Last month we wrote about how GrabRewards, the loyalty currency of the Grab app in Singapore, had added a new airline transfer partner, with the addition of conversions between your points balance and the Qatar Airways Privilege Club programme now possible.
It was also the programme’s debut for the option transfer another partner’s reward points into Grab, with the ability to shift your Qmiles across to GrabRewards points now live too.
Unfortunately the value wasn’t great, as usual with these transfer options, though we did think it could be a useful option for a small top-up of Qmiles miles, or an easy way to keep your entire balance valid for another three years under Qatar’s activity-based expiry policy.
Double Qmiles on offer
This month Grab has a new ‘launch bonus’ for its Qatar Airways partnership, with double the number of Qmiles awarded for each transfer made between 1st May 2021 and 14th May 2021.
| Transfer Ratio
GrabRewards points Qmiles 1,200 |
You can convert any existing GrabRewards points balances into Qmiles easily, using the Grab app. Transfers are limited to 50 rewards per member.
Follow the instructions given on the app to complete the redemption, which includes:
- Looking up the redeemed award in ‘My Rewards’
- Linking your account by entering your Qatar Airways Privilege Club (QRPC) membership number
Unlike with KrisFlyer, conversion from GrabRewards points into Qmiles is immediate.
This is a good deal
While this wasn’t a good conversion option before, with 20% more GrabRewards points needed to make a transfer into Qmiles than an equivalent conversion into the KrisFlyer programme would give you, that’s changed during this promotion.
With 200 Qmiles offered per 1,200 GrabRewards points converted instead of 100, you’re getting 67% more miles per point than for an equivalent transfer to KrisFlyer. That’s certainly not a bad deal, because…
Qatar redemptions are good value again
As we highlighted last year, 2020 saw the welcome news that Qatar Airways had slashed award rates for members redeeming on its own flights, back to the more reasonable pre-devaluation levels of early 2018.
A GrabRewards transfer alone certainly isn’t going to score you a Qatar Airways redemption ticket very easily, but with no fuel surcharges applied on award tickets, the QRPC programme is now among the best value options for Business Class redemptions in the excellent Qsuite (see our review), especially from Singapore to Europe and back.
That means you might be able to top-up a small amount from GrabRewards to make up an account shortfall to secure a redemption, in which case taking advantage of this bonus might be a very good idea.
Here are some award redemption rate examples.
Business Class redemptions from Singapore
| Route |  |
 |
|
| Before | After | ||
| Singapore Doha |
50,000 +S$58 |
n/a | |
| Singapore London |
75,000 +S$68 |
92,000 +S$55 |
|
| Singapore New York |
95,000 +S$91 |
99,000 +S$77* |
|
* S$113 if routing via FRA
As you can see, award rates from Singapore have fallen across the board, but it’s Europe flights that get the biggest benefit compared to KrisFlyer, costing 75,000 miles instead of 92,000 miles, with not dissimilar taxes.
Even better, closer cities in Europe like Athens and Sofia are priced at 70,000 miles one-way in Business.
Transfer from Qmiles to GrabRewards
Unlike with KrisFlyer miles, Grab also supports conversions from Qatar’s Privilege Club into GrabRewards points.
No big surprise in value terms on transfers in that direction though, where you’ll achieve only a 1:1 ratio.
| Transfer Ratio
Qmiles GrabRewards points 1,000 : 1,000 |
A transfer from Qmiles to GrabRewards will also keep your remaining Qmiles balance intact for a fresh three-year period, since this counts as activity, but 1,000 GrabReward points is typically only worth about S$2 when redeemed.
There is no transfer bonus in the Qmiles Grab direction being offered as part of this promotion.
Summary
Having another airline frequent flyer transfer partner available to GrabRewards members was certainly a good thing when this new Qatar partnership launched last month, but initially the value was nothing to shout about.
For the first two weeks of May, however, Grab is doubling the conversion ratio, making this new option 67% better value than a transfer into the KrisFlyer programme, provided you value the miles equally.
Qatar’s Qmiles have recently become pretty much on-par in value terms to KrisFlyer miles, in our opinion, following a ‘revaluation’ of the programme to previous award levels, unlocking the cheapest ‘Qsuite to Europe’ option with zero fuel surcharges, once travel returns.
Will you be transferring GrabRewards points to Qmiles during this promotion? Let us know in the comments section below.
(Cover Photo: Qatar Airways)