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 It is slightly foolish putting in an exchange rate as it will be hopelessly out of date by the time you read this, but assuming €1.20 this works out at exactly 1.0p per Avios.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
Good to see you being more explicit on merits of buying avios at 1p. I think this will help prevent the newbies and less experienced falling into a bad redemption trap.
Just to add to this, as an example the 150,000 avios you quote for €1800 is enough for a return CW redemption to zone 7 off peak which may require additional tax/fees of about £700 depending on where one is going. By contrast €1800 can buy a return flight to Asia exEU or just about exUK in an AY or TK sale, and these flights also earn avios/miles.
I hope you are right on transfer bonuses, I’m holding out on tesco and also MR in anticipation of that.
What will be interesting to see is whether BA hikes fees in light of falling £ though because that may offset benefits of any extra avios we can collect in this period.
But it’s not a binary situation.
Any self-respecting points hound needs a decent contingency ‘bank’ of Avios sitting there to give them the choice of using them when opportunities arise – or paying cash instead.
If you are finding it slow-going to accumulate a few hundred thousand, this is an excellent opportunity to buy 150K (or 300K for many of us with 2 adults in the household) at a fair price.
Worth watching the GBP/EUR rate as IMV we could easily see the 1p edge closer to 0.95p.
I wasn’t suggesting it was Harry, just saying that it helps those who are less aware of the pitfalls if we point them out. I concede that vast majority of HFP readers are more knowledgeable but judging by some comments there are those who are still, by their own admission getting to grips with the hobby. It is inevitably complex though, taking the zone 7 example I discused, exHKG to UK could make this IB deal a cracking offer.
Good point re keeping an eye on the exchange rate and maybe leaving it until later in the offer period.
I am expecting the exchange to get better in the new few weeks so probably worth checking on the 4/5th of July before it ends
Can you buy more avios under this scheme even if you have already bought 100,000 under the previous bonus offer a few weeks ago?
Probably not, if Iberia’s IT is working (which it might not be!)
you can’t. Just tried and I can’t access the buy page having already bought some earlier this year. If i create a new account for my wife can I buy for her or does her account need to be 90 days old?
Starwood route is now 1.09p per Avios given fall of the Pound since that article (used $1.33/£)
Is anyone else having trouble logging into their Iberia Plus? I keep getting the following message: “Iberia Plus service is not available at present (A003).”
I’m getting it too. Just maintenance I expect. Happened before.
Hoping this triggers Virgin to do a similar deal !
I’ll punt you100K for 1p/ mile 🙂
Been sitting there 16 years now…
Interesting, I thought they expire after a while ?
I keep’em going of course!
Just checked, it would cost a fortune to transfer them!
Iberia Plus now accessible.
I’ve had a look at this deal and I’m not keen. Given I paid £15 for 2000 Avios in Plus Store recently, there’s no way I’m going to pay £44 for 3000.
75 quid for 6000 isn’t a great deal either. Looks like you have to spend a lot more to get a good deal. I’ll pass.
Yeah the groupon deal is better but for smaller amounts.
you cant get anything like100000 avios through the groupon deals…they where limited to 50/60 K max.
I still can’t log in
OT about the AMEX platinum upgrade. I hit the 1k spend, the 20k bonus points posted and the £450 charge hit my account. So can’t get away with not paying the fee!
They seem to have improved their IT then! Most people were not being charged.
We just got our first Platinum statement on Saturday and there was no charge! 🙂
I have an Iberia Plus account with Zero balance but older than 90 days. Whats easiest way to earn points is there a minimum to transfer in from BA Avios?
Advice is welcome, thanks.
Vinoseleccion, Hailo and erewards
Thanks
Or if you have an Amex, a 1k MR point transfer to IB works too.
“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 😛