Qatar Airways has extended its remarkable offer of free travel for healthcare professionals all the way until 31st March 2022. The offer was first announced last year in May when Qatar offered 100,000 round-trip tickets to medical professionals and a companion of their choice completely for free to anywhere in the world.
Qatar extends its offer to healthcare professionals
Qatar Airways announced on Sunday that all healthcare professionals who had received the airline’s medics campaign giveaway are in for some “more good news.” This is aimed at all those who have not yet been able to book their free round-trip tickets for themselves and their companion due to travel restrictions they face worldwide.
Their good news is that they now have until 30th September 2021 to book these tickets for travel all the way up to 31st March 2022. Qatar also noted that it would email the details and expressed a thank you in its name for the healthcare professionals’ “heroic efforts”.
If you haven’t been able to book your ticket or travel to date due to the pandemic, fret not as the booking date will be extended to 30 September 2021 with travel valid until 31 March 2022, subject to availability. Details will be emailed to you. Thank you for your heroic efforts
— Qatar Airways (@qatarairways) February 14, 2021
The giveaway launched in May
It was back in May last year that Qatar Airways first launched this giveaway, at a time of global travel shutdowns and unprecedented difficulties for healthcare systems worldwide.
Qatar made healthcare professionals a unique offer at the time: 100,000 tickets to them and one companion of their choice almost completely free. The airline waived the entire fare and all its surcharges, so travelers only had to pay airport taxes for these 100,000 tickets. QMiles members could even earn miles for these flights.
At the time, Qatar’s CEO, Akbar Al Baker, said:
“There are no words or gestures that are enough to repay these brave men and women but we hope that our small offer of a complimentary return flight on Qatar Airways will allow them to enjoy a well-deserved holiday…as travel restrictions start to ease.”
The 100,000 tickets were allocated via a platform that Qatar set up for healthcare professionals to register. Via this registration portal, healthcare workers were issued a promotion code if they managed to register successfully. The 100,000 tickets were allocated not only on a first-come, first-served basis. They were also rationed across seven days, from 12th to 18th May 2020, and divided up pro rata across all the countries that Qatar was flying to at the time.
Qatar wasn’t alone in its generous offer to the medical workers. American Airlines had offered medical workers in New York a three-night vacation to a select list of destinations. JetBlue, United, and Delta Air Lines offered free tickets to volunteers that needed to get to wherever they were helping out.
With an increasing number of countries across the world lifting restrictions on tourists who have been vaccinated, and with healthcare workers typically being prioritized for vaccination, this summer could be a great opportunity to make use of Qatar’s offer.
Have you or someone you know made use of Qatar Airways’ promotion for healthcare workers? Let us know what you think of this story and Qatar’s decision to extended it through to 2022 in the comments below.
