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.

  • Chris says:
    25 Jun25 June 08:40

    Thank you, Rob.

    General, somewhat related question: Does transferring avios from one account to another create the “movement” required to stop both accounts from expiring?

  • Steve says:
    25 Jun25 June 08:40

    O/T Can you still earn hotel points if you book though Amex or ba holidays.

    • Peter K says:
      25 Jun25 June 14:09

      From previous replies it seems that no hotel points from BA Holiday bookings and *sometimes* from Amex (but you have no way of knowing until after).

  • Fox999 says:
    25 Jun25 June 08:48

    Slightly O/T – when I registered for IB Plus, it would not accept my address correctly as I do not have a house number, just a name. I went with it and entered 0 as my number and my house Name under additional info. However, I would like it to be correct to avoid any future confusion. I have tried to edit my details and simply can’t enter my address, It requires a house number and there is no field to enter a house name. Any thoughts on how I resolve this myself. I can’t be the only IB plus member on here without a house number.

    • Genghis says:
      25 Jun25 June 08:53

      Contact IB+. I remember when I signed up I used autocomplete and my name was entered as Mr Genghis Genghis (for the Spanish two surname convention). You may have to fill out a physical form, scan it in and send it back (that’s the way they seem to roll) but they should be able to sort it out for you.

      • Fox999 says:
        25 Jun25 June 08:57

        OK, will do. I was hoping to avoid having to speak to someone! looks as though I am going to have to.
        Thanks

        • Mycity says:
          25 Jun25 June 09:05

          I had a similar issue as Genghis, it put my first and surname in incorrectly, a call to IB+ quickly resolved it.

          • RussellH says:
            25 Jun25 June 10:07

            I have a similar issue with SPG. Somehow my address got mangled and I cannot correct it online, nor could the SPG agent last time I spoke to someone.

    • Nick says:
      25 Jun25 June 10:18

      ‘Name only’ houses is a poncy middle-class convention that has no grounding in the real world… I can 100% guarantee that your house will have a number, you just might not know what it is. All councils maintain lists and maps of all houses and flats numbered to aid the emergency services (imagine an ambulance on a long road of named houses trying to find yours… while you’re dying quietly in the garden). I know this as I used to work with councils using them. You can ask the council to share your number if you want to know it, which I’d recommend if only for the reason above.

      • Genghis says:
        25 Jun25 June 10:26

        So even if you live off a country lane you will have a house number?

        • Peter K says:
          25 Jun25 June 14:11

          I lived in the country and some houses only had names. My house was number 1 and there were several others on birth sides of me. One side had names &numbers, the others only names.

          • the real harry1 says:
            25 Jun25 June 17:29

            I grew up in a small village/ hamlet where no houses had any numbers at all except for a short row of 6 more recent semi-detached Rothschild houses. All the rest of us (75%) just had names and of course the farms didn’t have numbers either.

      • Fox999 says:
        25 Jun25 June 14:50

        Well, having lived here for many years, I am sure it does not have a number. It does have a URPN and has a name against that on the council mapping. Registration with Land Registry is as a house name. The council planning portal mapping shows it by name. It was originally built down a country lane in 1922, access remains by an unmade bridle way only. I also know that when I have had need to call the emergency services, the house name suffices. Perhaps my local council are just behind the times.
        Even if it did have a number, given all my official details, bank’s details, various memberships are registered against my address as I know it, I would still have a discrepancy against my IB+ account and everything else and my postman wouldn’t know where to post my IB+ card.
        And anyway, poncy and middle class it might be, I like it.

      • Anna says:
        25 Jun25 June 15:39

        Hear, hear. I work for the emergency services and it’s a nightmare when someone only gives a house name and then expects the responder to know where they are – all that happens is that it takes that much longer for someone to arrive and deal with your fire/heart attack/burglar.

        • Leo says:
          25 Jun25 June 16:25

          Its not Fox999’s fault if his house never had a number!

          • Nick says:
            25 Jun25 June 18:15

            To be clear, his house will have a number, he just doesn’t know it! The only exception (and a very occasional one at that) is an isolated farm that is named on an OS map – though in this case they likely won’t have a street name so that can cause other problems!

            The solution in his case would be to use the house name as the street, so ‘1 My House, Small Street, Villageville’

  • Ian M says:
    25 Jun25 June 08:49

    Is there a low cost way of earning in an Iberia Avios account – just to notch up the qualifying £1?

  • Trevor G says:
    25 Jun25 June 09:20

    Hi folks
    Tried to register but the site will not accept my UK passport number. Any suggestions?
    Trev

    • Trevor G says:
      25 Jun25 June 09:29

      Update, the account came through anyway!. So next question how do I transfer points from an Amex Membership Rewards account to Iberia? Can’t see anything on Iberia about accepting transfers?
      Thanks
      Trev

  • Andrew says:
    25 Jun25 June 09:38

    Good Advice Rob. I opened up Iberia plus account then purchased a book on Iberia shopping site to gain some Avios. The book arrived two days later and international post was £5. I also booked a IB reward flight Madrid to Bogota for February and I plan to use Iberia again as soon as I can because they have good reward seat availability. None of this sitting up until midnight business trying to scoop up the one and only upper class reward seat that VS release on the Joburg route.

  • Andrew says:
    25 Jun25 June 09:50

    Forgot to say that I am coming home from Miami and went to book Miami to Manchester via Madrid , IB , J class but they wanted 7500 Avios for the Madrid to MAN sector, in economy I think, so only used Avios for MIA to MAD and the cash fare from MAD to MAN. Was £31

  • Marc says:
    25 Jun25 June 09:56

    OT: have downloaded the BA app, logged in and it has a ‘card expiry date’. What is this? Do I have to use all my avios points by then?

    • Genghis says:
      25 Jun25 June 10:19

      No. Don’t panic. It’s to do with status. Your avios are valid for 3 years since last ‘activity’, e.g. Earning one avios

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

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