How to swap your Avios for amazing experiences

Fancy VIP tickets for the O2 Arena, or a visit to the F1?

There's a little-known way to swap your Avios points for a once (or maybe twice) in-a-lifetime experience thanks to Qatar adopting Avios as its official mileage currency. It doesn't matter whether you're based in the UK, US, AU or the Middle-East, there's something for you.

Qatar's Privilege Club Collection

It has a fancy-sounding name. In simple terms it's this is an auction, using Avios, for some fantastic sporting and entertainment experiences.

The options available cover the UK, US, Qatar, Australia and New Zealand (although AU and NZ are limited). Most of them are genuine elevated experiences rather than just tickets to an event.

Tickets tend to come in pairs, and some events will have multiple pairs available. It's also made clear during the bidding process what you will actually get if you win. This can be extremely generous. Events at the O2 in London come with £400 worth of food and drink vouchers, as well as access to two VIP lounges.

Experiences in the UK

For the UK Qatar has built a relationship with the O2 arena in London. Within the arena, they've built something unique: the NinetyThird premium members club. Hospitality suites in entertainment venues are not new, but this is quite exciting.

The highlight at NinetyThird is "The Walkway", which is a retractable long balcony that extends eight metres out into the arena. You're 70 feet up from the floor, and you get to experience the venue and the crowd from a unique vantage point.

The space has a sit-down restaurant and cocktail bar. It cost £7m to build this exclusive space. An annual pass for The NinetyThird is £15,000 a year + VAT, but through the Qatar Privilege Club Collection, you get to bid using your Avios points.

You can also bid on tickets for this year's Goodwood Festival, which gets you two VIP tickets to the Qatar box. It's inclusive food and drink plus a driving experience on the circuit and an invitation to the Regency ball.

Experiences in the US

Qatar has a relationship with the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, which gives you the opportunity to use their suite (and their VIP entrance). Tickets currently available span sporting sporting events and music. These include Usher and Justin Timberlake.

You can also bid on tickets for the Las Vegas F1. The auction has not yet been opened so it's unclear what type of tickets or hospitality you'll get.

Rest of the World experiences

If you're in the Middle East then the auction for the Qatar Grand Prix will be opening up soon.

In New Zealand, you can bid on tickets at Eden Park. At the time of writing, there's only one event listed. It does get you into the Qatar VIP suite, with food and drink included.

In Australia, there's a relationship with the Sydney Swans but there are currently no auctions to bid on.

Finally, you can bid for a signed Paris Saint-Germain top.

How do you bid on experiences?

Firstly, make sure you have a Qatar Privilege club account and make sure it's linked to your BA Executive Club account if you want to access that pool of Avios.

Next, visit the Privilege Club Collection page. You'll see a list of experiences part-way down the page. Initially this groups together experiences like F1 and the O2. A little further down the page there's a Categories section. Click either Sport & leisure or Music & culture to see a full list of each event you can bid on.

You'll then be taken to a page that lists the grouped events at the top. Scroll down and you'll see every event ordered by date.

To bid on an event, simply click Bid Now, and then enter the amount of Avios that you want to bid. This page lists what's included in the experience. For example, the next event at the O2 is Peter Kay, and you're bidding on two VIP tickets, including fast track entry, VIP car drop-off, a £400 voucher for food and drink, as well as access to the NinetyThird and you even get to access the American Express lounge after the show.

To place a bid, enter the amount of Avios you want to commit (which has to be 1,000 Avios higher than the current highest bid) and click Bid Now. Avios will be taken from your account immediately, although if someone else outbids you then your Avios is returned.

Current experiences available