Qatar Just Blocked You From Booking Avios for Friends & Family - And Amex Quietly Killed an Entire Transfer Partner

Two programmes made quiet moves this week that could cost you real value if you missed them - here's what actually matters.

The Marriott Bonvoy Premium Debit Card is offering a boosted 40,000-point welcome bonus - but only until 15th September. At a transfer ratio of roughly 3 Marriott points to 1 Avios, that's worth around 13,000 Avios just for opening the account. The £175 annual fee sounds steep, but the maths changes quickly when you factor in the benefits. This one has a hard deadline and the bonus disappears quietly when it passes - no fanfare, no extension.

If you've ever used your Avios to book a Qatar Airways reward seat for a partner, parent, or friend, you need to read this. Qatar Airways has introduced new eligibility requirements for Avios group redemptions under its Privilege Club rules - meaning you can no longer book for just anyone. There are now conditions attached to who qualifies as an eligible travelling companion, and if your booking doesn't meet them, the seats simply won't be available.

This matters because Qatar is one of the best-value ways to burn Avios - particularly in Business and First on long-haul routes where BA availability is thin. If your travel strategy relies on pooling Avios earned across a household to book flights for family members, this change directly affects that playbook.

The full breakdown covers exactly what the new rules say, which passenger relationships are still permitted, and the workarounds worth knowing before you next go to book.

Etihad Guest is gone from Amex Membership Rewards as of this week - no warning, no wind-down period. If you were holding points with a plan to transfer to Etihad, that window has closed.

The article maps out which remaining Amex transfer partners now offer the best value for the routes Etihad used to cover - plus two genuinely useful deals (an IHG 100% bonus points sale and a free Dubai hotel offer) worth acting on this week.

Reward availability to Australia in BA Business Class is notoriously scarce, which makes the current window for May and June 2027 departures to Melbourne and Sydney unusually notable.

At 374,000 Avios return, it's not cheap - but for a Business Class redemption on one of the world's longest routes, the maths stacks up. These seats won't sit around. The article shows exactly what's available and how to find it.

The Amex Platinum £100 dining credit runs in two half-year windows - and the first half expires on 30th June if you haven't used it. That's tomorrow.

The same article covers a change that slipped under the radar: the Foreign Office lifting travel warnings across much of the Middle East, which has quietly restored travel insurance cover for thousands of UK policyholders who were previously unprotected.

Two things to check before Monday morning.

Have a good Sunday.

- Jack

The card I have two of - here's why