EDIT: Iberia fixed this within the day! Such is the power of HFP 🙂
An interesting quirk with the Iberia Avios redemption chart was picked up in this thread on Flyertalk. For some reason Singapore, when flying BA, is in a more expensive redemption zone than it is when booked via British Airways Executive Club.
This isn’t meant to happen.
When you book a British Airways flight using Iberia Plus Avios – as many HFP readers may be doing if they earned 90,000 Avios via the recent Iberia promotion – it prices off the same chart as BA flights booked on ba.com. It also uses the same peak and off-peak dates.
In simple terms, for long-haul flights the Avios and taxes required for a BA redemption should be identical whether you book via Iberia Plus or BA Executive Club.
(On short haul, Iberia Plus asks for more in taxes because Reward Flight Saver does not apply.)
Here is an example of what happens with Singapore. Here is a First Class reward flight booked via British Airways Executive Club, as 280,000 Avios (Zone 8). Click to enlarge:
and here is EXACTLY the same flight booked via Iberia Plus, showing a cost of 400,000 Avios (Zone 9):
This is almost certainly an error. It isn’t as if this is a destination where BA cheats with the distances – Cape Town, for example, should be in Zone 7 but British Airways puts it in the cheaper Zone 6. Iberia agrees and treats Cape Town as Zone 6.
However, I’m interested to know if there are any other destinations where Iberia is charging a different Avios rate to British Airways. It would obviously be preferable if Iberia was cheaper 🙂 Let us know if you find any.
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About Head for Points
After yet another BA IT meltdown can we expect to see Alex Cruz in his Hi Vis tomorrow.
Can we use the power of HFP and make CX correct their IT glitches when trying to search for direct flights on CX using BAEC?
I can find seats on SIN-HKG-TYO but when I search HKG-TYO or HKG-SIN v.v. there are no seats in any cabin!
This can be done on purpose. Iberia does it (you might find New York – Madrid – Santander when you can’t find New York – Madrid) and American has started doing it.
BA have done this for years. I had to book JFK-LHR-EDI 2 years ago when i needed to fly home as the first flight want available on it’s own. I have family in Edinburgh, so it was fine (If tiring!)
Also, IB is charging way too much for an ex-HKG redemption on BA. How come a first class redemption to LHR costs £230 when you are not supposed to charge any fuel surcharges from HKG at all?
Interesting video on how airports make money, using LHR as the main example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wdU1WTBJMl0
Im so glad you’ve raised this …. I’ve been looking at Qatar redemptions rob and find that Iberia charge way more avios on some routes ex EU than BA does. Last week it got daft when I was trying to figure out the tax differences on IB versus BA plus the issue of availability…..by the way I use my example of IB wanting 100k avios versus BA 75k avios return on a Frankfurt-Doha route. Taxes are identical avios required on the same dates are not!
Also it says it’s a 777-300er anyone know if that has the q suite?
O/t I intend to fly at least half (maybe 70%) of my iberia 9k bookings and am wondering if I am able to change to my BAEC to get tier points or will that invalidate the deal and the points get clawed back? Any thoughts.
Yes you can, but you need to use the Finnair Manage My Booking site to update it from the Iberia number, which it will be using by default.
Awesome I’ll try this. Thanks.
Hi Rob, it doesn’t look like Iberia has fixed it yet for HKG-LHR. BA charges 102,000 Avios and 33GBP, while IB_ charges the same Avios but a whopping 264 Euro. Perhaps if you could go back to them and see if they can fix it as well.
Thanks
Second this – I’d like to book ex-HKG with IB but put off by the fuel surcharge.
Yep still not fixed. Third this.
TLV – NCL in First, BA is 50k Avios and Iberia 54500 Avios. Not a big difference, but interesting.