Let’s party like 2008!
With the IAG share price falling fast, the word has clearly gone out that cash needs to start coming through the door. We have already seen British Airways offering a 35% bonus on point transfers from hotel loyalty programmes (which means BA receives a large cheque from the hotel company). I would even be willing to bet on seeing a Tesco conversion bonus soon!
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 different. Iberia Plus is currently offering a bonus of 50% on purchases of Avios points. This deal runs until Wednesday 6th July, 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.
There is no minimum purchase. Even a 2,000 Avios purchase gets you 1,000 bonus Avios.
At the top end, you will be paying Euro 1,800 for 150,000 Avios (100,000 + 50%). It is slightly foolish putting in an exchange rate as it will be hopelessly out of date by the time you read this, but assuming €1.20 this works out at exactly 1.0p per Avios. You would need to add a 3% foreign exchange fee to this price if your credit card has one.
I would not usually be a buyer, even at this price. 1p per Avios is usually my target value when I redeem, not my target price to buy. Your personal valuation may be different – if you only ever redeem using 2-4-1 vouchers, for example, you are likely to value a point more highly. It may 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 buy points. You must also have a balance greater than zero. This is easily fixed if you have previously earned an Avios via Iberia with a transfer in from British Airways. 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.
(Want to earn more Avios? Click here to visit our home page for the latest articles on earning and spending your Avios points and click here to see how to earn more Avios from current offers and promotions.)
About Head for Points
“I would even be willing to bet on seeing a Tesco conversion bonus soon!”
Not what I wanted to hear after just converting about £120ish into Avios!
Was just talking with a BA employee. Ticket sales have stopped pretty much entirely (in the context of BA) since Friday.
I can honestly see things getting far worse. Exchange rates and lowering of service all going to take a toll on BA for sure. My plans for 2017 have certainly been put on hold until I see some sort of recovery in Sterling.
I would expect a recovery of sterling by then but its definitely a dampener for any travel in the short term as everything has got at least 5% worse for the currencies I was looking at.
Well Easyjet and Ryanair just released more months of their flights going ahead, so perhaps that’s why BA is currently not seeing tickets selling.
Is it likely that there will be a conversion bonus from Marriott to Iberia higher then 35%?
Has there ever been a hotel conversion bonus to Iberia?
Last October Marriott Rewards to Iberia with a 40% bonus.
My Mrs & I each bought 100k Avios via Iberia last month with 40% bonus for about .98p…. Euro was weaker then! We get decent ‘value’/fab travel experience as we use them with 241 BA First long haul each year.
Can’t buy any more, but looks like you can gift 100,000 plus the 50% to another Iberia Plus holder. I wonder if we can gift each other another £100k….? 🙂
Would the fact that the Iberia bonus has risen in line with the exchange rate to keep it at 1p suggest that these things are aimed at and used primarily by people in the UK?
If so, it seems it would be simpler for BA to run it in £ from their own website…
I wouldn’t be surprised if this was planned and adjusted for based on the exchange rate on the day before the promotion started, lets hope for a rebound quick!
OT: Does anyone know if purchasing goods >£500 at LHR using Heathrow Rewards immediately triggers premium status (i.e. Earning double point for that transaction), or do we only earn double points from the next purchase?
Thank you!
The FTSE100 has now recovered all its losses since Brexit – down 5.7%, up 5.7%, currently standing @ 6321.
I should watch the GBP/ EUR rate if you are thinking about those Iberia points @ 1p/ Avios. Could be quite a bit cheaper before the deal closes.
currently 0.987p/ Avios
imagine GBP/ EUR recovered half its change since Brexit (ie 1EUR=0.79p)
This gives 0.948p/ Avios
I wonder if any of the smaller amounts represent good value. The 12,000 plus 6,000 bonus is close to the last Groupon offer price for 20,000.
Although this is mainly as the FTSE 100 has a lot of companies with USD earnings that now look much better due to Sterling plummeting against the USD 😉
I took out the Moneycorp offer, wish I’d done it for USD rather than EUR.
It’s also because with the discounted shares priced in a discounted currency, international investors received the kind of stacked discount we headforpoints readers know and love 🙂
Good point! They probably bought them using their US Amex too for zero forex fees and lots of points and miles 😛