40% off Avios redemptions – economy and business – on 50 Iberia routes

Iberia Plus has launched a new promotion offering an aggressive 40% discount on Avios redemptions on a number of Iberia routes. These include both UK to Spain and ex-Spain long-haul routes.

Both Economy and Business Class flights are included.

You need to book by 29th February.  Flights must be taken by 19th June.  If you book on Iberia, as opposed to Iberia Express or Iberia Regional, the earliest departure date is 1st March.

Let’s take a look at the deals.  The home page for this promotion is here.

Short haul Iberia deals

From the UK, you can redeem on the following routes for a 40% discount:

From 3,900 Avios each way – Heathrow to Madrid on Iberia

From 4,500 Avios each way – Birmingham / Edinburgh / London Gatwick / Manchester to Madrid on Iberia Express

A business class return from Heathrow to Madrid is 15,300 Avios plus €92 on off-peak dates.  Remember that Iberia runs long-haul planes on some Heathrow rotations so you could get a fully flat bed down to Madrid.  Look for services operated by A330 or A340 aircraft.

If you are not based in the UK, there are plenty of other EU departure points.  There are also plenty of Spanish domestic routes discounted – see the website for the list.

Long-haul Iberia deals

These are the discounted long-haul routes from Madrid:

Lima, Mexico City, Panama, Rio de Janeiro, Santo Domingo, Sao Paulo

For Lima, Mexico City, Panama and Santo Domingo, business class IS included.

Taxes are also very low

Here is an example of pricing.

Madrid to Mexico City

Business Class, return

Off peak dates

51,000 Avios + £175 tax (usually 85,000 Avios)

An Economy return on the same route, booked into Blue Class (Iberia’s cheapest but hardest to find Economy redemption band) is just 25,500 Avios plus £160 of tax.

Remember, these are Iberia Plus deals ONLY

This means:

You can ONLY book these flights on the Iberia website.

You can ONLY book these flights using Avios sitting in Iberia Plus.

Iberia Plus uses a different calendar of peak and off-peak dates to British Airways.  The dates for March can be found in this article.

If you don’t already have an Iberia Plus account then you are stuffed, unfortunately (although I have suggested many times that everyone should have one, specifically for promotions like this.)  Even if you open an Iberia Plus account today, you cannot transfer Avios across from British Airways Executive Club or avios.com until it has been open for 90 days.

You cannot add a connecting BA flight to the same ticket – and you don’t want to, because it would trigger long-haul Air Passenger Duty.

Your connecting flight to / from Madrid should be booked separately or you will see a substantial increase in the taxes charge due to UK Air Passenger Duty being added to the long-haul leg.

You can hopefully find a connecting flight in the sale as well.

Whilst the list of long-haul routes is not hugely exciting, there are some interesting destinations there.  If you have time to get away, there are some good opportunities here to see somewhere new at a very low cost.

You must book at iberia.com by 29th February for travel by 19th June.

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How to earn Avios from UK credit cards (June 2022)

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.

Until 18th July 2022 there is an astonishing special offer on these cards. You get 50,000 Avios on the Avios Plus Mastercard and 10,000 Avios on the free Avios Mastercard. You can apply here. We strongly recommend getting the Avios Plus card whilst this offer is running.

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.

SPECIAL OFFER: The sign-up bonus on Amex Gold is increased from 20,000 Membership Rewards points to 30,000 Membership Rewards points until 19th July 2022. This card is free for the first year.

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 10,000 Avios.

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.

(Want to earn more Avios?  Click here to visit our home page for our latest articles on earning and spending your Avios points and click here to see how to earn more Avios this month from offers and promotions.)