Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

Iberia’s ‘buy Avios for 1p’ promotion is extended by a week

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Iberia Plus, the Iberia frequent flyer scheme which also uses Avios as its reward currency, has extended its current ‘ buy Avios’ bonus by a week.  The offer now closes on October 4th.

The Iberia annual cap on buying points was recently raised to 100,000 Avios per year.  Moreover:

Iberia has reset ‘purchases to date’ to zero, allowing everyone to buy the full 100,000 irrespective of other purchases in 2015

There is a 30% bonus on purchases made by 4th October – this is the new extended deadline

Is this a good deal?

Not really – although there may be specific circumstances, unique to you, where it makes sense because of how you redeem.  If you generally use Avios to upgrade cash tickets, for example, or always use a British Airways American Express 2-4-1 voucher, it may make sense.

At the top end, you will be paying €1,800 for 100,000 Avios.  The bonus takes that to 130,000 Avios.

On the current generous exchange rate, you will pay £1,335.  That is exactly 1p per Avios point.

My personal target for picking up Avios points is no more than 0.75p and preferably lower – I know that I won’t lose out at that level.  You may well be able to achieve more than 1p per Avios when you redeem but – given that Avios seats are harder to find than cash seats and that you are tying up your cash in points – I would want to be sure I was making substantial savings before jumping in.

On the upside, this is a very easy way of obtaining points.  No trips to Tesco required, no convoluted flying routes, no credit card applications required.

If you are interested in this offer, the ‘buy Avios’ page at iberia.com is here.  The 30% bonus only shows when you are logged in and on the order page.


How to earn Avios from UK credit cards

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:

Barclaycard Avios Plus card

Barclaycard Avios Plus Mastercard

Get 25,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher at £10,000 Read our full review

Barclaycard Avios card

Barclaycard Avios Mastercard

5,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher at £20,000 Read our full review

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

British Airways American Express Premium Plus

25,000 Avios and the famous annual 2-4-1 voucher Read our full review

British Airways American Express

5,000 Avios for signing up and an Economy 2-4-1 voucher for spending £15,000 Read our full review

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.

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold

Your best beginner’s card – 20,000 points, FREE for a year & four airport lounge passes Read our full review

The Platinum Card from American Express

40,000 bonus points and a huge range of valuable benefits – for a fee Read our full review

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.

Capital on Tap Business Rewards Visa

Huge 30,000 points bonus until 12th May 2024 Read our full review

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.

British Airways Accelerating Business American Express

30,000 Avios sign-up bonus – plus annual bonuses of up to 30,000 Avios Read our full review

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.

American Express Business Platinum

40,000 points sign-up bonus and an annual £200 Amex Travel credit Read our full review

American Express Business Gold

20,000 points sign-up bonus and FREE for a year Read our full review

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

Comments (13)

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

  • Erico1875 says:

    Mixing it up with other earning channels is Tesco, Amex etc then the OVERALL cost may well be under 0.75 or indeed less. Combining with the BA 2 4 1 and it may be the difference from getting your desired class from your local UK airport to where ever, as opposed to flying via Denmark, Norway etc

  • harry says:

    Does anybody know if you get double points with Amex Gold? MBNA Amex?

    Ie classified as foreign currency or travel spend?

    • Rob says:

      It is FX spend – probably NOT travel spend as they use a third party to process these transactions and your card statement will say points.com and not Iberia.

  • VP says:

    OTP but I thought it may be useful for some readers

    We had booked one of the ex-EU business class fares to maintain our Silver status (gained for first time thanks to this site last year). Our itinerary was DUB->LCY->JFK->LAX->SFO. A fire at Dublin airport on day of travel meant LCY-JFK had already left when we got to LCY so got rerouted as LHR-LAX-SFO. LAX-SFO was in fact on United (originally American but LHR-LAX was delayed and US immigration isn’t the quickest either). In short ended up with 180 tier points instead of 450. Called BA, they agreed in principle I should get tier points and miles as per original itinerary booked. 3 calls, 2 emails (1 rejecting , 1 claiming correct tier points credited) later finally today I got all the tier points as per original itinerary.
    BA’s service when it mattered the most (missed flights) was really good. Staff presented us with various routing options (we just missed the direct flight to SFO and decided to go via LAX to experience A380 business class though we were offered a flight via Seattle reaching an hour earlier), BA also ordered a cab for us from LCY to LHR.The Cab meter read nearly £150 though we did not have to pay anything.
    Interestingly, we got 100% Silver tier bonus miles for all BA flights but only 50% bonus for all AA flights in itinerary. The BA rep said that tier points and miles for one world flights (other than BA but booked with BA) are always credited as per rules in place at time of flying whereas for BA flights it is as per rules in place at time of reservation. This information was new to me and while it did not impact us other than fewer avios on AA, it could very easily have had an impact if I had any non BA economy flight or if tier points on AA flights would have changed.

    • Stuart says:

      How long did this take? Similar issue due to 2 involuntary re routes on the same itin.
      Mine is back with the back office for the third time and 8 weeks later I have had replies that were 100% positive and then 100% negative.

      • VP says:

        1 month in my case. In fact for the BA flights it was within 2 days but getting AA flights credited was a real pain and apparently back office had to send request to AA who process all such requests once a month and finally today I had the flights credited.

  • Tobi says:

    OT but related to Iberia: has anyone figured out how the Iberia bidding for flights system actually works?? Thanks! 😉

  • Jamie says:

    Is this offer still on? For me, when I’m logged in and follow the link the I get …’We are sorry to inform you that this service is not available.’

    • harry says:

      It’s still on, mine got credited today, bought yesterday.

      I’ll do the maths once I get my Amex conversion rate posted, I used MBNA so it takes a day or longer to see the transaction.

      Raffles posted 10/9, EUR/GBP conversion @ 1.375 (buy 1.35)
      Me worse @ 1.352 (buy something like 1.325)
      But with my double Avios I’m hoping I’ll have paid well under 1p

      • Jamie says:

        Ah we worked it out, one of our accounts is not active at the moment, the other account worked just fine 🙂

  • Russell says:

    Avios are giving 35% bonus when you buy 100000 Avios is this a good deal?

    • Rob says:

      No. Still well over 1p per point. At 1p per point it is possibly justifiable but above that, only worth it if you need a small amount to top up your balance to a redemption.

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