Qatar Airways Reintroduces Award Segment Fees

Qatar Airways announced in February (read more here) that it would move away from Qmiles and adopt Avios as its Privilege Club currency.

The change went live last week (read more here), and Qatar Airways Privilege Club and British Airways Executive Club members can freely move Avios between accounts without a fee.

You can access Qatar Airways here.

What Qatar Airways has NOT communicated to loyalty members, however, is that it has brought back and increased its award segment fees that were first introduced in 2018 (read more here) and then removed in 2020 (read more here).

Award segment fees were $25/$50/$75 per economy/business/first segment. The new increased fees are $35 per economy and $70 per business class segment.

It is unclear what it is for first class, but looking at the economy and business increases, likely around $100 for each segment.

Qatar Airways tries very hard to hide these fees:

It only shows the total price.

Here it implies that there could be CARRIER IMPOSED FEES. You need to click the Fare Breakdown to find them.

Then you need to expand the “More details.”

Here you can see that 64% of the fees go directly to Qatar’s coffers.

Conclusion

These fees quickly add up because there are always at least four segments on a simple Qatar Airways return, as long as your destination is not Qatar itself.

It is regrettable that Qatar Airways decided to bring back these segment fees and tries to hide the fact.

Why not clearly communicate that these have returned and increased? Being honest usually works the best.