We’ve all become accustomed to airlines selling miles. Frequent flyers particularly enjoy to see those loyalty miles on offer with some special purchase bonus or at a discount. However, I’ve never come across a solution as what Qatar Airways has just cooked up. That is a loyalty points subscription plan to build up Avios and, in some cases status Qpoints.
In this post:
- What is Qatar Airways Privilege Club Pro?
- Privilege Club Pro Pricing and Tiers Explained
- Privilege Club Pro vs Buying Avios: Which is Better?
- Can You Earn Qatar Airways Elite Status with Privilege Club Pro?
- Avios Do Not Expire and Open to Burgundy Members Too
- Sign up to my newsletter
What is Qatar Airways Privilege Club Pro?
If you’ve ever read a financial statement of an airline you might be aware of what a money making machine loyalty programs are. They are a rather easy way for airlines to raise extra ancillary cash. The running of such a program isn’t all that expensive and therefore it produces handsome profits.
All airline loyalty programs allow to earn miles on each flight. Miles that you can then spend on reward flights. In recent years airlines have also opened to solutions where you can purchase miles. Special offers for miles are not uncommon with airlines regularly offering discounts or bonuses on mile purchases.
Qatar Airways is taking that approach to a whole new level with its new Privilege Club Pro initiative. The idea is to sell miles but not as a one time event but as a subscription service. Qatar Airways Privilege Club Pro now allows to stash up Avios miles on a monthly basis paying a fixed fee.
Qatar Airways Privilege Club Pro is split in tiers, each with a different price tag associated to growing benefits, some also including status Qpoints.
Privilege Club Pro Pricing and Tiers Explained
The new subscription service Qatar Airways Privilege Club Pro offers four tiers with increasing benefits for subscribers to enjoy.
| Tier | Cost/month | Avios Miles/month | Qpoints/month |
|---|---|---|---|
| Access | 50$ | 2,500 | – |
| Select | 130$ | 7,500 | – |
| Exclusive | 240$ | 15,000 | – |
| Ultimate | 350$ | 20,000 | 5 |
In addition, Qatar Airways Privilege Club Pro subscriptions come with a yearly payment option too. If you chose to pay the subscription in bulk in advance you effectively get 2 months free for each tier:
- Access yearly is $500 – instead of $600
- Select is $1300 – instead of $1560
- Exclusive is $2400 – instead of $2880
- Ultimate is $3500 – instead of $4200
In case you haven’t noticed, only the most expensive of the 4 tiers ensures you can also earn Qpoints along with Avios. Qpoints are the only ones that contribute to reaching or maintaining status in a given tier. And in case you’re wondering, 5 points is not a lot at all. A quick recap of Qpoints needed to jump up in tier:
Privilege Club Pro vs Buying Avios: Which is Better?
If you’re looking for a simple solution to keep building up your Avios tally without having to think too much about it, and aren’t bothered by the monthly price or having to hunt for special deals, then a subscription might be a good option for you.
Qatar Airways Privilege Club Pro might be a convenient solution, but it might not always be the cheapest. We don’t have Avios points sales on at the moment but I’d bet you could get better points per euro ratios during special offers. However, that implies you’d have to be on the lookout for spot sales which can be time consuming.
So that’s all up to you, do you value convenience or price more?
Can You Earn Qatar Airways Elite Status with Privilege Club Pro?
Qatar Airways Privilege Pro subscriptions in the highest, Ultimate, tier also come with a monthly bounty of Qpoints. As mentioned above they aren’t many, only 5 per month.
They aren’t enough to help you jump up in status on their own. They can be helpful as a little push if you’re missing a few points to reach your tier threshold. However, keep in mind that even paying ahead in a lump sum you’re not going to get all the Avios and Qpoints unlocked on the spot. You’re still going to see them trickle into your account on a monthly recurrence.
So, to sum this up, if you want to acquire a Qatar Airways Privilege Club status you’ll still need to fly with the carrier to earn those precious Qpoints.
How to Subscribe to Qatar Airways Privilege Club Pro (Step-by-Step)
This is the easiest bit:
- First of all, you need to be a Qatar Airways Privilege Club member (that’s QR’s loyalty program).
- The you need to log in to your Qatar Airways account on the airlines site.
- And follow this link: https://storefront.points.com/qatar-privilege-club-pro/sso/subscription
Avios Do Not Expire and Open to Burgundy Members Too
Last of all two important pieces of information to be added to the Qatar Airways Privilege Club Pro topic.
Do Avios Expire with Privilege Club Pro?
Generally frequent flyer points expire after so much time. Airlines do so to incentivize you to keep flying with them or spend your balance. However, as long as you have one of these subscriptions active your Avios miles do not expire, which is an extremely interesting perk.
In addition, if you’re a brand new Privilege Club member (Burgundy Tier) and try to purchase Avios, you’ll soon find out you’ll need to have a positive balance of miles before miles purchase is available to you. However, this is not the case with these subscriptions. Even as a brand new member you can benefit from this solution.