Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

‘50% off Avios redemptions’ sale on Iberia – Europe plus New York, Miami, Chicago included

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Iberia Plus has launched an amazing HALF-PRICE sale on Avios redemptions! This applies to both Economy and Business seats.

There are some excellent deals to be had here, even though you need to change in Madrid.

Business Class from Madrid to New York is just 40,000 Avios plus €172! This compares with 80,000 Avios and £500 for a similar British Airways flight booked on Avios!

Avios wing 6

(The taxes figure is not reduced – €172 is the standard taxes number for a long-haul Iberia redemption booked via iberia.com. It is shocking, frankly, that if you try to book exactly the same redemption on the same plane via ba.com they will charge you £500!)

Note that the Iberia website, on the promos page, still shows the December offers with different discounts. However, do a dummy booking and the deals below will show.

Let’s look at the small print:

Book by January 7th

Fly by April 8th

Valid on ALL European routes flown by Iberia and Iberia Express

Valid on the following long haul routes:
New York
Chicago
Miami
Bogota
Quito
Guayaquil

You must book via iberia.com. This means that you must have an ACTIVE Iberia Plus account, ie one that has been open for 90 days and has earned at least 1 Avios.

As long as you have an active Iberia account, you can transfer over the Avios you need from avios.com or BA using ‘Combine My Avios’.

You have one decision to make when booking. If you book from London to, say, New York on one ticket then you incur UK Air Passenger Duty at the long-haul rate – your taxes rise to €360 return in Business. If you book London to Madrid on a separate ticket to Madrid to New York, your taxes will be a lot lower. However, you then lose your legal rights to be put on another flight if your inbound flight is delayed.

To be honest, I would be happy to be on separate tickets on the basis that both flights are on Iberia, but you may think differently.

When it comes to seat, you may be lucky and get the new Iberia fully flat business class seat, which I reviewed here.

You may also be unlucky and get the old sloping seat. However, at these prices, you can’t really complain.


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 (57)

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

  • mycity says:

    I have just joined IB for future Avios bookings, I assume I don’t need to join my wife as I can book for her using my Avios, like BA Exec Club, is this correct?

    • James67 says:

      Yes but you need to have been an active member for 90 days before you can transfer in you avios as I understand it.

    • Simon says:

      I think it is worthwhile to create an account for your wife. I did for mine and currently doing the gym promotion on both our accounts and it came in useful to get the 50% bonus for points transfer!!

  • xcalx says:

    Am I the first HFPer to actually book flights. 2 X MAD-MIA business begining of April. Seats 1E &1G booked, looks like the A330 ( have had these change to old 340 near to departure but for a day flight I would not be bothered in the slightest ) For the return we will look to book a repositioning cruise back to Europe after a few weeks in Mexico.
    Once again a BIG thanks to Raffles We will toast you with Cava when we board in Madrid.

    • MaltaPointsTom says:

      Probably a wise move – I was looking at MAD-MIA returns and while I found some availability for the MAD-MIA leg, there was nothing in my (fairly wide) window from MIA-MAD. I get the feeling you may have the luxury of a little more time than me though…

  • Don says:

    I suppose that CDG-MAD-JFK/ORD will also be 40k return and low taxes.

  • Steve says:

    Has anyone had luck transferring BA avios to IB? I get a technical glitch error on BA.com. Ive had both open for 3 months.

    • General Mayhem says:

      Yes – I have never been able to transfer points using the BA or Avios websites. But have been able to using the Iberia site. You need to find the “combine my avios” link on iberia – it is well hidden.

      I thnk it is now on “iiberia plus” “my account”” “buying and trasferring avios” – then at the bottom of the page is a link in red “Don’t forget you can combine your Avios with those of other OW customer loyalty programmes.” – click that and it will bring you to the “combine my avios” page..

  • pazza2000 says:

    Just curious, has anyone snapped up an IB redemption under this sale? I flew LAX-GLA (via MAD) on IB last year and swore I would never again, the taxes saving did not justify the detour and lesser J product. Although with ex-UK taxes rising, & it being likely that Avios/BA have no intention to offer a J/F sale, I am tempted again…

    • Ed says:

      Yes, I did.

      I got returns MAD-JFK for my wife and I (booked under separate IB accounts). Only problem is that for the outward leg my wife is in J and I am in Y. There is no availability for either and upgrade, or a downgrade! I am going to see what comes up, but would be interested if anyone else has any experience in how flexible IB can be in these sort of circumstances…

      • pazza2000 says:

        May I ask what taxes you paid, and how your getting to MAD out of interest? JFK looks like it has good success rate with the new biz product, shame you’re in separate classes on the outbound.

        • Ed says:

          We paid c£140 in taxes each. Will probably try and snap up a BA redemption to MAD in the RFS £1 sale next week.

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

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