Qatar Airways is offering a 50% bonus when you buy Avios points as part of a flash sale over the next few days, giving you the opportunity to top up your balance in this frequent flyer programme from 1.53 US cents per mile (around 1.96 Singapore cents per mile).

That’s not as competitive as recent deals, where a 65% bonus in December 2025 and a 60% bonus in August 2025 brought the cost of miles down to just 1.81 cents in some cases.

Qatar Airways up to 50% bonus Avios

You can buy up to 250,000 Avios in the Qatar Privilege Club programme per calendar year, which is 375,000 miles including the bonus if you buy during this promotion, whether for a top-up or a full redemption.

This can still be a good deal, especially given that the programme allows you to:

• Redeem great value Cathay Pacific intra-Asia awards in long-haul Business Class seats online, with no fuel surcharge, like Singapore – Hong Kong in Business Class for 22,000 Avios
• Redeem Bangkok Airways Singapore – Koh Samui flights for just 6,000 Avios, again with no fuel surcharge
• Redeem Qsuite awards from Singapore to Europe for 70,000 to 75,000 Avios
• Redeem Oman Air Business Class from Asia to Europe from 26,000 Avios in Economy Class or 77,250 Avios in Business Class
• Transfer Avios into the British Airways programme for excellent-value Finnair Business Class awards to Europe (only 62,500 Avios, with moderate surcharges)
• Transfer Avios into the Loganair programme (via BA) for a wide range of UK domestic flights on the regional carrier, often priced at over GBP200 (~S$350) one-way, for only 6,500 Avios, with minimal taxes and fees

One downside about this promotion is that the lowest cost per mile kicks in only at 26,000+ Avios purchased (39,000 Avios including the 50% bonus), so if you just need a small top-up – it’s going to be more expensive.

Here’s how the cost of Avios looks under this 50% bonus offer, for my Singapore-based account, priced in USD:

Miles purchase	Bonus	Cost per mile
1,000 – 2,000	None	2.80 US ¢ (3.60 SG ¢)
3,000 – 5,000	20%	2.33 US ¢ (2.99 SG ¢)
6,000 – 10,000		2.08 US ¢ (2.67 SG ¢)
11,000 – 20,000	30%	1.85 US ¢ (2.37 SG ¢)
21,000 – 25,000	50%	1.60 US ¢ (2.05 SG ¢)
26,000 – 250,000	50%	1.53 US ¢ (1.96 SG ¢)

The bonus reflects instantly at the buy Avios portal when you make your purchase.

Do note that your account may have been targeted for a buy Avios bonus that is structured slightly differently to mine, so do check how your specific offer looks before committing.

Deadline: 26th May 2026

This bonus offer ends at 11.59pm on Monday 25th May 2026 in Qatar, which is 4.59am on Tuesday 26th May 2026 Singapore Time.

  Buy Qatar Airways Avios

Unless you’re a very early riser, it’s no doubt more sensible to make any purchase you need during this promotion by the end of the day on Monday 25th May 2026.

Other things to know

• You must have earned at least 1 Avios since you first joined the Qatar Privilege Club in order to buy Avios. However, your current balance can be zero.
• The single Avios point you must have earned can be accrued through a paid flight, a credit card points transfer, a partner accrual or card-linked earning via hotel dining in Singapore.
• A free instant 1:1 transfer from British Airways Avios used to be sufficient to ‘activate’ a previously-unused Qatar Privilege Club account, but recent reader reports suggest this no longer works.

This is also a way to buy BA Avios (and others)

Since Qatar Airways shifted its frequent flyer currency into Avios, the loyalty points of the IAG Group in which the airline has a 25% stake, these frequent flyer points aren’t only good for redeeming with Qatar Airways itself.

You can now easily link your British Airways Avios and Qatar Airways Avios accounts together (see this guide) and make unlimited instant transfers back and forth between the two.

This allows you to tap good value short-haul redemptions on other Oneworld carriers at the BA Avios rates, which can be far better than the Qatar Avios rates when used to redeem Oneworld flights directly.

BA Avios also transfer 1:1 and instantly to Finnair, Iberia, Aer Lingus and Loganair, opening up more opportunities for your Qatar Airways Avios, provided you transfer them via the BA programme (which is the ‘hub’ scheme).

Note that the British Airways Club now requires your account to be 30 days old before you can link to a Qatar Airways Privilege Club account, and the Qatar Privilege Club will adopt the same rule in reverse from June 2026.

Citi PayAll is an alternative

Another way to “buy” miles, if you have sufficient upcoming expenses, is to use Citi’s PayAll service in Singapore.

The year-round earn rate for some Citi credit cards, coupled with the service’s recently-inflated 2.6% fee, can mean potentially being able to generate miles at similar rates than through this Qatar promotion:

• Citi Prestige: 1.3 mpd @ 2.6% fee = 2.00 cents per mile
• Citi PremierMiles: 1.2 mpd @ 2.6% fee = 2.17 cents per mile

These miles, credited as Citi ThankYou Points or Citi Miles, are transferable into either Qatar Airways Privilege Club Avios or British Airways Avios, provided you have enough total spend to reach one of the points transfer thresholds (10,000 Citi Miles or 25,000 ThankYou points, with identically-sized ‘blocks’ thereafter).

However, Citi is currently running a promotion offering a 0.7% fee rebate on tax payments or a 0.2% fee rebate on non-tax spend, with a minimum spend of S$6,000 by the end of July 2026, which brings the cost per mile down to 1.19 cents each with the Citi ULTIMA and 1.46 cents each with the Citi Prestige, cheaper than buying directly during this buy Avios deal.

Pro Tip: Since Avios transfer instantly and fee-free between BA Executive Club and Qatar Privilege Club, provided you have an account with each programme and have linked them, it’s better to always transfer from Citi to BA Avios, even if you will then use them in the Qatar programme, because the conversion from Citi is much faster (24-48h to BA, vs. 4 days to Qatar).

One benefit here is that you can also retain the points at the Citi side for as long as possible and keep a lookout for a transfer bonus from Citi into Qatar Avios. The most recent one in September 2025 saw the airline offering a 40% boost on larger transfers, with no upper cap.

BA Avios Balance Boost is an alternative

Another way to ‘buy’ Avios points year-round is via the British Airways Avios Balance Boost programme, which we’ve covered in detail on the site before.

This allows you to buy miles from 1.53 Singapore cents each, by ‘boosting’ those credited to the programme via general earning, including credit card points transfers from Amex, Citi and HSBC in Singapore (but not OCBC for some reason – poor ratio anyway).

It works by allowing you to double (1x), triple (2x) or quadruple (3x) any British Airways Avios you have earned in the last 30 days by paying a fee.

For example if you transfer 50,000 Citi Miles into 50,000 BA Avios, you will then be able to boost your Avios as follows:

• 50,000 additional Avios for US$625 / S$796 (1.59 cents per mile); or
• 100,000 additional Avios for US$1,220 / S$1,554 (1.55 cents per mile); or
• 150,000 additional Avios for US$1,800 / S$2,293 (1.53 cents per mile)

These Avios can then be transferred instantly 1:1 into your Qatar Airways Privilege Club account if you wish.

The downside of course is that you’ll need to have credit card points to transfer into the BA programme, in order to open up this cheaper ‘buy Avios’ opportunity.

Unlock valuable redemptions

For our readers based in Singapore, one of the best value redemptions on Qatar Airways is to Europe or the USA and back in Business Class.

Here’s an example of how you can use this buy Avios promotion to fly from Singapore to Athens and some other cities in Business Class on Qatar Airways for just 70,000 Avios + S$350 in taxes during off-peak dates.

QRPC Cathay Pacific
Business Class redemptions from Singapore
(one-way)

Route
	QR Avios	Effective Cost (buy Avios 50% bonus)	KF Miles
Singapore Athens	70,000 +S$350	S$1,372 +S$350	n/a
Singapore London	75,000 +S$350	S$1,470 +S$350	108,500 +S$65
Singapore New York	95,000 +S$494	S$1,862 +S$494	117,000 +S$89*

* S$125 if routing via FRA

As you can see, a purchase of 75,000 Avios in the programme for S$1,470 is enough to get you from Singapore to London via Doha in the Qatar Airways Qsuite Business Class, with around S$350 in additional taxes and fees to pay.

That’s a good deal compared to parting with 108,500 miles + S$65 with KrisFlyer, if you don’t mind a stop in Doha.

While a transit in Doha is potentially inconvenient, do remember that Qatar Airways is serving many cities in Europe and the USA which require a transit anyway when you fly with SIA – like Mykonos, Sofia, Madrid, Boston or Washington.

Do ensure that it’s regular award space you’re booking on Qatar Airways flights, not one of the airline’s ‘Flexi award’ options, which offer additional space at double the usual rate (not dissimilar to Singapore Airlines Advantage awards).

Flexi awards have a “Flexi” label, so beware of that – it’s really bad value!

Qatar Airways also now applies ‘peak’ Avios award pricing on more popular dates over busier periods, with around 20% more Avios needed, which obviously come in at poorer value and should also be avoided where possible.

Other great QR Avios award options

You can also now book Cathay Pacific awards via Qatar Privilege Club online at attractive rates, with no fuel surcharge added, as we first reported in 2024.

QRPC
Business Class redemptions from Singapore
(one-way)

Route
	QR Avios	Effective Cost (buy Avios 50% bonus)	KF Miles
Singapore Hong Kong	22,000 +S$65	S$431 +S$65	35,500 +S$65
Hong Kong Tokyo	22,000 +S$57	S$431 +S$57	n/a

These awards represent significant savings on the KrisFlyer Saver award rate with Singapore Airlines, and allow Oneworld lounge access, arguably a superior pre-flight experience in Cathay Pacific lounges and those of their partners like Qantas.

There’s also the option to redeem flights between Singapore and Koh Samui on Bangkok Airways, a Qatar Airways partner, for just 6,000 Avios + S$67 in Economy Class.

This can be a great way to circumvent high fares on this route (and yes, even Scoot’s fares can be eye-watering!).

Qatar Privilege Club is now also the cheapest way to redeem the following awards, following a BA devaluation in late 2025.

QRPC
Business Class redemptions from Singapore
(one-way)

Route
	QR Avios	Effective Cost (buy Avios 50% bonus)	KF Miles
Singapore Kuala Lumpur (MH)	12,500 +S$117	S$431 +S$117	22,000 +S$65
Singapore Colombo (UL)	22,000 +S$65	S$431 +S$65	45,000 +S$65

As we mentioned before, 1 Qatar Avios point = 1 BA Avios point, so there’s also a range of (mainly short- to medium-haul) redemptions you can unlock with this programme, by buying Qatar Avios with a 50% bonus, then transferring them free 1:1 into your British Airways Avios account.

A standout option here is the Singapore to Helsinki option with Finnair. While it’s become pricier on the surcharge side thanks to the impact of the Iran war, at 62,500 Avios + S$244 in taxes it’s still great value, and you can effectively unlock those miles with a S$1,225 Avios purchase during this sale.

We recently tried this (slightly controversial) product and loved it.

Remember that even relatively basic awards like Malaysia Airlines Business Class from Singapore to KL are also your ticket to Qatar Airways’ superb Premium Lounge at Changi Airport, for some pre-flight champagne and à la carte dining.

Buying Avios resets the expiry clock

Qatar Avios expire after 36 months of account inactivity, but any purchase during this promotion will reset the clock for your entire balance. Note that transfers between Qatar and British Airways accounts don’t count as activity for expiry purposes.

Will QRPC devalue Avios?

Here’s perhaps the biggest concern with this deal.

Qatar Airways has previously devalued its Qmiles overnight, without notice, by a whopping 40% (and on some routes by 80%).

There was also the carrier’s horribly botched hike in award surcharges in September last year – initially more than doubling the cost, before then relenting to a more sensible increase later the same day.

One thing is consistent – Qatar never gives customers any advance notice of these changes.

That has always led us to recommend that QRPC is not a frequent flyer programme to trust with a large miles balance in your account for too long.

We would only recommend buying Avios in this promotion if you have a specific redemption in mind to book in the near future, even with this bonus rate on offer.

Which card to use

If you are going to buy miles in this promotion, and assuming like most of our readers you are based in Singapore, you’ll want to achieve the maximum number of credit card miles for the purchase itself when buying Avios.

The transaction happens in US dollars. Payment is processed by points.com, under MCC 7399.

You can earn the most extra miles for the purchase transaction by using one of the following Singapore issued credit cards if you can:

Card	Earn Rate	Notes
Citi Rewards (see our review)	4 mpd	4 mpd on all online spend per statement month, capped at S$1,000 per card.
Maybank XL Rewards (see our review)	4 mpd	For MCC 7399 spend capped at S$1,000 per calendar month, subject to min. S$500 total card spend the same month.
UOB VS (see our review)	4 mpd	4 mpd on all overseas spend of at least S$1,000 in a statement period, capped at S$1,200 spend.
Maybank VI	3.2 mpd	All non-SGD spend, subject to $4,000 minimum FCY spend in the same calendar month.
SCVI (see our review)	3 mpd	All non-SGD spend, provided total card spend (any currency) is S$2,000+ in the same statement month.
Maybank HVS (see our review)	2.8 mpd	All non-SGD spend, subject to $800 minimum card spend in the same calendar month.

Note that the DBS WWMC card now specifically excludes MCC 7399 from points earning, so while this card previously had ‘hit-and-miss’ success with Points.com transactions, which could usually be rectified later via customer service, it’s now well and truly on the ineligible list.

At 1.96 Singapore cents per mile with the 50% bonus, this is one of Qatar’s more moderate ‘Buy Avios’ sales, and it only applies if you’re buying 26,000+ miles.

The sweet spots include Cathay Pacific Business to Hong Kong for 22,000 Avios (no fuel surcharges), Qatar’s Qsuite to Europe for 70,000 Avios – 75,000 Avios, or a transfer to BA for that incredible 62,500 Avios Singapore – Helsinki deal on Finnair.

As always, only buy if you have a specific redemption ready to book. This isn’t a programme for stockpiling miles long-term.

  Buy Qatar Airways Avios

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