatar Airways, like many frequent flyer programs, adds cash surcharges when you redeem your miles. Their award travel isn’t free. Still, it can be an incredible deal to redeem 70,000 points to fly arguably the best business class in the world… even with a few hundred bucks out of pocket.

Last month they raised their fees, moving from flight-based pricing to distance-based charges. Long haul flights like U.S. to Doha became more expensive, while the shortest flights became cheaper.

But what if you didn’t have to pay these cash surcharges at all?

QSuites Next Gen

Qatar Airways and Cardless launched a new U.S. credit card this spring. Those cards have a new benefit: full rebate on reward fees.

• Qatar Airways Privilege Club Visa Infinite Credit Card metal card, $499 annual fee, there’s a bonus of 50,000 Avios: 25,000 after first transaction and 25,000 more after $5,000 spend within 90 days.

  Cardmembers receive Gold status the first year, plus 150 Qpoints after earning the initial bonus (it takes 270 Qpoints to re-earn Gold, and also helps towards platinum). Furthermore, you can spend on the card towards status – 2 qpoints for every $1500 spend – so card spend alone can earn your status with minimum Qatar flight segments.

  Earning is 5x on Qatar Airways; 3x on restaurants; 1x on everything else.

• Qatar Airways Privilege Club Visa Signature Credit Card $99 annual fee, there’s a bonus of 40,000 Avios: 20,000 after first transaction and 20,000 more after $3,000 spend within 90 days.
  The card comes with Qatar silver for a year and earns 2 Qpoints towards status for every $2,000 spent. Silver gets you airport priority, Qatar lounge access and 2 guest passes annually plus extra baggage allowance.

  Earning is 4x on Qatar Airways; 2x on restaurants; 1x on everything else.

Qatar Airways al Safwa Lounge

Both cards now come with a full and complete refund of the reward fees paid with the card when booking award flights on the airline through Qatar Airways channels. This comes in the form of statement credits after completion of travel.

• The benefit is achieved upon spending $15,000 on the card in the first year of cardmembership, or $25,000 in subsequent years. Once that spend it achieved, the benefit lasts for 12 months.

• Eligible cardmembers receive a full and complete refund of their reward fees.

• There are no limits to this benefit, saving up to $600 for first and business class and up to $300 for coach roundtrip redemptions.

I already liked the premium card because it comes with Gold status which is oneworld sapphire – and therefore gets American Airlines and Alaska Airlines lounge access as well as American Airlines business class Flagship lounge access even on domestic itineraries.

In my experience it’s simple even to credit a domestic flight to American AAdvantage and just provide my partner oneworld sapphire number for lounge entry. And this card is the simplest way of ‘buying oneworld sapphire’ and is cheaper than an Admirals Club membership, and cheaper than the Citi co-brand that comes with membership, plus it’s Flagship access not just base lounge access.

American Airlines Flagship Lounge, DFW Airport

The addition of the redemption fee rebate, though, is huge and takes inspiration from a feature Chase and British Airways introduced 5 years ago but that benefit was capped at up to $600 in statement credits each year for flight taxes and fees (3 credits a year of $200 each for business and first class, $100 each for coach and premium economy). This covers full surcharges and isn’t capped.

So those dream Qatar Airways QSuites redemptions – far easier to achieve with Avios now than with partner miles like AAdvantage, with best availability usually close to when schedules open – can now be much cheaper.