In May 2020, just when COVID 19 was starting to sweep the globe, Qatar Airways Privilege Club Program ran a status match promotion. The promotion was targeted at elite members from a wide number of Frequent Flyer Program, including Virgin Australia Velocity Gold and Platinum elites.

The status was initially offered for 12 months and was set to expire in May 2021 but was subsequently extended until the end of 2021. With Omicron continuing to make international travel challenging, Qatar Airways recently announced a further 12-month status extension, meaning the status is now valid until 31st Dec 2022 which is fantastic news.

Privilege Club Gold & Platinum Membership

If you were a Velocity Gold or Platinum member and applied for the status match, you would have received Privilege Club Gold or Platinum status. Since Qatar Airways is a member of oneworld alliance, the Gold and Platinum status’ also mapped to oneworld sapphire and oneworld emerald respectively.

For Velocity elites, this has meant unprecedented access to all of Qantas Clubs and Lounges including the famed Qantas First Lounges for more than 18 months. Better still, as Qantas’ International Business Lounges have remained closed, oneworld sapphire elites who are not normally given access to International First Lounges have also had the chance to experience it.

Qantas International First Lounge, Sydney Airport

Qcredits

If you were lucky enough to snag the Qatar Airways Gold or Platinum status, besides standard perks such as unlimited lounge access, bonus miles, priority check-in etc, Qatar Airways also deposited a certain number of Qcredits in your account. Specifically:

• Privilege Club Gold members received 40 Qcredits.
• Privilege Club Platinum members received 60 Qcredits.

Once earned, Qcredits are valid for 24 months – and even though Qatar Airways have offered its members a 12-month status extension, it has not extended the validity of Qcredits. This means that Qcredits awarded in May or June 2020 will start expiring from May 2022 onwards.

Qcredits are extremely valuable as they can be used to upgrade paid Economy flights to Business or First Class. The number of Qcredits required for an upgrade depends on the length of your flight and the class you are upgrading from.

Unlike many of its peers, Qatar Airways does not have an upgrade table that members can refer to, what it does offer though is a Qcalculator.

Using Qcalculator

To find out how many Qcredits are needed for an upgrade, login to your Privilege Club account and navigate to Qcalculator.

Qatar Airways Qcalculator

Qatar Airways Qcalculator

As you can see above – besides upgrades, the Qcalculator is also used to find out miles required for Award Flights and to calculate how many Qpoints (status credits) and Qmiles (Frequent Flyer Points) members can earn on a paid flight.

To calculate the Qcredits required for upgrades, make sure you have selected the Upgrade & excess baggage option as shown below.

Qatar Airways Qcalculator

From here on, simply enter the route you wish to fly and toggle the button (see arrow) to QCREDITS.

Qatar Airways Qcalculator

You can play along with the calculator to see how many Qcredits you need for a flight. For instance, you can upgrade:

• A one-way Sydney to Doha flight from Economy to Business for 39 Qcredits.
• A one-way Melbourne to London flight from Business to First for 55 Qcredits.
• A one-way Sydney to Los Angeles flight from Economy to Business for 60 Qcredits.
• A one-way Doha to London flight from Economy to First for 56 Qcredits.

I should point out that Qatar Airways is currently operating a limited number of A-380’s with First Class cabin, mainly from its hub in Doha to select cities in Europe. At the time of writing, First Class is not available on any Australian route, so if you wish to redeem Qcredits on flights to/from Australia, the best you could do is upgrade into Qsuites.

That is not a cause for disappointment though, as the Qsuite experience in many instances is far superior than what other airlines offer their First Class customers.

Fares eligible for Upgrade

This is an area where Qatar Airways shines, I say that because unlike majority of airlines which offer complimentary upgrades only when you purchase certain high-priced fares, Qatar will allow you to redeem Qcredits and upgrade from even the cheapest of economy fares.

Qatar Airways offer 2 types of awards, the lowest price award denoted with a yellow ribbon (see below) – lets call this Saver award, and the more expensive Flexi Award (also below).

Qatar Airways Lowest Price and Flexi Awards legend

As long as there is a Saver level award space available on the flight, you will be able to use Qcredits and upgrade into Business or First Class.

For example, the one-way Melbourne to Doha flight shown below has Saver level award space available daily between 28th Feb – 3rd March and is eligible for upgrade with Qcredits.

On the other hand, flights between 25th – 27th February only have the expensive Flexi award available. These flights cannot be upgraded with Qcredits.

If you want to search for available award space over longer than 1 week period, click on More Dates (highlighted above) which displays a whole month of availability.

Qatar Airways Monthly Award Calendar

Requesting an Upgrade

Once you have found upgradable award space, you are able to self-process the upgrade online. Login to your account, go to My Dashboard and scroll down until you come to Upcoming Trips.

Then click on the Upgrade button (shown above) and follow the instructions.

If all this sounds too much, you also have the option to call Qatar Airways Contact Centre on 1300 340 600 (from Australia) and they can process the upgrade for you. The Contact Centre is open 24/7 which makes things convenient.

In Conclusion

Qatar Airways status match promotion keeps on giving. If you got status matched in May 2020, you would have held the status for more than two and half years by the time it expires in December 2022 – and that’s providing their is no further extension. Considering the world we are currently living in, that’s no sure thing.

But perhaps what is even more valuable than the status itself, are the free Qcredits that came with the status. Used judiciously, the Qcredits can offer thousands of dollars in extra value. I have been lucky enough to fly Qsuites many times, and in my personal opinion – they offer the best all around business class experience of any airline.

If you are sitting on Qcredits and have travel plans in 2022 or beyond, I highly recommend you make use of them.

Have you used your Privilege Club status over the past year? Leave a comment below.