Qatar Airways Privilege Membership affords the best variety of award seats for Qatar Airways flights amongst all loyalty packages.
Since Qsuites enterprise class is such a aggressive product, discovering an award seat on the lowest “Saver” fee can show to be fairly tough, regardless of which program you e-book from.
Nonetheless, Qatar Airways Privilege Membership additionally options “Flexi” awards, which supply entry to extra seats in change for a larger quantity of factors.
What Are Qatar Airways Privilege Membership Flexi Awards?
Within the Qatar Airways Privilege Membership loyalty program, one distinctive function accessible to members is Flexi awards.
With Flexi pricing, you get entry to a larger variety of award seats, albeit at twice the price of the “Saver” off-peak award value.
It’s price noting that that is totally different than dynamic pricing, for the reason that value is all the time mounted at twice the quantity of a typical, off-peak award seat, and doesn’t in any other case fluctuate.
Once you seek for an award flight on the Qatar Airways web site, you might discover the phrase Flexi within the search outcomes. This denotes that the value you see is twice that of the usual, off-peak “Saver” fee.
If you happen to don’t see Flexi above the search outcomes, then you realize that you simply’re paying the decrease “Saver” fee, which is a superb deal.
For instance, a “Saver” award for a one-way flight from Montreal to Doha prices 70,000 Avios on off-peak dates in Qsuites enterprise class.
Nonetheless, the Flexi value for a similar flight is 140,000 Avios.
You might also see Flexi pricing displayed on a inexperienced flag with “Q2” written on it. Flexi tends to seem extra usually on the Qatar Airways web site, and the Q2 banner tends to seem on the app; nevertheless, it might additionally seem on the web site.
In both occasion, they each discuss with the identical factor.
Flexi pricing is just accessible for flights with Qatar Airways in financial system, enterprise class, and First Class booked via Qatar Airways Privilege Membership.
You gained’t discover Flexi pricing for Qatar Airways flights booked with different loyalty packages, nor will you discover Flexi pricing for different airways booked via Qatar Airways Privilege Membership.
Qatar Airways makes use of peak and off-peak pricing to its loyalty program, with flights priced increased throughout peak dates on “Saver” charges.
Flexi costs aren’t affected by this distinction, and also you’ll pay the identical Flexi value whether or not you e-book a peak or an off-peak date.
Are Qatar Airways Privilege Membership Flexi Awards a Good Deal?
Ideally, there would all the time be ample award availability on all routes on the “Saver” degree. Sadly, this simply isn’t actuality.
As an alternative, Flexi pricing affords entry to a larger stock of award seats, albeit at the next value.
On the one hand, gaining access to extra award seats that may be booked with factors is all the time higher than not having any seats accessible by any means.
Moreover, since Flexi costs are mounted, they aren’t topic to the identical fluctuation in costs that you simply’ll discover with packages that use dynamic pricing. On this regard, pricing continues to be predictable, so long as you will discover an award seat.
Compared to the money charges for Qatar Airways flights, you possibly can nonetheless wind up getting a very good return in worth together with your factors on Flexi awards.
For instance, a round-trip flight from Montreal to Doha in Qatar Airways Qsuites enterprise class may cost round $7,200 (CAD).
On the “Saver” degree, those self same flights would value out at 140,000 Avios, plus taxes and charges. After accounting for the money part of the award reserving, you’d have netted a price of round 4.5 cents per Avios (CAD), which is superb.
With a Flexi award, those self same flights would value out at 280,000 Avios, plus the identical quantity of taxes and charges. On this scenario, and after accounting for the money part, you’d nonetheless have come out with a price of round 2.4 cents per Avios (CAD).
We worth Avios at 2 cents per level (CAD), and even with Flexi awards, you’re nonetheless capable of redeem factors at increased than our goal valuation.
Whereas it’s not practically pretty much as good as what you’d get on the “Saver” degree, your factors are nonetheless punching above their weight, particularly when in comparison with the money fare.
Leverage Switch Bonuses
Remember the fact that there are sometimes switch bonuses to each Qatar Airways Privilege Membership and The British Airways Membership.
Since you possibly can freely switch Avios between accounts, you could possibly leverage a switch bonus promotion to both, after which transfer them round from inside the Avios ecosystem for a Qatar Airways redemption.
If you happen to’re capable of take advantage of a switch bonus, which normally ends in 30–50% bonus Avios, you then’d be taking a few of the sting out of Flexi pricing.
For instance, a one-way flight from Seattle to Doha in Qsuites enterprise class prices 140,000 Avios with Flexi pricing.
A 30% switch bonus would successfully cut back the variety of factors required all the way down to 107,700 factors. Equally, a 40% switch bonus would carry the efficient value all the way down to 100,000 factors, and a 50% switch bonus would decrease it even additional to 93,400 factors.
At these values, it’s not a wholly unreasonable value to pay for one of many world’s greatest enterprise class merchandise.
Helpful for A number of Seats
It’s additionally price noting that reserving Qatar Airways Flexi awards often is the solely strategy to safe award seats for a bigger group on the identical flight.
If there are greater than two individuals travelling collectively, it may be quite onerous, if not unattainable, to search out a number of “Saver” award seats with Qatar Airways. That is particularly the case on routes to or from North America.
By combining Flexi awards with “Saver” awards, you’d have a significantly better probability of flying collectively, even perhaps within the Qsuites Quad.
Conclusion
Qatar Airways affords Flexi awards via its Privilege Membership loyalty program.
In change for a larger stock of award seats, Flexi awards are twice the price of the “Saver” off-peak awards.
Whereas it’s all the time a greater deal to e-book award seats on the “Saver” degree, it’s not all the time attainable, particularly on common routes.
Flexi rewards offer you a greater probability of scoring a seat in one of many world’s greatest enterprise class merchandise; nevertheless, it’ll simply come at a steeper value.
By transferring factors throughout a switch bonus occasion, you possibly can successfully cut back the variety of factors required, which additionally takes a little bit of the sting out of Flexi pricing.
