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Bits: interesting Iberia / Avis deal, 1950’s British Airways amenity kits

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News in brief:

Intriguing Iberia / Avis promotion

Iberia and Avis have launched an interesting new promotion to win a share of 25,000,000 Avios.

This is how it works.  You book and complete an Avis rental, anywhere in the world, between 1st and 31st July.  You then go to this website and input the 11-digit booking reference.

You will instantly receive a prize of between 250 and 100,000 Avios into your Iberia Plus account.

In theory you must be based in Spain to play.  However, it may well work for others unless Iberia is blocking the posting of miles to non-Spanish accounts.

Here is the odd thing.  The rules make no mention of having to credit the original rental to Iberia.  In theory, you can take an Avis rental you credited to another airline, put the number into this website and claim some Iberia Plus Avios too.

Will it work …..?  If anyone has booked and completed an Avis rental this month, please give it a go and let us know.

Avis 350

Old 1950’s BA amenity kits

Reader Kate – who, bizarrely, recognised me in a remote Austrian ski hotel when we were away in February – was at the IWM Duxford (the Duxford Air Museum) recently and kindly sent me these pictures of old British Airways amenity kits from the 1950’s.

For the man (click to enlarge – you should be able to read the notes):

British Airways amenity kit a

and for the woman:

British Airways amenity kit b

Things have definitely gone downhill since then …. although I haven’t seen the new Liberty First Class bags yet.  I found out last week that Anika got one on the British Airways press flight at Easter but it never made it into the office.

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

Avis and Avis Preferred, British Airways and Avios, Iberia and Iberia Plus

Comments (98)

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

  • Nishant Tharani says:
    10 Jul10 July 04:31

    OT: I’m aware (through helpful comments here) that the amex MR and Avios cards can be churned every 6 months. Can the SPG card also be churned every 6 months in the same way? Finding it tough to get the info from the T&C. thanks!

  • Phillip says:
    10 Jul10 July 04:42

    I’m not surprised, regarding BA Holidays. BA’s IT fares through agents, as a rule, were mostly only valid with ground product that covers the entire duration of the holiday. On rare occasions you could get a discounted fare with ground product covering 3 days.

    • Tom says:
      10 Jul10 July 06:35

      Brittany Ferries used to have a similar loophole which unfortunately they closed a couple of years ago. It used to be a brilliant source of cheap ferries – especially with an early departure from France requiring a short overnight stop the night before..so 1 night in a hotel didn’t even go to waste 🙂

  • johnny_c-l says:
    10 Jul10 July 05:47

    Tried the Avis / Iberia promo with a walk-up rental from earlier this week where I hadn’t used any FF number.

    Couldn’t get it to work, just kept highlighting the section where it says to enter an 11 digit number.

    Must be for pre-booked rentals only I assume.

  • Frank says:
    10 Jul10 July 05:50

    I just tried it with my Avios booking completed on July 2nd and it says I won 500 Avios.

    Will try with the one completed last night. Question is is they actually arrive in my account..

  • Mike says:
    10 Jul10 July 05:59

    Re Churning , once you cancel an amex card, do you still have access to old statements etc?

    • mark2 says:
      10 Jul10 July 06:38

      Not through your online account.

    • Charlie says:
      10 Jul10 July 06:39

      Yes

      • Charlie says:
        10 Jul10 July 06:41

        I have full statement access to my SPG Card that I cancelled a few months back. If you don’t remove the card from your online login it’s still there to view.

    • Genghis says:
      10 Jul10 July 06:41

      No. Download them all before you cancel

      • Roger says:
        10 Jul10 July 07:20

        No, don’t think you have online access.
        You get a red exclamation mark against card to say it is cancelled.
        Download PDF statements before you cancel the card.

        • Charlie says:
          10 Jul10 July 07:44

          Well, downloading them will obviously save any hassle. But you certainly do retain access to cancelled cards (even with the red exclamation mark). You can still view the old transactions and even the proper statements. I looked just a minute ago at my Amex account.

          Now Barclaycard, that’s a different story! They told me I’d be able to access for six months but access was revoked the moment I cancelled.

          • Genghis says:
            10 Jul10 July 12:32

            Amex Plat / Gold you certainly can’t see statements. All you can see is balance and “make payment”.

          • John says:
            10 Jul10 July 14:45

            Which expired cards (statements) can you see exactly? I’m like Genghis, I can’t see old statements.

          • Charlie says:
            10 Jul10 July 20:00

            @John
            I can see SPG and BA.

    • Alan says:
      10 Jul10 July 13:05

      You can’t access PDF statements anymore, but I’ve found the app still lets you access all your previous transactions – website doesn’t seem as keen to let you do that though.

      • Hidehi says:
        11 Jul11 July 05:33

        I have never been able to access statements on a cancelled amex card. and I have cancelled a lot of them in my time.

        • Alan says:
          11 Jul11 July 08:33

          Same for statements as I said, but can you access transactions via the app?

  • Anna says:
    10 Jul10 July 06:05

    I’ve highlighted the different terms for booking full stays and part stays a couple of times recently, but been contradicted! This has been the case for at least three years, as I spoke with BA customer services when trying to book a package back in 2014 and was told that in order to benefit from package terms, either the hotel stay or the car hire element of the holiday had to be for the full duration. I had started to think BA were just having a downer on me!

  • mark2 says:
    10 Jul10 July 06:39

    The BA First wash bag was surprisingly small when we travelled last month.

  • the real harry1 says:
    10 Jul10 July 07:12

    the IB/Avis comp is for permanent residents in Spain only – might be an idea to change your address to a Spanish one for a few weeks

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