Qatar Airways boasts one of the world’s best Business Class in its Qsuites. And if you happen to be a Privilege Club Gold or Platinum member, then you could upgrade to Business Class (or even First Class) for free! It’s as easy as it sounds, thanks to the Qcredits you get as part of Qatar Airways’ Privilege Club program.
All you have to do is check if there is upgrade availability, book an eligible cash fare, and then put your Qcredits to work with a free upgrade.
And if you originally did a status match to Gold or Platinum with Qatar Airways back in 2020, your Qcredits will be expiring soon. It’s not too hard to put those Qcredits to good use – here’s everything you need to know about upgrading Qatar Airways flights.
What are Qatar Qcredits?
Qcredits are a special reward offered to Gold and Platinum members of the Privilege Club program. They’re valid for 24 months from issue and can be used for upgrades, extra baggage, lounge access, or to pay award flight fees. Of course, our focus today is using Qcredits for those sweet, sweet upgrades.
Gold members get 40 Qcredits to play with, while Platinum members have 60 Qcredits per membership cycle. You’ll get a fresh batch every time you upgrade or retain your tier. These Qcredits expiries haven’t been extended though, so you’ll want to use them ahead of time.
How many Qcredits do I need to upgrade?
The ‘My Calculator’ is your best friend when it comes to figuring out what you can do with your Qcredits.
- Go to the My Calculator link (you might need to login).
- Click on the ‘Upgrade and Excess Baggage’ tab.
- Enter your desired flight details.
- Toggle the ‘Avios’ button so it shows ‘Qcredits’ instead.
- See the number of Qcredits needed for a free upgrade.
Pay attention to those letters – that’s the original fare class you need to book. So if I want to upgrade my Perth-London flight to Business, I need to book Economy Y, M, Q, V, S, O, N, K, H, B, T or L. Thankfully, that covers a wide range of fares, including some discounted ones!
A Platinum member with 60 Qcredits can upgrade Australia to Europe all the way for just 55 Qcredits. Gold members starting with 40 Qcredits can upgrade the Doha-Australia leg, which costs 39 Qcredits.
American Express Platinum Card
- Sign-up Bonus:
- 200,000 bonus Membership Rewards Points¹
- Rewards Earn Rate:
- Earn 2.25 Membership Rewards points per $1 on all eligible purchases, except for spend with government bodies, for which you will earn 1 point per $1 spent
- Annual Fee:
- $1,450 p.a.
- Offer expires
- 25 August 2026
- Enjoy 200,000 bonus Membership Rewards Points¹ when you spend $5,000 on eligible purchases in the first 3 months. (Offer available to new American Express Card Members only. Offer ends 25 August 2026. T&Cs apply.) Unlock premium perks including unlimited airport lounge access, international travel insurance, Amex Hotels and Resorts benefits, up to $400 in Global Dining Credit¹⁰, and a $450 Travel Credit⁵ each year. Earn up to 2.25 Membership Rewards Points per $1 on eligible spend. The annual fee is $1,450.
How do I search for Qcredit upgrade availability?
Once you’ve done your research, it’s time to get booking. Start by checking there is upgrade availability on your desired flights. Log in to your Privilege Club account and head to the ‘Redeem Avios’ page. Enter the exact same flight details as the one you’re looking to book in the lower class.
On the results page, your flight should be upgradeable if you check two things:
- See the gold ribbon indicating ‘Lowest price in Avios this week’, and
- DON’T see the green ribbon indicating ‘Flexi awards’ next to your flight.
Essentially, there has to be normal ‘Saver’ award seat availability for your Qcredits upgrade to process. Of course, if you have any doubt then contact Qatar Airways before booking. The phone agent should be able to confirm Qcredits upgrade availability on the spot.
You can even stay on the line while you book your cash ticket, and then give them the booking confirmation code to process the upgrade over the phone. In my case, I book an Economy (T) Perth-London fare online for AU$1,076 one-way, which is eligible for an upgrade.
How do I upgrade with Qcredits?
The next step is to upgrade with Qcredits online. Simply log in to your account, click on ‘Redeem Avios’ and then ‘Upgrade on Qatar Airways’.
- Enter your booking reference and last name to bring up the booking.
- Choose which passengers you want to upgrade.
- Also, choose which flights you want to upgrade. Upgrading a whole leg is better than upgrading individual segments if you have enough Qcredits.
- Confirm the number of Qcredits required matches your research.
- Verify your one-time PIN via SMS.
- You are now successfully upgraded!
Are there any catches with using Qcredits?
The process of upgrading with Qatar Airways Qcredits is fairly transparent, so there shouldn’t be any unexpected surprises. But there are a few points that aren’t necessarily clear when upgrading:
- Qatar Airways does NOT offer lounge access as standard on upgraded tickets. You’ll need to rely on your Privilege Club Gold or Platinum status for lounge entry. Outside of Doha, that’s no problem. But in Doha, this means you might not be able to access the superior Al Mourjan or Al Safwa lounges. Instead, Gold members may be sent to a lower-tier Business Class lounge. Platinum members may retain access to the Al Safwa lounge as a perk when travelling on Qatar Airways Business Class.
- Certain Qatar Airways flights within the Middle East sell the Business Class seats as First Class instead. On those flights, you’d need to pay the Economy to First upgrade rate. As before, Al Safwa lounge access is not included with the upgrade.
- You’ll keep the original ticketed baggage allowance as well. For me, that’s 25kg in Economy Classic.
On the flip side, Qcredits are valid for 24 months from the date of issue (as long as you retain your status) and are refundable if you do end up changing or cancelling your flight. Lastly, you can use your Qcredits on other people, such as family members and friends. Time to rack up some brownie points!
Summing up
Qatar Airways rewards its Gold and Platinum Privilege Club members with up to 60 Qcredits a year. With flights from Australia to Europe needing only 55 Qcredits to upgrade from Economy to Business, you can see that it’s a very valuable reward.
As long as you do your research and check award seat availability, this is truly a free upgrade you can take advantage of once a year. There is nothing extra to pay, and a wide range of cheaper Economy fares are eligible.
Given I attained my Privilege Club Platinum tier with a status match from Virgin Australia in 2020, I’m certainly looking at prioritising travel with Privilege Club in 2022 to retain these excellent benefits. And I’m glad I can also enjoy a free upgrade from Perth to London in 2023.
Just gone to use my Qcredits, cant fine them anywhere. I was knocked down from Gold to Silver a couple of months ago, so assume Ive lost them ???
Hello Brandon,
Would you consider updating this article, please, considering that the QR (website) booking interface has had an uplift?
Hi Jason, jumping in for Brandon who is currently out of the office. As the upgrade rates haven’t changed since the article was written, this isn’t something we’d update purely for cosmetic reasons. (Bear in mind as well, that if we were to update this article purely for new screenshots, this would require making or holding an eligible booking, having Qcredits available to spend, and actually spending them.)
May I ask?
So to get upgrade by Qcredit you have buy economy ticket first then upgrade with Qcredit? What happen if you buy economy already but upgrade with Qcredit isnt available?
Hi Rick, upgrade with QCredits is usually tied to Business reward availability on Qatar Airways. If it isn’t available, you can wait and see if more seats are released later on.
Hi,
The reality is that reward upgrades in most cases do not work online. I have been Qatar Platinum for many years and never managed to upgrade 2 segments with my 60 Qcredits. It says always, what ever cabin class I booked in Eco: no seats availabe for upgrade. Upon checking they haven’t sold that much seats yet in business.
What works but is a waste of Qcredits: Upon check-in they might allow for an upgrade but only for the actual segment. Upgrading two segments separately cost you more than upgrading two segments together in one shot. For me this usually means I get only one segment upgraded and the remaining Qcredits aren’t sufficient for a subsequent upgrade anymore.
Quite frustrating.
Sorry but I think your advice on upgrade availability is incorrect.
What you see online is for upgrading using Q points, not credits.
The only way to know for using Credits is to call customer care.
Hi Tony, our understanding is that Avios (Qmiles) and Qcredit upgrades derive from the same pool of Business/First reward availability.
My understanding is direct from the Privilege club team via phone in February.
Seperate pools.
Just to add, I’ve done a QCredits upgrade last night and what showed up online as a redemption was what was available to upgrade using QCredits. I did speak with the “Australia” prvilage club to double check – he initially said no, however when spelling out the flights he did agree it was available. The only hard thing was doing two pax involved chasing Qatar for the second reference number even as it was initially booked as one res!
Hi Brandon, i have the same question as Brad. My Avios point is 0 and all i have is 40QCredits. Got it from status match with Velocity Gold back in 2020. Does it mean the only way to confirm that upgrades is available, is by contacting call ctr?
Brandon, I am in Qatar business in 2 weeks and would love to upgrade to First.
I assume because it’s a points redemption (OneWorld) I’m out of luck?
thanks very handy guide.
I am wondering can I book a flight for a friend and then upgrade with Q credits?
mine expiring soon too.
couldn’t find if we allowed. to do that
Anyone had any luck upgrading with QCredits for QSuite between Adelaide & Auckland?
That route isn’t showing up properly on the Qcalculator (showing 60 Qcredits from ADL-AKL which I assume they are routing through DOH). Would be interesting to see if anyone with an existing cash ticket tries to upgrade it.
Also just found out that you aren’t able to upgrade from Business Class to First Class with Qpoints. As I was just trying to do it on a CDG-DOH flight.
Was also told that you can’t do Economy to First Class either via the online chat.
Do you need to travel by the expiration date of your Qcredits or can you redeem them for an upgrade by the expiration date for travel post expiration?
You can use it for travel after expiry. As per the screenshots, I’ve used mine (expiring June) for travel in 2023.
I did notice that before I linked my BA account and transferred Avios over. If you can earn some Avios through BA quickly (some shopping partners have a 5 day turnaround), that could be one solution.
Otherwise try searching through partners such as American Airlines. I can’t guarantee it, but if a partner shows availability, then there’s a good chance QR will have the availability as well.
Hi Brandon
How do I search for Qcredit upgrade availability If I have no avios.
It won’t let me search?
I tried many combinations of months and destinations to use my QCredits ranging from June to December and Europe to USA and Canada. Each time I thought I found an eligible flight, I’d call first and each time I was told there was no upgrade availablity.
Hi David, thanks for sharing. That is odd, I followed the steps in the guide and was able to confirm availability instantly online. Perhaps it’s a call centre error.