Accessible Privilege

June 19, 2015 posted by Stephanie in Dot Dot Dot

My husband and I have been on the wedding train for the past couple of years. Our holidays have not belonged to us in a while as we’ve travelled across the globe multiple times in Amazing Race like style to spend a few nights of joyous celebration with our dearest friends. We’ve been to Paris, Provence, Corsica, New York, Kota Kinabalu, heading back to France in August with another Balinese wedding lined up in October. All this dizzying yet delightful travel can evidently make a large dent in our finances.

We thought we could play it smart by using all those points we’ve accumulated with Qatar Airways to obtain some rewards tickets and offset some of our costs. I knew it would be difficult but it practically impossible unless we were uber flexible on dates. In which case, when weddings are involved, they aren’t. “Oh hey! I’ll come two days after your wedding! Maybe we can take you guys out for a drink to celebrate!” We were quite frustrated with the process and my husband even considered giving up on the loyalty program all together. “What’s the point?” he asked rightfully so. “If we can’t even use our miles, why rack them up in the first place?”

I have to admit that one of our favourite extravagances is traveling in Business Class for long haul, especially with baby. The boom in Middle Eastern airlines with their super low promo fairs have made it really accessible too. Once I scored round trip business class tickets to Paris on Qatar Airways for US$2000.00. But with all those back and forth trips there was no way we could afford to fly to Europe twice on Business Class.

For our last trip to Paris I had managed to score us an incredible deal in economy with Qatar Airways on one of their online sales. Roundtrip tickets came out to around US$1,200.00 per person. And in the dates leading up to our departure I tried every possible way to upgrade using points or new sale fares online so that I could enjoy that relaxing long haul sans bébé avec champagne. (I absolutely LOVE airplane rides, even in economy, it’s like imposed quiet time. But this is NOT the case with a baby.) But there was no doing and we didn’t want to spend the extra bucks. To our surprise, we in fact made the right move and ended flying business class 75% of the time!

As Gold and Silver Privilege Card Members of Qatar Airways / One World, we could check in the Business Class lane and were given priority choice of seating. Qatar also has one of the BEST economy seats around. I’m pretty tiny so I can fit anywhere but my long legged euro hubby needs his space. He was able to stretch out properly and catch a few good ZZZ’s. The entertainment system is top notch and the food is great. I don’t know if it was for every or if we got special treatment, but I believe they asked us ahead of everyone else what our meal choices were and brought us an extra bottle of water. I figure it was because were Gold and Silver members.

Photo from theaviationwriter.com – Qatar’s ample legroom, chairs that really recline (no to shell seats!!!!!) and great entertainment system makes for one of the best economy class seats available

When we got to Doha, we went straight to the lounge for privilege card holders (which is actually different from the really amazing Al Maha Business Class lounge) and at the counter we asked if we could use our points to be upgraded on the next leg of our trip. It was a no fuss, extremely efficient transaction as the lady verified our accounts, used a combination of Qmiles and Qcredits and within minutes we were issued our new boarding passes! No waiting for approval, filling up of long forms. We had the points. They had the seats. We had the upgrade. Easy peasy!

In the return leg we did exactly the same and from Paris to Doha all the way to Manila we managed to be upgraded all the way with no fuss. We were truly impressed with Qatar Airways’ efficiency and service and this trip combined with all the great sales and deals has truly made our loyalty worth the while. It’s no wonder that they were voted the world’s best airline this year!

I’m absolutely looking forward to my next trip with them this August with the baby (they have the best kids room in the lounge!) and now that he’s a little older, maybe mommy can have some bubbly and let pops do the dirty work!

Love and light, Stephanie

*this is absolutely NOT a paid nor sponsored post, we were just both so floored by their service!