Iberia launches ‘Part Pay with Avios’ – and it’s rubbish

From July 2nd, Iberia is letting you use Avios to pay for part of the cost of a cash ticket.  “All your Avios count and they also discount” is the catchy slogan they are using.

British Airways launched a similar ‘part pay with Avios’ scheme last year.  I wasn’t very excited about that – although it is better than it was at launch after tweaking – and I am even less excited about this.

I was a little excited when I got the email.  I was promised the ability to save 25% of my flight cost using my Avios points, which could have been substantial for a long-haul flight.

In truth, you can’t.

I did a test booking from Madrid to Buenos Aires for late September.  The economy ticket came out at €1,137.  The maximum discount offered to me was €113 – for a cost of 25,950 Avios.

This is a terrible deal.  €113 is £89.  That works out at 0.35p per Avios.

This is shocking.  Remember that it is almost impossible to get less than 0.5p per Avios point even if you use all of your points for hotel bookings, car hire, champagne, sports tickets, Eurostar tickets or one of the hundreds of other random things that avios.com can sell you.

I then tried a short-haul flight from Madrid to London.  On a €217 flight the maximum discount was €30.  That would cost me 5,575 Avios.  This is a slightly better result as you get 0.43p per Avios.  I still wouldn’t go near it though.

For some reason this deal is also only available on flights that start in Spain.  If you try to book London to Madrid then you are not offered the discount.  It is also not available on BA flights, only Iberia, Iberia Express and Vueling.

If you want to know, full details can be found on the Iberia website here.

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How to earn Avios from UK credit cards (June 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.

Until 18th July 2022 there is an astonishing special offer on these cards. You get 50,000 Avios on the Avios Plus Mastercard and 10,000 Avios on the free Avios Mastercard. You can apply here. We strongly recommend getting the Avios Plus card whilst this offer is running.

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.

SPECIAL OFFER: The sign-up bonus on Amex Gold is increased from 20,000 Membership Rewards points to 30,000 Membership Rewards points until 19th July 2022. This card is free for the first year.

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.

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.

(Want to earn more Avios?  Click here to visit our home page for our latest articles on earning and spending your Avios points and click here to see how to earn more Avios this month from offers and promotions.)