Oneworld Alliance airline member Qatar Airways has a Qatar Privileges Globetrotter 100,000 bonus miles promotion from April to December 2015. This promotion looks like a good opportunity to me and had me checking Qatar Airways flight routes and fares today thinking about 2015 mileage runs from Doha to earn 100,000 bonus miles. The real deal here is this offer looks like it can be earned on as few as four economy class tickets with Qatar Airways in two trips, one in summer months and one in fall months.
I have never flown Qatar and I have never been to the Middle East. My assessment of the value of this deal is highly favorable for me to even consider spending $2,000 or more on airline tickets with a trip to the desert sands of Qatar in the month of August.
First things first. Read my post and if it looks interesting, then join Qatar Privileges and register for this Qatar Globetrotter offer. The present situation is there are no terms and conditions posted to give the fine print for this enticing offer prominently displayed on the Qatar Airways website.
The Qatar Airways Globetrotter
Earn up to 100,000 bonus Qmiles
Flights to one of the destinations during the period of each theme earns bonus miles and a badge for that theme.
April – August 2015: Cultural Exploration Theme
Destination Cities: Cairo, Athens, Delhi, Rome, Amman, Casablanca, Washington, Beijing, Berlin, Vienna, Madrid and Zurich
June – August 2015: Adventurous Getaway Theme
Destination Cities: Chengdu, Larnaca, Goa, Denpasar Bali, Nairobi, Male, Kathmandu, Cape Town, Colombo, Kilimanjaro, Phuket and Hanoi
September – November 2015: Culinary Journeys Theme
Destination Cities: Ho Chi Minh City, Hyderabad, Tokyo, Barcelona, Buenos Aires, Chongqing, Brussels, Istanbul, Venice, Munich, Phnom Penh and Copenhagen
October – December 2015: Metropolitan Excursions Theme
Destination Cities: Miami, Melbourne, Shanghai, Paris, Hong Kong, Mumbai, Kuala Lumpur, Singapore, Bangkok, Dubai, London and New York
Qatar Privileges Bonus Miles Earned for each Destination
My focus in looking at Qatar flight prices is finding cheap economy class travel to qualify for bonus miles. Travel outside of the GCC earns a 5,000 bonus miles for economy class flights. Long-haul flights over 3,500 miles tend to be double the price of the lowest destination cities. Short-haul is the economic sweet spot.
GCC definition: Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), political and economic alliance of six Middle Eastern countries—Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Bahrain, and Oman.
Qatar Privileges 100,000 Bonus Miles
The feature of this promotion that had me pricing routes today is the opportunity to earn 100,000 bonus miles in Qatar Privileges after December 2015 for flyers who earn all four theme badges.
On top of the bonus Qmiles, at the end of the offer period for every theme, you will be awarded a special “travel badge” for participating in that theme, e.g. Cultural Exploration badge, Adventurous Getaway badge and so on.
At the end of the Qatar Airways Globetrotter campaign in December 2015, in addition to the bonus Qmiles and travel badges you would have earned for travelling to various destinations across the four themes, bountiful rewards await you based on the number of “travel badges” you would have earned by the end of 2015.
Qatar Airways Globetrotter
Qatar Mileage Runs for Globetrotter 100,000 bonus miles
Here is the unknown at this point. The Globetrotter offer is prominently displayed on Qatar Airways website, but there are no promotion terms and conditions to be found.
Questions arise.
- Is this promotion open to all members worldwide?
- Do the flights have to be roundtrip tickets on Qatar Airways to the destination or can you fly one way from Doha to a destination city?
- Can you knock out two cities with one ticket by starting in one of the destination cities and flying roundtrip to another destination city?
- What are the ticketing requirements on originating and destination cities to qualify for a badge?
To be eligible for the Qatar Airways Globetrotter campaign, a one-time registration is required. Please log into your account , select “My offers” on your dashboard menu and register now or at least 24 hours before you travel. Click here to login now.
When I check “My offers” for promotion registration in my USA based account, I do not see Qatar Globetrotter. Most of the promotions shown on my account page expire this week, so perhaps the Qatar Globetrotter offer will appear next week before the April 1 promotion start.
Sample cost for earning four Qatar Airways badges and 100,000 bonus miles
I spent the past few hours pricing Qatar flights around the globe. My initial observation is Qatar Airways flights are rarely the least expensive flights.
I am taking a worst case scenario that all qualifying tickets must be roundtrip flights on Qatar Airways. And a best case scenario that my account is eligible for the Globetrotter promotion.
Bottom line is I found flights between Doha and one of the eligible cities in each theme for about $500 per ticket. Since the months of eligible travel for the four different themes overlap, the promotion can be done in two time periods with a trip in June, July or August to reach two destination cities and a second trip in October or November to travel to another two destination cities.
My initial flight searches indicates this offer can be completed with about $2,000 in flights, primarily between Doha and cities in India and earn over 120,000 miles from four airline tickets.
Of course, you need to position yourself in Doha to start and that will take money or miles.
I’ll post more on Qatar airfare to Globetrotter destination cities in another post with flight examples of how I came to the $2,000 tickets estimate.
Of course, another question arises, is it worth $2,000 to earn 120,000 miles? When I say mileage runs, I don’t mean I have to hurry. I can linger and get days of sightseeing out of four Qatar Airways tickets and destinations.
Qatar Privileges has an electronic calculator providing miles required for Qatar frequent flyer awards and partner airline awards.
Washington D.C. IAD – Johannesburg JNB, South Africa 95,000 miles one way in Business Class via Doha, Qatar or roundtrip in economy. That is at least a $1,000 rebate value.
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