Qatar Airways have launched their usual Valentine’s Day sale for business class fares when 2 people travel together and book by 14th February. The fares are available from the UK and there are also some good ex EU deals too. For once there are actually some reasonable fares from the UK with the best prices generally being from Edinburgh or Cardiff. Prices for single travellers appear to be slightly reduced but not nearly as good as for 2 people.
So is it worth the extra hassle to fly Qatar at these prices even if they don’t fly direct?
In this post:
Qatar indirect vs BA direct
The advantage of flying Qatar rather than BA, even if they are indirect, is two fold. Firstly, in my opinion, the on board product is vastly superior on the more modern Qatar aircraft such as A380, A350 and B787. Secondly, just one trip to most destinations will get you 560 BA tier points and more Avios than flying BA. 560 tier points is only 40 tier points away from being Silver which gives you free seat booking and lounge access even in economy.
The Qatar business class product has the latest reverse herringbone seats on most long range aircraft apart from the B777 and A330. This means direct aisle access for every passenger. They also allow you to dine on demand meaning you can eat your meal whenever it suits you. The food and service on board is one of the best you will experience in business class, let alone at these amazing prices.
The lounge in Doha is pretty spectacular too and a pleasant way to spend some time in Doha waiting for your connection although it is often very busy. The only disavantage is that there are no spa treatments for business class passengers unlike BA.
You can read reviews of Qatar’s business class on various aircraft here.
The prices
Here are some of the highlights. Prices per person start from those shown below, based on 2 people travelling together. You may be able to get cheaper flights starting in Eastern Europe but be aware treat some starting points get less tier points and only have short haul aircraft. Sofia, Zagreb, Bucharest, Budapest and Prague usually offer cheap fares.
You may be best using Qatar’s website to look for flights if you have specific dates. Google flights was often showing incorrect prices until you actually selected the flights when I was researching this article.
- Chiang Mai
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- From Cardiff £1669
- From Oslo £982
- Singapore
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- From Edinburgh £1591
- From Oslo £1290
- From Berlin £1340
- Tokyo
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- From Helsinki £1227
- Cape Town
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- From Stockholm £1597
- From Berlin £1603
- Johannesburg
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- From Oslo £1480
- From Berlin £1346
- Maldives
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- From Oslo £1330
- Bali
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- From Oslo £1226
- Bangkok
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- From Helsinki £978
- From London £1592
- Phuket
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- From Helsinki £1015
- Krabi
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- From Helsinki £1022
- Kuala Lumpur
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- From Stockholm £1107
- Ho Chi Minh City
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- From Helsinki £1194
- From Cardiff £1781
- Auckland
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- From Oslo £1454
- Canberra
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- From Oslo £1422
- Sydney
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- From Stockholm £1537
- From Edinburgh £2454
The rules
- Travel period: 1 March until 10 December 2018.
- All travel must be completed by 10 December 2018.
- Blackout dates (dates when discounts do not apply): from 6 July 2018 until 5 August 2018 (incl) for outbound flights and from 10 August 2018 until 9 September 2018 for Inbound flights.
- Valid on Qatar Airways operated return flights originating from United Kingdom (London Heathrow, Manchester, Birmingham, Edinburgh and Cardiff) via Doha (DOH) only.
The sale page is here.
Other discounts
There is also a discount code you can use at the moment. The code FLYQRUK can be used for 15% off the following new destinations: Chang Mai, Penang, Pattaya or Canberra from the UK.
2 comments
Michele
I’ve been meaning to write about my recent Qatar search for UK to Kathmandu business class flights in October this year and this article has jogged my memory.
In early January I sourced some decent business fares from Birmingham at £1411 each on the Qatar website (£1330 using Expedia) but decided to wait to see if any further reductions became available in the Qatar January sale. As an aside fares from Heathrow were about £400 per person more expensive.
On the first day of the sale, the Birmingham ticket prices went up to £2400 each (with no discount on Expedia) and stayed at this level until the sale ended, whereupon they reverted to the original lower price! This was across the board and covered all similar travel dates.
I have subsequently booked the flights and secured an even better discount through the RBS Private Banking Travel Service, paying £1254 each.
Suffice to say that you have to be very wary of Qatar sale periods for certain destinations.
Keep up the good work and it may be worth investigating and blogging about fee paying bank account travel services. I save the cost of the account many times over with lounge access, flight discounts, annual premium travel insurance etc.
Andy
Hi Andy. Glad you are enjoying the blog. That’s the trouble with air fares as the pricing is very dynamic. Having been caught out myself when I hestitated with a Qatar sale fare my philosphy is now – if you see a price you think is good, buy it! It’s always a gamble either way. That’s a good tip about fee paying bank accounts. I have heard not very good reports in the past but not specifically about RBS. I will look into that. Thanks for the tip!
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