Qatar Airways Privilege Club frequent flyer program

If you’re flying with Qatar Airways, you can choose between earning points as a member of its frequent flyer program or as a member of another airline loyalty scheme that’s part of the oneworld Alliance. This includes Qantas Frequent Flyer, which is one of the most popular schemes in Australia. However, like most airlines, Qatar favours members of its own frequent flyer program over any others. This means if you often fly with Qatar, you could get better benefits through Privilege Club than you would through another frequent flyer program.

If Qatar is one of your preferred airlines, you can use this guide to learn how its Privilege Club frequent flyer program works and decide if it will help you reach your travel goals faster.

How to join

It’s free to join Privilege Club and you can sign up online by following the steps below.

1. Go to the Qatar Airways website and move your cursor over the “Privilege Club” tab from the main menu. This will bring up the Privilege Club menu options.
2. Click on “Sign up” and enter your details in the application form. This includes your full name, date of birth, country of residence, email address and mobile phone number.
3. Agree to the terms and conditions, then follow the prompts to complete your application.

Once you’ve activated your account, you’ll be issued with a membership number and online account, where you can keep track of your reward miles, status and travel details. Note that you’ll start as a “Burgundy” member and can then progress to Silver, Gold or Platinum membership status.

Earning Qmiles

Flights

You can earn Qmiles for any flights you take with Qatar Airways, oneworld Alliance airlines or other partner airlines by adding your Privilege Club membership number to the booking. The number of award miles you earn depends on your fare class and the distance flown, Qatar Airways flights offering the most potential miles.

For example, the Qmiles you can earn with Qatar range from between 25% of the miles flown for the cheapest economy tickets (booking classes G, T, O and W), up to 300% of the miles flown for first class (F) tickets. In comparison, flights with Qantas offer between 25% for discount economy bookings (K, M, L, V) and up to 150% when you fly first class (F, A).

Qatar Airways discounts and promo codes

Tier bonuses

Silver, Gold and Platinum Privilege Club members are awarded bonus Qmiles in addition to the base miles earned on eligible flights. The tier bonus is calculated based on the actual distance flown. The following percentages apply for each status level:

Silver: 50% bonus Qmiles
Gold: 75% bonus Qmiles
Platinum: 100% bonus Qmiles

The tier bonus is only available on flights marketed and operated by Qatar Airways when your fare is already eligible for earning miles.

Hotels

The Privilege Club website lists over 50 hotel partners, including Hilton, Marriott, Sheraton and Shangri-La. While the number of miles you’ll earn varies depending on the property or brand, most offer Qmiles per $1 spent. A limited number also offer a fixed amount of Qmiles per booking; for example, 500 Qmiles per stay.

In most cases, you’ll need to sign up to the hotel’s loyalty program and then opt to earn Qmiles or transfer the hotel reward points to your Privilege Club account. For example, if you're a Hilton Honors member, you can convert 10,000 Honors points to 1,000 Qmiles. You can also earn 1 Qmile per US$1 spent on eligible Hilton Honors bookings, in addition to Honors points, when you link your Privilege Club and Honors accounts.

Car hire

Privilege Club has partnerships with six different car hire companies, offering Qmiles per booking or per $1 spent. We’ve outlined the details of each option below.

Earning Qmiles for family members

Privilege Club gives you the option of adding your spouse, children and parents to your account so that you can earn Qmiles when they fly with Qatar Airways or partner airlines. You can also earn Qmiles when they spend with other program partners.

Known as the Privilege Club Family Programme, each family member that is added is issued with a membership card. However, the Qmiles are credited directly to your account. While you’ll earn 100% of the standard Qmiles when your family members spend with non-airline partners, the miles earned for flights are based on your membership level. These are outlined below:

Burgundy: Family members earn 25% of the standard Qmiles (i.e. 25% of what you would earn on the same flight).
Silver: Family members earn 50% of the standard Qmiles.
Gold and Platinum: Family members earn 100% of the standard Qmiles.

You can link up to nine eligible family members to your account, as long as they are aged two years or older. If a family member wants to earn Qmiles for themselves, they can also unlink themselves from the Family Programme and set up their own account.

Other ways to earn Qmiles

While Privilege Club offers a range of other ways to earn Qmiles, these are all based outside Australia. If you live overseas or you’re looking for more ways to earn Qmiles while you travel, you can browse Privilege Club partners by category to see if there are any options that work for you.

You can also buy Qmiles at any time, as long as you have earned at least 3,000 since you enrolled in the program. With this option, a minimum of 1,000 Qmiles costs US$35 and you can buy up to 60,000 miles per calendar year.

Can I earn Qmiles with a credit card?

In Australia, you can transfer reward points to Qmiles with the Citi Prestige credit card or a Diners Club charge card that offers Diners Club Rewards. With the Citi Prestige, you’ll get a transfer rate of 3 Citi reward points for 1 Qmile, while with Diners Club Rewards the transfer rate is 2 points for 1 Qmile.

Redeeming miles

Flights

You can redeem Qmiles for flights with Qatar and partner airlines, with the option of using Qmiles plus cash when you don’t have enough award miles for a flight. Taxes and carrier fees also apply for award flights; costs start from US$30. As with all frequent flyer programs, award fares are subject to availability.

Upgrades

If you’re already booked on a flight with Qatar Airways, you could use your points to request an upgrade. Note that upgrades, like award flights, are subject to availability.

However, as well as being able to request upgrades online and over the phone, Privilege Club gives you the flexibility to request an upgrade when you check in at selected airports. This means you have more opportunities to get an upgrade, whether it’s in advance or moments before you fly.

In Australia, you can request an upgrade at the airport in Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth; eligible overseas airports include Doha, Abu Dhabi, Los Angeles and London Heathrow. Just find a Qatar Airways staff member, present your membership card and ask if an award upgrade is available.

Other rewards

While flights and upgrades are the main focus for using Qmiles, you can also redeem them in the following ways:

• Award booking costs. If you don’t want to pay the airport fees and taxes on an award flight, you could use Qmiles to cover that cost as well.
• Excess baggage. You can use your Qmiles to pay for extra baggage on Qatar Airways flights, starting from 5kg.
• Shop and pay with Qmiles. When you’re travelling through Hamad International Airport (in Qatar’s capital city, Doha), you can use your miles to pay for purchases at Qatar Duty Free or at Oryx Galleria in the city itself.
• Easy deals. This service offers specials on Qatar Airways award tickets, with savings of up to 50% off the usual Qmiles required for a redemption. These deals change seasonally and may have limited travel periods.
• Qmile transfers. You can also transfer your miles to another Privilege Club member, with a minimum of transfer of 1,000 Qmiles and up to 60,000 Qmiles per year.
• Hotel points. If you want to redeem your miles for hotel rewards, you can convert a minimum of 4,500 Qmiles for 1,000 points in the Le Club AccorHotels rewards program. As a guide, 2,000 points in this hotel program gives you €40 (approx $65) off your hotel stay.

Status tiers

When you first join Privilege Club, you’ll have Burgundy membership status, which allows you to earn and redeem Qmiles, share account benefits with family members and get access to a waitlist if a flight you want to book is full.

While Qmiles allow you to redeem rewards, such as flights and upgrades, you alsohave the opportunity to reach higher membership levels by collecting status points – known as Qpoints – for flights with Qatar Airways and oneworld Alliance partners. To reach a new status level, you need earn a set number of Qpoints in a 12-month period. You also need to have earned at least 20% of your points on flights with Qatar Airways, or to have travelled in at least four eligible sectors.

Privilege Club membership tiers and initial Qpoint requirements

Keep in mind that the number of Qpoints you earn depends on where you travel, the airline you're flying with and your fare class. Once you’ve reached a new status tier, you will hold it for 12 months. Privilege Club will then consider your flights over the past 12 and 24 months to help determine whether you’re eligible for a status renewal.

If Qatar Airways is your preferred airline for international travel, then this frequent flyer program could help you get more benefits at the airport and in the air. However, if you’re based in Australia, you’ll generally have more opportunities to earn and redeem points if you sign up to a frequent flyer program that lists Qatar Airways as a partner, such as Qantas Frequent Flyer or another oneworld Alliance airline loyalty scheme.

If you want to weigh up all your options, check out our full guide to frequent flyer programs. Or, if you’d like to become a member of Qantas Frequent Flyer, which is the most popular program in Australia, here’s how you can get free membership.

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