Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

Good long-haul Avios bargains with Iberia and their new spend chart – save £380 tax AND Avios

Links on Head for Points may support the site by paying a commission.  See here for all partner links.

I wrote yesterday about how, for three weeks or so until British Airways brings in its new Avios pricing, some British Airways redemptions will be cheaper if booked via Iberia Plus.

There are also some excellent deals to be had if you are willing to fly on Iberia from Madrid rather than British Airways from London for your long-haul redemptions.

Here is the Avios redemption table for Iberia when redeemed via Iberia Plus which came into effect from April 1st:

Iberia chart PNG 2

And here is the current British Airways Executive Club redemption chart, which applies to both BA and Iberia until April 28th:

Avios bandings

Let’s take a look at New York as a typical Iberia long-haul route which is also served by British Airways.  New York is Zone 5.

This is what a return business class redemption costs today:

British Airways flight from London: 80,000 Avios + £515 (this pricing jumps after April 28th)

Iberia flight from Madrid: 68,000 Avios + £134 (€183) at off-peak; 100,000 Avios + £134 (€183) at peak

On an off-peak data, you can save 12,000 Avios and £381 in charges by getting yourself to Madrid (for cash or Avios) to connect.

Taking Los Angeles as another example, a business class Iberia reward will be 85,000 or 125,000 Avios depending on season.  Today, British Airways asks 100,000 Avios so you save 15,000 Avios on off-peak Iberia dates – and the taxes will be £381 less. Would you buy a ticket to Madrid in order to save £381 and 15,000 Avios per person?

Remember that – after April 28th – the differences in pricing will get even wider.  New York using BAEC will cost 120,000 Avios on a peak date and 100,000 off peak.

Iberia will be 100,000 or 68,000.  BA and Iberia also have DIFFERENT peak dates.  October and February half-terms in the UK are peak for BA but off-peak for Iberia, meaning you save (120,000 – 68,000) 52,000 Avios per person.

Remember that Iberia is starting flights from Manchester (in September) and Edinburgh (already launched) to Madrid this year which will give those in the regions an easy option for connecting.  Remember that your flight to Madrid from the UK must be on a separate ticket from your long-haul flight if you are to avoid long-haul business class Air Passenger Duty.

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.

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.

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.

Category

British Airways and Avios, Iberia and Iberia Plus

Comments (25)

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

  • David says:
    3 Apr3 April 06:10

    I hope IB redemption availability in Business class improves. It’s been worsening steadily ever since the IAG takeover.

  • Erico1875 says:
    3 Apr3 April 07:00

    Its almost as if BA want you to fly partner airlines rather than themselves

    • Metatone says:
      3 Apr3 April 07:33

      I think there will be ongoing possibilities if you have the time (and points) to go via Madrid.
      The history of the brands “British” Airways, “Iberia” means that IAG can’t just merge the airlines.
      But the price vs availability equation is different in Spain vs the UK at the moment, and given the ongoing issues in the eurozone is likely to remain so for a while.

  • Jamie Dook says:
    3 Apr3 April 10:10

    It should also be noted, for those of us not avios rich, the part pay with avios is not as attractive with IB plus. Where BA generally allows you to buy avios at 0.8p / avios, IB will generally cost you more than 1p per avios to buy. A quick look and it will cost you upwards of 1.75p per avios

    • sandgrounder says:
      3 Apr3 April 11:16

      0.8p on an economy fare, maybe. I have never found a cash and points purchase rate anywhere near that on a business fare.

  • Ralph says:
    3 Apr3 April 10:29

    We fly DUB MAD LAX next Saturday businesses class using Avios and return with AA on a direct flight, also in business, using AAdvantage miles. Booked eleven months ago but from memory the IB taxes were about £120 each and the AA taxes back, $3. We fly to Dublin for 4500 Avios and £17.50 each and make that part of our holiday, always wanted to visit the Guinness factory 🙂

    • Polly says:
      3 Apr3 April 11:01

      That’s what this site is all about, so enjoy dub it’s fab. We now just look out for biz J from dub on BA, for an extra trip, almost not worth collecting avios if you can get good biz deals. We do the avios for. F on the 241, so also stuck with BA. But IB now opens up more possibilities for us.

      • Ralph says:
        4 Apr4 April 16:36

        We use the 241s in F too Polly, off to Beijing in August for 150,000 Avios, a 241and £1.079 in taxes which provides a benefit we could never dream of spending our hard earned cash on ever!
        ps we also then booked business class on Dragonair and Cathay Pacific to Hong Kong for a couple of days, the taxes were pretty cheap from memory 🙂

        • Polly says:
          5 Apr5 April 09:42

          Ralph, we too are looking to use another 241 in autumn, and will prob do the Beijing route if we can’t get HKG. That’s what we used to bali in jan from HKG on CX biz, plus v little cash. I agree it’s something we would never normally do, so def the 241 is a brilliant perk. Flying F for the price of Y. Fab experience.

  • Oliver says:
    3 Apr3 April 10:39

    No 241 on iberia 🙁 thats the only reason I’ve stuck with BA

  • What's the Point says:
    3 Apr3 April 11:25

    Its these sort of differences in Avios required that make you wonder whether I should value the 241 vouchers we earn each year as much as I have previously?

    • YL says:
      3 Apr3 April 15:22

      +1 unless I am using the 2-4-1 on long haul flights, I always choose other airlines over BA. I am sorry to say there are far better products with better offers out there.

      The value of the 2-4-1 voucher will increase for regular BA flyer, but for someone like me only use it for long haul for once a year, I really have to rethink if there is any point to collect the 2-4-1 further. Especially we have seen so many sell from other airlines recently…

      • Rob says:
        3 Apr3 April 19:21

        To be honest, it is not a terrible deal even if you only use it for a European flight. Let’s say you save 20-30,000 Avios on a longer economy or short Club Europe redemption. That still justifies the £150 fee and you’ve also had the benefit on the higher earning rate on your spending.

  • Rob says:
    3 Apr3 April 11:48

    There’s an error in the chart. Band 6 full fare economy in peak season seems to be rather expensive! 375,000 actually. One too many zero’s i think.

  • Craig says:
    3 Apr3 April 13:05

    The only problem is that Iberia Plus’ website is broken and hasn’t been working for several days. Any attempt to book an award ticket results in a system error.

    • Matthew says:
      3 Apr3 April 14:58

      I booked two award seats on Weds with Iberia Plus. Maybe I got lucky!

    • Fenny says:
      3 Apr3 April 23:14

      Most of my Avios are in BAEC and as I still can’t access my account, I can’t transfer them to IB even if I wanted to.

    • James says:
      4 Apr4 April 05:32

      Same for me, just returns an error when I try to select seats

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

New to Head for Points?

Welcome!  We’re the UK’s most-read source of business travel, Avios, frequent flyer and hotel loyalty news. Let us improve how you travel. Got any questions? Ask them in our forums.

NEW: Sign-up bonuses boosted to 3,000 and 18,000 points

Latest Forum Posts

Get 40,000 bonus points (worth 40,000 Avios) and £300 dining credit with The Platinum Card

Check reward flight availability instantly for free!

See a whole year of reward seat availability on one page at SeatSpy.com

Get £10 when you spend £150 on your free Currensea card

Booking a luxury hotel?

Our luxury hotel booking service offers you GUARANTEED extra benefits over booking direct. Works with Four Seasons, Mandarin Oriental, The Ritz Carlton, St Regis and more. We've booked £1.7 million of rooms to date. Click for details.

SME? SPECIAL OFFER TO 12TH MAY EARN POINTS WORTH 30,000 AVIOS WITH CAPITAL ON TAP

Get 20,000 bonus points, four airport lounge passes and your first year free with American Express Gold

The UK's biggest frequent flyer website uses cookies, which you can block via your browser settings. Continuing implies your consent to this policy. Our privacy policy is here.

Got it!