Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

It’s back – buy up to 100,000 cheap Avios, from 0.81p, via Groupon

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It’s back.  Fortunately, or unfortunately (it depends how much trouble you had getting the Avios to post when this deal ran last year) you can yet again buy cheap Avios points simply by heading over to Groupon.

The fall in the Euro in recent days means that this deal is not as good as it was last year, where you were paying as little as 0.7p per Avios.  It is still worth a look though.

This is an Iberia Plus deal.  This means that there are two hurdles to jump:

You need an Iberia Plus Avios account (easily fixed by going to iberia.com if you don’t have one)

Your Iberia account will need to be 90 days old before you are allowed to use ‘Combine My Avios’ and send your points across to your British Airways Executive Club or avios.com account

Start by visiting the Iberia home page here.

Iberia has its own online shopping portal.  However, it is not meant to be offered to UK residents.  You must change the site language (top left) to Spain – English.  It will not work if you are set to United Kingdom – English.

Click on ‘Iberia Plus’ in the top menu and you will see a link for Iberia PluStore.  Go there.  Search for Groupon and click through.  You will earn an extra 10 Avios per €1 for your purchase in the IberiaPluStore – if it tracks.

Once you have clicked through to Groupon and got the relevant cookie on your computer, click here for the Avios page you need on the Spanish Groupon site.

It is best to use Google Chrome to open it.  Chrome should offer to translate the text.  If it doesn’t, right click on your mouse and a translation option will appear.

There are five price levels- the 2,000 Avios deal is the cheapest:

2,000 Avios = €19 (£16.19) = 0.81p (excluding the PluStore Avios)

4,000 Avios = €59 (£50.28) = 1.25p (excluding the PluStore Avios)

8,000 Avios = €99 (£84.37) = 1.05p (excluding the PluStore Avios)

15,000 Avios = €189 (£161.07) = 1.07p (excluding the PluStore Avios)

20,000 Avios = €249 (£212.21) = 1.06p (excluding the PluStore Avios)

34,000 Avios = €429 (£365.61) = 1.07p (excluding the PluStore Avios)

However, if you do not use an existing groupon.es account and open a new one, it appears that you can use code CUPON20 to save 20% (capped at €20).  

You can buy a maximum of five packages per Iberia account.  However, you are restricted to just one of the ‘2,000 Avios’ packs and three of the ‘34,000 Avios’ packs.  The maximum number of Avios you can buy is therefore 3 x 34 + 2 x 20 = 142,000 Avios for €1,785, less €20 if the coupon code works.

You can pay by PayPal which may be easier – I did during the previous promotion – although you get legged over on the exchange rate.  All other credit cards are accepted including American Express.  If you do not use a 0% payment card, remember to factor in the 3% FX fee to the prices shown above.

About 30 minutes later you will receive an emailed voucher.  If you don’t, the voucher will also be showing in your account on the Spanish Groupon site.  There is a link in the voucher to a page on the Groupon site where you need to input the codes.

You are told that your Avios will take 30 days to appear but, in reality, they have historically turned up quicker.

The big question ….. is it worth it?

This isn’t the most straightforward promotion ever.  The exchange rate is moving around daily and you can’t be 100% certain that you PluStore purchase will track.  I am least more confident these days that you will get your Avios without huge amounts of trouble.  Buying 2,000 at 0.8p is a decent deal but the time required may be too much of a faff to justify it.


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.

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.

Comments (83)

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

  • pun-ter says:

    Hi All – anybody know if you need to fly with Iberia to register or activate the Iberia Plus account?
    Thanks

  • Ralph Taylor says:

    I purchased a 2,000, paid, tried to use the coupon and got “El cupón no se puede validar” (The coupon can not be validated) for the first 5 minutes after the coupon had been issued. After that it appeared to work. ¡Felicidades!

  • Darren says:

    Rob, you say you’ll get legged over by Paypal on the Exchange Rate, but there is an option to be billed in local currency in Paypal (although you may need to find it on the Paypal site first – Also may just be VISA/Mastercard)

    • Nick says:

      Yes you can change the currency but then you’re at the whim of PayPal setting the rate… so yes of course you’re going to be cheated. Do a search for DCC, it’s a huge scam among banks and other financial institutions.

      And to the poster above asking if this is technically fraudulent… no it’s not, at least while we’re in the EU – companies can’t limit by residence country as long as you live in a Member State. Remember the chavvy pub that was allowed to buy Sky Sports from a Greek outlet and play it in the U.K.? Same rules here.

  • ringingup says:

    Purchased 2000 Avios with the discount code and already redeemed them!

  • Nick says:

    My Iberia plus store has tracked overnight. All seems well so far

  • TripleB says:

    Purchased 2000 – discount code didn’t work – but proceeded anyway.
    Redeemed them the second time around (IE worked whereas chrome did not)
    Got the email from Groupon saying the points will be in your account in 15 days.
    Easy and cheap points.
    Thanks.

  • Nick says:

    got 2K, will likely buy a 36k block once the 2 show up in IB.

  • rrgg says:

    Is there some trick to getting a US AMEX to process (or other US card)?

    • rrgg says:

      Does this phrase, “although you get legged over on the exchange rate,” just refer to a poor exchange rate when using PayPal, or does it refer to a forex fee that PayPal charges, separate from what the credit card charges?

      • the real harry1 says:

        simply that PayPal’s exchange rate is not as good as the ‘perfect’ exchange rate offered by some cards

        however – PayPal offers such good protection if anything goes wrong with your Groupon purchase, that you’d be well-advised to swallow the extra cost (which is nigh-negligible)

      • Rob says:

        Not sure how they got to it, but the net charge to me in £ was poor. Can’t remember exactly how bad it was to be honest.

        • Talay says:

          I pulled out of a purchase in USD the other week due to the exceedingly poor PayPal FX rate. In the end I paid via Supercard but gave up the Avios etc.

        • Chris says:

          You can adjust your Paypal account so that you pay in the local currency, rather than your “primary card currency”. This allows you to pay in euros, and you get your card provider’s exchange (which is usually better).

          In the case of certain Amex cards, I believe you are rewarded with 2 Amex points per £1 spend in a foreign currency.

          • rrgg says:

            Where is this setting? The only way I know to change the currency is if I’m initiating a payment within paypal. Then I can choose. In this case, the Groupon payment does not seem to have that option.

          • Alan says:

            @rrgg login to PayPal, then click on Details in the top-left panel of PayPal balance, then click on ‘Manage Currencies’ on the pop-over that appears, that lets you pick your primary currency.

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