How to earn and spend Avios on Vueling flights

How can you earn and spend Avios with Vueling?

IAG’s Spanish low cost carrier Vueling (pronounced bwelin I think) has been part of Avios for seven years now, although not everyone is aware of it.  It is worth knowing about because of Vueling’s regional presence at UK airports.

The airline has just announced flights from London Heathrow to Paris and Barcelona for the summer so I thought it was worth running through it again. It also has a substantial presence at London Gatwick and also operates from Edinburgh, Birmingham, Manchester and Cardiff.

The options for earning and spending Avios are very confusing even by HfP standards, so heaven knows how members of the public are meant to cope.

To put it simply:

• You earn Avios on Vueling flights based on your ticket price (with some exceptions on codeshares, see below)

• You can redeem Avios on Vueling purely on a ‘money off’ basis – unless you redeem via Iberia Plus, in which case you pay a fixed amount plus taxes based on the trip distance

This article does NOT cover the few Vueling flights which are sold on ba.com which are codeshares and come with a British Airways flight number.  These flights credit to your British Airways Executive Club account in the usual way.  Note that you will usually pay more to book Vueling via ba.com than via its own website.

What is Vueling?

Vueling is a low cost airline, based in Barcelona, owned by BA’s parent company IAG.  It is run separately to Iberia.

The main base is in Barcelona with a secondary hub in Rome.

It is far bigger than many people think, with a fleet of over 120 single aisle Airbus aircraft.

About Vueling Club

Seven years ago, Vueling moved its existing reward scheme, Punto, into Avios.  Punto was renamed Vueling Club.

Vueling Club has revenue based earning and revenue based spending. 

In an interesting departure from the BA model, you are able to use ‘part pay with Avios’ to cover the entire cost of a flight including taxes.

Full details of Vueling Club can be found on the Vueling website here.

EARNING AVIOS ON VUELING:

Does this mean I can earn Avios when flying Vueling?

Yes.

You can earn Avios on ANY Vueling ticket booked via their website.

You will need to open a Vueling Club account. It appears that Aer Lingus AerClub accounts are no longer accepted.

Your Vueling Club account can be used to log in at the avios.com website, from where you can transfer your Avios from Vueling Club to British Airways Executive Club.

You can also enter an Iberia Plus number on the Vueling website during booking, although you can’t log in to the Vueling website with your Iberia credentials.

You cannot use a British Airways Executive Club number.

How many Avios will I earn from Vueling?

It is a revenue based system.  The more you spend, the more you earn:

• Basic fares earn 2 Avios per €1 spent

• Optima, Family and Timeflex Fares earn 4 Avios per €1 spent

Premium members – who take 40 Vueling one-way flights each year – will earn double Avios.  Ancilliary spend is included.

This page of the Vueling website explains the earning rates in more detail.

It gets more complicated though ….

If you credit a Vueling flight to Iberia Plus you earn Avios in a different way.

Take a look at the Vueling partner page on the Iberia website.

If you book a Vueling flight via iberia.com, it will have an Iberia (IB) flight number.  This means that you earn Avios based on what you spend based on Iberia Plus earning rates. Standard level members of Iberia Plus will earn 5 Avios for every €1 spent. It is unlikely you would do this, however, because such a flight is likely to be more expensive than if you had booked it at vueling.com.

If you book a Vueling flight at vueling.com then it will have a Vueling flight number. If you credit this flight to Iberia, you earn Avios based on what you spend at Vueling’s earning rates (2 Avios per €1 on Basic fares, 4 Avios per €1 on other fares).

The exception is if you book a Vueling (VY) flight on the Vueling site which is operated by Iberia and then credit it to Iberia Plus. In this case, you earn Avios based on the distance flown:

• Business – 2.5 Avios per mile flown (min 1,250)
• Discounted Business – 1.5 Avios per mile flown (min 750)
• Flexible Economy – 1 Avios per mile flown (min 500)
• Classic Economy – 0.5 Avios per mile flown (min 250)
• Basic Economy – 0.25 Avios per mile flown (min 125)

SPENDING AVIOS ON VUELING

Can I spend Avios on Vueling?

Yes.

Have they made it insanely complicated by creating two separate pricing models?

Yes.

You can either book Vueling redemptions on the Vueling booking site or via Iberia Plus.

Note – and this is important – you cannot book Vueling redemption flights via ba.com.

Pros and cons of booking Avios flights on Vueling via vueling.com

Redemptions on vueling.com are ONLY available via the ‘part pay with Avios’ method.  You can use Avios to pay as much or as little of the flight cost as you want.  Unlike redeeming Avios for BA flights at ba.com, you get a flat value per Avios and there is no limit to how many you can use..

You need to log in using your Vueling Club account details on vueling.com.  If your Avios currently sit in a British Airways account, you will need to move them into Vueling Club via avios.com using ‘Combine My Avios’ (click here).

Select the flights you want.  You can book ANY flight.  There are no availability restrictions.

On the payment page you will be offered the chance to pay with Avios.

The rate is very poor, unfortunately.  You will be offered 0.51p per Avios.  Personally, I think you need your head examining if you accept such a weak redemption rate for your points.  I would want to get at least 1p per Avios when redeeming.

Pros and cons of bookings Avios flights on Vueling via Iberia Plus

You can also redeem Avios via Iberia Plus for Vueling at fixed Avios prices.  This involves:

• opening an Iberia Plus account at iberia.com
• having it open for at least 90 days
• earning at least 1 Avios in the account from a BA or oneworld flight, from crediting a hotel stay, from another partner or from moving across some American Express Membership Rewards points and then
• using ‘Combine My Avios’ to move your points to Iberia Plus

The problem is that Avios redemptions on Vueling are usually not competitive due to the taxes.   Avios redemptions do get a free checked suitcase, however, which may swing it.

Note that, unlike normal reward flights, Vueling seats booked on Avios via Iberia Plus are non-refundable.

Here is a pricing example

I looked at a typical Vueling flight from London Gatwick to Rome for a long weekend.

• Via iberia.com / Iberia Plus, it priced up at 15,000 Avios + £91 in taxes

• Via vueling.com / Vueling Club, a cash ticket was £84 for Basic (no luggage, no seat selection) or £149 (€174.48) for Optima (suitcase and seat selection included, as you would get with an Avios redemption via Iberia Plus).  The £149 Optima flight could be reduced to £0 by using 29,075 Avios, which means you get 0.51p per point.

Given these options, I would pay cash and ignore both of the Avios options.

In summary, with Vueling ….

• You can earn Avios on any Vueling ticket, irrespective of cost, and can credit them to either an Iberia Plus or Vueling Club Avios account – both of these allow transfers via ‘Combine My Avios’ into British Airways Executive Club

• You can redeem Avios for a discount – of up to 100% – on any Vueling flight in any class via ‘part pay with Avios’ when you book at vueling.com.  You need to log in using your Vueling Club details and, if necessary, use ‘Combine My Avios’ to move your points from BA to avios.com.

• You can also redeem for Vueling flights via Iberia Plus.  These rewards are priced using the standard distance model.

• You cannot redeem via ba.com

You can find out more about Vueling Club on this page of the Vueling website.

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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:

There are two official British Airways American Express cards with attractive sign-up bonuses:

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.

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.

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.

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.

Click here to read our detailed summary of all UK credit cards which earn Avios. This includes both personal and small business cards.