Last week, news broke that Qatar Airways Privilege Club rolled out an awesome new benefit for Cardless Qatar Privilege Club Visa Infinite and Visa Signature cardholders: a full refund on reward fees for award flights booked with Qatar Airways. While most blogs reported this to be the case in round trip bookings, we were able to confirm with a representative of Qatar Airways that the reward fee waiver also applies to one-way tickets. That makes this an awesome new benefit that will enhance the value of Avios for Qatar cardholders.
Qatar Airways Privilege Club Visa Infinite and Visa Signature card details
As a reminder, here are the current new cardmember offers and key card details for both of the Qatar cards. Click the card names below to go to our dedicated card pages for more information about either card.
| Card Offer and Details |
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Up to 50K Avios 30K Avios after first transaction, then an additional 20K after $3,000 spend within the first 90 days$99 Annual Fee Information about this card has been collected independently by Frequent Miler. The issuer did not provide the details, nor is it responsible for their accuracy. FM Mini Review: The reward fee rebate can make this card worth keeping if you'll be booking award flights with Qatar Avios Earning rate: 4x Qatar purchases ✦ 2x dining ✦ 1x everywhere else Card Info: Visa Signature issued by FEB. This card has no foreign currency conversion fees. Big spend bonus: Receive 2 Qpoints for every 2,000 Avios earned Noteworthy perks: Complimentary Qatar Silver/oneworld Ruby status for one year ✦ Reward fee rebates when award booking taxes & fees paid with card |
| Card Offer and Details |
|---|
Up to 70K Avios + 150 Qpoints ⓘ Non-Affiliate 45K Avios after first transaction, then an additional 25K and 150 Qpoints after $5,000 spend within the first 90 days$499 Annual Fee Information about this card has been collected independently by Frequent Miler. The issuer did not provide the details, nor is it responsible for their accuracy. FM Mini Review: Getting complimentary oneworld Sapphire for one year could be appealing for folks who value the Admiral's Club access. Beyond that, the card's steep annual fee will probably make this most appealing for those who actually fly Qatar regularly, especially now that there's the reward fee rebate Earning rate: 5x Qatar purchases ✦ 3x dining ✦ 1x everywhere else Card Info: Vsa Infinite issued by FEB. This card has no foreign currency conversion fees. Big spend bonus: Receive 2 Qpoints for every 1,500 Avios earned Noteworthy perks: Complimentary Qatar Gold/oneworld Sapphire status for one year (includes access to domestic AA Admirals Clubs and Alaska Lounges) ✦ Reward fee rebates when award booking taxes & fees paid with card ✦ Global Entry/TSA Precheck credit ✦ Travel accident insurance ✦ Trip cancellation reimbursement ✦ Trip delay reimbursement |
New Qatar Airways Privilege Club Visa Infinite and Visa Signature card benefit: reward fees waiver
From October 11th, Qatar Airways Privilege Club began offering new benefits to cardholders of their Visa Infinite and Visa Signature cards as follows:
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Cardholders can now get a full refund on reward fees for award flights booked with Qatar Airways.
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New benefits will save travelers up to $600 in Business/First Class and up to $300 in Economy on every round-trip award flight.
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To qualify, cardholders need to spend $15,000 in their first card year and $25,000 in subsequent years to unlock this benefit, which will be refunded as a statement credit after the flight.
The marketing bullet points and FAQs refer to “round-trip” examples and they mention that a ticket must be “fully flown” to qualify for the statement credit. However, it doesn’t explicitly say that round trip travel is required.
We therefore reached out to representatives from Qatar Airways for clarification on how the benefit will work. After some time to investigate, it was confirmed to us that the waiver applies to one-way flights as well as round trip flights. Again, a waiver will only be granted (in the form of a statement credit) after the ticket has been fully flown, so keep in mind that if you book an award for travel far out you will need to pay the fees up front and wait until after travel is completed to get the rebate.
Note that you’re only going to get back the “Reward Fee”, not the taxes or other carrier-imposed surcharges. Still, this should rebate a nice chunk of change.
When purchasing an Award Flight, the member also pays taxes and may
also be required to pay carrier-imposed fees in addition to the Avios required for the flight (the “Reward Fee”). The Reward Fee, sometimes referred to as the Redemption Fee, is included in the “taxes and other carrier-imposed fees” on an Award Flight reservation. Please refer to the Qatar Airways Privilege Club Terms (available at Terms and conditions | Privilege Club Programme) for more information regarding the Reward Fee, including when the fee is charged.
As a Qatar Airways Privilege Club Visa Infinite Credit Card cardholder, you may become eligible for a waiver of the Reward Fee that is assessed as part of an Award Flight (the “Reward Flight Fee Waiver”).
One Mile at a Time recently reported that Reward fees have increased to around $200-$250 each way on business and first class awards, so getting that back will make a huge difference when it comes to redeeming Qatar Avios.
Keep in mind that you’ll need to be flying on Qatar Airways for the Reward Fee Waiver to apply — if you use your Qatar Avios to book a British Airways flight, that won’t qualify for any waiver.
It seems amazing to me that this benefit is available on both cards and completely uncapped. The catch of course is that you need to use your Qatar Airways Visa card to book the flight and your account must be open and in good standing after travel has been completed. That means that if you’re booking out toward the end of the schedule, you’ll effectively lock yourself into another year with the card since it’ll need to be open after travel to receive the credit. Still, if you’re booking at least a couple of redemptions per year for travel on Qatar Airways, the rebate here could mitigate the annual fee on the Infinite card, though it is even more amazing yet that even the Signature card, which features a $99 annual fee, comes with the same unlimited fee rebates.
I’d been lukewarm on these cards, but if I had intentions to book a big trip with Qatar Avios, I’d certainly be considering picking up one of them given the combined value of a new card bonus and the Reward Fee rebate.
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Similar to what Yus said, I think the opportunity cost of the huge (for most of us) spend mostly at 1x is a deterrent to pursuing this. And of course $25K of spend a year even at a great multiplier puts it completely out of reach for most. But I guess we aren’t the ones Qatar/Cardless is targeting here.
Considering you can buy tickets 11 months in advance, I think there are questions about how the timing of your credit card spend affects eligibility for the rebate. Does credit card spend need to be completed at time of ticket purchase, or just by the time the flight is completed?
This was my question exactly. If you get the card, e.g., 18 months before traveling, spend $15k, then book 11 and change months out, will the taxes and fees be refunded or do you need to spend $25k in the second anniversary year as well?
I also think separately that something like expanded access to flexi – or, dare I dream, saver – level premium cabin award tickets upon certain spend would hugely incentivize what Qatar wants to incentive, which is spending on the cards to generate their portion of interchange revenue. I know the United cards come with some cardholder exclusive space but additional premium cabin award space upon spending thresholds would be a huge innovation in this space.
As an aside, status tiers at QR do reference expanded award availability but that’s only in economy cabin, which, why would I go to all that trouble just to fly long haul in coach?
The card’s terms and conditions state:
Once you reach the $15,000 purchase threshold, you will remain eligible for the Reward Flight Fee Waiver for a period of 12 months commencing on the date on which the threshold is achieved (the “Initial Reward Flight Fee Waiver Period”). At the end of the Initial Reward Flight Fee Waiver Period, you will be eligible for the Reward Flight Fee Waiver for subsequent 12-month periods (the “Renewal Reward Flight Fee Waiver Period”) if you have made at least $25,000 of Eligible Purchases using your Card during the Initial Reward Flight Fee Waiver Period or during a preceding Renewal Reward Flight Fee Waiver Period. In the event that you have not made at least $25,000 of Eligible Purchases using your Card during the Initial Reward Flight Fee Waiver Period or a preceding Renewal Reward Flight Fee Waiver Period, then your eligibility for the Reward Flight Fee Waiver will be suspended until you have made at least $25,000 of Eligible Purchases in a 12-month period.
My sense is that, irrespective of when the flight is, only charges after achieving the threshold will be credited.
“To qualify, cardholders need to spend $15,000 in their first card year and $25,000 in subsequent years to unlock this benefit, which will be refunded as a statement credit after the flight.”
Does that mean you have to spend 15k first year and 25k each year after that to use this benefit?
Yeah that’s a big gotcha moment for me. Hopefully more people catch this!
Given all the spoon-feeding and hand-holding Nick does, reiterating the same thing over and over (as if he’s getting paid by the word ), it was extremely surprising he didn’t mention the spend requirement at all except in one bullet point, which may even be a copy-paste from somewhere else.
Also, if it’s only the junk “Reward Fee” being waived, why is the article titled waived “surcharges”? They aren’t waiving the junk surcharges.