Review: Air Nostrum business class from Ibiza to Madrid, booked with Avios

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• Stu R says:

  2 Feb2 February 06:07

  We used Air Nostrum to fly from Malaga to Madrid a couple of years back and later this year we’ll use them again to fly from Madrid to Granada. They’re perfectly functional, although the planes a little small, and we earned/will earn points on both flights. Quite fun to fly something different over the standard A320 family used everywhere else in Europe!

• Ben says:

  2 Feb2 February 06:45

  Worth also pointing out that Iberia has some economy level air nostrum avios fares (rather than blue level that are the avios tickets available on BA.com). Flew blq-mad over the Christmas period, cheapest cash ticket was £647, but managed to book 4 avios tickets for 1,550 avios plus £55 each. Definitely earnt a few brownie points with the in-laws. Flight was undramatic, though can recommend the gazpacho they serve in economy.

  • the real harry1 says:

    2 Feb2 February 06:55

    Nice redemption.

    So what is the difference between getting the redemptions via IB or BA? You say economy level AN Avios fares vs Avios tickets on BA.com but is there a service or cost difference?

    • Ben says:

      2 Feb2 February 07:19

      IB seems to offer 3 levels of avios redemption: Blue (same as economy on BA.com), Economy (1.5x number of AVIOS required, no availability on BA.com), Business (same as BA.com). Rob correct me if I’m wrong here. For some reason, when I redeemed there was 50% off the economy redemptions. Interestingly, also earnt something like 400 AVIOS on the redemption when claiming through BA.

• Lumma says:

  2 Feb2 February 07:07

  I don’t see any justification to pay the extra avios for business class on this flight for that rubbish lounge and to sit up front especially as many people might accept defeat when told they don’t have access.

  4,500 avios are worth more than the cash price to enter the lounge for most people. Perhaps travelling in the opposite direction, with access to the iberia lounge in Madrid might be better value.

  I remember this site previously saying not to use club Europe from London City in the past as it’s not worth it (no lounge, no blocked middle, etc.). This seems even less attractive.

  • Rob says:

    2 Feb2 February 08:44

    If you sitting on a couple of million Avios you would think differently!

    I even do J from City if it is there, purely because the marginal cost off a 7-figure Avios pile is effectively nil.

    • the real harry1 says:

      2 Feb2 February 18:57

      depends if it’s your money or not

      I would suggest you are close to the position of an employee looking at a corporate travel policy – of course you always go business if the policy says you can on that itinerary, you’d be crazy not to, you boss also expects you to keep up the standards! [though I sweet-talked my very nice boss Martin Boozechief back in 1996 into swapping business return UK-USA into a RTW ticket with 2 weeks diving off the Great Barrier Reef, showing a cost-saving to the co 🙂 ]

      your ‘couple of million’ points [ 🙂 ] is effectively now the business, it’s tax deductible for a start if you get a lounge/ flight review out of it (or even if you don’t, if your business decides against) – plus of course the points keep flowing in if you do a decent job on hfp so it’s not as if it’s a finite resource

      hasten to add I would never, ever use Avios for a RFS redemption in CE when the flight is more than twice as expensive as economy & the offering is so similar/ not worth the difference/ we’re talking under 3 hrs posterior on seat

      except for the wife haha!

      • the real harry1 says:

        2 Feb2 February 19:05

        of course – that’s why the marginal cost is effectively nil – I hope it’s actually positive! 🙂

      • Rob says:

        2 Feb2 February 19:08

        You should see the travel policy wording in Anika’s contract 🙂

        • the real harry1 says:

          2 Feb2 February 19:27

          Your primary target readership is AB and a bit of C1 – the others are naturally welcome as social mobility exists & we hopefully all aspire to the good life. Unfortunately I think I’m a B heading for C1 in retirement but my wife is a good B so maybe we’ll pull through 🙂

          I assume hfp Anika is tasked to talk to your primary market? (and SP on top)

          no need to answer lol

        • the real harry1 says:

          2 Feb2 February 19:30

          [still managed to stick £40K in my wife’s pension fund this year]

        • Callum says:

          2 Feb2 February 22:41

          Therealharry1 – That’s very generous of you to allow us poor people to keep reading! (And no, I have no aspirations for “the good life”)

      • Lady London says:

        2 Feb2 February 22:07

        BA often has only Club seats available on the useable flights on my route though. So if I took them I would have to pay twice as much really for a vaguely decent flight time and no other difference that matters to me.

  • Clive says:

    2 Feb2 February 11:34

    Don’t know if it’s true but somebody told me that the meals in CE from LCY are better to make up for the lack of lounge – they mentioned steak and chips on their flight (which beat the salad I recently had in CE to Berlin from LHR)…

    • Lumma says:

      2 Feb2 February 13:05

      My first ever experience of any business class was actually flying City to Amsterdam. I was actually impressed with it (was in row 2 with huge legroom, decent salmon salad and managed a couple of beers and a wine in the short time I was in the air). However, I only booked it as there was no economy option at the time I wanted to fly and I wouldn’t say it was worth the extra 4,500 avios and the few quid in taxes.

      I was more annoyed that I let the lady friend I took with me have the window seat and she wasn’t remotely excited at the views of London after take off!

      • BrianDT says:

        2 Feb2 February 18:43

        I’d take a long time view with that relationship!

      • Lady London says:

        2 Feb2 February 22:10

        BA often has only Club seats available on the useable flights on my route though. So if I took them I would have to pay twice as much really for a vaguely decent flight time and no other difference that matters to me.

        So I’ve got into the habit of paying perfectly acceptable cash flights on other airlines instead.

    • Vivian says:

      2 Feb2 February 15:58

      I did LCY-DUB-LCY in CE once. The LCY-DUB leg was on a Saturday morning and offered a full English (plus champagne upon request as a lady in 1A did). When I did LHR-DUB in CE the meal was a light salad.

• Michael C says:

  2 Feb2 February 07:10

  This will probably appeal to an extreme minority of your readers but…AirNostrum is great for redemption on the Spain mainland – Melilla routes. Not only is there almost always availability, but since Air Nostrum has a monopoly on most of these routes, the actual cash prices are often ridiculous, so it’s a great saving.

  • Lumma says:

    2 Feb2 February 13:09

    Before reading your comment I had no idea where Melilla was. It’s came up as a random option when looking to book Iberia redemptions from the USA to Malaga, 3 flights, changing in Madrid and Melilla, which seems rather rediculous.

    • Michael C says:

      2 Feb2 February 13:40

      Better to get the v pleasant fast train down from Madrid, Seville or Barcelona!

• Kerry says:

  2 Feb2 February 07:39

  Lumma … Club Europe out of LCY is a complete waste of Avis (or money!). No lounge at LCY, no empty middle seat (at least not on the Granada route), poor food. That said, I’m no big fan of Club Europe generally – you may get an empty middle seat, lounge access and slightly better food but seat pitch seems no better than economy!

  Rob – armrest hogger – love it (well hate it actually!) Not as bad as having Jabba the Hut sat next to you on a 3 hour economy flight – I ended up hanging over the edge of my (fortunately) aisle seat!

  • Mike says:

    2 Feb2 February 07:49

    Jabba the hut – quote of the week

  • Aeronaut says:

    2 Feb2 February 10:29

    Not Rob – twas Anika.

    • Kerry says:

      3 Feb3 February 09:28

      Ah Aeronaut – I must learn to look at who wrote the article!

• Jorge says:

  2 Feb2 February 07:45

  The sandwich is an Ensaladilla Rusa one, a very popular summer dish in Spain. Next time you are in the country go to a local bar and ask for a “tapa” of it as it is the most usual way to have it (not in a sandwich) or go to Hispania in the City and try it there. I personally love it.

  • the real harry1 says:

    2 Feb2 February 12:01

    If that had me getting muggin’s choice I would have gone hungry as I don’t like eggs – pretty poor not to load a bit more variety

• Anna says:

  2 Feb2 February 07:57

  I might be able use this airline as I have family in northern Spain, well off the tourist route. However, I struggle in general to find non-BA redemptions, e.g. I was looking at LAX to Hawaii the other day. Initially it showed an AA flight for 25,000 plus £9 tax, but when I looked again later, and each subsequent occasion, I got a message saying BA and its partners don’t fly that route so what is one to think?!

  Anika, did you book the Air Nostrum flights through BAEC online?

  • Rob says:

    2 Feb2 February 08:45

    This one was booked via Iberia Plus because Iberia has better availability, but you can also book them off ba.com.

  • mark2 says:

    2 Feb2 February 08:50

    Suggest you ring BAEC and ask about Alaska Airlines for that route.

    • Anna says:

      2 Feb2 February 08:59

      I think I will end up ringing, but still can’t understand why it showed the flight at first then changed to telling me they don’t fly that route at all!

  • Lady London says:

    2 Feb2 February 22:17

    If it won’t play ball try looking for AA saver seats or whatever their equivalent award level is on the AA site as though you were going to book them with AA miles, and then call BA and try to book those as those are often the class of award seat that is available to be booked by partner program members. Even if the partner program is not making it easy.

• FrequentDriver says:

  2 Feb2 February 09:49

  Is that a Silver BAEC tag on your luggage Anika ? What are you doing wrong 🙂 ?

  • Alex W says:

    2 Feb2 February 15:10

    Getting gold would cost HFP thousands, presumably, of unecessary expenditure when they have millions of Avios sitting there. If you want a story about tier point runs there are plenty of those on FT.

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