Avios from the Iberia ‘90,000 Avios’ points promo CAN be transferred to British Airways

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• Mark Priest says:

  29 Jul29 July 09:58

  OK. So I’ve been trying to book iberia flights for next summer but been getting all sorts of errors an issues as it has to be over two bookings. I transfered avios TO iberia to get two flights but the issue comes when trying to book a third on my wifes account.

  So can I transfer our 2 x 90,000 avios to BA which will the become part of the household avios, then transfer the avios required for the fight back to one iberia account?

• Chris says:

  29 Jul29 July 10:08

  Rob – well done on seeing this through.

  I, like many others on here, took part in the promo. I had seen it discussed on FT and various other travel blogs/sites. I took the decision to book 2 x 10 one-ways for my wife and I. That decision was, in part, based on the guidance that Rob had been given by Iberia on ability to transfer out etc. We had a little bit of hassle with my wife’s new IB account used on the promo but received all 180k without too much hassle.

  Over the last few days I had been pricing various options to use my miles via Iberia. I actually came to the conclusion that for flights, the points weren’t very useful to me. Ok, the fees/charges are lower on IB but for the various routes I was looking at, the Avios required are much higher. Doing the maths vs BA.com and the fact I have several 241’s, lots of avios etc, I had resigned myself that I would be best redeeming by 180k IB Avios for hotels (still a good deal).

  I saw Rob’s comment on FT on Friday night about the potential u-turn by Iberia and the Mail on Sunday article. I tried again on Friday night to combine my avios via Avios.com and it worked! Very pleased. Obviously my wife’s are stuck in there until account is 90 days old but no big deal.

  Just booked 4x GLA-LHR-JFK / / MCO-LGW-GLA open-jaw tickets in J for next summer using 2x 241s .

  Thank you Rob – keep up the great work! If it wasn’t for your initial article, I wouldn’t have got into this promo. If it wasn’t for your persistence then this wouldn’t have worked out as well as it has for me!

• R says:

  29 Jul29 July 10:23

  Well done Rob ! Just transferred my remaining (36k odd) promo Avios direct from my IB to BA accounts. Great outcome, as I was fretting about how to use them. My main problem is that at the moment I am now more or less exclusively travelling ET, and having to book through IB I have not had access to the extra V availability that I get as a BA Gold.

  I used a chunk to book an Avis car hire, which I shall now try and cancel with all the hassle that this will doubtless entail.

• czechoslovakia says:

  29 Jul29 July 10:33

  Slighty O/T:
  Morning all. My IB+ 90k avios redemption PRG-LHR-JFK (First), JFK-LHR-PRG (Biz) had to be rebooked due to a BA schedule change and insufficient transfer time at LHR. This was very painful indeed, 3hrs+ on the phone to 7 IB+ agents. Now successfully rebooked, one leg is now showing as fare bucket F, ie First Flex on BA LHR-JFK, the other 3 legs stayed at redemption U. So using Finnair added my BAEC number so as to be able to claim the 300% avios and TP for this segment. However when I log in to BAEC is calculates I`ll earn on ALL segments 17,xxx odd avios and 420TP. Is this a known bug? Am I likely to earn on all these segments as the ticket is now a mixture of cash fare and redemption classes? Or will just get the avios/TP for the one leg in F fare bucket? The original booking was Avios + Cash one, if that makes any difference? I`d like to know in advance of them posting as its only a few weeks off the end of my collection year, and I could do a sneaky TP run for Silver. TIA

• Cool Guy says:

  29 Jul29 July 10:58

  How quick and easy is it to gift Iberia points from one Ib+ account holder to another? Me and my wife both managed to take advantage of the Iberia promotion and have got the points, now looking to transfer mine to her account to make our flight redemption in one transaction online on their website.

  • Mark says:

    29 Jul29 July 11:35

    You almost certainly can’t, at least not without incurring a large fee (which BA allows, not sure about IB). Even if you could it probably wouldn’t count as a redemption so your account would likely end up with a negative balance.

    Remember that there’s no charge for J seat selection with IB so separate bookings shouldn’t really be an issue. Alternatively use one account to book the outbound and one for the inbound flights (hint: booking the return leg via MAD to a UK airport does not incur UK APD, unlike the reverse)

• BJ says:

  29 Jul29 July 11:26

  The farce continues, it is an avios loan, most of you will pay for it later when interest hits in form of a devaluation. I am glad all my avios are close to free and used only in conjunction exINV with a Lloyds voucher, 241 or UUA when the latter makes financial sense.

  • CV3V says:

    29 Jul29 July 15:43

    it would have to be a massive devaluation to lose out.

    • BJ says:

      29 Jul29 July 18:51

      It probably will be, they have a class action loss to factor in too. Besides, you lose out in any devaluation, however small.

      • the real harry1 says:

        29 Jul29 July 20:15

        BJ don’t play the patsy sore loser? 🙂

      • BJ says:

        29 Jul29 July 21:03

        You wish Harry 🙂 0.2ppa was already too high when I can get those I need for close to nothing. I am ok up to mid2020 and had no need for further travel within the next year. I also explained here how I tripled as opposed to doubled £200 spend for flexible as opposed to nonrefundable hotel redemptions. Stil, a desire to make hay while the sun shines is understandable, all of you just keep your fingers crossed for RFS etc and don’t fill pages of HFP with indignation when IAG collects their interest,

      • the real harry1 says:

        30 Jul30 July 07:41

        Always better to have a couple of million cheap ones in the bank IMHO 🙂

• Paul says:

  29 Jul29 July 11:34

  How I loath the Daily Mail. I don’t think they would know truth if it smacked them around the face. Head for Points certainly tarnished by its association with this rag.

  I never felt cheated or misled and knew from the outset that the points had to be spent on Iberia plus. I only bought the flightscas the hotel I wanted
  In the USA was over £700 so I was perfectly happy.

  The idea that the daily hate had any thing to do with this change of rules is risible, much like the rest of their journalistic bile.

  • Tom says:

    29 Jul29 July 12:01

    +1!

    • Rob says:

      29 Jul29 July 12:45

      Er … what has the Daily Mail got to do with the Mail on Sunday? Zero staff cross-over, different political stance.

      If you don’t like the overall Mail Group stop reading Metro, using Zoopla,USwitch, Primelocation, Euromoney, Wowcher etc etc.

    • Mike says:

      29 Jul29 July 13:11

      I quite like the Daily Mail for a quick flick through and Mail on Sunday is a decent read. Both in addition to the Telegraph which is my main read.

  • Mark2 says:

    29 Jul29 July 12:12

    sounds like the pot calling the kettle black.

    • Rob says:

      29 Jul29 July 12:44

      It was the Mail that got it changed. The story was written in a certain way (I saw the draft article on Thursday night) and then Iberia caved on Friday because they knew they couldn’t stack up their claims that they never meant the miles to be transferred.

      It NEVER at any point said the miles could only be spent at IB and IB CONFIRMED THIS TO ME IN WRITING. It was when presented with my email that they relented.

      And the MOS has NOTHING to do with the Daily Mail except shared ownership. Totally different editorial team and centre right politics.

      • Joe A says:

        29 Jul29 July 13:09

        I wouldn’t pay any attention to them, Rob. Most likely peeved because they’ve already spent their Avios on Iberia redemption.

        For all reading this, I’ve read the emails that Rob received and he’s correct. Iberia tried to change the terms and conditions after the promotion and now they’re having to back track.

      • Tom says:

        29 Jul29 July 13:33

        ummm.. not quite Rob. The article was published on http://www.dailymail.co.uk

        http://www.dailymail.co.uk/money/holidays/article-6002397/Iberia-backs-agrees-allow-Avios-holders-add-90-000-points-existing-pot.html

        • Rob says:

          29 Jul29 July 18:11

          Obviously they share a website, in the same way that The Observer and The Guardian use the same website. Would be a bit stupid otherwise.

  • the real harry1 says:

    29 Jul29 July 20:33

    Just to add a bit of balance: I find it very hard to read virtually any Guardian article without thinking – you morons, how could you not possibly take in a broader more intellectual view that includes thinking about the economy and who actually pays for NHS, police, schools etc? Ie who pays the taxes that pay for all this stuff?

    • Cat says:

      30 Jul30 July 18:32

      Maybe Amazon, Google and Starbucks could. Just a thought.

      • the real harry1 says:

        30 Jul30 July 18:40

        Bit of a difference between blaming high earners for not paying enough taxes (ie the way the Guardian hates wealthy people) – and blaming the Amazons etc for being clever enough to use the UK tax laws to pay diddly squit.

        Yes – I agree we should make the Starbucks etc pay their fair share, a small tax on income would cover it.

        But there’s not much difference between the Labour Party being blatantly anti-Semitic – they hate the Jews because they’re rich, that’s about it – and the Guardian hating rich folk in general and blaming them for life’s ills.

        • Rob says:

          30 Jul30 July 19:20

          I read The Guardian, that’s not actually how it operates ….

      • Cat says:

        30 Jul30 July 19:33

        I don’t think the Guardian hates rich people, they just love the NHS, and they think the education sector is vitally important (there’s no non-trite way of saying the children are our future, but that doesn’t mean it’s not true, if you’ll forgive the – -). I’m a teacher, and we’re a right old bunch of lefty Guardianistas. Most of us just want the NHS to not be sold off bit by bit, and education to be properly funded (both are in a bloody awful state at the moment). I’d be happy with corporate tax loopholes being closed, or a higher income tax for top earners as a solution.

      • the real harry1 says:

        30 Jul30 July 19:50

        Hey Cat – it might surprise you but I retrained as a teacher a couple of years ago. I’ve got languages so it was easy, secondary school, I wanted to ‘give something back’.

        I was good at teaching, loved interacting with the students, not sure male teachers shouldn’t get an extra day off when the girls Grammar has mufti day = ultra short skirts & lots of knickers lol, good job I was Grampy age – anyway – whilst the PGCE was straightforward, wjhat I couldn’t deal with was working in the teachers’ environment. Awful. I come from FTSE100 business environment – everything is logical, business-based, arguments are ventured & teams agree on a way forward. In schools? Hopeless, bunch of useless leaders trying to get decent results out of dullards. Not that all teachers are crap – they just seem to lose their enthusiasm & joi de vivre what with the (it’s genuine, doubters!) 70 hour weeks and poor response from thick students coming from bad families. Anyway, to cut short this admission of career failure, I realised I could never work with (most) teachers, it was genuinely the worst experience of my life. No wonder most new teachers leave before they have spent 5 years in the job.

      • Cat says:

        30 Jul30 July 20:37

        Wow Harry, I could write a thesis in response to all that!
        I’ll try to keep it short, I don’t want to hijack Rob’s website with teacher empathy. I realise you’ve probably closed that door now, may not have finished the PGCE and probably have no desire whatsoever to go back after that description of your experience, but I would say that schools vary massively from each other in terms of ethos, demands on their staff and powers of logic / capability of their SLT. I’ve been in some truly horrific schools, where SLT are horrific people who seem hell-bent on burning out and bullying their staff, and one school where leadership were so scared of losing their league table standing that they organised cheating in GCSE exams on a breathtaking scale. The one I’m in at the moment is a bit better, but I’m still pulling 60 hour weeks.
        One of the (many) problems is that, since the advent of OFSTED (and, more recently, forced academisation of schools failing to meet rigid floor targets that don’t take any socioeconomic factors into account), so many fairly decent heads and deputies have been forced out, taken early retirement or just chosen to leave the profession, that now schools are being run by staff that have been promoted too far too fast, and half the time it just doesn’t feel like they have a clue what they’re doing.
        Also, you’re right, many people who are amazing teachers leave in less than 5 years, because they’re intelligent people and why would they want to keep doing this to themselves.
        Anyway, I’ll stop waffling, I just wanted to offer my sympathies. Sorry it worked out like that. It’s a shame you left the profession when you obviously enjoyed the actual teaching part of being a teacher. It’s a shame that this happens to so many people.
        P.S. If we close loopholes, make Amazon pay taxes and pay *all* school staff (including support staff and dinner ladies/gentlemen) more, perhaps it would attract a wider selection of good candidates, and SLTs up and down the country will be filled with fewer w@nkers.
        Just sayin’.

      • Cat says:

        30 Jul30 July 21:53

        Also, WRT “bad families”, I always find parents’ evenings to be an eye opener. I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve talked to the parents for 5 minutes and found myself thinking “Ah, so that’s why…”.

• Mark says:

  29 Jul29 July 12:38

  I am still waiting for the last 9,000 avios to post. I have emailed them twice since the 4th July but only 81,000 have posted. My OH who made an account on the day has had all her 90,000 posted without issue!

  • Adam says:

    29 Jul29 July 13:39

    So Rob are we right in saying we can transfer safely to BA without any expiration or Iberia account going negative?

    • Andrew M says:

      29 Jul29 July 14:33

      Directly quoting the article: “However, before you do this, remember one thing. Iberia also said that, if you do this, your Iberia account will have a negative balance of 90,000 Avios on 1st December because the promotional Avios will be treated as unspent and removed from your account.

      You may not care about that. You may care. Either way, bear it in mind before you move your Avios into British Airways Executive Club.”

    • VK says:

      29 Jul29 July 17:37

      im worried about something worse = merger of all avios programs into one in a few years will result in those negative 90k having an impact on avios that will be in the BAEC account at that time. whats the take on that?

      • Rob says:

        29 Jul29 July 18:06

        Might happen ….

      • the real harry1 says:

        29 Jul29 July 20:18

        The take on that is to wait & see what happens Dec 1st. If IB goes -90K, close the a/c. Walk away.

        Simples, sorted.

        My guess is: it won’t go negative, just zeroed on unredeemed bonus Avios.

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