Now Iberia launches ‘triple Avios with Hilton’ – a better deal than British Airways

The main Hilton Honors promotion this Autumn, ‘Double Points’ (click here to register), offers you double Hilton Honors points on every stay you make before 31st December.

I wrote about ‘Double Points’ in detail here.

To give credit to Hilton, it is very straightforward.  All hotels are taking part and there is no minimum stay requirement.

Last week I wrote about a new British Airways Executive Club and Hilton Honors mileage deal for the Autumn which works on top of this.

The BA / Hilton promotion details can be found here.  You will receive triple Avios (3 per $1) on every stay until the 30th January 2018.

Iberia Plus has now launched its own ‘triple Avios’ promotion – click here for details.  And, because of the bizarre way Hilton works with BA and Iberia, it is 50% more generous.

A bit of background

For historical reasons, stretching back to before Avios points were introduced, Hilton Honors has different earnings rates for British Airways Executive Club and Iberia Plus.

When you stay at a Hilton Family property, you have two options.  You can take either ‘points and miles’ (10 Hilton Honors points per $1 plus some airline miles) or ‘points and points’ (10 Hilton Honors points plus an additional 5 Hilton Honors points per $1).

The rates for receiving airline miles under the ‘points and miles’ option can be found here.

If you click on European airline partners, you will see the following rates:

British Airways Executive Club – 1 Avios per $1

Iberia Plus – 15 Avios per $10

It doesn’t take a genius to realise that – if there are no specific BA or Iberia promos running – you should be crediting your Avios points from Hilton stays to Iberia Plus and then moving them across to British Airways Executive Club via ‘Combine My Avios’.  You will be earning 50% more Avios.

Earn triple Avios with Iberia Plus

Via this link (click) you can register to earn triple Avios in Iberia Plus on all stays until 31st January.

As long as you are also already registered for ‘double points’ (click here to do that) then your stays will earn, as long as you select ‘points and miles’:

20 Hilton Honors base points per $1 spent (due to ‘double points) and

45 Iberia Plus Avios per $10 spent (due to ‘Iberia triple Avios’)

Under the alternative British Airways Avios offer, you would receive 3 BA Avios per $1 spent.  The Iberia deal is 50% more generous.

Beware, however, the main snag with Hilton and Iberia

There is a catch in the Iberia Plus earning rates.

You are capped at earning 1,000 Avios points per stay if you take Iberia miles.  The British Airways cap is 10,000 Avios.

You won’t find this cap mentioned on the airline partners page I linked above. 

You won’t find this cap mentioned on the Hilton page at iberia.com 

However, tucked away in the terms and conditions of the Hilton Honors programme is this paragraph:

Members may only accrue up to 10,000 airline miles per stay (or the equivalent currency of the airline Marketing Partner), except with respect to Home2 Suites by Hilton® and Tru by Hilton™ which limits accrual to 100 airlines miles per stay (or the equivalent currency of the airline Marketing Partner) and except with respect to the following airline carriers: Aeromexico – up to 20,000 Premier Points; AIR MILES Canada – up to 1,000 reward miles; El Al Israel Airlines – up to 250 airline Points; Iberia – up to 1,000 airline Points; LAN – up to 20,000 kilometers; Virgin Atlantic Airways – up to 20,000 miles; and Air New Zealand- up to 30,000 Airpoints dollars.

It isn’t clear if the 1,000 Avios cap applies to just your base points, or to your base points AND your bonus points.

If it is the latter, then you will hit the cap with a stay of just (1,000 / 4.5 per $1) $222 excluding taxes, which is £168.

If Hilton does not include the bonus in the 1,000 Avios cap with Iberia, you are OK to spend up to $666 per stay.

Just to be safe, I would only credit stays of under £168 excluding taxes (so, in the UK, £200 including VAT) to Iberia Plus.

The registration page also mentions a cap of 10,000 Avios earned under this promotion, but this is not explained anywhere!  It is another reason to only credit Iberia Plus with shorter, cheaper stays.

Remember to register for BOTH offers

Remember that you MUST register for these offers.

You can register for the new triple Avios Iberia Plus promotion here.

If you haven’t already registered for it, the registration link for the main ‘Double Points’ promotion is here.

If you have already registered for the BA offer, it isn’t a problem.  You can still register for the Iberia Plus version too, then switch your airline partner in your Hilton Honors account to Iberia Plus.

If you don’t already have an Iberia Plus account, you can quickly open one at iberia.com.  Once the account is 90 days old, you can use ‘Combine My Avios’ to move the Avios from the Hilton offer over to BA or avios.com.

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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.