Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

Why not joining Iberia Plus cost a reader £417 – and could cost you too

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Most Head for Points readers will have an avios.com account and a British Airways Executive Club account.  You really don’t have much choice, since some Avios offers (such as the generous insurance promotion currently being run by Alan Boswell) can only be credited to avios.com accounts.

Having two accounts is fine.  It isn’t much extra admin (and you should be using Award Wallet to keep track of your points balances anyway) and you can move Avios back and forth, for free, instantly, as many times as you like, using the ‘Combine My Avios’ tool on either ba.com or avios.com.

Not all HfP readers, however, will have an Iberia Plus account.

This is a mistake.

There are three reasons why:

You cannot open an Iberia Plus account at your leisure.  Well, you can, but you cannot use it.  An Iberia Plus account must be 90 days old and must have ‘earned’ 1 Avios point before you can transfer Avios points in and out.  The 1 point can come from an Amex Membership Rewards transfer, crediting a BA or oneworld flight, crediting a hotel stay etc.

Taxes and charges on Iberia redemptions are substantially lower when booked via Iberia Plus compared to British Airways Executive Club because the Iberia website does not add the same level of fuel surcharges

Availability for Iberia redemptions is better when booked via Iberia Plus compared to British Airways Executive Club

Why did a HfP reader just lose £417 because of this?

A reader contacted me this week because he and his partner had decided to visit Colombia later this year.  Whilst British Airways does not fly this route, Iberia does have a direct flight to Bogota from Madrid.

Booked via ba.com, two business class tickets on the Iberia flight cost 210,000 Avios plus £760 in taxes and charges.

Booked via iberia.com, exactly the same flights cost 210,000 Avios plus $434 (£343)

That is a saving of £417 if the reader books via iberia.com.

Except ….. he can’t.

He had never got around to opening an Iberia Plus account.  If he opens one now, he still won’t be able to transfer his Avios points across from BA for 90 days, which is September.  As he is hoping to fly in November, the chance of the seats still being available is not great.

The only advice I could give him was this:

Bite the bullet and book now via ba.com, paying the £760

Open an Iberia Plus account and work out a way of earning 1 Avios point

In 90 days, check to see if there are still business class Avios seats showing on your dates.  If there are – which is not hugely likely – he can cancel for a £70 charge and rebook via iberia.com

So, here is your task for the day.  If you don’t have an Iberia Plus account, nip over to iberia.com and open one.  At some point, work out a way of getting one Avios point into it.  By mid September, your account will be able to make transfers back and forth and you will be perfectly placed if you ever find yourself in a similar position to our reader.

Whilst Bogota may not be on your bucket list, there are plenty of other Iberia routes not served by BA.  And, on routes which both airlines serve, you can make huge savings flying Iberia. Madrid to New York in Business, for example, is just 68,000 Avios return off peak plus around £150 of taxes.

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.

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.

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.

Category

British Airways and Avios, Iberia and Iberia Plus

Comments (119)

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

  • Adam says:
    25 Jun25 June 06:50

    Has Iberia changed their chart again? I thought off peak MAD-BOG would be 85,000 per person (Rtn) or 125,000 per person for peak? Neither add up to 210,000. Am I missing something?

  • John says:
    25 Jun25 June 07:08

    Rather sensationalist headline! It’s only a potential cost which could be avoided by deciding to visit Colombia next year instead.

    • Rob says:
      25 Jun25 June 08:13

      …. or any of the other places that Iberia flies which BA doesn’t, which is quite a long list.

    • Peter K says:
      25 Jun25 June 09:28

      Except sometimes that is not how the world works. If you plan a big holiday in a particular year you might not want, be able to decide to go another year. Sometimes you are locked in.

  • Simon Cross says:
    25 Jun25 June 07:13

    Let me give you two more reasons for also having an iberia plus account:
    1) the off peak dates are different from BA’s so sometimes a saving available through this
    2) iberia runs promotions (such as their recent 25 percent off Avios redemption) for their 25 year anniversary.
    This really is a no cost (no brainer) options to do.

    • Genghis says:
      25 Jun25 June 07:19

      And it’s not exactly difficult. Transfer 1k MRs, use the next Vinoseleccion offer etc

      • Neil Holland says:
        25 Jun25 June 07:33

        Agree ref Vinoseleccion… Easy way to do it and great value wines regardless…

        • Stu N says:
          25 Jun25 June 11:36

          How long do the points take to post? I got the Rioja about three weeks ago and the Avios haven’t hit my IB+ account.

  • mark2 says:
    25 Jun25 June 07:33

    Another smaller reason to have an Iberia Plus account is that you earn more Avios if you transfer eRewards points to Iberia than to BAEC or Avios.

    • Genghis says:
      25 Jun25 June 07:46

      Is eRewards a way to activate the account?

      • RussellH says:
        25 Jun25 June 09:43

        Worked for me! 2 000 e-Rewards = 500 Avios / 500 BAEC avios / 750 Iberia Avios.

        And you might as well transfer as soon as you get to 2 000 as there is no bonus for transferring points in larger chunks, as there is for most other transfers.

        • David says:
          25 Jun25 June 14:38

          However, you can only transfer to Iberia once a month – so better to wait until 8,000 to get 3k avios per month

          • John says:
            25 Jun25 June 16:28

            How are you getting more than 8000 erw per month? I just send at 2000, and if I get to 2000 before I can send again, then wait until 4000. Never got 8000 before being able too send.

    • Simon says:
      25 Jun25 June 08:22

      I have my erewards account linked to BAEC – is there a way to change this to iberia plus?

      • mark2 says:
        25 Jun25 June 08:37

        It sounds as if you set up the account from BAEC, in which case you cannot change it.
        Most accounts allow transfers to many different schemes.

      • RussellH says:
        25 Jun25 June 09:45

        Accounts set up from Avios.com or BA websites only work for that specific site.

        Accounts set up from IHG / Hilton / Accor allow a huge range of transfers, including organisations that I have never heard of!

    • Brian says:
      25 Jun25 June 08:49

      Not only erewards – also hotel schemes, such as Accor. And there are some hotel schemes, I believe, that ONLY have Iberia as a partner. So yes, as Rob says, anybody reading this site should have an Iberia account.

  • Cheshire Pete says:
    25 Jun25 June 07:39

    With a lot of people getting 2 year extensions with BAEC , is it worth even crediting any flights back to EC. In that circumstance is it worth building status with IB+ instead?

    • Rob says:
      25 Jun25 June 08:15

      I don’t think so. You could consider crediting to, say, American Airlines instead – see my article on the new AA credit card the other day for reasons why you may want to do this (eg ability to redeem on Etihad).

  • JERRY FRIED says:
    25 Jun25 June 07:43

    Can you book BA flights from LHR from Iberia’s website saving fuel surcharges or do to have to fly Iberia from Spain?

    • Rob says:
      25 Jun25 June 08:14

      You can book BA flights via the Iberia website but you pay the same taxes as ba.com charges.

  • Chelseafi says:
    25 Jun25 June 08:28

    O/T I’ve got my 241 on my BAPP need to wait 2 months before my OH can get BAPP again so waiting to refer before I cancel and churn. Do I need to stay on the PP to get the same points (i.e. 9k for referring and OH 25k for card) or can I downgrade to free BA card and still get same points on referral of OH to get BAPP? Thanks

  • Dave R says:
    25 Jun25 June 08:37

    Are Iberia avios redemptions still non-refundable? If so, it’s not quite a like for like comparison.

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