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Get 25% off ALL Iberia Avios redemptions – New York in Business for 51,000 + £159

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Iberia Plus is, apparently, 25 years old. To celebrate, Iberia has launched a genuinely valuable promotion.

Until 11th April, you will receive 25% off all Iberia Plus Avios redemptions, in all classes.

You must fly between 27st March 2017 and 15th June and between 1st October and 15th December.  There are some extra black-out dates which are the ‘peak’ dates in the Iberia Plus redemption calendar which you can see here.

These deals are only valid for flights on Iberia, Iberia Express and Air Nostrum.

There are some deals to be had here.  More spectacularly to New York, Boston and other East Coast US cities.

For odd reasons, Iberia’s reward chart differs from the British Airways chart when it comes to the pricing zone which covers the US East Coast.

On off peak dates, Business Class redemptions to New York from Madrid only require 68,000 Avios return, compared to 100,000 Avios with British Airways from London.

Under this promotion, Madrid to New York, business class, is just 51,000 Avios + £159 of taxes and charges.

You need to get to Madrid to start and finish your trip, of course.  That should be a relatively modest cost.  The Iberia flights depart at 5pm and 9pm so you won’t need to stay in Madrid overnight.

There are plenty of other good deals too.  Madrid to Tokyo in Business Class, for example, is 89,300 Avios + £162.  This compares with a stunning 150,000 Avios + £539 required for an off-peak BA ticket.

Iberia’s business class is very good

Iberia has a fully-flat business class seat which is superior to Club World.  All seats have direct aisle access for a start.  I tested it out on a Madrid to Heathrow flight a couple of years ago – here is my review.

Iberia business class

Iberia has recently launched Premium Economy

We didn’t cover the announcement much on HfP, but Iberia has recently launched a Premium Economy product which is included in this sale:

Iberia premium economy

You can find out more on the Iberia website here.

And another benefit …..

Iberia has different peak and off-peak dates to British Airways.  Take October half-term, for example.  This is a ‘peak week’ on British Airways and so redemptions cost more.  On Iberia, it is not a peak week.  This makes the difference in pricing between BA and Iberia even starker.

For clarity ….

To get this 25% reduction, you MUST book via the Iberia Plus website.  You will not get the discount if you try to book these Iberia flights via ba.com.

You can transfer Avios between ba.com or avios.com and iberia.com by using ‘Combine My Avios’ on any of the three websites.  Remember that moving to Iberia from BA is very buggy – but 99% of the time it works if you go BA to avios.com and then avios.com to Iberia.

However, you CANNOT transfer into Iberia Plus unless your Iberia account is 90 days old AND has earned at least 1 Avios point.  The easiest way to do this is transfer 1,000 Amex Membership Rewards points over.

Remember that you should NOT include a connecting flight from London on the same ticket unless you want to incur long-haul Air Passenger Duty.  On the other hand, if you book your flights on separate tickets you will have to collect your luggage in Madrid and check it in again.

If you want to know more about redeeming on Iberia, take a look at our ‘Avios Redemption University’ article here.  The article also includes a slightly-out-of-date route list.

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.

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 12th May 2024, the Capital on Tap Business Rewards Visa card is offering a bonus of 30,000 points, convertible into 30,000 Avios. You must have a Limited Company to apply. Click here to learn more and click here to apply.

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.

Category

Iberia and Iberia Plus

Comments (119)

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

  • simon says:
    28 Mar28 March 13:48

    Just a big thank you to Rob really – managed to get 2 x business return Madrid to Havana this coming November for less than 130,000 avios (and less than £300 taxes for both). As we were already looking to go, probably next year though, this has been a fantastic result. Many thanks.

    • Keith says:
      28 Mar28 March 17:00

      +1 I did the same last month, booked about October, so not too far in advance. Thanks Rob!
      The Iberia business seat is good, although if you want to sit next to your partner the only rows 1,3 and 5 are close together – 2 & 4 are on the outer edges, so you sit a long way apart (might suit some folks!).

  • Mark Spivey says:
    28 Mar28 March 13:50

    So basically this deal is N/A for anyone that hadn’t opened an Iberia account already?

    • Genghis says:
      28 Mar28 March 13:58

      Not necessarily. E.g. you should be able to open an IB+ account and then transfer in from Amex within a few days prior to the 11 April deadline.

    • the reral harry1 says:
      28 Mar28 March 13:59

      Depends if you have 1000 MR points handy

      • Genghis says:
        28 Mar28 March 14:04

        Does it not depend if you have 51k MRs handy as you cannot transfer avios (from BAEC / avios.com) into a less than 90 day old IB+ acct?

      • Rob says:
        28 Mar28 March 15:17

        You still need to wait 90 days though before the account is ‘active’, in theory. The account must be 90 days old AND have had some activity. The rule is there primarily to stop you doing what you want to do!

        • Mark Spivey says:
          28 Mar28 March 15:31

          Where did you read the 90 day rule?

          • Rob says:
            28 Mar28 March 16:21

            Here’s the thing. I don’t think it has ever been written down anywhere. It is just one of those things that has existed since Avios was launched in 2011. If it was scrapped we wouldn’t know about it either until people suddenly found they could move points without problems.

        • Genghis says:
          28 Mar28 March 15:35

          I thought that was just for avios transfers?

  • Daniel says:
    28 Mar28 March 14:48

    Sorry to go off subject but just need a little advice. I saw the hiltons bonus point deal where you get a 100% bonus when buying points. My plan was to buy 80000 with the bonus getting 160000 in total so I can top upto 190000 for a 5 night stay in Orlando using the pay with points get the 5th night free. Without the 5th night discounted it’s 235000 points and I was told that I needed this amount to have the option of paying 190000 for the stay. Is this correct as I won’t get anywhere near that if I buy the points.
    Many thanks for the advice

    • Genghis says:
      28 Mar28 March 15:01

      I’m not too sure what it is you’re asking?

      • Daniel says:
        28 Mar28 March 15:12

        Whether to book the 5 nights paying with points I need 190000 points(5th night free rate) or whether I need to have 235000 (non deal rate) in my account to have access to the 190000 rate. This is how the online chat person explained it to me but seems a bit daft as would only be spending 190000.

        • 2002ad says:
          28 Mar28 March 15:28

          You need to compare the costs of what the 80k points are going to cost you, and compare that to the hotels costs (+any taxes they may charge) to see what will work out cheaper.

          Remember you will need to be at least a silver honors member to get the 5th night free. Looks like you also need an extra 30k points to get yourself to 190k.

          • Daniel says:
            28 Mar28 March 15:40

            Costs work out better with the points. But only if I need 190000 in the account rather than 235000. The problem is I don’t want to buy the 160000 if I can’t use them.

          • Genghis says:
            28 Mar28 March 15:47

            Have you factored in the value of the points you would earn on a cash booking?

        • Clive says:
          28 Mar28 March 15:41

          Thats alot of points for Orlando. Are you sure you are getting good value.

          • Daniel says:
            28 Mar28 March 15:56

            You are right it is a hell of a lot of points. With the points it works out about $200 cheaper for the 5 nights but this doesn’t take into account the 18000 or so points that I would get for the booking assuming there are no other offers that pop up.

          • Tom H says:
            28 Mar28 March 15:57

            I think he is asking do you need a the full 5 nights points in your account to book, or do you just need 4 (and then use 4 for 5) Anon / Michael any ideas?

        • Alan says:
          28 Mar28 March 18:54

          You only need the post-deal amount of points – they automatically adjust the per-night rate to take account of the 5:4 deal so the total will be correct when you come to pay.

          As others have said though, make sure this represents good VfM, usually some decent deals around in Orlando.

    • James says:
      28 Mar28 March 17:04

      The price it shows if you search for 5 nights is the discounted rate including the free night.

    • Peter K says:
      28 Mar28 March 20:28

      Further to earlier comments. If you have status (silver and above) then you only need the points required for the 4 nights to book all 5.
      So if it is say 47500 for one night then you only need to have 190k points to book all 5 nights. It will show up as 38k a night when you look at the details (ie 190/5).

      Make sure your don’t make the mistake I did once of looking at the average price for 5 nights (which already has taken into the free night) and then taking a further 20% off!

  • LINNY says:
    28 Mar28 March 16:04

    Would buying Iberia miles count as ‘earned’ points? So I can transfer Avios from my BA account to Iberia account. My Iberia account is older than 90 days, but I’ve never earned any points with it.

    • Rob says:
      28 Mar28 March 16:20

      I know at one stage an inactive Iberia account could not buy miles either. You can try – if it works then, yes, the account will be considered active and you can transfer in.

      • LINNY says:
        28 Mar28 March 16:48

        It works. Bought 2000 points on Iberia. Test transferred 700 Avios into Iberia account. all good, thanks

  • James says:
    28 Mar28 March 17:27

    Also, doesnt it have to be active for 90 days before you can move things around?

    • Duncan says:
      29 Mar29 March 09:05

      I know that, but I have to start some time and I’ve put it off this long. I’ve missed the boat on this offer, but I’d like to be able to take advantage of the next one if it suits.

  • Zild says:
    28 Mar28 March 18:08

    Lesson learned. This might have worked well for my mandatory trip to Japan in May. I even had to take an Iberia flight for work recently…

  • Dominic says:
    28 Mar28 March 23:04

    Aaaarrgghhh. Having accumulated about 15k avois in Iberia, I now discover you cannot transfer in/out with your BA account… if it is a Household Account. Very very frustrating. What can I do with 15K Iberia points in isolation?

  • Fenny says:
    28 Mar28 March 23:36

    e-rewards. Better conversion rate than to BAEC or Avios.

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

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