Bits: Telegraph article, bonus for iberia.com bookings, want to buy 6 x A380s?

News in brief:

The Telegraph endorses credit card churning

In one of the more interesting personal finance article on travel credit cards, The Daily Telegraph published this on Thursday.  What is interesting is that it actively endorses credit card churning.

For a bit of fun, read the article and score 1 point for every factual error you find ….

1,500 – 2,000 bonus Avios for a booking on iberia.com

You may have received an email from Iberia offering you bonus Avios if you book a flight on iberia.com by May 5th.  I didn’t, but when I log in at iberia.com I am shown that I would receive 2,000 bonus points.

The key point here is that this bonus appears to pay with any cash flight booked on the Iberia site.  A HfP reader who has booked a few of these in the past told me that it triggers with a Vueling flight, for example.  It also triggers if you book a British Airways flight to Spain via the Iberia site.

If you are planning to book an Iberia flight, a BA flight to Spain or a Vueling or Iberia Express flight before May 5th, you should log in at iberia.com and see if they will give you a bonus for booking there.

Malaysia Airlines puts its six A380s up for sale

Following the tragic events of last year, which essentially bankrupted the company, Malaysia Airlines has put its six Airbus A380 aircraft up for sale or lease. The story is here. If sold outright they would fetch around $1bn.

This will be a very interesting one to watch.

The main selling point of the A380 – the ability to pack more passengers into a plane – has been compromised by the willingness of some airlines to move to previously unthinkable levels of density in economy on existing aircraft.

Few base airports would even have the capacity to handle six new A380 aircraft at once. British Airways, for example, would not have enough A380 stands at Terminal 5 to manage them.

Airbus failed to sell a single A380 last year (although the order book is full for a few years) and Emirates is pushing for the development of a more fuel efficient version before it will commit to another major order. However, Qatar Airways and Etihad have been dipping their toes in the water and have (or are getting) new airports which could easily handle them. Turkish may also be interested.

As Malaysia Airlines is a oneworld partner, some of you may be booked on an A380 redemption from London or Paris to Kuala Lumpur. You should keep an eye on your booking. All other long-haul Malaysia aircraft do NOT have fully-flat seats in business class. There is no need for immediate panic as only two of the A380s are being offered for immediate delivery – the other four will not be released until 2016.

Malaysia is also selling six Boeing 747 and Boeing 777 aircraft. It will be left with A330 and the remaining Boeing 777 planes for long-haul operations and will essentially refocus as a regional carrier.

There may also be two long-haul slots at Heathrow coming up for grabs for anyone with $30m each to spend.