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Redeem Avios on Iberia’s new San Francisco route – when they fix the taxes

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Iberia, BA’s sister airline, has announced a new route between Madrid and San Francisco for Summer 2018.

This is an opportunity to redeem Avios on a route where it can be tricky to find seats, and where you will often need fewer Avios and pay lower taxes than if you flew from London on British Airways.

Here are the details:

Flights launch on 25th April and end on 28th September

Flights depart on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays

Iberia launches San Francisco

Iberia’s business class is good ….

A couple of weeks ago I reviewed Iberia’s long-haul business class seat, albeit on the short hop from London to Madrid.  Iberia occasionally runs a long-haul plane on this route for cargo reasons.

My review of Iberia business class is here.

Iberia launches San Francisco route

Suffice it to say that the 1-2-1 seating, all with direct aisle access, is very impressive and far better than British Airways Club World.

Of course, you need to get yourself to Madrid to connect.  However, if you live outside London this is no more difficult than connecting in Heathrow for the British Airways service.  The only snag is the 12.25 departure time from Madrid which may make it a tight connection unless you want to stay in Spain the night before.

Redeeming Avios for this route

Business class redemptions on Iberia to the US are better value, off peak, than redemptions on British Airways.

New York is the prime example of this.  Off peak – and Iberia’s off-peak dates are here (click), they are different to BA’s off-peak dates – Madrid to New York in Business Class is only 68,000 Avios return!

San Francisco is not that cheap, but it is good value.

Off peak, an Avios redemption is 102,000 Avios plus £370 of taxes and charges.

On peak dates, you will pay 150,000 Avios plus £370 of taxes and charges.

This compares with 125,000 Avios off-peak and 150,000 Avios peak, plus £574 of taxes, with BA from London.

You must book your connecting flight between the UK and Madrid separately.  Adding it to your Iberia booking will cause the taxes to shoot up as you will be paying long-haul premium class UK Air Passenger Duty.

Something weird is happening with taxes though

Historically, Iberia redemptions were substantially cheaper – in terms of taxes and charges – when booked at iberia.com using Iberia Plus Avios.

This is not the case here.

Whether you book via the Iberia site or the British Airways site, the taxes are identical – £369.

This is not normal.  For example, I checked the taxes on Iberia’s Madrid to New York route and they came out at €179 return, in business class, when booked at iberia.com.  The identical flight, booked on ba.com, was £369.

I would have expected the taxes on Iberia San Francisco flight to be similar to New York, at around £150 – £175.  £369 is high.

So …. it is possible that either:

Iberia has made a mistake and is charging too much in taxes on its own website, or

This is a new strategy, equalising taxes across the Iberia and BA websites, and we will see all other routes brought in line

We can only wait to see which it is.

Business Class Avios redemptions seem to be limited to one seat on most dates although I did see two here and there.  More seats may open up when Iberia gets a feel for how the flights are selling.

Conclusion

This new Iberia route offers a good way to get to San Francisco in a good quality business class seat for fewer Avios and lower taxes than flying British Airways.

Although, of course, you need to get to Madrid first.

The taxes currently being charged on the Iberia website appear to be wrong and will hopefully drop even further, to the expected £175 or so.

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Category

Iberia and Iberia Plus

Comments (18)

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

  • Rivo says:
    20 Oct20 October 06:39

    If you want to fly from LON to SFO direct and struggle with availability (like I did last week) then there are two other alternatives – Oakland which flies from LGW as well as San Jose (I did the latter). It’s only an hour from down town SF and you can take the Caltrain or of course a cab. The level of availablity was good, plus it’s a daily service on a 787.

    • Russell says:
      20 Oct20 October 09:13

      I’m doing precisely this for Dreamforce in a few weeks. Into Oakland, home via SJC. Hopefully it’s as simply as you suggest!

    • Oh! Matron! says:
      20 Oct20 October 09:14

      Mentioned this elsewhere, but SJC is much more convenient for the valley rather than SFO. And the caltrain is a surprisingly nice ride into SF (and cheap!)

    • RussellH says:
      20 Oct20 October 13:51

      BART from OAK is probably quicker into central SF than BART from SFO. Immigration at OAK was also pretty painless – the BA flight was the only international arrival at the time we were there. The walk from baggage claim to the BART station at OAK is only around 5 mins. If you are headed for wine country rather than central SF OAK is a much more convenient departure point in a hire car than SFO too.

      I have not used SJC, but yes, there is a station on the Caltrain line. I also really liked what I saw of San Jose last summer. We had a very pleasant stay at the Four Points in San Jose; they upgraded us to a suite from a standard room (and forgot to tell us). Amusingly, there was a sign on the outside terrace saying that drinking was forbidden after 9pm – but the bar staff were delighted to serve us there – thay said the sign did not apply to us, only to noisy people.

  • xcalx says:
    20 Oct20 October 07:26

    I do hope it’s the former, I use Iberia twice a year for Trans Atlantics. I will have to step up the American Airlines balance if it’s the later to avoid the BA Fees.

  • Polly says:
    20 Oct20 October 08:42

    Would definitely recommend staying overnight in Madrid with that tight connection, esp if collecting and rechecking a bag in. Hope the taxes get clarified soon,mas it’s one route we are looking at.

  • David Lewis says:
    20 Oct20 October 09:00

    Can anyone explain to me how BA (and LH) can get away with charging so much in fees and taxes, etc – higher than on paid fares – on what are supposed to be free flights we have earned? Couldn’t they be attacked for false advertising?

    • mark2 says:
      20 Oct20 October 09:04

      All the redemption flights seem to be taken, so the price must be right?

    • JAXBA says:
      20 Oct20 October 11:43

      They’re not higher than paid fares; they’re exactly the same or even less (on some routes). They just stand out more starkly.

      Also, airlines tend not to advertise so-called free flights; they call them reward flights…

    • Anna says:
      20 Oct20 October 13:25

      I don’t recall ever seeing a redemption ticket advertised as “free”. It’s like anything, there’s a price and you pay it or you shop somewhere else. I prefer to think of it as a heavily discounted fare, rather than something for nothing.

      I do think, though, that without RFS seats and the 2 4 1 voucher, a lot of people wouldn’t bother with BA at all (especially those of us who don’t live near London). Just in case Senor Cruz is reading…!

      • Leo says:
        20 Oct20 October 15:16

        I’m a Londoner. Most people I know – from all walks of life – don’t bother with BA either. Only me because of the “hobby”!

        • Mikeact says:
          20 Oct20 October 21:38

          And yet it can still be difficult to get reward seats, despite thousands leaving BA in droves. Will you all please hurry along and leave BA to the rest of us

  • Markc62 says:
    20 Oct20 October 09:04

    Just been looking at Iberia for Madrid to JFK return in Oct 18 – the breakdown showed £370 as the taxes. Even one way JFK – Madrid showed £369! I was thinking about two x one way AVIOS flights in Business on BA from LCY-JFK & then IB from JFK-MAD but not when the taxes are that high. I fear your latter point may be correct Rob!

    • Rob says:
      20 Oct20 October 09:50

      Iberia taxes booked via BA.com have always been that high. On Iberia.com NYC priced at €179 last night.

      • JAXBA says:
        20 Oct20 October 19:20

        Try comparing MAD-LAX if you can find availability.

        BA have LAX/SFO in the same band for YQ, I’d imagine IB will too.

  • RussellH says:
    20 Oct20 October 13:54

    > The only snag is the 12.25 departure time from Madrid which may make it a tight connection
    > unless you want to stay in Spain the night before.

    I need to stay in Manchester / Edinburgh / Glasgow the night before for a flight at 1225…

  • the_real_a says:
    20 Oct20 October 15:01

    The Iberia lounge in Madrid is very nice. An excellent selection of mid-range wines too, especially reds. Caught a few people taking pictures of the labels for future reference.

  • Jon says:
    20 Oct20 October 19:36

    Something strange might be going on, but I’m not sure. Looking at the Avios required, (using Business Class, one-way and off-peak travel as an example here), why is MAD-LAX in Band 6 at 42,500 Avios and MAD-SFO in Band 7 at 51,000 Avios? Have Iberia shoved one of these destinations into a different band from what it technically should be based on distance?

    Also, the taxes payable MAD-LAX are only showing as about £112 one-way in Business class I think, which means Iberia’s taxes are still lower than BA’s on the MAD-LAX route.

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