A number of months in the past, I wrote about how Qatar Airways Privilege Membership enormously improved the worth proposition of redeeming Avios on companion airways. What’s superior is that this pricing not solely applies for journey on oneworld airways, but additionally for journey on Qatar Airways’ different companions, together with Bangkok Airways, LATAM, Center East Airways, RwandAir, and Virgin Australia.
To me probably the most intriguing companion right here is RwandAir, for the reason that airline doesn’t in any other case have any main airline companions by way of which you’ll redeem miles effectively. I’ve been taking part in round with this redemption function, and figured I’d report again. The excellent news is that award availability is great, together with in enterprise class. The unhealthy information is that the surcharges are probably important.
Qatar Airways Privilege Membership Avios are simple to earn
Qatar Airways Privilege Membership Avios are tremendous simple to earn, which is the primary purpose that this redemption is perhaps fashionable with folks:
The place does RwandAir fly, anyway?
For these not acquainted, RwandAir is the nationwide airline of Rwanda, and it’s primarily based in Kigali (KGL). The airline has a fleet of simply over a dozen plane, together with three Airbus A330s and 5 Boeing 737s. RwandAir operates a community to many factors in Africa, plus has service to Brussels (BRU), Doha (DOH), London (LHR), and Paris (CDG).
The primary purpose you’d wish to fly RwandAir is since you wish to journey to or from Kigali. Rwanda is an interesting nation with some nice safari alternatives, particularly for gorilla trekking.
I flew Rwandair’s A330 enterprise class just a few years again on a protracted haul flight, and you may learn my overview right here. I wouldn’t say the product is superb, but it surely’s a wonderfully good technique to journey, particularly if the airline gives nonstop flights that meet your wants.
Qatar Airways Privilege Membership award prices on RwandAir
Qatar Airways Privilege Membership redemptions on RwandAir comply with the usual companion award chart, as follows:
This chart relies on one-way distance. Listed below are the gap bands which can be most related to RwandAir:
- You would fly a distance of as much as 650 miles for six,000 Avios in economic system or 12,500 Avios in enterprise
- You would fly a distance of 651 to 1,151 miles for 9,000 Avios in economic system or 16,500 Avios in enterprise
- You would fly a distance of 1,152 to 2,000 miles for 11,000 Avios in economic system or 22,000 Avios in enterprise
- You would fly a distance of two,001 to three,000 miles for 13,000 Avios in economic system or 38,750 Avios in enterprise
- You would fly a distance of three,001 to 4,000 miles for 20,750 Avios in economic system or 62,000 Avios in enterprise class
62,000 Avios for a one-way enterprise class award between Rwanda and Europe is probably an amazing deal. There’s a main catch, although — you’ll be on the hook for paying no matter provider imposed surcharges RwandAir would have on a income ticket.
Reserving a RwandAir award by way of Qatar Airways Privilege Membership
The method of redeeming Qatar Airways Privilege Membership Avios is unnecessarily sophisticated, but simpler than I used to be anticipating.
Qatar Airways Privilege Membership doesn’t allow you to immediately search availability or redeem Avios on-line for journey on most companion airways. Quite this system counsel you submit your redemption request, after which they’ll get again to you inside a few days. In fact this sounds sophisticated, however I discovered the method to be fairly simple.
To start out, log into your Privilege Membership account at this hyperlink, after which click on on the “spend on different companion airways” heading. On this web page you simply must enter the airline companion, the cabin you wish to fly, the route, the date, and the variety of passengers.
You’ll then be advised what number of Avios this may price. If you wish to proceed, you’ll must share the main points of the traveler, together with passport data.
At that time your request for an award will probably be submitted.
Observe that you may fill this out for any flight, and simply because it’s requested, doesn’t imply it’s truly out there. That being mentioned, anecdotally it could seem that RwandAir has superb award availability, and also you principally have your decide of award house on nearly any flight, given how few individuals are competing for these award seats.
Inside 24 hours, I obtained an e-mail from Qatar Airways telling me to log into my message middle.
This message confirmed that there was certainly award availability, and my award was being held for a day, in order that I might end ticketing it.
There’s just one (not so small) catch — RwandAir has very excessive provider imposed surcharges on some flights, and these are handed on with awards. Along with the 62,000 Avios, I’d be on the hook for paying $761 in taxes, charges, and provider imposed surcharges — that’s greater than 50% of the income fare. Ouch!
These excessive surcharges appear to principally apply for flights to and from Europe. As some extent of comparability, Kigali to Johannesburg covers a distance of 1,666 miles, that means a enterprise class award would price simply 22,000 Avios. The whole taxes, charges, and provider imposed surcharges on such a ticket are beneath $70, making this an amazing redemption, given the money price of such a ticket being round $1,000.
Backside line
Whereas the most important world alliances mean you can redeem factors for every kind of airways, it’s cool to see area of interest redemption alternatives like this. Qatar Airways Privilege Membership is RwandAir’s solely helpful redemption companion, and it was enjoyable to mess around with this.
Based mostly on my expertise, it seems that award availability on RwandAir is great, even in enterprise class. The Avios pricing is kind of engaging, however the catch is that the provider imposed surcharges are important, a minimum of to and from Europe. In the meantime inside Africa, the surcharges are a lot decrease, so I feel that’s the place a lot of the worth lies.
What do you make of redeeming Avios on RwandAir?