NEW: Earn 2.5 Avios per £1 when you pay for Qatar Airways tickets via bank transfer

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• Jezza says:

  17 Feb17 February 04:47

  Does it work on Avios redemptions (for the increasing excessive fees and taxes) I wonder?

• JK says:

  17 Feb17 February 05:15

  Also need to be mindful that paying by credit card may mean it’s covered under travel insurance (eg AmEx Cent/Plat) – which may be more tricky if the flights aren’t paid for on it.

• patrick C says:

  17 Feb17 February 05:48

  At current interest rates this makes not that much sense.
  Keeping that cash in a money market fund with 30 days between booking and payment (average tike here) would give you 25gbp.
  If you add that in, a good credit card beats a non cash extra avios

  • Andrew Halket says:

    17 Feb17 February 06:13

    The most you’d get in 30 days is about 0.4%. 2.5% of Avios (effectively) is much better value.

    • Bloxorus says:

      17 Feb17 February 06:42

      0.4% of interest plus 2 MR points from spending on the Amex gold. i.e. 2.4% back plus the protections offered from using a credit card. I’d take that any day vs 2.5% back

      • patrick C says:

        18 Feb18 February 06:53

        Yes this is about doing tje math correctly.
        Yku could even add an annuity value for the interest on interest in the future,l 😉
        Avios don’t generate interest once you have them, cash has at least some inflation protection

• BJ says:

  17 Feb17 February 06:09

  Nothing new, Asian carriers have been offering payment by bank transfer for years, QR just catching up. QR revenue fares have gone from decently competitive pre-pandemic to very uncompetitive post-pandemic so ultimately these are very expensive avios unless your employer is picking up the bill.

  • jjoohhnn says:

    17 Feb17 February 09:34

    But Asian carriers don’t give you Avios for doing so, which is the new thing.

• Andrew Halket says:

  17 Feb17 February 06:11

  2.5 Avios per £1 is what I get with Amex BAPP, Curve and Barclaycard. Up to £3000 a month anyway…

  • LayerDen says:

    17 Feb17 February 10:24

    How?

• Alex G says:

  17 Feb17 February 06:25

  Not for me. S75 protection is worth more.

  • meta says:

    17 Feb17 February 07:09

    +1.

    One should never buy plane tickets on a debit card or via bank transfer.

    • planeconcorde says:

      17 Feb17 February 07:41

      +1

    • AJA says:

      17 Feb17 February 07:52

      I agree however you could pay a small amount on the credit card (as little as 1p) and the rest by bank transfer and still get s75 protection as long as the individual fare costs over £100 and less than £30k.

      I’ve never paid a very small amount but have paid £100 on my own card and then the balance on my supplementary card to spend toward a BAPP voucher on my partner’s card. The flight was for me alone so wanted to make sure I didn’t fall foul of Amex saying the s75 protection didn’t count as I wasn’t the primary card holder.

      • AJA says:

        17 Feb17 February 08:01

        Never had to make a claim via s75 for any airfare though but have invoked EC261 claims several times.

        Also worth noting that many travel insurance policies now specifically exclude reward flights from their coverage and expect you to claim from the airline first before they will consider helping you. I noticed that restriction with Staysure when my flight last October was cancelled. Fortunately BA rerouted me and paid compensation even though I ultimately lost 2 days of the holiday.

        • meta says:

          17 Feb17 February 13:47

          I don’t think you can part pay in that way. You have to pay the full amount and I would also he concerned about QR reconciling two different payment methods.

• Reney says:

  17 Feb17 February 06:39

  The article should mention that for someone relying on the Amex Plat insurance not buying the ticket with the credit card would mean not being covered for certain things.

• sam says:

  17 Feb17 February 07:01

  A very bad precedent for UK card holders. Many people will not realise how much they give up when they give up section 75 protection .

  • NFH says:

    17 Feb17 February 07:49

    Yes. It’s amazing how many UK consumers pay by debit card instead of by credit card, particularly for expensive services like flights where breaches of contract are common. Although debit cards are covered by the contractual right of chargeback, UK credit cards are covered by the much stronger statutory right of Section 75.

    • BJ says:

      17 Feb17 February 08:26

      I’ve never had to rely on S75 in my life but despite that paying almost everything including travel by credit card for the greater peace of mind is a habit. Reminded my wider family on this frequently but frustratingly many continue to use debit cards and even cash

      • NFH says:

        17 Feb17 February 08:39

        I’ve used Section 75 many times, most recently for a breach of contract and misrepresentation by Eurostar concerning catering failures. I asked American Express for 40% of the ticket price, this being the approximate difference between Standard and Standard Premier, and catering being the primary difference between these two classes. American Express refunded the 40% without quibbling at all, which I assume they’ve recovered from Eurostar.

        • JDB says:

          17 Feb17 February 09:42

          If your claim was under s75 rather than as a chargeback, Amex didn’t recover the money from Eurostar.

    • Michael_s says:

      17 Feb17 February 08:47

      I bought a car paying 5k in credit card (rest in bank transfer)

      The car was fine but they gave me a wrong bike rack. I asked the car dealer to pick it up and refund me, they basically outright ignored my e-mails or calls. I raised a S75 claim with my credit card company. They actually told me – in many words – that they didn’t bother to reach out to the dealer and for whatever reason this does not cross to the threshold of importance for them to waste time on it. They just refunded me the cost of bike rack and tell me to just do whatever I want with it

    • John says:

      17 Feb17 February 08:53

      Many UK consumers don’t have a credit card and/or actually use it to borrow money.

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