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Iberia launches flights to Cuba – a great new Avios redemption option

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BA’s sister airline, Iberia, has announced that it is re-launching flights to Havana in Cuba after a hiatus of a few years.  This is an ideal opportunity to visit before the influx of American tourists begins, which will surely change the character of the island forever.

There will be five flights per week from Madrid starting from June 1st.

ba.com was having a problem finding availability yesterday.  The flights are showing OK on iberia.com.  You should book via Iberia anyway as the taxes will be SUBSTANTIALLY lower – Iberia does not add fuel surcharges to Iberia redemptions if you book via its own website, but ba.com does.

You can move Avios points from British Airways or avios.com to Iberia Plus via ‘Combine My Avios’, as long as your Iberia account is 90 days old and has earned at least 1 Avios point.  This can done with an Amex Membership Rewards transfer, crediting a BA flight or even by buying a small number of Avios.

Economy tickets from Madrid to Havana cost 50,000 Avios points return plus £95.40

Business class tickets from Madrid to Havana cost 100,000 Avios points plus £110.40

You should book your connecting flight from the UK to Madrid separately to avoid paying long haul Air Passenger Duty.

As a Zone 6 flight, this trip will actually get CHEAPER for bookings after April 1st if you fly off-peak.  Note that this is off-peak on the Iberia calendar and not the BA calendar, so weeks like UK half-term are off-peak!  Economy flights will drop to 42,500 Avios return whilst Business Class will fall to 85,000 Avios return.  Redemptions on peak dates will stay the same in Economy and increase to 125,000 Avios return in Business.

The route will be flown with an Airbus A330 with the new fully flat business seating.

Don’t forget that you can also get to Havana with Virgin Flying Club miles (a Tesco and Amex Membership Rewards partner) on a direct flight Virgin Atlantic flight from Gatwick – remember that Virgin is currently offering a 30% bonus on Tesco transfers.  Virgin has a short guide to Havana on its website.  You may be able to mix and match Iberia and Virgin availability to get your preferred dates.

PS.  Iberia is also launching flights to Medellin and Cali in Colombia starting on July 3rd.

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

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Barclaycard Avios card

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There are two official British Airways American Express cards with attractive sign-up bonuses:

British Airways American Express Premium Plus

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British Airways American Express

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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

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The Platinum Card from American Express

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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.

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 12th May 2024, the Capital on Tap Business Rewards Visa card is offering a bonus of 30,000 points, convertible into 30,000 Avios. You must have a Limited Company to apply. Click here to learn more and click here to apply.

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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

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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 (36)

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

  • Tom says:
    8 Feb8 February 05:45

    Go now / coz soon it will be miami

  • richie says:
    8 Feb8 February 07:26

    So would you say Iberia band 6 destinations offer the best value after de-val .@85k avios off peak

  • darrenf says:
    8 Feb8 February 07:50

    Raffles, I’m (easily) confused. 🙂 In this article you say you can activate an Iberia Plus account, so that you can transfer into it, buy buying some Avios – but in the article about buying Avios, you say “You must also have a balance greater than zero although that is easily fixed with a transfer in from British Airways.” So on a new account > 90 days old, I can’t buy until I transfer and I can’t transfer until I buy…? As it happens I’m going to credit a flight, but just wondering if this is a real contradiction or I’ve just got the wrong end of the stick!

    • Andrew says:
      8 Feb8 February 08:35

      I’ve just read the other article and I think it’s saying to buy avios you need an active account AND a >0 balance, the latter beig fixable with a transfer from BA.

      • Rob says:
        8 Feb8 February 10:26

        I see your point! To do the transfer the account would need to be active anyway. I will clarify the other article.

  • Stuart Ross says:
    8 Feb8 February 09:19

    I think the “Economy flights (to Cuba) will drop to 42,500 Avios return” should read 32,500 for an off-peak Band 6 redemption. Great rate and agree with the comment on getting in before the wave of Americans change the island’s character.

    • Rob says:
      8 Feb8 February 10:31

      On the Iberia chart, band 6 ‘blue class’ economy redemption are 21,250 each way at off peak dates from April 28.

  • Pommyboi says:
    8 Feb8 February 10:59

    Searching for avios seats on Iberia seems a bit painful, there was no availability on the dates I was searching for and no easy way to check other dates other than changing the outbound/inbound dates each time.

    Hopefully the BA site will show Iberia availability soon or Tim Rogers will be able to do a new Iberia availability tool as I love the one he created for BA.

  • Mikee says:
    8 Feb8 February 11:29

    If you don’t have enough Avios then the Avios and money option in Economy costs 25,000 Avios + £ 295.40 return instead of 50,000 Avios + £ 95.40…..works out at at approx 0.8p/mile to purchase the Avios which is a pretty decent deal!

    -Mikee-

  • Mikee says:
    8 Feb8 February 11:56

    …and some good cash fares available in Economy for £450 and Business £1275-1500.

    Question: If I book a Business fare before April 28th, how many BA miles and tier points would I get? Unfortunately the BA website doesn’t recognise HAV. I presume booking on Iberia.com and inserting my BA F/F number later would ensure I earn the appropriate TPs and miles?

    -Mikee-

    • Mark says:
      8 Feb8 February 13:43

      To be honest I would view it as not such a great redemption in economy if you’re only getting £350 value 42,500. These days applying a rule that we will never pay more than 1p/avios and always seek at least 1p/avios in value seems about right as someone who doesn’t earn much from flying.

      Business class OTOH (which is what we’re likely to be looking at anyway) could be tempting, although still have to weigh up that the 170k avios (2 tickets) will get us an off-peak 2for1 in F to the US or Caribbean in F with BA (albeit with much higher taxes and fees) and the cash differential is such that it would be better to pay for the HAV flights rather than premium BA flights to the US in most cases if it came down to a choice.

      It’s interesting that part cash, part avios requires an extra £800 in order to save 50k avios. That really is poor value against a full cash fare that would earn avios and tier points. In contrast I’m looking at AA Caribbean flights from Miami where £100 equates to a 12k avios reduction which (to me) is probably worth doing. It make you wonder how these are calculated since the value varies considerably.

      • Mikee says:
        8 Feb8 February 14:03

        Shame that part cash part Avios for Business Class is so poor when compared to the Economy price. I agree that the redemption value is not particularly good for either when the cash fares are pretty good along with the TPs and Avios which would be generated.

        I’m thinking of booking the Business fare before the April changes to ensure I get a decent amount of TPs for my Silver renewal in Dec (and also to save paying an extra £500+ for the only other Business Class offering with VIR…albeit direct from LON rather than via MAD).

        -Mikee-

    • Rob says:
      8 Feb8 February 14:15

      Yes it would. It would be the usual ba.com Iberia earnings rate for business class – 150%.

      Tier points would be 140 each way, I think.

      • Mark says:
        8 Feb8 February 17:08

        So very nearly Bronze or half way to Silver in one trip then, especially if you buy a cash fare to Madrid as well.

  • Blackberryaddict says:
    8 Feb8 February 14:32

    Don’t forget Air Berlin also flies to Cuba – although VRA rather than HAV. Going next month, and really looking forward to it.

    • Mikee says:
      8 Feb8 February 16:05

      Ah yes, forgot about Air Berlin although prefer HVA direct.

      There’s some reasonable Business fares from AMS for around £1,300 but no Avios earning opportunities unfortunately so looks like IB from MAD for me….still not a bad option which will generate 20k Avios and 280 TPs towards retaining my Silver.

      -Mikee-

      • Mark says:
        8 Feb8 February 17:06

        How does earning status by crediting flights to Iberia Plus compare to BA?

        • Rob says:
          8 Feb8 February 22:57

          Need to wait for IB to publish its new chart – we don’t know, post March 1st.

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

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