Credit Hilton stays to Iberia instead of British Airways? A warning

During August we’re going to be running a few more ‘educational’ articles than usual, to help new readers get up to speed with some of the tricks of our trade.

One of the things that makes this hobby so fascinating is the ability to arbitrage.  The aim is to collect miles and points as cheaply as possible and then use them for the maximum possible ‘pence per point’ reward.

There are also arbitrages inside individual programmes you can exploit.  For historical reasons, stretching back to before Avios points were introduced, Hilton Honors has different earnings rates for British Airways Executive Club and Iberia Plus.

When you stay at a Hilton Family property, you have two options.  You can take either ‘points and miles’ (10 Hilton Honors points per $1 plus some airline miles) or ‘points and points’ (10 Hilton Honors points plus an additional 5 Hilton Honors points per $1).

The rates for receiving airline miles under the ‘points and miles’ option can be found here.

If you click on European airline partners, you will see the following rates:

British Airways Executive Club – 1 Avios point per $1

Iberia Plus – 15 Avios points per $10

It doesn’t take a genius to realise that – if there are no specific BA or Iberia promos running – you should be crediting your Avios points from Hilton stays to Iberia Plus and then moving them across to British Airways Executive Club via ‘Combine My Avios’.  You will be earning 50% more Avios!

Except ….

There is a catch in the Iberia Plus earning rates.

You are capped at earning 1,000 Avios points per stay if you take Iberia miles.  The British Airways cap is 10,000 Avios.

You won’t find this cap mentioned on the airline partners page I linked above. 

You won’t find this cap mentioned on the Hilton page at iberia.com 

However, tucked away in the terms and conditions of the Hilton Honors programme is this paragraph:

Members may only accrue up to 10,000 airline miles per stay (or the equivalent currency of the airline Marketing Partner), except with respect to Home2 Suites by Hilton® and Tru by Hilton™ which limits accrual to 100 airlines miles per stay (or the equivalent currency of the airline Marketing Partner) and except with respect to the following airline carriers: Aeromexico – up to 20,000 Premier Points; AIR MILES Canada – up to 1,000 reward miles; El Al Israel Airlines – up to 250 airline Points; Iberia – up to 1,000 airline Points; LAN – up to 20,000 kilometers; Virgin Atlantic Airways – up to 20,000 miles; and Air New Zealand- up to 30,000 Airpoints dollars.

This means you need to bear these numbers in mind:

For Hilton bills of up to $1000, you should go with Iberia Plus (15 per $10 rather than 1 per $1 with BA)

For Hilton bills above $1000, you should go with British Airways Executive Club (the 1 per $1 means you will earn more than the 1,000 Avios cap imposed by Iberia Plus)

You learn something new every day …..!  It would be helpful if Hilton had this information on its airline partners page, rather than tucked away in the terms and conditions where it won’t be read.  One of our readers spent $2,400 and lost out on 1,200 Avios because he had gone with Iberia Plus.

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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:

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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