Two hotel schemes where you earn more Avios with Iberia Plus than with British Airways
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In this article yesterday I asked for your help in confirming whether Accor had cut their transfer rate into Avios or whether it was a typo. It seems to be a typo on their website, luckily.
This means that, if you collect Avios points via your hotel stays, there are still two hotel schemes which let you earn in Iberia Plus and British Airways, but where Iberia Plus is more lucrative.
The origins of this date back to when British Airways and Iberia had their own totally separate loyalty currencies.
It made no difference if one scheme got a better deal than the other because you could not switch your points over. Since Avios became the currency for both schemes in 2011, most of these arbitrages have gone – but a couple still remain.
Here are the two chains you need to remember:
Hilton HHonors
You need to be a member of Hilton HHonors to collect Avios from your stays. You need to set your Hilton account to ‘Hilton HHonors points + airline miles’, which will give you 10 Hilton HHonors points per $1 plus some miles. The alternative earning option is to take 15 Hilton HHonors points per $1 and no miles.
When you choose to earn some Avios, as you can check here, you earn:
In British Airways Executive Club – 1 Avios per $1 spent
In Iberia Plus – 15 Avios per $10 spent
Subject to a small rounding error to get you to the nearest $10, you are 50% better off crediting your stay to Iberia Plus and moving your Avios points to avios.com or British Airways Executive Club using ‘Combine My Avios’.
(Note that Hilton caps the number of Iberia Plus Avios you can earn at 1,000 Avios points per stay as I discussed in this article. The BA cap is 10,000 Avios. If you are planning a stay costing more than $650 you should bear this in mind. Iberia is NOT the best choice for an expensive stay.)
You can beat both of these rates by crediting your stays to Virgin Atlantic and earning 2 miles per £1, but that is a topic for a different article.
Le Club AccorHotels
The arbitrage here only works when converting Le Club points into Avios points.
The rate into British Airways Executive Club is 2:1 from Le Club. As was confirmed by HFP readers yesterday, the rate into Iberia Plus is still 1:1. You therefore receive twice as many Avios points by converting your AccorHotels points into Iberia.
It is also easier to convert your points to Iberia Plus Avios points. The minimum conversion if you send them to BA is 4,000 Accor points whilst the minimum Iberia conversion is just 3,000 points.
Details of Accor’s airline conversion rates can be found here.
Remember the limitations of Iberia Plus
The key thing to remember about Iberia Plus is that your account needs to be open for 90 days before you can move your points across to British Airways. If you need the Avios points immediately and you do not already have an Iberia account, you would need to send them to BA and take the hit for the difference.
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How to earn Avios from UK credit cards (April 2025)
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 Mastercard
Get 25,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher at £10,000 Read our full review
Barclaycard Avios Mastercard
Get 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
30,000 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.
SPECIAL OFFER: Until 27th May 2025, the sign-up bonus on the ‘free for a year’ American Express Preferred Rewards Gold card is increased from 20,000 Membership Rewards points to 30,000 points. Points convert 1:1 into Avios (30,000 Avios!) and many other programmes. Some people may see even higher personalised offers. Click here to apply.
SPECIAL OFFER: Until 27th May 2025, the sign-up bonus on American Express Platinum is increased from 50,000 Membership Rewards points to a huge 80,000 points. Points convert 1:1 into Avios (80,000 Avios!) and many other programmes. Some people may see even higher personalised offers. Click here to apply.
American Express Preferred Rewards Gold
Your best beginner’s card – 30,000 points, FREE for a year & four airport lounge passes Read our full review
The Platinum Card from American Express
80,000 bonus points and great travel benefits – for a large 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, and the standard card is FREE. Capital on Tap cards also have no FX fees.
Capital on Tap Visa
NO annual fee, NO FX fees and points worth 1 Avios per £1 Read our full review
Capital on Tap Pro Visa
10,500 points (=10,500 Avios) plus good benefits Read our full review
There is also a British Airways American Express card for small businesses:
British Airways American Express Accelerating Business
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
50,000 points when you sign-up 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.
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