It seems to be open season on award pricing at the moment. Program after program are instituting award redemption increases with no notice, with Dan’s Deals noticing that Qatar Airways is the latest one to join the (saddest) party.
If you’ve been enjoying taking advantage of its sweet spots for American Airlines and Alaska Airlines, your enjoyment has come to an abrupt halt as they’ve greatly increased how many Avios now need to be redeemed.
Booking partner awards on American and Alaska using Qatar Airways Avios was one of the few remaining domestic sweet spots when using Avios since British Airways bumped up their pricing some time ago. That’s because for short-haul flights of up to 650 miles you previously only had to redeem 6,000 Avios one-way.
The increases by Qatar Airways aren’t paltry either. Here’s what Dan’s Deals found:
- 1-650 miles
- Was 6,000 Avios
- Now 9,500 Avios (58.33% increase)
- 651-1,151 miles
- Was 9,000 Avios
- Now 13,000 Avios (44.44% increase)
- 1,152-2,000 miles
- Was 11,000 Avios
- Now 14,500 Avios (31.81% increase)
- 2,001-3,000 miles
- Was 13,000 Avios
- Now 16,000 Avios (23.08% increase)
- 3,001+ miles
- Unchanged
As you can see, the hardest hit awards are those where the route is 1-650 miles, with the increase being over 50%. The 651-1,151 mile band is painful too, with an increase of almost 45%.
These changes are very disappointing to see, especially seeing as this was yet another no-notice change by an award program.
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