Earlier today we reported on Qatar Airways Privilege Club rolling out another of its unannounced changes to award pricing, with redemption surcharges on QR flights redeemed with Avios points hiked substantially, increasing the cash element of some award bookings by a whopping 128% (more than double original levels).
Well it seems the Doha-based Oneworld carrier has had a change of heart already, apparently rolling back its surcharge hike to a more palatable level that doesn’t affect awards quite so harshly as it did before.
Let’s take a look at the latest pricing.
Latest Qatar Avios surcharges
Earlier we examined the newly announced Qatar Avios award pricing in Business Class on three routes from Singapore, some of those most regularly redeemed by our readers:
- Singapore to Doha
- Singapore to London (via Doha)
- Singapore to New York (via Doha)
While Avios points rates on these routes were unchanged, as remains the case, new award surcharge pricing had increased the cash element of redemption fees by between 37% and 128% of original levels, all significant rises.
Here’s how that now looks with a partial rollback of fees now in effect.
Qatar Privilege Club
Award Repricing (Sep 2024)
Avios Points + Cash
| Route | Original | First Hike | Rethink |
| Singapore – Doha | 50,000 + S$163 |
50,000 + S$224 |
50,000 + S$224 |
| Singapore – Doha – London | 75,000 + S$300 |
75,000 + S$583 |
75,000 + S$349 |
| Singapore – Doha – New York | 95,000 + S$359 |
95,000 + S$818 |
95,000 + S$492 |
As you can see the most significant cash increase initially was for London (+94%) and New York (+128%) routings, the pair that have offered our readers the best value in the programme over the last few years.
Now those are brought back down to more minor increases of 16% on the London routing and 37% to New York.
(Photo: Qatar Airways)
This is good news because it means Qatar Airways is only increasing its Business Class award segment fee from US$70 to US$90 between Singapore and London (on each sector).
Strangely though, the award segment fee is still US$120 for those flying only from Singapore to Doha – unchanged from earlier. Pricing glitch? Let’s see.
Even more strangely, the award segment fee now comes in at US$250 from Singapore to New York (it was US$500 earlier!), even though the sector-by-sector fees are US$120 and US$200 respectively, when you redeem leg-by-leg on these two flights.
That means it’s now it’s 22% less cash to redeem both sectors in one itinerary. Earlier it was 56% more.
This all seems like a very messy IT error, which is probably good news for Avios members, since overall fee increases look likely to settle into “unpleasant but acceptable” territory, a far cry from the harsh increases that were looking likely earlier today.
Summary
Qatar Airways rolled out a substantial overnight award segment fee hike earlier today, increasing the cash element payable on redemption tickets network-wide, but more specifically for our readers on many popular routings from Singapore in Business Class by 37% to an eye-watering 128%.
Now a quick rethink, or an IT correction, seems to be in place.
The actual increases don’t look nearly as bad, with taxes and fees of S$349 to Europe in Business Class or S$492 to the USA in Business Class still unattractive, but significantly more bearable than ‘Plan A’ suggested, especially as Avios rates themselves continue to be untouched.
We’ll continue to monitor and report on this debacle going forward.
(Cover Photo: Qatar Airways)