Qatar and GulfAir compete with 2-for-1 offers including business class

With Valentine's Day just round the corner, love is in the air, and particularly so for Qatar Airways and Gulf Air, which are offering 2-for-1 promotions for business class bookings done till 14 February 2016.


Qatar's offer

Qatar Airways' Companion Offer is a buy-1-get-2 promotion on both business class and economy class tickets, booked by 11 February 2015, for travel between 15 February and 15 June 2016. The offer is valid for two adults on a slew of Qatar's routes. In addition, members of Privilege Club (Qatar's frequent flyer program) also earn 2x miles, which is an excellent second benefit.

This offer sees some pretty decent fares ex – India to a whole line up of European & American destinations in both Economy & Business Class. With a strong in-flight product and good connecitvity via their hub in Doha, this would be a good deal for anyone planning a trip few months out. Some indicative routes and prices are:


You can read more about the offer, detailed T&Cs, and also book your flights, here.

Gulf Air's offer

Gulf Air's Travel Together offer is similar to Qatar's except that it is valid only on business class (Falcon Gold, as they are called) tickets. However, while bookings need to be completed by 14 February 2016 (as with Qatar), travel must be completed by 31 March 2016. The other difference of course is that there is no 2x miles offer, though to be honest, I haven't heard of too many (if any) stories around the great benefits of Gulf Air's FalconFlyer program.

Ex-India, this offer is valid on select routes, as follows:
  • Chennai To: Bahrain, Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Doha, Kuwait, Amman, Cairo, London, Frankfurt, Paris, Istanbul, Moscow 
  • Delhi To: Bahrain, Dubai, Amman, Khartoum, London, Frankfurt, Paris, Moscow 
  • Hyderabad To: Bahrain, Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Doha, London, Frankfurt, Paris 
  • Kochi To: Bahrain, Doha, Kuwait, Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Amman, Cairo, London, Istanbul, Moscow 
  • Mumbai to: Dubai, Doha, Amman, Cairo, Khartoum, London, Frankfurt, Paris, Larnaca, Istanbul, Moscow 
  • Trivandrum To: Bahrain, Dammam, Doha, Kuwait, Abu Dhabi, London 

For more on the offer, T&Cs and booking, check out details here. 

Comments

Both offers require that the two passengers travel together on both the outbound and inbound routes. Also, both offers seem to be valid only for flights with the respective airline, and not on any of their partners.

On a sample route such as MAA-IST, I was able to find the following prices on Matrix ITA on Business Class:


However, to be honest, the Rs 103k prices are on Kuwait Airways (ahem). Interestingly, for random dates of 18-22 March 2016, Matrix shows a price of Rs 131k on Qatar (in the promotional mail from Qatar and the image earlier in this post, MAA-IST is priced at over Rs 178k) and 118k on Gulf Air. 

In general, Qatar's fares are higher because they charge YQ surcharges (airline imposed / fuel surcharge), which Gulf Air does not, making Gulf Air a cheaper alternative. However, Gulf Air's promotion is valid only for flights till 31 March 2016.

Readers: Do you have any upcoming travel that you are likely to benefit from by using this offer?

Comments

  1. SameerFebruary 9, 2016 at 7:58 PM

    I checked on the GulfAir website.. the outbound travel needs to be completed by 31st May, not march..

    ReplyDelete

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