Get a 25% bonus when you buy Avios – worth it so you can book before devaluation?

I normally do not recommend buying airline miles unless you need to ‘top up’ an account for an immediate redemption.  With a few exceptions, buying a large proportion of the miles you need is rarely a good deal.

Iberia Plus is currently offering a bonus of up to 25% on purchases of Avios points. This deal runs until 22nd February, see here for further details.

Note that you need to log-in to see details of the bonus offer. Without logging in, the page just shows the standard pricing.

The bonus is staggered:

10% bonus when you buy 8,000 – 10,000 Avios

15% bonus when you buy 15,000 – 20,000 Avios

25% bonus when you buy 24,000 – 35,000 Avios

At the top end, you will be paying Euro 665 for 43,750 Avios (35,000 + 25%). This works out at 1.13p per Avios, based on £493.  You would need to add a 3% foreign exchange fee to this price if your credit card has one.

I would not usually be a buyer at this price.  However, with the deadline of April 28th to book Avios flights at the old redemption rates, you may want to consider it. 

It is worth noting that the collapse in the value of the Euro recently makes this deal a lot better than it was in the past.  When a similar offer ran last year – with a higher 30% bonus – you were actually paying more in £ terms (1.22p each) because of the prevailing € exchange rate.

The number of ways of earning Avios before April 28th is not huge because many offers take time to hit your account.  It is too late to earn Tesco Clubcard points, for example, because the next set of vouchers will arrive too late.

There ARE still some credit card deals you can get which WILL get the miles in your account before April 28th as I wrote about earlier in the week.

You MUST have been an Iberia Plus member for 90 days before you can buy points.  You must also have a balance greater than zero.  This is easily fixed if you have previously earned an Avios via Iberia with a transfer in from British Airways.  If you have never earned an Avios via Iberia Plus then you are stuck and cannot buy until a transaction has gone through your account.

At the end of the day, the Iberia Avios sale price is cheaper than buying Avios via BAEC or avios.com – which are not currently on sale – where you will pay £575 for 35,000 (1.64p).

If you have an American Express Gold or Platinum card, remember that you can buy up to 10,000 Membership Rewards points for 1.5p each per year (by phone only).  Transfer those into Avios and you are paying 1.5p per point – more than Iberia wants but less than BA is charging.

The other aspect of interest is the bonus on transferring Avios to someone else (ie your partner). This is also a poor deal. Transferring the maximum 24,000 Avios to someone else incurs a fee of €160. Assuming that you receive (25% x 24,000) 6,000 Avios as a bonus, you will have effectively paid €160 for them. That works out at 2.0p per Avios – very poor indeed.

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How to earn Avios from UK credit cards (April 2024)

As a reminder, there are various ways of earning Avios points from UK credit cards.  Many cards also have generous sign-up bonuses!

In February 2022, Barclaycard launched two exciting new Barclaycard Avios Mastercard cards with a bonus of up to 25,000 Avios. You can apply here.

You qualify for the bonus on these cards even if you have a British Airways American Express card:

There are two official British Airways American Express cards with attractive sign-up bonuses:

You can also get generous sign-up bonuses by applying for American Express cards which earn Membership Rewards points. These points convert at 1:1 into Avios.

Run your own business?

We recommend Capital on Tap for limited companies. You earn 1 Avios per £1 which is impressive for a Visa card, along with a sign-up bonus worth 10,500 Avios.

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 12th May 2024, the Capital on Tap Business Rewards Visa card is offering a bonus of 30,000 points, convertible into 30,000 Avios. You must have a Limited Company to apply. Click here to learn more and click here to apply.

You should also consider the British Airways Accelerating Business credit card. This is open to sole traders as well as limited companies and has a 30,000 Avios sign-up bonus.

There are also generous bonuses on the two American Express Business cards, with the points converting at 1:1 into Avios. These cards are open to sole traders as well as limited companies.

Click here to read our detailed summary of all UK credit cards which earn Avios. This includes both personal and small business cards.