Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

It’s back – buy up to 60,000 cheap Avios, from 0.7p, via Groupon

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Fortunately, or unfortunately (it depends how much trouble you had getting the Avios to post when this deal first ran in December) you can yet again buy cheap Avios points simply by heading over to Groupon.

It isn’t quite that simple – but near enough.  When the process works, it is great.  If it goes wrong, as it did for a few HFP readers last time, you are in for a long period of ringing Spanish-speaking call centres trying to get your miles.

This is an Iberia Plus deal.  This means that there are two hurdles to jump:

You need an Iberia Plus Avios account (easily fixed by going to iberia.com if you don’t have one)

Your Iberia account will need to be 90 days old before you are allowed to use ‘Combine My Avios’ and send your points across to your British Airways Executive Club or avios.com account

Start by visiting the Iberia home page here.

Iberia has its own online shopping portal.  However, it is not meant to be offered to UK residents.  You must change the site language (top left) to Spain – English.  It will not work if you are set to United Kingdom – English.

Click on ‘Iberia Plus’ in the top menu and you will see a link for Iberia PluStore.  Go there.  Search for Groupon and click through.  You will earn an extra 5 Avios per €1 for your purchase in the IberiaPluStore.

Once you have clicked through to Groupon and got the relevant cookie on your computer, click here for the Avios page you need on the Spanish Groupon site.

It is best to use Google Chrome to open it.  Chrome should offer to translate the text.  If it doesn’t, right click on your mouse and a translation option will appear.

There are five price levels- the 2,000 Avios deal is the cheapest:

2,000 Avios = €19 (£15.09) = 0.75p (0.71p when including 95 PluStore Avios)

4,000 Avios = €49 (£38.92) = 0.97p (0.93p when including 195 PluStore Avios)

8,000 Avios = €99 (£78.63) = 0.98p (0.93p when including 495 PluStore Avios)

12,000 Avios = €149 (£118.34) = 0.99p (0.93p when including 745 PluStore Avios)

20,000 Avios = €259 (£205.70) = 1.03p (0.97p when including 1,295 PluStore Avios)

You can buy a maximum of five packages per Iberia account.  However, you are restricted to just one of the ‘2,000 Avios’ packs.

The maximum number of Avios you can buy is therefore (20,000 x 5) 100,000 points for €1295, or £1,028.

You can pay by Paypal which may be easier – I did during the previous promotion – although you get legged over on the exchange rate.  All other credit cards are accepted including American Express.  If you do not use a 0% payment card, remember to factor in the 3% FX fee to the prices shown above.

This is where it got messy last time ….

About 30 minutes later you will receive an emailed voucher.  If you don’t, the voucher will also be showing in your account on the Spanish Groupon site.

There is a link in the voucher to a page on the Groupon site where you need to input the two coupon codes.

Here’s the cool bit – when you hit return, you may well get an error message.  If you do, try again.  And again.  And again.

Once accepted, you will be asked for your Iberia Plus account number.  All done.

Reader Andrew posted the following guide in the comments yesterday which may also help:

“Once you’ve made your purchase, it will show up in your Groupon purchases as ‘processing’. Wait 5 or 10 minutes and check again (you should get an email to confirm that the Avios are ready).

The ‘processing’ message should have disappeared and a link should appear in its place. Click it and you will be taken to a new page to redeem the Avios.

On the left side there should be a blue button underneath a picture of an Iberia plane. Click the button and a pdf file will open in a new tab. At the top left there should be a security code and a coupon code. You will need these codes so make a note of them (ignore the ‘ref’ code).

Close the pdf file. Towards the bottom of the previous page, there’s a set of instructions. In the first paragraph there should be a small link. Click it, and you’ll be taken to a new page with some fields to fill in.

Add the security code, the coupon code, your email address, click the tick box, and hit the green ‘validate coupon’ button. The page will not change, but on the right hand side, your coupon details will appear.

This is where the main problem lies. I HAD TO DO THIS TEN TIMES TO GET IT TO WORK. Same as last December. But it will eventually work, just be patient!

When you can see your code details on the right, scroll down the page and click the blue ‘continue’ button (not the green one, which is to validate the coupon – you’ve already done it).

You will be taken to a new page and prompted to enter your Iberia Plus number. Again, it took me ten attempts to do this, but it will eventually accept it!

You should then get a confirmation message on the next page!”

Once you’ve got to this stage, you will get your Avios.  I don’t think anyone actually had any trouble after getting a confirmation.  They will take a few days to appear (the site says 30 days but that is overkill) and of course you are also waiting on your Avios from the shopping portal as well.

The big question ….. is it worth it?

Normally, if I was offered the chance to buy Avios as cheaply as 0.7p without having to leave my desk, I would jump on it.

Here, however, you have various moving parts – the translation issues during purchase, the effort required to validate the coupons, the potential risk that the shopping portal miles do not arrive and the knowledge that if it gets messy you will have to deal with Groupon Spain to fix it.

Last time, it must be said, most people – including myself – got their points without any trouble.  What surprises me more than anything is that the deal is being re-run without having fixed the IT bugs which caused all the trouble in the first place ….


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.

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.

Comments (105)

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

  • Chris says:

    purchase conditions from groupon.:
    Límite de compra
    Límite de 5 cupones o 100.000 Avios por usuario de Iberia Plus, excepto el cupón de 2000 Avios que solo se puede comprar 1 por persona.

    buy limit
    5 coupons per person, up to 100,000 avios limit per IB plus member.
    Except the 2000 coupon which is 1 per person.

  • Bernard says:

    I bought the last time around.
    1 X 2000.
    4 X 12000.
    I was only credited with 2 X 12000
    I have exchanged more then 25 emails with them, Spanish thanks to Goggle translate, they have told me the problems are sorted & to input numbers again, this I have done but to no avail, they will not refund my money, or give me the Avios. I paid with a debit card so can not even try to get a refund from a credit card. I tried online chat, but they claim no now could chat in English with me & the same thing when I called them.
    I want my money back at this stage as I am very ****off.
    If anyone can help I would very much appreciate it.
    Thank you.

    • Erico1875 says:

      i will stick to £50 visas from Tesco. Mixing with Argos, B+Q, Next etc etc cards brings it down to less than 0.6p per Avios without any of this hassle

      • Anon says:

        Keen to know how you get the value of 0.6p per Avios value, pls explain with an example.

        • harry says:

          Amazing how people have such differing ideas of hassle – IMV the IB/ Groupon deal is a cinch compared to messing around with Tesco giftcards.

          Cost @ Tesco can be worked out various ways.

          If you’re going to buy @ Argos etc anyway, then the points are free – 150 points per £50 = 360 Avios.

          £50 Visa, fee £3.95, cost per Avios = 1.1p/ Avios

          Combine £50 Visa with a food shop & money off coupon = free Avios

          • Mycity says:

            I agree Harry, it’s also strange how people turned up their noses at buying direct from Iberia with a 40% bonus, as the cost then was comparable to the last Grouping deal.

    • Tom says:

      Hi Bernard,

      I am exactly the same situation as you unfortunately and bought exactly the same points packages, only difference is my 1 x 2000 did also credit. Have you tried calling the Iberia Plus helpline? They seem a bit more helpful than trying via email, will see if it actually manages to get me any points though.

    • Karl says:

      I had issues with only 2/4 vouchers crediting and had quite a few emails exchanged (with both Iberia and Groupon) that didn’t seem to get anywhere. I then put the query to Iberia on their Facebook page. Within a day or so they asked for my membership number and said it would be sorted. I ha the points credited in the next few days after that.

  • David says:

    I seem to be the only who didn’t have any issues with the last promotion! Bought 1x 2,000 and 4x 8,000, total 34,000 Avios and all 5 purchases posted to my IB account on the same day, around 2.5 weeks later. I’ve done the same now, and fingers crossed no problems.

    • Andrew H says:

      I had no issues first time round

      • yetyom says:

        No issues with my purchase too. Bought 1 X 2000 and 4 X 12000.
        Got credited with 1 X 2000 and 5 X 12000 (yes 5!) into IB account. Also got the 12 per €1 from the IB Plustore Groupon. Not sure if I will be buyer this time though.

  • Tim says:

    I just completed all the steps above and tested with the 2000 Avios option, using Chrome. All went through fine first time (woohoo). Now just the waiting game for the Avios to appear in my Iberia account…If they appear within the next few days, I’ll take the plunge with a large number of Avios. Thanks Raffles (and fellow reader, Andrew).

    • Andrew H says:

      You’re welcome. It won’t be a few days. In December I made my purchases 17th and the avios arrived in my account on the 30th. Forget it for a fortnight then check your Iberia account!

  • World Traveller says:

    I’ve bought Avios for both my partner and myself in the last promo and again today – the whole process from start to finish was quick and easy. I checked on Iberia Plus Store and can see my click to Groupon today has tracked ok – you can see this in the ‘transaction & clicks history’.

    Last time this offer was running I clicked the ‘Invite your friend to Groupon’ link, and setup my partner’s account. When buying Avios today I had a very pleasant surprise of seeing the purchase being discounted by €6 which is the ‘refer a friend’ bonus.

  • Cuchlainn says:

    Groupon Spain not allowing me to log in – my Groupon UK login is a .co.uk address….. Any ideas gratefully accepted 🙂 PS Groupon UK not allowing me to change to a .com address.

    • harry says:

      you need to set up a new Spanish Groupon a/c

      • Cuchlainn says:

        Spotty dog Harry – worked a treat, thanks !!

        Mira tu Tarjeta Iberia Plus en 30 dias laborable ya habrás recibido tus Avios

  • harry says:

    Some people are saying why bother with 2000 avios @ 0.7p? – agreed it’s only 2000 for potential hassle. What about 18,000 for under 0.9p?

    Crunching the math to get best, decent amount + discount (5 Groupons) = 1 x 2000 + (4 x 4000) = total 18,000 avios. Cost EUR215

    You buy through IB Plustore. = 1075 Avios

    You get another 340 Avios on your Amex card.

    Total 19,415 Avios = 1.1074c/ Avios = c. 0.88p/ Avios

    Decent biggish amount 18K @ 0.88p/ Avios

    • Genghis says:

      Harry, are you on commission? 🙂

    • Axel says:

      seems much less hassle for me to get the 2000 avios with 4 or 5 quick stopoffs at at hole in the wall with a Curve card, at 0p per avios over the next week or two 🙂

      • harry says:

        let’s see how you fare lol

        might be egg on the face for me

        early bird gets the worm so why not try £2000 withdrawal on day 1?

        • Alex W says:

          Please don’t take the mick and get curve shut down or something before I’ve even received mine!

          • harry says:

            first person to get £1000 ATM withdrawal on Curve gets the big swinging duck award lol

          • Nick says:

            I like the sound of this curve card, do tell!

  • Mike says:

    Bought the 2k (as I did last time), worked smoothly.

    • Mike says:

      Actually, just looked at my IB account… they double credited me last time!

      12/19/15 Purchase Iberiaplustore In Gro Shopping 304
      12/19/15 Avios Earned With Groupon Shopping 2,000
      12/19/15 Avios Earned With Groupon Shopping 2,000

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

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