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

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• e14 says:

  4 Jan4 January 07:52

  Two points
  1) check if two one ways are cheaper for taxes
  2) try and book your flight from the same terminal at Madrid t4s to t4 is a schlep, the lounge in T4 is poor, and some of the UK flights leave all the way at the end of the T4 terminal

  We did this last year on the SJO to MAD flights for 25k and circa €30 per person

• Worzel says:

  4 Jan4 January 08:23

  Maybe the Avios.com ‘Unmissable Sale’ on Monday will be more interesting than 1st thought??

• Nick says:

  4 Jan4 January 08:32

  Could someone explain in detail?

  If I want to book Lhr to JFK, must I book 2 separate tickets?

  Lhr to mad return and the mad to JFK return?

  • Rob says:

    4 Jan4 January 09:40

    No, you can book it as one ticket. However, the tax will be roughly £100 higher than booking 2 separate tickets as you will have to pay long haul Air Passenger Duty in the UK.

    Booked separately, you only pay short haul Air Passenger Duty (or, if you book via ba.com for LHR to Madrid, none at all as it is rolled up in the Reward Flight Saver fee).

• Aceman says:

  4 Jan4 January 08:48

  What’s the easiest way to earn 1 avios in Iberia? Or am I stuck crediting a short flight to them?

  • Rob says:

    4 Jan4 January 09:38

    You can buy 1,000 Avios as well, albeit the Gym game is cheaper!

• Chris says:

  4 Jan4 January 09:26

  Anyone having difficulties searching for availability? Mine keeps coming up with:

  ‘We have encountered some difficulty in dealing with this booking. We apologize for the inconvenience and ask you to please try again after a few minutes. If the error persists please contact us.’

  Any suggestions?

  • Ben says:

    4 Jan4 January 09:37

    Same for me… Tried a few route/date combinations yesterday and got the same response. I’ve got 15 avios in there, do you need enough to cover the flights with IB?

    • Simon says:

      4 Jan4 January 10:05

      You don’t need enough to cover the flights, I’ve got 240 Avios in IB and have had search results come back ok, I’ve also had the above error though. IB isn’t the best website.

    • EvilGazebo says:

      4 Jan4 January 10:20

      No, it’s not the lack of Avios. I’ve had this intermittently for weeks. Just did one search OK but now all failing. Same in different browsers.

      • Gill says:

        4 Jan4 January 10:37

        I get this all the time.
        Does availability show up on BA or AA? Can you find it there and then phone to book?

      • Chris says:

        4 Jan4 January 10:38

        Any way of fixing this I.T wise, as I’d quite like to check for these flights. Thanks

        • What's the Point says:

          4 Jan4 January 11:09

          Iberia.com is a terrible website to check/redeem Avios availability. I have tried on/off for around 5 months now, and almost constantly get the same error message as Chris.
          Plus another message about the return flight has to be after the departure date (something wrong with how they have the date selector set up I reckon)

      • Matthew says:

        4 Jan4 January 12:25

        I’ve finally sussed the problem with searching availability on the Iberia site. The problem occurs when you login then use the link on the Iberia plus drop down menu to search for flights using avios. The error is because it converts your dates to US format (ie 06/27/24) and then the search fails. The solution is to login, then use the standard book flights on the menu or homepage and select ‘pay with avios’ or something similar. Then the availability loads. Hope that helps!

        • Chris says:

          4 Jan4 January 12:37

          Great work Matthew. Thanks!!!!

        • susan says:

          4 Jan4 January 13:17

          Great catch Matthew. Now if you can suggest a way to make the Alitalia site work less like a constipated diplodocus…….

• James67 says:

  4 Jan4 January 09:34

  At moment almost all my points sitting in tesco and MR. Were something like this slso to appear at BA would I most lijely be faster trabsferring clubcard or MR points to take advantage of it? Would you agree that unlessany BA redemption sale was better than 20% discount it might be a better to sit tight and bet on s transfer bonus to generate avios that could be used without sale restrictions? Given I have no specific travel goal in the short term that I wouldn’t be happy to pay cash for, sitting tight seems to make more sense for me personally unless I am overlooking something obvious

  • Rob says:

    4 Jan4 January 09:37

    Clubcard points go across faster than Amex, unless you have previously done an Amex transfer.

    First- time Amex to BA can take 4-5 days, subsequent transfers are 1-2 days.

  • CV says:

    4 Jan4 January 09:52

    The cynic in me thinks that after the forthcoming Avios sale with lots of avios spent we might see a Clubcard/Avios promo again. Although the Iberia offers looks great its not much use to me as i have flights booked for Feb and doing another before April doesn’t appeal.

    As a guess i expect the Avios sale will be along similar lines to this, so if there is the potential to redeem avios for a flight then it may be worthwhile to convert Clubcard/MR points now, reason being availability will drop day by day whilst waiting on points showing up in Avios/BA account.

    • Londonbus says:

      4 Jan4 January 11:08

      I agree. Clubcard sale for Avios in 2012 ran in Jan/ Feb and Jun 2012.

      The Clubcard quarter ends on 25 January. Its 18 months since the last promotion (50% bonus on transfer) – what are the chances of another one now?

      • James67 says:

        4 Jan4 January 16:14

        Thanks all, I think I will sit tight in hope of tranfer bonus. CVs comme t encasulates my dilemna of past year. However, I would hope that BA might drpfeed availability throughout any award sale so that members dont get frustrated with seats dring up on first day but probably wishful thinking on my part. Ironically BKK which I usually use as my entry point for Asia might now start showing good availability due to political unrest just at a time I don’t need a flight.

        • CV says:

          4 Jan4 January 21:08

          This will be the first year that i won’t be going to BKK during chinese new year (via KL), i also had the same thoughts about bargain hotels/flights! But was also surprised to see what good value IHG hotels are in BKK when redeeming points.

        • James67 says:

          4 Jan4 January 22:17

          I have found Hat Yai to be a very pleasant and enjoyable city to spend Chinese New Year. Can take a daytime VIP bus north through Malaysia from KL or fly with Air Asia. Beach at Songkhla is huge and white with few western tourists. Also some nice countryside around to explore.

• Chris says:

  4 Jan4 January 09:46

  I have 24k in there. I am going to transfer a few more and try again……

• EvilGazebo says:

  4 Jan4 January 10:21

  Gutted as I have 4 x one ways to MIA in C already booked. Could theoretically save 100K avios rebooking but no availability. Curses!

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