Your guide to Qatar Airways Privilege Club: Explore the Middle East and Europe with PayRewards

Looking to send your PayRewards Points soaring on flights to Europe? Don’t overlook Qatar Airways Privilege Club. It’s your ticket to one-stop flights from Australia to some of the most popular destinations across the UK and Europe – at desirable rates. Come and see how Privilege Club can work for you and your business.

Converting your PayRewards Points into Avios

It’s quick and easy to exchange your PayRewards Points for Avios with Qatar Airways Privilege Club. For every 3 PayRewards Points, you’ll get 1 Avios in return. Transfers are usually processed instantaneously, so there’s no delay when you want to get moving.

Why transfer to Privilege Club, and with the 3:1 rate? Well, for just 180,000 Avios (converted from 540,000 PayRewards Points), you could fly return from Australia’s east coast to Europe in Qatar Airways business class. This includes flights with the airline’s world-leading Qsuite. Excited yet?

Spending your Avios

Qatar Airways is a member of the global oneworld Alliance. This makes reward bookings possible on carriers like Cathay Pacific, Finnair, Japan Airlines and more – not to mention the airline’s separate partnership with Virgin Australia. But for us, three options stand out from the pack. These are:

• Booking Qatar Airways flights
  Privilege Club members have access to more Qatar Airways reward seats than are released to most other partner programs. Redemption rates are highly attractive, and often with the option to pay double miles to access far greater availability if you need it.
• Upgrading on Qatar Airways
  Use your Avios to lock-in an upgrade to the next-best cabin on a paid Qatar Airways flight, subject to availability. It’s quick and easy to do online, and you can confirm availability and pricing without any Avios in your account.
• Transferring your Qatar Airways Avios to British Airways
  It’s rare that you can convert reward points directly between two frequent flyer programs. But with Qatar Airways Privilege Club and British Airways Executive Club, you can do just that. ‘Combine’ your Avios at a 1:1 rate – handy, because Privilege Club and Executive Club can have different redemption rates for the same flights… hint hint.

Privilege Club members can also travel with Airlink in Africa, along with Bangkok Airways, JetBlue, LATAM, Middle East Airlines, Oman Air and RwandAir.

Fly to Europe using Avios

Qatar Airways boasts a broad flight network connecting Australia with Europe via the Middle East. Fly from Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth and Adelaide into Doha, then travel beyond to a wealth of destinations. Starting in December 2025, you can also fly with Qatar from Canberra to Doha via Melbourne.

With Qatar Airways Privilege Club Avios to spend, here’s what a one-way ticket costs to Europe from all Australian cities.

• Economy: 45,000 Avios
• Business class: 90,000 Avios
• First class: 135,000 Avios*

* First class is only available on Qatar Airways’ Airbus A380 flights. It’s not possible to redeem Avios for first class between Doha and London, even when the flight is an Airbus A380 service.

Privilege Club is best for booking flights on Qatar Airways itself, but there are other options. Here’s what you’d need to travel on any of Qatar Airways’ partner airlines between Australia and Europe, one-way:

• Economy: 51,500 Avios
• Premium economy: 103,000 Avios
• Business class: 154,500 Avios
• First class: 206,000 Avios

Notice that the cost of premium economy on partner airlines is higher than Business Class on Qatar Airways itself, so only use this move when you’re in a bind.

Travelling to the Middle East with Avios

From Australia, the number of Avios needed to fly beyond Doha across the Middle East isn’t much higher than travelling only to Doha. Translation: tag on a second flight in business class for as little as 5,000 Avios more.

Here’s how many Avios you’d need for a flight to Doha and what you’d burn in total for a journey to other popular points across the Middle East (via Doha).

Handy hack: On two-class flights within the Middle East, Qatar Airways brands its forward cabin as ‘First Class’ (just like the US). But when a long-haul flight in Business Class is part of the same journey, you’ll only pay the business class rate the entire way.

For these bookings, the ‘mixed class’ search is your friend – don’t be deterred if you see ‘not available’ under the individual classes. Oh, and despite the reward cost, these ‘First Class’ tickets still get access to Qatar Airways’ flagship Al Safwa First Class Lounge in Doha. (You’re welcome!)

Did somebody say ‘private jet’?

Okay, we’ve taught you how to sneak into first class at Business Class prices. But did you know your Qatar Airways Privilege Club Avios can be used to book flights on private jets? That’s through Qatar Executive.

Fair warning: don’t expect these bookings to come cheap. In fact, the company doesn’t publicly share the conversion rate from Avios to QAR for chipping away at the hefty bill. But if you’re sitting on a mountain of points, here’s a tip from Qatar Executive on how to get started.

“Our pricing is dynamic and is based on aircraft type, routes, and flying hours amongst other details. Every quotation is tailored to our passengers and their unique requirements. Please get in touch with the Qatar Executive team directly for a formal quotation by emailing request@qatarexec.com.qa confirming your Privilege Club membership number, requested date of flight, destination and passenger details.”

Tips and tricks when booking flights through Qatar Airways Privilege Club

There’s a lot more to Privilege Club than we can cover in a single story. But here are a few ways to get more out of the program:

• Short flights aren’t great value. For a one-way economy hop from Sydney to Melbourne on Virgin Australia, you’d need 6,000 Avios plus $76.15 AUD. But the same flights are currently selling from just $95 outright, with no points required. Save your Avios for a longer trek in business class!
• Qantas reward flights are limited. You’ll rarely see Qantas as an option via Privilege Club, as Qatar Airways is more closely affiliated with Qantas’ rival, Virgin Australia.
• Flexible on dates? Use Qatar’s handy ‘My Reward Seat Finder’ tool to hunt down travel dates with availability to the destination(s) you seek.
• Avios upgrades usually exclude lounge access. If your original ticket or frequent flyer status already gets you through the door, no sweat. But if you don’t already have lounge access, upgrading with Avios seldom changes that. This doesn’t affect outright flight bookings with Avios – only cash bookings in one class later upgraded to another.
• Partner airline flights have quirky rules. You can’t book an infant seat on partners. You can’t have more than four partner airline flights on a single booking. Oh, and you also can’t have multiple airlines on the same reward ticket – even in connection with a Qatar Airways flight. As we said, the best use of Avios is on Qatar Airways itself.

Need more Avios?

There’s no limit to the number of PayRewards Points you can convert into Avios with Privilege Club. But if you need even more to get where you’re headed, consider transferring Avios from the following Australian credit card programs:

• American Express Membership Rewards (2:1 rate)
• Citi Rewards (3:1 rate, Prestige cards only)
• CommBank Awards (3.5:1 rate)
• Virgin Money Rewards (3:1 rate)

Don’t forget, you could use a points-earning credit card to make payments through pay.com.au, while also opting in for even more points via PayRewards. It’s the double dip that gets you closer to your trip!

Written by Chris Chamberlin

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About the author

Chris enjoys making the most of frequent flyer points, which have taken him around the world – usually, at the front of the plane. He’s travelled over 1.5 million miles sampling the best in Business Class and First Class. That’s further than three return trips to the moon! Chris is based at Point Hacks' Melbourne office as News Editor, and shares his experiences via @chris_chamberlin on Instagram. When he’s not travelling, he enjoys tennis, keeping fit, and discovering new gins.