Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

Get 50 free Avios via Iberia Plus – and it ‘activates’ your Iberia account

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As well as collecting Avios via avios.com and/or British Airways Executive Club, it is also possible to earn points via Iberia Plus, the Iberia frequent flyer scheme.  Any Avios you earn in Iberia Plus can be moved over via ‘Combine My Avios’ once your Iberia account is 90 days old.

One reason to have an Iberia Plus account is that Iberia runs regular Avios redemptions sales such as this one.  To take advantage, you need to move Avios points over to Iberia Plus.  However Iberia Plus has a nasty little rule – on top of making you wait 90 days from opening your account, you cannot transfer in or out of the scheme until your account is ‘active’, ie has earned 1 Avios point.

Iberia new 2

Iberia has launched a new competition called “The Great Avios Conquest”.  Taking part earns you a whopping 50 Avios!  The most important thing, though, is that these 50 Avios will activate your account and allow you to transfer in or out.  The next time Iberia has a redemption sale, you will be able to participate.

This is how to play:

Open the July-August of the Iberia online magazine by clicking here

Scroll to the page marked “The Great Avios Conquest” and click Start

Answer the four questions – the answers are My Shoes, La Panza es Primero, All of the above and Cash card

Input your details and 50 Avios will be credit to your Iberia account.  The time frame is unknown.

If you do not already have an Iberia Plus account, you can sign up here.  Click on the Iberia Plus link in the menu bar and select ‘Register Now’.


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 (48)

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

  • Gadgeteer1066 says:

    Thank you for finding this. I had opened an Iberia account ages ago but had done nothing with it, and so, as you say, could do nothing with it. This easy step gets me over that!

  • Ryan says:

    When trying to ‘combine my avios’ with Iberia plus I’m not able to transfer avios from Iberia to BAEC (but it would let me transfer the other way). The only way I managed to get my Avios where I wanted them was to do Iberia Plus -> avios -> BAEC.
    It’s not to do with having an active Iberia Plus account as before it was active no transfers were possible and now the above method is.
    Any idea why? Has anyone else had this issue? Am I doing something stupid?

    • TimS says:

      Do you have a BAEC household account?

      I don’t think IB+ lets you transfer directly into a household account? I’m sure i had a similar issue in the past and just routed it via Adios.com instead.

      • Brian says:

        As far as I know, you can’t transfer from IB to BA direct, regardless whether you have a household account or not. You have to go via Avios.com, so it’s a two-stage process if you need the miles in BAEC.

        • Fenny says:

          I transferred from IB to BAEC. The only avios I have in IB are from e-rewards surveys. I transferred them a couple of weeks ago with no problem at all.

        • Rob says:

          Pretty sure you can go IB to BA if you use ‘Combine My Avios’ on the Iberia site.

      • Ryan says:

        Tim, I do have a household account – that would be it. Thanks!

    • Doodles says:

      I tried to transfer my points to BAEC and it looked like it was going to work after doing nothing at all on previous attempts then it failed but instead of leaving my points for me to try again, it took them and I now have to call to get them back. What a useless website they have.

    • ECR says:

      I did have a similar issue before with my Iberia account in the past. Then I read somewhere that it is to do with the password on the Iberia account needs to be numerical for the combine my avios to work. I changed my password to all numbers and it seems to have fixed the problem for me.

      • Rob says:

        That could be right. I have a numerical password (I had no choice at the time, they insisted).

      • Simon says:

        I set my dad up with an Iberia account and found the same thing, the Iberia password needed to be all numeric for the combine my avios to work.

  • John says:

    Thanks. Nice easy one. Also another easy way to activate your Iberia plus account if you ever go on holiday in Spain is to go to a repsol petrol station. They are an avios partner. Every time I fill my hire car with petrol I go to a repsol station I hand over my Iberia plus card and it gets credited with a few avois. Many of the repsol have shops attached like the uk chain petrol stations so I would imagine you could just pop into the petrol station and just buy a sandwich or some soft drinks and hand over your card although I have not tried this myself.

  • Felix Flyer says:

    Slightly OT. I opened an Iberia Plus account for the last free Avios promo. Unfortunately I clicked Sra rather than Sr. I now cannot find any way to change my sex back correctly in the Edit Profile! Anybody have any suggestions or is it a call to their helpdesk?!

    • MaltaPoints Tom says:

      Based on my experiences, it would probably be an easier process to change gender than call the Iberia Plus helpdesk and get them to change your profile.

      • ankomonkey says:

        LOL! I concur. Iberia Plus “Customer Services” have been consistently inept in my experience.

        • Felix Flyer says:

          Hmm. I’m going to have to ring them in a very deep voice I think….

  • evelyn says:

    Hi
    I tried this comp when it was sent to me direct and again with Raffles’ link.
    But on 1st page despite clicking “my shoes” and then “confirm” nothing happens. Anyone else have this problem? any suggestions?
    Thanks

  • Free avios MaltaPoints.com says:

    […] to Headforpoints for spotting this […]

  • Singing Dwarf says:

    Thanks, good for 10 seconds work – works for me in Chromium

  • compass31 says:

    I used my iPad and had no problems.

    Thanks for all your helpful info and advice.

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

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