Qatar Airways Privilege Club cuts ‘Boost Avios’ cost to 2 cents per mile
Multiply any Qatar Airways Avios your have earned by up to 6 times for 2 Singapore cents per mile, but British Airways still offers a better deal.
Earlier this year, the Qatar Airways Privilege Club programme launched a new way to multiply any Avios points you had earned after they credited to your account through flight activity or even a credit card transfer, by up to six times the original amount, for payment of a fee.
Dubbed ‘Boost your Avios’, this isn’t an entirely new concept, with British Airways Executive Club offering a similar deal called ‘Avios Balance Boost’ since June 2023.
While we recently covered the British Airways option in detail, we’ve not bothered doing so for the Qatar Airways one until now, because it originally meant buying miles at an unattractive 2.4 Singapore cents each.
Qatar’s ‘Boost your Avios’ cost reduced
This month Qatar Airways has actually reduced the cost of its ‘Boost your Avios’ option by close to 20%, which brings it to a level you might now consider worthwhile, if the additional Avios would allow you to unlock a redemption you didn’t think you had enough miles for.
Want to soar to greater heights with Privilege Club? You could boost Avios collected with us or our partners, up to 6 times.
Qatar Airways
For example, I recently transferred 100,000 Citi Rewards points into Qatar Avios during the May 2024 30% transfer bonus, which gave me 52,000 Avios points, rather than the usual 40,000 Avios.
QRPC does not allow me to boost the bonus element of the transfer, but I can boost the original 40,000 Avios credited. Here was their offer, back in May.
Paying US$720 for 40,000 additional Avios, or even up to an eye-watering US$4,320 for 240,000 extra Avios, is far too steep a rate, at 1.8 US cents (~2.44 Singapore cents) per Avios point.
Interestingly though now we’re in August, the cost to boost these Avios has reduced – either temporarily or permanently.
Paying US$612 for 40,000 additional Avios works out at 1.53 US cents (~2.02 Singapore cents) per Avios point boosted, which is a much better proposition and closely in line with the rate at which you can buy Qatar Avios during one of the airline’s 50% bonus sales.
While the pricing is basically 2 Singapore cents per mile for boosting your Avios, it does get a tiny bit cheaper the more you boost.
| Qatar Airways Privilege Club Avios Boost Rates |
|||
| 1x | 2x | 3x | 6x |
| 1.53 US cents (~2.02 SG cents) |
1.51 US cents (~2.00 SG cents) |
1.49 US cents (~1.97 SG cents) |
1.47 US cents (~1.95 SG cents) |
As you can see the cost per Avios reduces slightly as you boost in larger multiples, down to to 1.47 US cents (or 1.95 Singapore cents) at the sixfold level.
As always, don’t boost (buy!) miles speculatively. Have a plan for how you will redeem your Avios, ideally with award space you can already see is available, since a no-notice devaluation is always a risk.
How it works
QRPC allows you to boost Avios earned over the last three months, including credit card points transfers.
Effectively it means you can double (1x), triple (2x), quadruple (3x) or sextuple (6x) any Qatar Airways Avios you have earned in the last three months by paying a fee, including those you have accrued through flight activity, shopping, hotel points transfers or a credit card points transfer.
Yes, I have always wanted to use the word ‘sextuple’ in an article!
You won’t be able to boost points credited to your account via:
- Avios conversions from other Avios partners like British Airways Airways and Finnair
- Bonus Avios
- Avios purchased, shared or gifted
You can check how many Avios in your Qatar Privilege Club account are eligible for boosting by logging on to your account and clicking ‘Privilege Club’ then ‘Buy or boost Avios’.
You’ll then need to select the ‘Boost your Avios’ tab and click ‘Log in to boost Avios’ (even though you are already logged in).
The boost system, which is run by Points.com, will then display any eligible Avios credited to your account in the last three months that you can multiply for a fee.
Which banks transfer to Qatar Avios in Singapore?
You can transfer credit card points to Qatar Airways Avios from two banks in Singapore, as shown below.
Singapore Bank to BA Avios transfer partners
= Same transfer ratio as a KrisFlyer conversion
= Poorer transfer ratio than a KrisFlyer conversion
It’s definitely worth noting that you shouldn’t be transferring HSBC Reward points into Qatar Airways Privilege Club Avios, since the ratio is 3.5:1, compared to 2.5:1 for KrisFlyer transfers.
That’s even the case this month, while a 20% transfer bonus from HSBC to Qatar Airways is being offered, because you’ll still get 17% more miles with a transfer to KrisFlyer or into British Airways Avios at HSBC’s year-round 2.5:1 rate!
Which credit card to use
If you are going to boost your Qatar Airways Avios this way, you’ll want to achieve the maximum number of credit card miles for the purchase itself for the purchase.
The transaction happens in US dollars. Payment is processed by points.com, under MCC 7399.
You can earn the most extra miles for the purchase transaction by using one of the following Singapore issued credit cards if you can:
Good value Avios awards
If you’re not too familiar with the kind of awards you can unlock using Avios points in this part of the world, while the programme certainly can’t compete with KrisFlyer in terms of the scale of options available, there are still some great Oneworld and partner redemption opportunities worth knowing about.
These include:
- Qatar Airways Qsuite trips from Singapore to Europe for 70,000 to 75,000 Avios.
- Great value Cathay Pacific intra-Asia awards in long-haul J seats, with no fuel surcharge, like Singapore – Bangkok in Business Class for 16,500 Avios + S$67 and Singapore – Hong Kong for 22,000 Avios + S$67.
- Bangkok Airways Singapore – Koh Samui flights for 6,000 Avios.
- Virgin Australia flights from 6,000 Avios in Economy Class and 12,000 Avios in Business Class.
You can also link your Qatar Airways Privilege Club and British Airways Executive Club accounts and transfer Avios 1:1 for free between the two, also unlocking some more ‘sweet spot’ redemptions in that programme, such as:
- Finnair Business Class Singapore to Helsinki for 62,500 Avios, with minimal taxes and good award space.
- Malaysia Airlines Singapore to KL Business Class for 12,500 Avios (for a Oneworld ‘lounge safari’ at Changi).
- Qantas Singapore to Perth for 38,750 Avios in Business Class or 13,000 Avios in Economy Class.
Finnair Business Class to Helsinki is the cheapest miles award in this cabin between Asia and Europe – 40% less than the 103,500 KrisFlyer miles Singapore Airlines charges for a Saver award in this cabin on its own non-stop Europe flights.
British Airways ‘Avios Balance Boost’ is still better
While the pricing of the Qatar Airways Privilege Club ‘Boost your Avios’ option has now reduced to a more acceptable level at which to consider buying miles, it still comes nowhere close to the British Airways Executive Club deal.
That one allows you to do almost exactly the same thing with Avios points credited to its programme from as little as 1.58 Singapore cents per mile. Check out our full article with details on how it works.
Generally speaking, it means you should probably be transferring your credit card points to BA Avios if you want to boost them, since you can then transfer them instantly, free and 1:1 into Qatar Avios for use in that programme if you wish.
One good thing about better pricing for Qatar’s ‘Boost your Avios’ option is that Qatar Airways runs relatively regular 30% bonus transfer campaigns from credit card points in Singapore, like Citi Miles. That means you will sometimes be able take advantage of a transfer bonus, then a reasonably priced boost cost if you wish.
Qatar Airways Privilege Club has cut the cost of boosting your Avios from its original launch pricing of around 2.4 Singapore cents per mile to a more acceptable 2 cents per mile.
That makes it worth considering if you don’t have a sufficient credit card points balance for your preferred redemption (such as a round-trip award, instead of just one-way), or could also be used to preserve some of your credit card points for other purposes, like a KrisFlyer transfer, while still being able to lock in a good-value Avios redemption at a competitive cost.
Remember that the very similar British Airways Executive Club ‘Avios Balance Boost’ option offers better value if you wish to boost your points, but this Qatar option might suit those who don’t want the hassle of a BAEC account, and it allows you to take advantage of the regular Citi to QRPC transfer bonuses that come along, plus a cash boost.
What price are you seeing for Qatar’s ‘Boost your Avios’ option?
(Cover Photo: Qatar Airways)
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