Ever since joining the Avios family in 2022, Qatar Airways Privilege Club has been aligning itself with other loyalty programs that use Avios as a currency.
The latest development is the introduction of peak and off-peak pricing to Qatar Airways Privilege Club, which has long been a feature of other Avios loyalty programs.
Qatar Airways Privilege Club Introduces Peak & Off-Peak Pricing
Qatar Airways Privilege Club has introduced peak and off-peak pricing to award bookings. It’s unclear when exactly this change happened, although it appears to have occurred quite recently.
As a reminder, with peak and off-peak pricing, award flights cost more on peak dates than on off-peak dates. Therefore, if you’re able to fly on an off-peak date, you can usually save some points.
Peak and off-peak dates aren’t necessarily predictable, as they vary by route and region. However, generally speaking, peak dates occur during major global travel periods, and off-peak dates are during less popular travel periods.
When searching for a flight reward with Qatar Airways Privilege Club, you’ll notice the word “Off-Peak” clearly displayed in the search results.
If “Off-Peak” isn’t displayed, then it’s a peak date.
For example, an off-peak flight from Montreal to Doha costs 35,000 Avios in economy.
However, a flight from Montreal to Doha on a peak date costs 47,500 Avios in economy, or roughly 36% more.
The same is true for business class flights, which are quite difficult to come by currently on North American routes. However, we can look to other parts of the world that have the same pricing as flights to North America for some context.
For example, a one-way business class flight from Doha to Adelaide costs 70,000 Avios on an off-peak date, which is the same cost as a one-way flight from Doha to, say, Seattle.
On a peak date, that same route costs 94,500 Avios, or a 35% increase from the off-peak price.
If there were availability to North American routes on peak dates, we’d expect the price to be the same.
It appears that peak and off-peak pricing doesn’t affect Qatar Airways First Class routes. For example, a one-way flight from Doha to Perth costs 142,000 Avios on an off-peak date.
And the cost is the same for a peak date.
It’s worth noting that the “Flexi” pricing doesn’t seem to be affected by the difference between peak and off-peak prices.
As a reminder, Flexi pricing is twice the standard cost for an award with Qatar Airways Privilege Club. In essence, Flexi awards offer access to a greater number of award seats, albeit at twice the standard price.
As noted above, standard off-peak pricing for a one-way flight from Montreal to Doha in business class is 70,000 Avios. On a peak date, the Flexi pricing is still 140,000 Avios, or twice the original amount.
If peak Flexi pricing were to follow the same rule of being double the cost of the standard rate, then we’d expect it to be 189,000 Avios, or double the peak-pricing cost of 94,500 Avios.
This doesn’t appear to be the case, as peak Flexi pricing is just twice the cost of the off-peak rate.
The Latest Change to Qatar Airways Privilege Club
There have been plenty of changes afoot at Qatar Airways Privilege Club ever since it joined the Avios ecosystem.
The most recent indication of change was noticed in late July 2023, when it appeared that the program was increasing the cost of last-minute award bookings.
However, seems as though that was an early indication of implementing peak and off-peak pricing, since the values for flights line up with what we see now with peak and off-peak dates.
For example, at the time, we suggested that within 31 days of departure, Qatar Airways was charging more for award flights than those booked more than a month in advance.
However, that doesn’t appear to be the case, since it’s still possible to find flights within 31 days of departure at the standard off-peak price.
For example, there’s a flight from Montreal to Doha available in early September 2023, which is less than 31 days from now.
If it were the case that flights cost more within 31 days of departure, then we’d expect this flight to cost 94,500 Avios. Since it doesn’t, it’s clear that the pricing depends on whether or not it’s a peak or off-peak date.
Therefore, the different prices noted were just an early indication of peak and off-peak pricing, even though it wasn’t labelled that way when it was implemented.
It’s worth noting that the pricing for Qatar Airways flights has the same peak and off-peak pricing if booked through British Airways Executive Club. In this regard, Qatar Airways Privilege Club is aligning itself even more with other loyalty programs in the Avios ecosystem.
Conclusion
Qatar Airways Privilege Club has implemented peak and off-peak pricing for award flights. Members can now expect to pay roughly 35% more in Avios for travel on peak dates than on off-peak dates.
Peak and off-peak pricing doesn’t appear to affect Flexi pricing, nor does it affect flights booked in Qatar Airways First Class.
This is the program’s latest move to align itself with other loyalty programs in the Avios ecosystem, especially British Airways Executive Club.
Thanks for the update. Over the past year I was able to book 2 flights from DOH to SEA, on short notice and pay the 70,000 miles. So that previous thought, short notice increase, would mess up my plans. Hopefully the new rules will not affect me as much.