40% bonus Avios on transfers from Marriott Rewards and MeliaRewards

Two transfer promotions have been launched by Iberia Plus for anyone who wants to convert their hotel points to Avios.

You will need an Iberia Plus account in order to take part.  If you don’t have one, you can open one for free at iberia.com.  Note, though, that you cannot move Avios from an Iberia account to a BA account until the Iberia account has been open for 90 days.

Marriott Rewards

Iberia is offering a 40% bonus when you convert your Marriott Rewards points to Avios.  Full details can be found on the Iberia website here.

You need to initiate the conversion by 31st October.  The minimum transfer out of Marriott is 10,000 points = 2,000 Avios.

The ratio gets better if you convert a larger amount as you can see on the Marriott website here.  At the higher levels, the deal looks pretty good.

70,000 Marriott Rewards points, for example, are worth 25,000 Avios.  With the extra 40% bonus, you would receive 35,000 Avios.

I tend to value a Marriott point at 0.5p.  If you also value an Avios point at 1p, the 40% bonus means – at the 70,000 point level – you are not losing any value by transferring into Avios.  This is a very good result.  There are very few occasions when it makes sense to move hotel points into airline miles if you have enough hotel points for a free night.

It seems that Marriott’s ‘Hotel & Air’ packages would also qualify although this is not specifically stated.  I doubt that Iberia would be able to tell the difference between a standard miles conversion and a package redemption.

MeliaRewards

Of more niche interest, Iberia is also offering a 40% bonus on transfers from MeliaRewards into Avios points.

You can find out more details here.  I am not an expert on the Melia scheme so I can’t say if this offers good value or not.  However, if you have a small quantity of Melia points sitting around without any plans for them, this may be a good opportunity to clear them out.  The deadline for this deal is also October 31st.

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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:

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. These points convert at 1:1 into Avios.

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.

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.