How do Qatar Airways ‘double Avios’ Flexi Awards work?

Back in March 2022, Qatar Airways announced that it was adopting Avios as its loyalty currency. You can now link your British Airways Executive Club and Qatar Airways Privilege Club accounts via the method we explain here and book Avios flights via the Qatar Airways website.

In most cases, however, you don’t need to book Qatar Airways redemptions via qatarairways.com. The same seats, with the same taxes and charges, are usually available via ba.com.

One exception is ‘double Avios’ redemptions.

Qatar Airways has its own equivalent of the British Airways ‘double Avios for extra availability’ scheme, although there are significant differences.

Using double Avios on British Airways

The BA ‘double Avios’ scheme is called the Gold Priority Reward, explained in this HfP article.

In simple terms:

• only Gold members of British Airways Executive Club can use it
• you can book any seat, on any flight, for double the normal amount of Avios
• you can book for anyone, not just yourself
• you must book 30 days in advance
• only British Airways flights are available
• you can only book by telephone
• pricing is based on the ‘most Avios, least cash’ option shown on ba.com (usually the £1 cash option) which means the flight requires a disproportionately high number of Avios

Using double Avios on Qatar Airways

The Qatar Airways version works totally differently:

• any member of Qatar Privilege Club can use it, regardless of status
• you can book seats on SELECTED flights for double the normal amount of Avios
• you can book for anyone, not just yourself
• only Qatar Airways flights are available
• you can book online

Here is an example from the Qatar Airways website:

This is a flight from Manchester to Melbourne on 7th November.

As you can see, no seats are available in Business Class for the first option. However, you can still book the second option.

Note the little ‘Flexi’ logo in the Business Class boxes for the second option. This means that you can book these seats, but it will cost you double the usual number of Avios.

In this case, for a one-way Business Class flight from Manchester to Melbourne, the cost doubles from 90,000 Avios to 180,000 Avios, plus £375 of taxes and charges.

(If you fancy this trip, note that you can book on 5th November for the standard 90,000 Avios one way at the time of writing. I cannot see these seats via ba.com, just qatarairways.com)

Here is ba.com for 7th November:

No Avios seats are available on Qatar Airways via ba.com because these ‘Flexi’ seats come from additional availability that Qatar Airways reserves for its own members and offers for double Avios.

Is this good value? It’s up to you. In general, the ‘double Avios’ seats are not cheap but if you are Avios-rich and cash-poor you may get good value.

You also, of course, retain the flexibility to cancel your ticket and rebook should an Avios seat at the standard price level appear later.

For Australia and New Zealand in particular, 360,000 Avios for a return Business Class ticket from the UK on the excellent Qatar Airways is still arguably a great deal. At the standard 180,000 Avios return in Business Class, of course, it’s laughably cheap although availability at this level comes and goes in waves.