Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

Big 40% bonus lets you buy Avios points via Iberia for as low as 1.0p each

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I normally do not recommend buying Avios unless you need to ‘top up’ an account for an immediate redemption. With a few exceptions, buying a large proportion of the miles you need is rarely a good deal.

This is a bit different.  Iberia Plus is currently offering a bonus of 40% on purchases of Avios points. This deal runs until Sunday 29th May, see here for further details.

Note that you need to log-in to see details of the bonus offer. Without logging in, the page just shows the standard pricing.

Iberia A330 350

The deal does not seem to be targetted – I see it on my account but I haven’t received an email about it.

There is no minimum purchase.  Even a 2,000 Avios purchase gets you 800 bonus Avios.

At the top end, you will be paying €1,800 for 140,000 Avios (100,000 + 40%).  Given the weak £, this works out at exactly 1p per Avios, based on £1,393.  You would need to add a 3% foreign exchange fee to this price if your credit card has one.  Smaller quantities would be pricier.

I would not usually be a buyer, even at this price.  1p per Avios is usually my (very conservative) target value when I redeem so I don’t like paying that much to get them.

However, it may well make sense for you if:

you have a specific redemption in mind where you know you will get over 1p per point of value

you value the ‘easy points’ aspect of this offer (no need to visit Tesco, apply for a new credit card etc etc)

You MUST have been an Iberia Plus member for 90 days before you can transfer your bought points across to BA. 

You must also have earned at least one Avios in the account before you can buy points (one easy option is a small Amex Membership Rewards transfer, or credit a flight, hotel stay or Avis rental).

If you have never earned an Avios via Iberia Plus then you are stuck and cannot buy until a transaction has gone through your account – and that won’t happen in time for Sunday.

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

Iberia and Iberia Plus

Comments (102)

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

  • RIccati says:
    24 May24 May 06:14

    Good 40% BUT

    careful as the cost per Avios is NOT 1p but more like 0.0106 – this is with Yahoo finance exchange rate, actual Visa/MC is close to 1.1p which matters if you purchase large amounts.

    • John says:
      24 May24 May 15:12

      The Visa/MC rate lags behind by a day, so if you like today’s interbank rate you can see what it would be tomorrow.

  • harry says:
    24 May24 May 06:34

    Factor in any currency cost if you are paying by credit card.

  • Anon says:
    24 May24 May 06:36

    “You must also have earned at least one Avios in the account.”

    OT – What’s the easiest way to do this without flying?

    Trying to shift 1100 LeAccor points into my wife’s Iberia account I opened for the Accor promo they had on beforer Xmas, tried the auto convert trick but still they aren’t shifting out,.

    BTW the Accor account was also new at Xmas., so suspect it because my wife has earnt Iberia or stayed at Accor???

    • harry says:
      24 May24 May 06:46

      Easiest by far is an Amex MR points transfer.

      You can get 400 points with the Vinoseleccion offer, the wine works out @ £6-£7/ bottle delivered and is worth that more or less.

    • Kathryn says:
      24 May24 May 07:14

      Accor’s minimum transfer is 3000 I think. Once you reach that then they’ll pop over

    • John says:
      24 May24 May 07:38

      When I go to Spain on holiday I top my hire car up with petrol at a Repsol petrol station and present my Iberia card to swipe. Repsol are an Iberia partner and points appear on my account after a few weeks.

  • Roger Wilco says:
    24 May24 May 06:48

    Good prices – 180€ for 14k Avios? A return RFS in band 2 off-peak. Great!

    • RIccati says:
      24 May24 May 07:06

      Can either purchase either

      11200 Avios (8,000 + 3,200) €164.00 EUR

      16,800 Avios (12,000 + 4,800) €237.98 EUR

    • harry says:
      24 May24 May 07:17

      If you have a specific route in mind where you can see inflated prices (because of peak & high demand, maybe) & lack the points, this can be remarkably good value.

      15,000 Avios rtn + £35 RFS fee = £185.

      On my route to our place in the sun at Easter next year, that could right now save you nearly £200 on the return fare as there is already quite high demand for the cash tickets – but good Avios availability remains this far out.

  • Chelseafi says:
    24 May24 May 07:04

    O/T I want to cancel my amex Plat card, is it best to get my MR points to a round figure (I have 39,951) before I cancel (so just spend £49) I just want to transfer to Avios, how long after cancelling card do you have to Xfer points? Thanks

    • Kipto says:
      24 May24 May 07:20

      I think you have 30 days from cancelling the card before you you lose the points if not used, but stand corrected.

    • Rob says:
      24 May24 May 07:40

      You can send odd points to Nectar (min transfer 1). Not sure how long you have before they close the MR account but it is in the MR rules.

    • Adrian says:
      24 May24 May 14:27

      I would spend the extra £49 and as Kipto says you get 30 days to transfer the points.

    • CV3V says:
      24 May24 May 19:41

      I cancelled my Amex Plat last night, the customer service agent very kindly rounded up my 250 MR points to 1000MR points and then transferred them to BA for me. Excellent customer service,

  • Joe says:
    24 May24 May 07:04

    Argh, I booked 3 rt cw/f redemption seats yesterday and chose some of the lower pay with points options at 1.23p margin as didn’t want to empty my account!

    • Yuff says:
      24 May24 May 07:23

      With avios redemptions you can cancel free of charge within 24 hrs. Not sure about part pay though.
      Cancel the flights, if it’s free to, buy the avios and re-purchase the flights 😉

      • RIccati says:
        24 May24 May 08:08

        Not guaranteed that seats will go back to award inventory.

        Never do this manoeuvre with hard-to find redemptions to Sydney etc. Only if you are prepared to pay cash/get quote from other airline if the seats don’t go back award inventory, which is typically only European destinations.

    • James67 says:
      24 May24 May 07:34

      Remember you can cancel for free within 24 hours so you may have time to get on the phone. However, seats may be gone when you return to book.

      • RichT says:
        24 May24 May 07:41

        However, Avios purchased from Iberia do not appear in your account immediately they take a couple of days (at least in my experience having purchased a couple of times to top up over the past year) so then there’s the risk of the seats being snapped up!

        I’d probably keep my seats for the sake of 0.23p per point…

        • James67 says:
          24 May24 May 08:14

          With the comparable BA offer, it might still be worthwhile getting on the phone, explaining what has happened and asking if they can help. I believe they might cancel the existing awards and hold the seats long enough to allow you to purchase the avios. They did something similar for me once, but I can no longer recall exactly what, when I was afraid that seats would no longer return to award availability pool. I think BA cs have ways and means at their disposal if they want to use them.

          • James67 says:
            24 May24 May 09:03

            Scrap that RichT as per Robs edit and Ricattis comment.

    • RIccati says:
      24 May24 May 08:04

      Guys, part-pay on Avios redemptions (to save Avios and pay cash) is NON-REFUNDABLE.

      • harry says:
        24 May24 May 08:08

        That depends on the fare type

        • RIccati says:
          24 May24 May 08:15

          If you start booking as Avios booking (award seat/redemption) and then choose to pay cash to keep some Avios — that cash is non-refundable.

          “fare type” makes no sense here.

          BA calls this “Avios & Money”, likely books into the same booking code as Avios award.

          • harry says:
            24 May24 May 08:21

            Fair enough we’re talking at cross purposes – there are 2 different options:
            – Avios redemption, ie ‘Avios and Money’
            – BA cash ticket using ‘Save with Avios part payment’

          • James67 says:
            24 May24 May 09:00

            Thanks Riccati, was not aware of that as I always do full avios redemptions. However, I still don’t understand this because if we cancel a redemption we get everything back except the cancel/change fee so I’m not sure why BA are treating avios and money any different. If you cancel those do you get the ‘extra avios’ the money component presumably purchased or is it just a total loss on the money component?

      • pauldb says:
        24 May24 May 08:22

        Except within 24hrs as is being advised here.

    • Alex W says:
      24 May24 May 08:25

      0.95p each with 5% payout bonus

  • sjhoward says:
    24 May24 May 07:24

    You MUST have been an Iberia Plus member for 90 days before you can buy points. You must also have earned at least one Avios in the account.

    I’m think this is either/or according to the terms and conditions:

    Purchasers must have had an Iberia Plus card for more than 3 months or have an Avios balance higher than 0.

    I’ve had my Iberia Plus card less than 3 months and have a non-zero balance and appear to be able to purchase.

    • Rob says:
      24 May24 May 07:39

      You cannot transfer out to BA though – that requires 90 days. I will rework that paragraph though.

  • Arun says:
    24 May24 May 07:59

    Seems like BA has a similar offer:

    Inflate your Avios balance with up to 100,000 Avios
    There’s never been a better time to treat yourself – or someone else. For a limited time between 00:01 hr GMT Tuesday 24 May 2016 and 23:59 hr GMT Thursday 26 May 2016, you’ll be able to purchase up to 100,000 Avios and get a 40% bonus, in our three day flash sale.

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