Since Qatar will now be using Avios, I am also planning to use Qatar for a trip next year by paying for it. I have read the articles on Avios and Qatar but still confused on what to do, thus my questions below :
How do I get to earn Avios points, where do I need to enrol ? Do I need to open an account in the Qatar Privilege Club ? Or is there an Avios account I need to enrol ?
If I fly Vueling or Iberia while in Europe, how do I get it to credit the points to my Avios account ?
If I fly Virgin Australia or Qantas, is it better to credit it to Avios points rather than the individual airline FF program ? Which will give me more bang for my points aside from having more availability. I am enrolled in Velocity, Qantas FF and Krisflyer.
Can you also book reward flights for another person using my Avios points ?
While Avios is the currency used for Qatar Airways’ frequent flyer program, you don’t need to earn Avios to be able to redeem Qatar Airways’ flights. As Qatar belongs to the oneWorld alliance, you can redeem Qatar Airways flights with any frequent flyer program of any airline within the alliance. Most notably, this includes Qantas meaning you can use your Qantas points to redeem flights on Qatar. In a similar vein, you can earn Qantas points and status credits when flying Qatar and you do not have to enroll in Qatar’s program to receive frequent flyer benefits.
Vueling is a low cost carrier and will not earn you any points (similar to how Jetstar doesn’t typically earn you points). Iberia is also a part of the oneworld alliance and as a result, you can credit their flights to Qantas or any other OneWorld airline’s frequent flyer program (although there are some exceptions with some special tickets).
You have to decide which program’s points you would rather earn. Yes, while you may earn numerically greater points by crediting to one particular frequent flyer program over another, if you don’t have enough points to redeem it for anything significant, it’s as good as useless. I see that you have three programs of focus. I would generally just credit all my flights to any of these three programs so you build up a good balance that enables you to exchange them for flights rather than have a few hundred miles orphaned here and there in various programs that you will never be able to use.
I assume you do not have an Avios account or Avios points yet. However, if you decide to have an Avios account, you can use them on other people. In the case of the most popular Avios program British Airways Executive Club, there is a nominations system for friends and family that allow you to redeem points for them. You can have a further read here: https://www.britishairways.com/en-au/executive-club/household-accounts