Following the recent announcement of its new service to Johannesburg, starting in August, Iberia has revealed some more big news.
Iberia has announced a new ‘three flights per week’ service from Madrid to Tokyo from October 2016.
It will depart on Mondays, Wednesdays and Saturdays, using a brand new Airbus A330 with a two class configuration.
The 13.20 departure time means that it is possible to make a same day connection from the UK.
I tried to get some typical tax numbers for Iberia flights yesterday. However, this is Iberia we’re talking about and the only response I could get when selecting Narita flights (which are loaded in the system) was:
An error has occurred. We apologize for the inconvenience and ask you to please try again after a few minutes. If the error persists please contact us.
You should expect the tax in Business Class to be under €200 return and no more than €175 in Economy. You MUST book through Iberia Plus to get this pricing. If you book via ba.com you will get a large fuel surcharge added to your ticket.
As long as your Iberia Plus account is 90 days old and has earned 1 Avios point (a transfer from Amex Membership Rewards would do it) you can use ‘Combine My Avios’ on ba.com to send them across for free.
To put this in context, a flight from London to Tokyo on BA will set you back £531 of taxes and charges – although, with Iberia, you need to factor in the cost of getting to Madrid.
One downside ….
The new Iberia A330-200 aircraft, whilst brand new, are not ‘Avios friendly’ if you are looking for Business Class redemptions.
With only 19 business class seats, availability will be tight. Iberia is still be releasing a minimum of two business class seats per flight however – they are already showing.
And Shanghai too ….
Iberia has also announced a new route to Shanghai, also to be flown with a brand new A330-200.
The airline has yet to receive the necessary permissions for the flight so it is not releasing any timetable information, except to say that flights will begin in the Winter. I’ll let you know when I hear something.
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About Head for Points
Great news. Do you know how many Avios it will be?
Yeah, I was thinking the same!
I did a search on GCMAP, MAD-TYO is over 6700 miles.
No. As Iberia does not aways strictly work by their own award chart I felt it best to wait to see what the website throws up rather than saying something which turns out to be wrong.
Can do both in one trip. Using jal avios redemption between the 2, . Also you qualify for the 72h free visa in china if you go in from one country and out to another
JAL Helsinki-Tokyo Narita is 75000 Avios + £14
…in Business
What are the indicative dates, and how do I book JAL using avios? Went to their site and couldn’t figure it out
To use Avios you need to go to Iberia or BA’s websites. The JAL flights will show up there.
I see them on ba.com at 75000 avios one way. On iberia.com I’ve tried several dates and JAL options never seem to appear, even though I’m using dates that have JAL availability on ba.com.
DS – where you referring to a one-way redemption costing 75000 avios? On ba.com or iberia.com?
BA with Iberia you can’t book JAL online
DS, what dates? I can’t see any…
87,500 business and 52,500 eco. Told no off peak price on this route by the rude IB cs agent. Shocking phone manner. Puh. They ain’t getting my avios or £££.
When I saw the email I was selfishly hoping it was the long awaited return of the San Juan route, ideal for cruises around the Caribbean.
Iberia Band 7 is now the highest band from 5501miles = 75000 Avios peak or 51000 off peak oneway business
No, iberia has updated their chart on the website. New band 8 and 9 appear as off peak band 8 biz is now 59,500.
Thanks I need to update my award chart.
Very O/T but does anyone know if Amex Sterling Travellers Cheques can be paid into a Halifax / Santander Current Account?
Traditionally I’ve always dropped mine into my Santander account and never once had a problem with it. Haven’t tried for maybe 15 months or so though
Halifax works for me, but it has been 6 months since my last deposit.
Does this mean that you can buy Amex TC’s on your Amex then pay them into your account?
Yes, if your bank takes them – which is getting rarer!
Do they expire? I have some somewhere from a trip to the US in 1997. I keep finding them and putting them in a safe place until I can work out what to do with them!
Hi not sure if I am on the right page for this?
Can you use avios to fly Qatar or Emirates?
Totally fed up with BA after a 26 1/2 hour delay that lasted two days.
Thanks
Hi Jane,
Avios can be used on Qatar but not Emirates. They can also be used on other airlines – E.g. Iberia, JAL, LAN etc – depending on where you’re going.
I’m not sure how many flight you have taken , but if that was your first BA experience, you were very unlucky.- I can assure you, that it doesn’t always happen.
Also some good news is, under EU rule 261/2004 you are often entitled to between £100 and £460 in compensation. depending on the length of flight.
Hi Jane, not sure if you are aware but you also might want to google EU261 on that one.
A bit OT: do you earn Tier points on Iberia Express if the flight has a BA code?
I noticed that Iberia are going to be flying a new route from Malta to Madrid. A touch odd as they will be competing with Vueling, their sister company.
Looks like fares to NRT were loaded yesterday and generated either error fare or very cheap tickets. Tax on economy is showing as 78 euro RT.
I like the sound of €78!
It’s just too far for me to do it for a HFP review, although I’d love to do the new Iberia planes. It is one thing to pop down to the Middle East on a 6 hour flight with 3 hours time difference and stay 2 nights, but going to Tokyo via Madrid would not go down well with my wife!
Iberia forgot to add fuel surcharge of 300 euro.
Thanks for the heads up on this Rob. According to Google flights they operate on Tues, Fri & Sun. From 18th Oct.
87500 in business and 52500 in eco EW. I was told by the awfully rude IB cs agent that there is no off peak pricing on this route. Pfft. I for one won’t be spending my avios or £££ with them regardless of how cheap this is! Appauling CS.
That can’t be right, they can’t start pulling their off-peak calendar for particular routes!
Taxes are slightly more than expected:
ECO BLUE – 64,750 Avios + €247.35 (RT)
ECO 97,150 Avios + €247.35 (RT)
Business is still showing an ERROR.
Ok IB Business class avios seats are now loading as of this morning, albeit at a ridiculous rate:
PEAK 210,000 Avios + 187.21 € dec11-14
OFF PEAK 170,000 Avios + 187.21 €
For comparison: BA Business is 150k avios from the UK, OK the taxes are around £500 with BA but but when you factor in extra 20K avios and positioning flights works out roughly the same money wise.= no connections /wasting time in MAD.
Wow! Not keen on that.