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The saga of the Iberia 9,000 Avios per flight booking promo rolls on

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The saga of the ‘9,000 Avios for booking any Iberia flight, however cheap, and you don’t need to fly it’ promotion (see our article here) continues to rumble on.

People with long-term Iberia Plus accounts have received their Avios, in the main.  However, anyone who opened a new Iberia Plus account over the four days of the promotion is in a different situation.

Most people who opened a new account have been contacted by Iberia and asked to provide a passport scan and copies of their ticket receipts.  It was assumed that this was for fraud verification purposes, to ensure that people had not been opening accounts under fake names.

Iberia 9000 Avios promotion

Many (all?) people who do provide this data are now getting a follow-up email from Iberia saying that ‘inconsistencies’ have been seen in their bookings.  Due to these unspecified ‘inconsistencies’ no Avios will be awarded.  The flights booked can be cancelled but only by directly contacting Iberia to request it.

It seems that people who provide a passport copy but not ticket receipts are not getting this message – but I wouldn’t hold out much hope of getting a different end result.

This move is the first sign that Iberia may have messed up here and is desperately looking for a way out.  I admit that I was surprised that the Avios for long-term members dropped in so promptly, but given that Iberia had taken to the airwaves to encourage people to book I doubt they had a choice.

A view may have been taken that the airline has little to lose by telling people who only joined up in order to take advantage of this offer to take a hike …..

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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:

Barclaycard Avios Plus card

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Barclaycard Avios card

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

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British Airways American Express

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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

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The Platinum Card from American Express

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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

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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.

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American Express Business Gold

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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 (183)

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

  • Hugh says:
    9 Jul9 July 04:14

    Enjoy the party tonight

    I’ve only got 1 x 9000 Avios, when I should have had 2 – this being Iberia, I’m not holding out much hope for the 2nd set ????‍♂️

  • Mark E says:
    9 Jul9 July 04:51

    See some of you later tonight. I will be the guy wearing a U2 T-shirt.

    • Rob says:
      9 Jul9 July 08:46

      Saw them in Washington with Hilton the other week. They were rubbish.

  • Fraser says:
    9 Jul9 July 05:20

    Like many, I seem to be 9000 avios short. I bought 9 flights and got 72,000 avios not 81,000. Is there a reliable way to contact them and get the missing points, anyone else solved this yet?

    • xcalx says:
      9 Jul9 July 08:39

      I too am 9K short of the 90K but will leave them on the table. Prefer to stay under the radar.

  • KevMc says:
    9 Jul9 July 05:42

    OT but Iberia – how do I change the FF number on my promotional bookings to my BAEC number? All bookings seem to ‘locked in’ to having my IB number in them.

    • John says:
      9 Jul9 July 06:02

      Try finnair manage my booking

      • KevMc says:
        9 Jul9 July 06:19

        Brilliant – thanks John!

      • Bagoly says:
        9 Jul9 July 06:54

        Will this be classed by Iberia as “cancellation” and so remove the avios?

        • the real harry1 says:
          9 Jul9 July 06:59

          I doubt it but there would be no harm in waiting to change the FF number until the day of/ before flying.

    • Andrew says:
      9 Jul9 July 07:36

      Is there any advantage to doing this if you’ve booked business class so seat selection is free already? If so I will add mine on the day of the flight too…

      • KevMc says:
        9 Jul9 July 09:51

        I’ve done it to get the Avios and (mainly) the TP’s…for flights actually being flown of course 🙂

  • Sandgrounder says:
    9 Jul9 July 05:42

    Strange choice of wing man, given what Charlie says about going off with strangers?

  • Nick says:
    9 Jul9 July 06:12

    This latest development is starting to remind me of the Hoover free flights promotion fiasco back in the early 90’s. It won’t end well!

    • BJ says:
      9 Jul9 July 06:37

      Hoover fiasco ended brilliantly, it provoke other similar promotions, one of which was a free flight for buying a case of wine. That took me to Rio on AA via stopover out and back in Miami and NYC. Some weeks later paper vouchers arrived from AA much to my surprise. Those saw me back to NYC and Montreal. That’s what got me hooked on the hobby in my early 20s

      • Choons says:
        9 Jul9 July 06:58

        We just ended up with 3 hoovers and no flight, steered away from any too good to be true promotion for at least a decade. Good job we were a cleaning company then and they were tax-deductible.

      • Nick says:
        9 Jul9 July 07:04

        Oh, sure, for those that took part, but not for Hoover though! 🙂

        When it all finally ended in 1998 It was estimated that enough people tried to convert their free flight vouchers to tickets to fill 500 Boeing 747s. Hoover got around £30m in extra sales, but it cost them around £50m to pay for the airline seats as well as settle the legal claims of those (the majority) who did not receive tickets.

    • Nigel says:
      9 Jul9 July 07:00

      Exactly my thought!

  • Andy Dunbar says:
    9 Jul9 July 06:14

    How did you manage to transfer them? When I “combine my avios” for some reason there always seem to be a problem…:-)

  • Elijah says:
    9 Jul9 July 06:15

    Nutcase lol. Wish I was there but in Melbourne and not in London until 20 July.

    Enjoy the night. Perfect weather for a few Four Pillars G&T

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