Tag Archives for qatar airways.
Qatar Airways will give you free miles when you join by March 31, 2022 and more miles if you fly by September. Qatar’s program has gotten a lot more useful since they’ve reversed a devaluation, points no longer expire with activity in your account, and because they’re a Citibank points transfer partner.
Qatar has one of the best business class product in the world in its ‘QSuites’. These are revolutionary suites with doors and movable partitions that allow two and even four passengers to travel together in their own space. Right now there’s fantastic award availability booking for August through November 2022 for Qatar’s QSuites product – out of several U.S. cities – with four business class seats available.
Alaska separately introduced their partnership with oneworld member Qatar Airways, and at the start of June said that award redemption on Qatar would become available in August. They’re actually a few days early, and Qatar Airways awards are currently bookable on the Alaska Airlines website. However the prices are.. sketchy to say the least.
The CEO of Qatar Airways, Akbar Al Baker, is the new Chairman of the oneworld alliance. This is such a strange choice.
Qatar Airways CEO Akbar Al Baker calls British Airways a ‘two out of ten low cost carrier.’
This isn’t mere trash talking by a rival, Al Baker’s Qatar Airways owns a 25% stake in British Airways parent company IAG and is the carrier’s largest owner – so it’s an admission against interests.
Qatar has one of the best business class product in the world in its ‘QSuites’. These are revolutionary suites with doors and movable partitions that allow two and even four passengers to travel together in their own space. Right now there’s fantastic award availability booking for the start of 2021 for Qatar’s QSuites product – out of several U.S. cities – with four business class seats available.
While conflict with Israel gets the most press in the U.S., the primary conflict in the Mideast is between Saudi Arabia (along with Turkey) seeking Sunni influence in the region and working to counter Shia Iran. The conflict in Syria, for instance, is largely a proxy war between Saudi Arabia and Iran. The Saudis have fought Iran-backed rebels in Yemen over the past several years.
Part of this conflict is a 3.5 year old blocked of Qatar by the UAE and Saudi Arabia which ended Tuesday, and the first Qatar Airways flight has just flown through Saudi airspace.
Doha-based oneworld carrier Qatar Airways has been among the most creative during the pandemic. They’ve let customers get more credit than the value of their ticket if willing to forego a refund, they’ve offered to let customers convert flight credits into miles. They’ve even improved their award chart, reversing a past devaluation.
Now Qatar has announced that all tickets purchased by April 30, 2021 are refundable. And since they’d rather you not refund your tickets, there are no change fees to make an unlimited number of changes for travel through December 31, 2021.
Anything that’s projected out to 2028 isn’t just far from certain, but more in the realm of entirely speculative, at this point. However any first class that does materialize will have to be better than QSuites, and indeed better than whatever QSuites are 8 years in the future. Combine that with Qatar’s outstanding service and catering it has the potential to be a fantastic product.
It’s been some time since there have been generous offers just to sign up for a frequent flyer program, essentially to start a permission marketing relationship. Maybe 16 years ago United Airlines was giving out 1000 miles to new members referred by an existing member, and rewarding the member that referred them to. But usually new member bonuses have required some kind of activity – proof of a customer’s value to the airline – before being triggered.
Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel -- a topic he has covered since 2002.
Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »
