Qatar Rolls Back Avios Redemption Restrictions — No Paid Flight Needed

Qatar Rolls Back Restrictions

As of September 15, 2026, Qatar has removed the qualifying activity requirement in order to use your Avios for others. Since mid-June, members couldn’t add anyone to “Family and Friends” or “My List” unless they first unlocked their account. You had to “unlock” your Qatar Airways account by either crediting a paid flight or spending on a Qatar-branded credit card — quite an onerous requirement.

Now the only requirement is that your account is at least 30 days old.

To be clear, you can still only redeem for anyone on “My List” or “Family and Friends,” and you can begin adding to these groups starting 30 days after your Qatar account is created. Members must still remain on either list for a minimum of six months, and that hasn’t changed.

Qatar rolls back redemption restrictions

Qatar rolls back redemption restrictions

Also, you can only be on one List at once, so make sure you don’t need to redeem for yourself with a different person’s Avios for at least six months after.

My List

This is the more useful of the two groups, and adding people to My List lets you redeem your Avios for them. This is the only list to which other people can be added if they have an existing Qatar Airways Privilege Club account (with or without Avios).

You can add up to four people to My List. While not a lot, the idea is to add children to the Family & Friends group.

Add up to 4 members to “My List”

Family & Friends

This is the list that Qatar uses for family points pooling, but in an extremely strange way. Think of the person setting up the Family & Friends as the “head” of the family and everyone else as dependents. While the dependents can earn Avios to pool into the family group, only the “head” of the family can redeem Avios (for themselves or anyone else on Family & Friends or My List). The “head” of the family is also the only person eligible to earn Qpoints (status qualifying metric).

The main goal of adding someone to the Family & Friends is to pool Avios, but you can only add them if they do not already have a Qatar Airways Privilege Club account. Because of this restriction, my assumption is that the “Family & Friends” list is primarily for children; they can add their earned Avios to the family pool, while only you can redeem them.

You can add up to nine people to your Family & Friends group, up from six when the June 2026 rules.

Add up to 6 passengers to “Family & Friends”

Consider Booking with British Airways Instead

If your Qatar account is less than 30 days old, you want to redeem from a family Avios pool, or you already belong on one List and want to book with someone else’s Avios, you can book your flight with British Airways Avios instead.

For me, the rule of only being on one List at once is very restrictive, so I won’t be adding myself to anyone’s List until I’m certain I need to use their Avios to book for myself.

British Airways doesn’t have the same restrictions as Qatar and also offers a user-friendly family pool for sharing Avios. If using pooled Avios, you do need to add passengers to a “Family and friends” list, but there’s no 30-day waiting requirement.

Direct flights between North America and Doha on Qatar Qsuites cost the same 70,000 Avios and the same taxes when booked with British Airways.

YYZ-DOH is the same price on British Airways as on Qatar

Of course, keep in mind that British Airways opens the booking calendar 355 days ahead, while Qatar opens it 361 days ahead, so flights could be booked before you reach British Airways. Qatar also undercuts British Airways on pricing if you need a connecting Qsuites itinerary, such as going onwards to Bangkok or Johannesburg.

For what it’s worth, I book all my Avios trips with British Airways when the pricing is the same, because of family Avios pooling and superior customer service compared to Qatar and Iberia.

Transfer Avios with Finnair

If one person’s Qatar account is 30 days old and someone else’s isn’t, you can still move your Avios into the right account through Finnair.

Use Live Chat to check for award space

This works whether you’re transferring between friends, family members, or literally anyone else; you can transfer Avios via Finnair for a flat €10 fee. The only rule is that the sender’s Finnair Plus account must be at least 90 days old.

Transfer Avios to another member for €10

This could be a multi-step process if your Avios are with Qatar or British Airways, as you’d first need to transfer them to Finnair. After receiving Avios in your Finnair account, you can move them to Qatar or any other Avios program.

Note: This won’t work for children, and award seats may disappear while you’re transferring Avios.

My Take

It’s unsurprising that Qatar rolled this back. This was the harshest step a loyalty program has taken to prevent fraud/points brokering, but not allowing someone to redeem for their spouse or children went too far. I’m glad to see the extra requirements removed and a 30-day waiting period to add anyone to a relevant group is enough of a roadblock.

In the points community, some will be unhappy with this change, believing easier access leads to more award space. To be frank, it’s not untrue, but restrictions should be sensible and avoid negatively affecting regular Avios members. For example, surely an exception could have been made if the account holder was also travelling on the same booking.

While Qatar has implemented new rules and then removed them (presumably to combat points broker fraud), I still prefer the system used by many Asian airlines: redeem only for immediate family, with proof of relationship.

Takeaway

Qatar Airways rolling back these restrictions is a welcome change. Requiring members to credit a paid flight or spend on a Qatar credit card before redeeming Avios for someone else was unnecessarily restrictive, while a 30-day account age requirement is a much more reasonable compromise.