Did you know iberia.com shows more Iberia business class Avios seats than ba.com?

It turns out that Iberia offers better Business Class reward availability via iberia.com than it offers on ba.com.

This is a bit bizarre, I admit.  I’m not entirely sure why this fact isn’t common knowledge – probably because of the hoops you need to jump through to redeem on Iberia.

Two months ago, I wrote about how Iberia opens up substantially more Economy redemption seats via iberia.com than British Airways will show you on ba.com.  That article is here.

There is a reason for this, however.  It is because Iberia has two ‘classes’ of Economy redemption and ba.com only shows you the slightly cheaper ‘Blue Class’ seats.

What makes no sense, however, is what I found out last week.  There are more Iberia business class seats available if you book on the Iberia website.

Here are some examples.  Flying to Miami from Madrid on 18th November, ba.com has nothing on Iberia in Business Class (click to enlarge):

but iberia.com does have seats on one of the flights:

There were actually THREE business class seats on the Iberia flight available if I booked via iberia.com.

Here is another example, out from Madrid to New York on 12th October.  Here is ba.com with no Iberia availability at all in Business:

and here is iberia.com with a seat available on the later flight:

Any sane Head for Points reader would be booking long haul Iberia redemptions on iberia.com anyway.  This is because taxes are roughly 75% lower when booking the SAME Iberia flight via iberia.com compared to booking it via ba.com.  This article explains it in more detail.

You might, as I would, start off by checking availability on ba.com with the intention of booking on iberia.com later.  That would be a big mistake as these examples show.  If you are looking for Iberia reward availability, you MUST search at iberia.com to see the full range of available seats.

Remember, though, that in order to move your Avios points to Iberia Plus via Combine My Avios, your Iberia Plus account MUST be 90 days and MUST have earned 1 Avios point.  If you have never done this, I would prioritise it because you never know when you might want to book.

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How to earn Avios from UK credit cards (June 2023)

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.

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 13th June, the sign-up bonus on The Platinum Card is doubled to 60,000 Membership Rewards points – and you get £200 to spend at Amex Travel too! Apply here.

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.

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.

EDIT: Applications for this card are temporarily suspended due to IT issues with the British Airways On Business SME loyalty scheme.

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.