Qatar Airways selling Qmiles with 50% bonus

From now till 21 March 2021, Qatar Airways is selling Qmiles with a bonus of up to 50%, or 2 US cents per mile.

This isn’t quite as generous as the 50% discount they ran for two days in December 2020 (a 50% bonus is equivalent to a 33% discount), but it’s still an opportunity to top off your account for less. 

Buy Qatar Airways Qmiles with up to a 50% bonus 

Buy Qatar Airways Qmiles

Qatar Airway’s Qmiles sale runs from now till 21 March 2021, 4.59 a.m Singapore time. A minimum of 5,000 Qmiles must be purchased to enjoy a bonus, which tiers as follows:

A maximum of 250,000 Qmiles (pre-bonus) can be purchased per calendar year, which means you can buy up to 375,000 Qmiles (50% bonus) in total during this sale. 

Members must have earned at least 1,000 Qmiles since enrolment in order to purchase additional Qmiles. I assume this is a hedge they’ve built into the system to prevent people from opening multiple accounts and acting as mileage brokers. 

However, there’s an easy way to circumvent this restriction. From now till 30 April 2021, it’s possible to get up to 7,500 free Qmiles when you sign up for a Qatar Privilege Club account with the promo code OAT3SMQ121. 

• 2,500 Qmiles will be awarded immediately
• A further 5,000 Qmiles and 50 Qpoints will be awarded when you credit one Qatar Airways flight before 30 June 2021

It’s almost impossible to fulfill the second criteria, given how westwards travel (the only direction that makes sense with Qatar Airways out of Singapore) is unlikely to happen by end June. But those 2,500 free Qmiles will put you in a position to purchase more, and would also save you US$50 assuming a cost of 2 US cents per mile. 

When do Qatar Qmiles expire?

Ever since July 2020, Qatar Qmiles do not expire so long as you earn or redeem at least one mile every three years. It’s pretty straightforward to do this, so long as you have access to either a Citibank or Standard Chartered credit card. 

	Citi Miles	ThankYou Points
	1:1	5:2
	SC Rewards (Visa Infinite)
	3.5:1 (recently devalued)
For a full list of transfer partners by bank, refer to this post

What can you redeem with Qatar Privilege Club Qmiles?

Qatar Airways does not have an award chart, so you’ll need to use their Qcalculator to find the cost of a given route. Use it like you would a regular flight search- pick the cabin, airline, origin and destination. 

As mentioned earlier, Qatar Privilege Club recently reversed their 2018 devaluation. Here’s an idea of how much Business Class redemptions cost for one-way travel on Qatar Airways out of Singapore. 

Qatar Privilege Club members will not pay fuel surcharges for redemptions on Qatar Airways operated flights, so the only thing you need to consider is the usual airport taxes. 

Based on a cost of 2 US cents per mile, you’d pay US$1,500 plus some taxes for a one-way Business Class flight to Barcelona, London, Frankfurt, Paris or Zurich, and US$1,900 plus some taxes for a one-way Business Class flight to North or South America. 

I highly doubt that any of these destinations will be on our radars for a while, but assuming these award rates remain unchanged (which isn’t a given for Qatar Privilege Club), it may be worth looking at when things get a bit more sane. Here’s hoping there’ll be a chance to visit Qatar’s phenomenal Premium Lounge in Changi again too. 

Review: Qatar Airways Premium Lounge Singapore

If you were thinking about buying Qmiles to redeem for oneworld partners- don’t. It’s terrible value, plus you’ll have to pay fuel surcharges, where applicable. The best use of Qmiles is for Qatar Airways flights; anything else is a waste of money. 

What credit card should I use to buy Qatar Privilege Club miles?

Qatar Privilege Club does not process miles purchases directly. Instead, they’re processed through Points.com in USD, which means you can use the following credit cards to earn the most miles on your transaction.

	Earn Rate	Remarks
Citi Rewards Apply here	4 mpd	Cap of S$1K per s. month
UOB Visa Signature Apply here	4 mpd	Min S$1K Max S$2K FCY spend per s. month
SCB Visa Infinite Apply here	3 mpd	Min S$2K spend per s. month
UOB PRVI Miles Apply here	2.4 mpd
S. Month= Statement Month | C. Month= Calendar Month

I don’t recommend using the DBS Woman’s World Card for Points.com purchases, as many people have reported issues with getting the bonus points credited. 

Conclusion

I personally wouldn’t buy Qmiles at 2 US cents each, given how we just saw a cheaper sale a couple of months back. There’s no rush to redeem tickets now, anyway, and you’re better off waiting for a bigger sale to come around. 

While it’s always a bad idea to buy miles speculatively, it’s a terrible idea to buy miles speculatively in a program with a history of unannounced devaluations. That’s a bell you don’t unring- Privilege Club members probably won’t feel secure holding Qmiles for a prolonged period of time, and can you blame them really? 

So by all means partake in this sale if you already have a plan, but otherwise, it’s better to wait for now.