Privilege Club is Qatar Airways’ loyalty program, allowing members to earn and redeem Avios points on flights, upgrades and other travel rewards. While it’s quite a popular program with great sweet spots, it’s also a target of fraud and resellers. Unfortunately, the airline has now clamped down on this.
Starting suddenly in mid-June 2026, you now need to add companions to specific lists before you can redeem your Avios for them. These are called My List, and Friends and Family. You also need to meet certain requirements before you can add anyone to these lists. Here’s how it works.
How does Qatar Airways’ Family & Friends List work?
The first list is called Family & Friends. This list lets you add up to six people who are not currently Privilege Club members. All earned Avios in this group are pooled, so this is good for adding kids who might not otherwise use their Avios.
However, they can’t appear on any other member’s Family & Friends list. For example, it means that one kid can’t be part of both of their parents’ individual Family & Friends lists, if that were the case.
How does Qatar Airways ‘My List’ work?
My List works differently from the Family & Friends list. You can invite up to four people to your My List, and they must already be Privilege Club members and have held their membership for over 30 days.
Only the My List owner can redeem the Avios on behalf of people on this list. Once again, the members on the list cannot be a part of any other Privilege Club member’s lists.
The main purpose of this list is to ensure you only spend your Avios on a pre-determined group of people. This does somewhat restrict the flexibility of Avios.
Other rules that have changed with the introduction of these lists
To make matters harder, there are also strict criteria you need to meet before you can even add anyone to your ‘My List’ or Friends & Family list. You must have:
- Held a Privilege Club account for more than 30 days
- Flown with Qatar or any partner airlines and earned Avios from that flight, or have converted points from a co-branded Qatar Airways credit card
However, transfers from flexible points programs (including American Express Membership Rewards and Pay.com.au) don’t count. There are no co-branded Qatar Airways credit cards in Australia.
How can you get around the new rules?
To meet the flight requirement, you could credit a paid, eligible Virgin Australia flight to your Privilege Club account. This is likely one of the cheapest and easiest options for someone based in Australia. Practically all fare classes are eligible, except for X and Z (reward seats).
Alternatively, if you have a flight with a Qatar Airways partner or oneworld alliance airline, you could also consider crediting that to Privilege Club. Just double-check your fare class, as some airlines are more restrictive than others.
For example, some of Qantas’ cheaper domestic Red eDeal fares – including E, G, N, O, Q and S – are not eligible to earn any Avios, and won’t trigger access to the lists.
Summing Up
The new rules restrict Privilege Club award seats to only yourself and members approved on one of two lists. Previously, members could book a flight for anyone. It’s also harder to add people to lists because you need Avios activity from a flight or a co-branded credit card.
You can somewhat get around these restrictions by transferring your Avios to The British Airways Club or the Finnair Plus program. However, these programs have different redemption rates and rules, which might not be as advantageous as Privilege Club.
With these new rules, you also have to book for yourself under your Qatar Airways Privilege Club number. You can’t redeem Avios for yourself and add a different frequent flyer number – such as one that might have elite status attached. That means you could be stuck paying Qatar Airways seat selection fees, even in Business Class, even if you have status with a different oneworld partner.
So, what do you think about these recent changes? Let us know below.
