As World Cup Russia 2018 wraps up, I already have my sights set on Qatar 2022. While it is four years away, it’s not too early to start planning and saving up money for the next World Cup. I do plan on using miles to cover my flights. In this article, I’ll show you my plan on how to book flights to Qatar and some useful information to cover my stays with credit card rewards. Don’t forget to check out part 1 of the World Cup Planning series for more information.
FLIGHTS I AM PLANNING FOR
As cheesy as it may sound, since the host country is Qatar, it gives me a very good reason to consider Qatar Airways. Many top bloggers rave about their business class seats and product. Not only do I want to try their business class product, but they have several nonstop flights from US cities to Doha. Flights from the US to Doha on Qatar Airways in business class are 70K AA miles each way.
My backup plan to get to Qatar would be through Turkish Airlines. I have flown in their business class several times and it never gets old for me. They offer great food, service and comfortable lie-flat seats that allow me to get some rest before I get to my destination. The only drawback would be connecting in Istanbul. I’d prefer the non-stop flight, but I’m sure I could get over it at their business class lounge. It’s fairly easy to find award space so I consider this to be a safe backup plan. For the Turkish Airlines option I would use Aeroplan miles.
HOW TO BOOK
Keep in mind that this may change in three years, but as of right now, this is the process of searching and booking these flights. DISCLAIMER: The number of miles required and the websites may change from now until it’s time to book your flights for the World Cup.
For the Qatar Airways flight, I will use the British Airways website to find award space. I plan to use American Airlines miles as the currency to purchase my flights. Here’s how to find award space.
Log in to your British Airways account, then under the “Executive Club” tab, select “Spending Avios”
Then scroll down and select “Book a reward flight”
Fill in the flight information and click “Get Flights”
Select “No, I want to continue without stopovers”
Here are the available flights. Notice that there’s an option for Qatar Airways and one for British Airways. I won’t consider the British Airways option since the fees are super high. The one I would book is Qatar Airways.
Make note of the flight number, dates, times etc as you will need this information when you call the American Airlines center to book this flight. Make sure you have enough AA miles in your account. When you’re ready, call AAdvantage at 1-800-882-8880. Let them know that you’d like to book an award flight and give them your AA account information. Feed them the flight information. Viola!
HOTEL OPTIONS FOR THE WORLD CUP
It will be difficult to use hotel loyalty points to cover my lodging, since FIFA blocks out rooms at hotels. This has been the case for the past two World Cups. No need to fear though, since we can use Barclay Arrival + miles or Venture miles to cover costs paid for lodging. Here are some options for you to consider.
The first option is FIFA Hotels. As mentioned before, FIFA blocks out hotel rooms at several hotels in host cities and they post them on their website. The prices are very reasonable and the transactions are secure. They make it very easy to book a hotel stay during the World Cup. The drawback is that you can’t use or earn hotel loyalty points for your stay. The charge does post as travel, so you can use fixed value points to cover those charges. This is the option I would suggest using.
Another option would be to search for your stays through Booking.com. I did this during the World Cup in Brazil and it worked out very well. Through this site, you get a mix of hotels, apartments, condos and homes that you can rent. Prices are good and I like the fact that you can contact Booking’s customer service department if you have any questions or concerns. They have a messaging option to where you can communicate with the property, and they keep a log of the conversations in case you have any troubles before or during your stay. You can also use fixed value points to wipe out these charges as well.
AIRBNB… USE WITH CAUTION
The last option I will mention is Airbnb. I have used Airbnb in the past and have enjoyed all of my stays through them. I have been able to use fixed value points to cover these charges which is great. The prices, especially for larger groups are usually better through Airbnb and you most likely get a more “local” feel throughout your trip. Up until now, my experience with Airbnb has been great!
A word of caution though with Airbnb. During our planning during for the World Cup, we ran into issues where hosts would cancel bookings, only to inflate their prices and ask you to re-book at the higher price. Lucky for us, when they cancelled it was still early on in the process and I still had the opportunity to search and find reasonably priced accommodations. Many people that I spoke with weren’t so fortunate. They had booked and paid for their Airbnb, only to have the host cancel their booking about a week before their scheduled arrival. The host would inflate the price to extraordinary amounts and ask the customer to re-book. By this time, it’s very tough to find any accommodations, so the customer is then backed into a corner where they feel they have to pay the high prices. Airbnb is aware of these issues, but have stated that they can’t do anything about that.
CONCLUSION
Attending the FIFA World Cup is very achievable and much more affordable than you think with the help of points and miles. Planning for the World Cup is a little more tedious than other vacations you may have planned for, but with some patience and enough time, you can plan an extraordinary trip. So if you’re planning on going to Qatar 2022, start saving and planning now!
