Qatar Airways Avios Bonus, Iberia Devalue Avios Flights, easyJet Launch Newcastle Base - News You May Have Missed - 1st June
- Sam
- Jun 1
- 3 min read
50-70% Avios Bonus When You Purchase From Qatar Airways
Until 4th June, Qatar Airways have launched a promotion of up to 50-70% bonus Avios when you purchase Avios via Qatar Airways website. This offer is personalised, I was offered a maximum of a 50% bonus on my Qatar Airways Privilege Club account.
You can buy up to 250,000 Avios, which at my rate would incur a bonus of 125,000 Avios, totalling 375,000 Avios. If you get offered the maximum rate of 70%, then the maximum bonus Avios would be 175,000. At my rate of 50%, this would be a cost of 1.17p per Avios. At the maximum rate of 70% you would be paying 1.03p per Avios.
The maximum amount of Avios a person can purchase in one calendar year is 250,000 Avios.
The catch, "Members must have earned a minimum of 1 Avios since enrolment to purchase additional Avios". If you are opening an account for the first time, transferring in Membership Rewards points from an American Express would count towards this rule. Transfers from American Express to Qatar Airways Privilege Club are instant, at a rate of one Membership Reward point to one Avios.
Purchased or transferred Avios are not refundable and will be posted to your account within 72 hours, but when I have taken advantage of a deal like this in the past from Qatar Airways, the Avios were instantly in my account.
Iberia Devalues Avios Redemption Flights
Redeeming Avios on Iberia flights has, for a while, offered great value for money. However, this week Iberia have increased the amount of Avios needed for most seats by 10-20%. The change this week has certainly reduced the value proposition, but I would still say that the value is there for certain routes. Down below are the new and old, peak and off peak charts in a slideshow.
Iberia uses a mileage chart which makes researching a bit more tedious at first. I recommend Great Circle Mapper. Make sure the distance is set to nautical miles (nm). As an example of an increase, take Madrid to Santiago, Chile. This is route is 5777nm in length, so fits in Band 7 of the Iberia reward chart. Pre increase, a one way, off peak ticket in Business Comfort, would have been 51,000 Avios. This has now been increased by nearly 19% to 60,500 Avios.
There is an exception to the increase with Economy Blue fares. For peak fares, Band 2-9 see a reduction of around 750 Avios, and for off peak the reduction is between 500 and 1,500 Avios.
easyJet to Re-Open Newcastle Base
easyJet is to re-open its previously closed base at Newcastle Airport. This base previously operated until 2020, when easyJet shut it as a cost savings measure during the COVID-19 pandemic.
easyJet is to allocate three aircraft to Newcastle, with new routes to be announced in the coming weeks. Current easyJet routes from Newcastle are to Alicante, Amsterdam, Geneva, Malaga, Palma de Mallorca, Paris, Bristol and Belfast
When this base reopens in March 2026, this will be easyJet's 11th UK base, following the recent additions of Birmingham, and the reopening of London Southend.
Sam
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