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30% bonus when you buy Avios via Iberia Plus – a good deal?

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Iberia Plus is currently offering a 30% bonus on purchases of Avios points. This deal runs until 13th April, see here for further details.

Note that you need to log-in to see details of the bonus offer.  Without logging in, the page just shows the standard pricing.

At the top end, you will be paying Euro 655 for 45,500 Avios (35,000 + 30%). That works out at 1.22p per Avios, based on £557. You would need to add a 3% foreign exchange fee to this price if your credit card has one.

I would not be a buyer at this price, personally.  This is cheaper than buying Avios via BAEC or avios.com – which are not currently on sale – where you will pay £447 for 27,000 (1.66p).  However, you must have been an Iberia Plus member for 90 days before you can transfer Avios across to BA.  It is also a lot more expensive than picking up Avios points via a Tesco promotion or a credit card sign-up.

The other aspect of interest is the bonus on transferring Avios to someone else (ie your partner!).  This is also a poor deal, though.  Transferring the maximum 24,000 Avios to someone else incurs a fee of €160. 

Assuming that you receive (30% x 24,000) 7,200 Avios as a bonus, you will have effectively paid €160 for them.  That works out at 1.86p per Avios – very poor indeed.

How to earn Avios points from UK credit cards

How to earn Avios from UK credit cards (October 2022)

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

25,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher for spending £10,000 Read our full review

Barclaycard Avios card

Barclaycard Avios Mastercard

5,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher for spending £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 UK’s most valuable card perk – the 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 £12,000 Read our full review

You can also get generous sign-up bonuses by applying for American Express cards which earn Membership Rewards points.

EDIT: Until 25th October 2022, there is an exceptionally generous sign-up bonus on The Platinum Card. You will receive 60,000 Membership Rewards points – double the usual amount – and £200 to spend at Amex Travel. You need to spend £6,000 within six months to earn the bonus.

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold

Your best beginner’s card – 20,000 points, FREE for a year & two airport lounge passes Read our full review

The Platinum Card from American Express

60,000 points (SPECIAL OFFER), £200 travel credit and unbeatable 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 10,000 Avios.

Capital On Tap Business Rewards Visa

10,500 points bonus – the most generous Avios Visa for a limited company 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 a long list of travel benefits 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

Iberia and Iberia Plus

Comments (13)

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

  • jon says:
    27 Mar27 March 07:21

    Raffles,

    What about looking at this a different way. Pay €54 for 2,600 (rather than 2,000) to activate your Iberia account with a valid transaction (which in theory must actually come with a guarantee of turning up) – does this make the easiest way of crediting a valid transaction?

    • xcalx says:
      27 Mar27 March 07:34

      A free way to activate an Iberia account is to transfer some ereward points takes about 5/6days, Dont forget an ereward account can be changed to any name good for topping up FF accounts

    • Rob says:
      27 Mar27 March 07:50

      Certainly the easiest, unless you have some hotel points to transfer.

  • Col A-B says:
    27 Mar27 March 08:53

    Don’t forget also that you cannot move Avios from IB Plus to a household BA Exec Club account, as I found out to my chagrin this week.

    • susan says:
      27 Mar27 March 13:53

      Move them via avios.com: iberia-avios-BA

      Have never had any problems this way and have held BAEC family for years.

      • Col A-B says:
        27 Mar27 March 14:27

        Tried that too – won’t allow me to move any way other than into IB from either BA or Avios :-/

        Luckily on 599 stuck there.

  • Jamie says:
    27 Mar27 March 10:18

    As usual, loving the blog! Looking for some advice from other points lovers.

    I have been diligently saving up my points for the last 12 months and now 160,000 avios and a companion voucher, which I plan to redeem on 2 x BA First flights to Tokyo in April 2015.

    I am currently trying to hit the £2,000 spend for 20,000 membership rewards on my Amex gold charge card, which will give me the 180,000 I need – but if I don’t hit the spending in the required time, what would be the best way to purchase the remaining 20K Avios that I need?

    I have a suspicion that buying directly from BA will not be the most cost-effective option, but happy to be proved wrong.

    • Col A-B says:
      27 Mar27 March 10:34

      Could you simply buy gift vouchers for websites/stores you would normally shop in anyway on your AMEX to take you to the £2000? eg: Amazon/Sainsbury

      Or, not sure how ethical this is, book very expensive rooms on a fully refundable rate in a hotel quite far in advance, get your sign-up bonus then cancel the booking so you’re refunded after your MR points have credited & been transferred to Avios.

      • Rob says:
        27 Mar27 March 10:49

        I would personally buy a few hundred quid of vouchers for your usual supermarket chain. Easy and no risk of not using them.

    • Polly says:
      27 Mar27 March 12:05

      You could very quickly up the avios numbers with the extra 150 cc points in tesco for every £50 worth of gift cards. Buy john Lewis gift cards on line with the 3v cards, waitrose can give change from vouchers too, useful if you need milk etc. As every £1 spent gives you roughly 9 avios via the tesco route, using your amex to pay for them and scanning your tesco master card or even club card. Definitely as raffles says, get supermarket cards etc. shouldn’t take you too long. One other thing is to buy UK sterling traveller cheques via amex forex website, then pay them back into your bank account later on, as a last resort, that is. Useful short cut.

    • Polly says:
      27 Mar27 March 12:12

      Or buy Japanese yen !

  • James says:
    14 Apr14 April 10:28

    Does buying Euros in cash on the BAPP card via the travel money service (as opposed to Moneycorp) still count as a purchase (rather than a cash advance) thus earning Avios AND counting towards the spending threshold to activate a bonus (2-4-1 or signup) ?

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

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