Back in May, Qatar Airways started offering a status match to elite members of selected airlines, including Singapore Airlines. This represented a great opportunity to turn Star Gold status into oneworld Sapphire or Emerald, and unlock access to some fantastic lounges at Changi.
It’s taken a while, but we’re now seeing reports in the Milelion’s Telegram Group of Qatar approving status matches. Unfortunately for (some) PPS Club members, the matching isn’t going the way I thought it would…
How is Qatar Airways matching status?
Qatar Airways Privilege Club has four tiers:
- Burgundy (no status)
- Silver (oneworld Ruby)
- Gold (oneworld Sapphire)
- Platinum (oneworld Emerald)
It seemed logical to me that they’d match to KrisFlyer as follows:
 |
 |
| KrisFlyer Elite Silver | Silver |
| KrisFlyer Elite Gold | Gold |
| PPS Club | Platinum |
| Solitaire PPS Club | Platinum |
But that’s not what’s happening, at least not consistently.
Some PPS Club members are reporting that Qatar Airways has only status matched them to Gold. Gold is one rung shy of the coveted oneworld Emerald, which grants access to oneworld First Class lounges including the Qantas First Lounge in Changi.
I’m really surprised by this, given that the gap between Solitaire PPS Club and PPS Club is arguably a lot smaller than PPS Club and KrisFlyer Elite Gold. After all, PPS Club status is only available to people who shell out money for Business and First Class tickets. You could fly a million miles in Economy and never get near the PPS Club. These passengers are either very rich, or work for companies with generous travel policies, and they’re the ones you want to capture.
On the other hand, there was a PPS Club member who reported being matched to Platinum (and I’m seeing another successful report on Flyertalk), so we could use more data points on this. Please post below if you’ve got your match!
Other data points we’ve seen so far are:
- Turkish Airlines Elite Plus matched to Qatar Platinum
- Alaska MVP 75K matched to Qatar Gold (another odd one, given 75K is Alaska’s highest tier)
How long is matched status with Qatar Airways valid for?
Matched status is valid till 6 June 2021, or one year from the date the match was approved.
The more I think about it, the more I feel 2020 will be a write-off for travel, so that leaves you about six months (optimistically) to enjoy the benefits.
What benefits can you look forward to?
Here’s what you can look forward to as a Qatar Airways Privilege Club elite member:
| Silver | Gold | Platinum | |
| Tier Bonus | 25% | 75% | 100% |
| Family accrual rate- Flights | 50% | 100% | 100% |
| Family accrual rate- Non air | 100% | 100% | 100% |
| Qcredits | 40 | 60 | |
| No Qmiles expiry | Yes | ||
| Priority check-in | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Priority stand-by | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Excess baggage allowance | 15kg/ 1 piece | 20kg/ 1 piece | 25kg/ 2 piece |
| Lounge access | Self | Self + 1 guest | Self + 2 guests |
| Guest lounge passes for DOH | 2 | 4 | 5 |
| Priority boarding | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Al Maha service at DOH | Self + 1 guest | Self + 2 guests | |
| Online redemption discount | 5% | 5% | |
| Award fee waivers | Yes | Yes | |
| Better award seat availability | Yes | Yes | |
| Flexi awards | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Travel coordinator | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Guaranteed Economy Class seat for revenue tickets | Yes | Yes | |
| Preferred seats | Yes | Yes |
If you were matched to Gold or Platinum status, you’ll have received 40 or 60 Qcredits respectively. These can be used for single-cabin upgrades (Economy to First Class is only available where Business Class is not operated on the flight).
To put things in perspective, It costs 46 Qcredits for a one-way Economy to Business Class upgrade between Singapore and London, and 55 Qcredits for a one-way Economy to Business Class upgrade between Singapore and New York. You can work out the requirements for other routes using the Qcalculator.
Qcredits can also be used to redeem excess baggage, pay award fees, or redeem guest lounge access. I’d strongly recommend you save them for upgrades though.
Where lounge access is concerned, note that even if you were matched to Platinum, you will not have access to the Qatar Premium Lounge in Changi if you’re flying Economy. On the other hand, you will have access to the Qantas First Lounge, so that’s kind of a no-brainer.
Should you start accumulating Qmiles?
In a word: no.
Even though Qatar Airways has done away with their ridiculous “award booking fees” which could add up to US$300 on round-trip itineraries, there’s still no compelling reason to start accumulating Qmiles.
Let’s remember that Qatar Airways has extremely high fuel surcharges, which nerf a lot of value in its program. Here’s some sample surcharges out of Singapore (remember, there’s still airport taxes on top of this):
| Singapore to… | Economy | Business |
| London, Paris, Prague, Zurich | S$468 | S$862 |
| Boston, Los Angeles, Sao Paulo | S$599 | S$1,038 |
| New York | S$630 | S$1,069 |
Four digit fuel surcharges on a “free” ticket? Hard pass.
Qatar Airways has also made unannounced devaluations in the past, and treats passengers who upgrade with miles as second class citizens– they won’t enjoy enhanced luggage allowances or lounge access.
So enjoy your status, but don’t bother crediting flights or miles to Qatar Privilege Club. By the way, it should be possible to use your Qatar Privilege Club status benefits, but credit the miles to a different program. Take some time to learn about the FQTV and FQTS fields – FQTV is the program which which you’re accruing miles; FQTS is the program you have status with.
Upon check-in, the counter staff should be able to enter your Qatar Privilege Club number into the FQTS field for your lounge access and extra luggage benefits, while entering a different loyalty program number into the FQTV for mileage accumulation.
Disclaimer: I’ve never tried this with Qatar before, and I don’t know how their booking system is set up. An alternative is for you to to put the Qatar Privilege Club number on your booking initially, then change it after you get into the lounge at the service desk.
Conclusion
To all newly-minted Gold and Platinum members- congratulations! With an indefinite moratorium on travel, there may not be that much time to enjoy your perks, but hopefully you’ll get to do a tour of all the oneworld lounges in Changi at least once.
So far we’re only hearing data points from those who submitted their status match applications on 18 May (the day it opened). If you sent yours in after that, sit tight, you should be hearing back soon.
Do remember to post data points of your Qatar Airways status match below!
I was matched PPS to Gold
I wonder if expiry date has anything to do with it…or maybe they saw pps club members with more account activity as better candidates for Platinum?
Matched to gold and my account activity included paid flights to NYC and Paris which are routes that Qatar serve. I’m dumbfounded.
I’d just qualified PPS so had a year left, but no travel obviously since Jan
Matched pps to gold as well. Expiry for pps is March 2021, no recent travel due to covid-19
I was matched PPS to Gold too
I was matched Krisflyer Gold to Gold
Gold to Gold
Gold to gold!
Another Turkish Miles & Smiles Elite Plus to Platinum.
Hi Aaron, Matched SQ PPS to QR Gold.
Main motivator for Platinum was the First Class Al Safwa Lounge in Doha when flying in Business.
Solitaire (with 150k current annual spend since July) to Gold here
solitaire to gold? that’s incredibly weird to hear, given how most other solitaires got platinum.
I was matched Gold to PPS too. Year 2 of status with Dec 2020 expiry.
Former EY Gold (downgraded to Silver in March) to QR Gold!
I’ve had abit of activity this year. Syd, TPE, KUL and HKG all between Jan-Mar which was reflected in my submission statements and lots of AMEX transfer spends. But still Pps>gold
perhaps my Mar 21 expiry might have something to do with it but it did show my 27k Pps reserve$ and 8k Pps$
really not sure what standards they used or maybe too overwhelmed
Might not be of much use though since expiry is jun 21 and I still skeptical of travel even for next year.
hope they do issue the cards and tags because I do have silver with QR and it took them 6 months plus chasers to issues.
at least the membership card will make a glorified bookmark and the luggage tags a glorified bag tag
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Gold to Gold
PPS to Gold (just received PPS so no activity)
Matched PPS solitaire to Platinum, until 6 June 2021
PPS to QR Gold, and my husband KS Gold to QR Gold. Odd that the PPS was only matched to QR Gold, there was a lot of activity till Mid-February. Well, they probably realise that it will be difficult to attract/poach from PPS.
Pps to gold
Matched from SQ PPS Club Solitaire to QR Platinum 👌
I just been match to platinum, I’m solitaire
KF Gold matched to gold
Im PPS Solitaire, just got my status match from Qatar to Platinum.
Not sure how much that will influence my decision to fly Qatar though in future 🙂
Was also matched PPS to Gold. what the flying fluff..
Expiry Feb 2021, had just flown one of the last few flights out of SG to SFO in SQ business. Multiple SQ business and some SQ economy flights in 2019.
Matched from SQ PPS to QR Platinum (Oneworld Emerald) and wife got from SQ Gold to QR Gold. I had only $8K spend this year but explained to Qatar via email how long I have been PPS, my past year spend and typical travel. I also lead them by saying “I am looking forward to be matched to Platinum and enjoy QSuites”.
Hi guys, just got matched to Gold as well.
Btw, where can we find more info on the re-qualifying number of Qpoints needed for next year? In the original article, it was mentioned that it’s halved, but on my Privilege Club dashboard, it still says 300 points to re-qualify.
Just got matched – PPS to gold.
I just got matched SQ Solitaire and LH HON to Qatar Platinum