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Good Qatar Airways Australia availability for 180,000 Avios return in Business

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The cheapest way to get to Australia in Business Class with Avios, by far, is with Qatar Airways.

The cost is only 180,000 Avios return plus around £600 of taxes and charges per person.

Availability comes and goes, but currently looks surprisingly good.

Qatar Airways A350 to Auckland

A comment from Kaconym in our comments section yesterday made me take a look.

Kaconym was correct. Apart from Sydney and Auckland, Business Class Avios availability on the other Qatar Airways routes to Australasia (Perth, Brisbane, Adelaide, Melbourne) is looking pretty good, both short term and long term.

I did a quick survey. This is looking for:

  • 1 x Business Class seat
  • outbound from London
  • priced at standard rates, not the ‘double Avios’ Flexi rate
  • for February 2025 (an off-peak month)
  • booking on the Qatar Airways site (but ba.com availability should match)

Availability will be reduced for two people travelling together. You should still find something, or consider splitting and travelling on consecutive flights.

Here’s what I found:

Melbourne

  • 21 out of 28 days available

Perth

  • 21 out of 28 days available

Brisbane

  • 14 out of 28 days available

Adelaide

  • 27 out of 28 days available

What about taxes and charges?

Here’s a typical total cost including taxes and charges:

Qatar Airways Avios flight to Brisbane

Yes, just 180,000 Avios return for a Business Class seat.

You could reduce the taxes and charges by starting in Dublin, Amsterdam or similar to avoid long haul premium cabin UK Air Passenger Duty.

However, Qatar Airways uses ‘married segment availability’ so its possible that the onward leg to Australia might not show if you start from elsewhere. This rule also applies to departures from Birmingham, Manchester and Edinburgh.

Remember that the headline British Airways cost to Sydney is 290,000 Avios + £750 off-peak return, on the very rare occasions when there is availability.

You should be able to book via ba.com using the standard Avios booking portal, but it’s worth checking the Qatar Airways site as well. This article explains how to link your British Airways Executive Club and Qatar Airways Privilege Club accounts. You don’t need to transfer your Avios to Qatar Airways – once linked, Qatar Airways is able to pull Avios directly from your BA account when you book.

Here are our latest Qatar Airways reviews

Our most recent Qatar Airways Business Class flight reviews are here, for the new Boeing 787-9, and here for the Qatar Airways A380.

If you are based in London you should also read our review of the excellent Qatar Airways Premium Lounge in Heathrow Terminal 4 and the new Qatar Airways Frequent Flyer lounge in T4, for oneworld elites travelling in Economy, here.

We also have 2023 reviews of the lounges at Doha’s Hamad International Airport if you look through our Qatar Airways articles here.

PS. If you are not a regular Head for Points visitor, why not sign up for our FREE weekly or daily newsletters? They are full of the latest Avios, airline, hotel and credit card points news and will help you travel better. To join our 65,000 free subscribers, click the button below or visit this page of the site to find out more. Thank you.

How to earn Avios from UK credit cards

How to earn Avios from UK credit cards (April 2025)

As a reminder, there are various ways of earning Avios points from UK credit cards.  Many cards also have generous sign-up bonuses!

In February 2022, Barclaycard launched two exciting new Barclaycard Avios Mastercard cards with a bonus of up to 25,000 Avios. You can apply here.

You qualify for the bonus on these cards even if you have a British Airways American Express card:

Barclaycard Avios Plus card

Barclaycard Avios Plus Mastercard

Get 25,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher at £10,000 Read our full review

Barclaycard Avios card

Barclaycard Avios Mastercard

Get 5,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher at £20,000 Read our full review

There are two official British Airways American Express cards with attractive sign-up bonuses:

British Airways American Express Premium Plus

30,000 Avios and the famous annual 2-4-1 voucher Read our full review

British Airways American Express

5,000 Avios for signing up and an Economy 2-4-1 voucher for spending £15,000 Read our full review

You can also get generous sign-up bonuses by applying for American Express cards which earn Membership Rewards points. These points convert at 1:1 into Avios.

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 27th May 2025, the sign-up bonus on the ‘free for a year’ American Express Preferred Rewards Gold card is increased from 20,000 Membership Rewards points to 30,000 points. Points convert 1:1 into Avios (30,000 Avios!) and many other programmes. Some people may see even higher personalised offers. Click here to apply.

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 27th May 2025, the sign-up bonus on American Express Platinum is increased from 50,000 Membership Rewards points to a huge 80,000 points. Points convert 1:1 into Avios (80,000 Avios!) and many other programmes. Some people may see even higher personalised offers. Click here to apply.

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold

Your best beginner’s card – 30,000 points, FREE for a year & four airport lounge passes Read our full review

The Platinum Card from American Express

80,000 bonus points and great travel benefits – for a large fee Read our full review

Run your own business?

We recommend Capital on Tap for limited companies. You earn 1 Avios per £1 which is impressive for a Visa card, and the standard card is FREE. Capital on Tap cards also have no FX fees.

Capital on Tap Visa

NO annual fee, NO FX fees and points worth 1 Avios per £1 Read our full review

Capital on Tap Pro Visa

10,500 points (=10,500 Avios) plus good benefits Read our full review

There is also a British Airways American Express card for small businesses:

British Airways American Express Accelerating Business

30,000 Avios sign-up bonus – plus annual bonuses of up to 30,000 Avios Read our full review

There are also generous bonuses on the two American Express Business cards, with the points converting at 1:1 into Avios. These cards are open to sole traders as well as limited companies.

American Express Business Platinum

50,000 points when you sign-up and an annual £200 Amex Travel credit Read our full review

American Express Business Gold

20,000 points sign-up bonus and FREE for a year Read our full review

Click here to read our detailed summary of all UK credit cards which earn Avios. This includes both personal and small business cards.

Category

Qatar Airways and Privilege Club

Comments (108)

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

  • Sam says:
    23 Apr23 April 06:46

    Can you use companion vouchers on this flight booking method?

  • Paul says:
    23 Apr23 April 06:48

    Almost 15 hours in transit outbound… ouch.

    • The Original Nick. says:
      23 Apr23 April 07:03

      Yep, that’s what you need to be careful of when planning.

    • SimonCH says:
      23 Apr23 April 07:23

      Not for Auckland.
      It’s 2 1/2 hours both ways, enough time to visit lounge and shower.

    • Deek says:
      23 Apr23 April 10:42

      QR offer a very cheap Doha city tour which is interesting, and there’s always the (paid) pool and spa by the Oryx hotel which is normally empty during Australia layover hours.

  • Occasional Ranter says:
    23 Apr23 April 06:52

    Yeah, watch out for crappy transit times. Also watch out, on the ADL route, for routings via MEL (QR988/989 from memory).

  • Reney says:
    23 Apr23 April 06:56

    I need to get to Auckland for a family wedding later in the year. I have been checking every so often but everything is flexi. So if I am willing to transit via Australia which is the best Australian city to connect via of the 3 with easier availabilities? By best I define as lots of flights – cheap or possible avios using onward connections to AKL, there is enough to do in the city if I spend a few days here on the way back, the weather being ok in November. Thanks!

    • Occasional Ranter says:
      23 Apr23 April 07:08

      BNE, SYD and MEL are v similar in terms of overall flight time and all have heaps of onward flights to AKL. Sydney would be my choice if your 1st time in Oz and spending a few days in a city: airport close-ish to city, insanely good setting on the harbour, fab public transport you can just use contactless on your phone for, weather generally not too hot or cold in November.

      As to award seat availability, good luck….

      • phantomchickenz says:
        23 Apr23 April 07:53

        I couldn’t find any onward reward seats from Melbourne in December last year, but, it was December. Sydney tends to have a few more NZ flights out of those three cities, so is probably your best bet.

        • Occasional Ranter says:
          23 Apr23 April 15:15

          Also, with Sydney, I think 2 QF flights a day are A330 so a proper long haul lie flat seat. Not that you’ll want to lie flat, but the space and facilities are substantially better.

    • Ian m says:
      23 Apr23 April 08:41

      Check departures out of Dublin for availability

  • Will says:
    23 Apr23 April 07:25

    Is there a way to search only for business? Seems all results are based on economy and include flexi, until you drill all the way down to individual flights.

    • Kaconym says:
      23 Apr23 April 08:44

      The easiest way I’ve found is to use American Airlines online booking portal. Make an account and search for one way points tickets LON to the city of your choice, then open the calendar view and filter by business/ first availability, most of the flights it shows are Qatar and you can see a whole month at a time. It’s a bit buggy, but unlike Qatar this only shows you normal priced receptions in business. 95% of the time it matches with the availability on the Qatar site, where you’d actually book.

      • Will says:
        23 Apr23 April 09:13

        Thank you

      • ABA says:
        23 Apr23 April 09:27

        Thank you very much for this, I found this really useful.

      • SBIre says:
        23 Apr23 April 11:08

        Great tip!

        • Occasional Ranter says:
          23 Apr23 April 15:09

          Agreed, AA site can be useful for month at a time view, but it has its own bugs, particularly phantom availability that is only flushed out when you get a screen or two further into AA’s booking process. And yes, it only looks 330 days ahead.

          One GREAT thing about AA though is that if you do find something, you can put it on hold for 4-5 days if you need time to get enough Avios together or to line up other flights or agree plans with spouse or whatever. When you release the AA hold on them, they will usually show as available again on BA within a few seconds. (Or re-hold them with AA multiple further times…)

          Not sure why I’m sharing this tip 😮

  • JRC says:
    23 Apr23 April 08:23

    Can’t find any availability for 2 people to Mel in Feb at 360k. 720k that’s a different story.

    • Rob says:
      23 Apr23 April 08:48

      Simply not true. I picked 12th and 13th at random and both had two seats showing. 18th does, 19th does, 20th does, 21st does …. I’m not going to recheck the whole month for you. Admittedly very early Feb seems dead for two.

  • Mike says:
    23 Apr23 April 09:03

    Could someone help me as first time Qatar user?
    1. Is there a specific time they release award seats? Is it 360 days before?
    2. Do they release a specific number of seats or random?
    3. Do they release flexi seats first and later drop to regular price if not sold? Is there a specific no days after release this happens.

    Thanks for any advice
    Mike

  • BacktoBlue says:
    23 Apr23 April 09:27

    Recently searched at great length for LHR-MEL / BNE-LHR in Feb 2025 using avios via BA website – eventually booked the dates I wanted on QR metal – Happy! Happy!

    Occasionally was offered connection via Japan on JL and it got me thinking … is there any way to force the system to check all potential routings on all oneworld carriers (i.e. including CX / MH / JL)?

    Perhaps it does this anyway and there just wasn’t any availability on any other routings for when I was looking?

    • Occasional Ranter says:
      23 Apr23 April 15:01

      “Perhaps it does this anyway and there just wasn’t any availability on any other routings for when I was looking?”

      This, generally. Seems to be very little availability with JL, CX, MH from Oz to Europe at the moment. None with QF I’ve seen.

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

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