It’s common for airlines to sell points directly to consumers. While this most frequently happens in the form of ongoing promotions to buy points, we also sometimes see airlines launch subscription services. Qatar Airways Privilege Club has just launched its own version of this, with a twist, as it includes an elite status angle.
Qatar Airways Privilege Club Pro subscription basics
Qatar Airways has launched Privilege Club Pro, a subscription service for members to collect additional Avios and potentially even Qpoints on a monthly basis. This marks the first time a loyalty program with Avios has introduced a subscription that allows members to collect status points.
Privilege Club Pro offers four different membership tiers:
- Access costs $50 per month or $500 per year, and offers 2,500 bonus Avios per month; that means you could earn 30,000 Avios annually for $500, which comes out to 1.67 cents per Avios
- Select costs $130 per month or $1,300 per year, and offers 7,500 bonus Avios per month; that means you could earn 90,000 Avios annually for $1,300, which comes out to 1.44 cents per Avios
- Exclusive costs $240 per month or $2,400 per year, and offers 15,000 bonus Avios per month; that means you could earn 180,000 Avios annually for $2,400, which comes out to 1.33 cents per Avios
- Ultimate costs $350 per month or $3,500 per year, and offers 20,000 bonus Avios plus five bonus Qpoints per month; that means you could earn 240,000 Avios annually for $3,500, which comes out to 1.46 cents per Avios
As you can see, the Exclusive tier gives you the best cost per Avios. Meanwhile the Ultimate tier offers not just Avios, but also Qpoints, which is the metric by which elite status is awarded in the Privilege Club program. The number of Qpoints required to upgrade status is as follows:
- A Burgundy to Silver upgrade requires 150 Qpoints
- A Silver to Gold upgrade requires 300 Qpoints
- A Gold to Platinum upgrade requires 600 Qpoints
Is a Privilege Club Pro membership worth it?
I think there are lots of situations where there’s merit to buying rewards currencies for redemptions, when you can get outsized value.
Typically, I have a strong preference for buying rewards with a short term use in mind, since points devalue over time, so I have an “earn and burn” philosophy. That’s why I’m usually more a fan of buying points when there’s a lucrative one-time promotion in place, rather than subscriptions like this, where you get a slow “drip” of points, month by month.
Qatar Airways does sell Avios with some frequency, and when the program does, we often see offers that bring the cost down to 1.3-1.5 cents per Avios, in line with this. For these annual subscriptions, I do wish the price were actually better on a per-point basis, but I get that this is more about marketing than anything else.
The unique thing here is the ability to earn Qpoints with the most premium package. The catch is that you’re fairly limited in terms of the number of Qpoints you can earn this way. For example, if you’re trying to upgrade from Gold to Platinum, this will get you 10% of the way there. I suppose that’s useful for those who would otherwise be close to qualifying for status, but this isn’t some amazing pathway to status if starting from scratch.
Bottom line
Privilege Club Pro is a new subscription service from Qatar Airways, whereby members can pay a monthly or annual amount to earn Avios, and for one of the tiers, even earn Qpoints. The absolute lowest cost to acquire Avios here is roughly 1.33 cents per point, but that requires pre-paying, and then earning the Avios over the course of a year.
For those looking to maximize value, I think you’re better off just buying Avios when there’s a good promotion, so that you can earn and redeem the Avios quickly. But if you’re going for status and 60 Qpoints per year could make a difference in terms of the status you end up with, maybe the top tier is worth considering.
What do you make of the value proposition of Privilege Club Pro?
