Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

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

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Many Head for Points readers took part in the Iberia ‘90,000 Avios for booking 10 one-way Iberia flights you didn’t have to fly’ promotion a few weeks ago.

You can read about it here, here and here.

This was a crazy offer, to put it mildly.  You could buy the cheapest 10 flights you could find, for around €250 all-in, and you’d have 90,000 Avios which – in the worse case scenario that you used them for a hotel room – would be worth £500.  Used for flights you should have been able to get £1,000 of value if used smartly.

When the Avios arrived, however, Iberia added a clause – the points could not be transferred to British Airways Executive Club.

Iberia 90,000 Avios now transferable to British Airways

For some people, this was OK.  For many others, who wanted to combine the 90,000 Avios with their existing BAEC balance in order to use a British Airways American Express 2-4-1 voucher, it was not good.

Iberia has now relented.  You will find that you can transfer out your 90,000  Iberia Plus bonus Avios into your British Airways Executive Club account.

This is – for clarity – exactly what Iberia promised me in writing would be possible when encouraging me to promote the offer on HFP.

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.

The reason for this change of heart, by the way, is a full-page story on this offer which is appearing in The Mail on Sunday tomorrow.

PS.  Remember that Iberia accounts MUST be 90 days old before they can use ‘Combine My Avios’.  If you opened an account specifically for this promotion then put a note in your diary for September.  If your account IS 90 days old but ‘Combine My Avios’ is not working, try this method.


HFP-Barclaycard-Avios-Card

How to earn Avios from UK credit cards (May 2023)

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:

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 30th May, the sign-up bonus on the Barclaycard Avios Plus Mastercard is doubled to a crazy 50,000 Avios! Apply here.

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 30th May, the sign-up bonus on the free Barclaycard Avios Mastercard is doubled to 10,000 Avios. Apply here.

Barclaycard Avios Plus card

Barclaycard Avios Plus Mastercard

CRAZY 50,000 Avios for signing up (to 30th May) and an upgrade voucher at £10,000 Read our full review

Barclaycard Avios card

Barclaycard Avios Mastercard

10,000 Avios for signing up (only to 30th May) and an upgrade voucher at £20,000 Read our full review

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

British Airways American Express Premium Plus

25,000 Avios and the famous annual 2-4-1 voucher Read our full review

British Airways American Express

5,000 Avios for signing up and an Economy 2-4-1 voucher for spending £12,000 Read our full review

You can also get generous sign-up bonuses by applying for American Express cards which earn Membership Rewards points.

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 13th June, the sign-up bonus on The Platinum Card is doubled to 60,000 Membership Rewards points – and you get £200 to spend at Amex Travel too! Apply here.

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold

Your best beginner’s card – 20,000 points, FREE for a year & four airport lounge passes Read our full review

The Platinum Card from American Express

60,000 points AND a £200 Amex Travel voucher until 13th June! Read our full review

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.

Capital On Tap Business Rewards Visa

Get a 10,000 points bonus plus an extra 500 points for our readers Read our full review

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

30,000 Avios sign-up bonus – plus annual bonuses of up to 30,000 Avios Read our full review

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.

American Express Business Platinum

40,000 points bonus and a £200 Amex Travel credit every year Read our full review

American Express Business Gold

20,000 points sign-up bonus and free for a year Read our full review

Click here to read our detailed summary of all UK credit cards which earn Avios. This includes both personal and small business cards.

Comments (176)

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

  • Goran says:

    I am still waiting for remaining 27000 points and doubt it I will ever get it. Contacted Iberia twice and apart of generic email never heard back from them.
    64000 Avios for bit more than £200 i still consider as good investment but needless to say 91k would be much better and yes I was full aware from the beginning it has to be used with Iberia before certain date, so not bothered transferring it to BA.

    • Chris says:

      in the same boat. 63K posted, waiting for 27K. Two emails sent, no replies apart from “we have received your email”.

      • the real harry1 says:

        Try and badger them a bit more, are you snowflakes or something? Just joshing, I’m sure you’re not really a couple of wusses scared to demand your rightful points 🙂

  • Deyvis says:

    After transfering to BA, if I spend avios or movement the account, will it expire on December 1st or not? Shouldn’t BAEC rules be applied to those transfered miles? You guys said that the account will be negativated, if so, then Iberia does not really accepted the original terms.

  • Delbert says:

    IB Avios promotion has turned out to be the gift that keeps on giving.

    My wife and I are off to Thailand in November and I’ve always wanted to visit Japan, so we’re booking a side trip to Tokyo business class return BKK to NRT on JAL for a total of 155k Avios and £195 in taxes. These flights are showing at £2.4k for two at the moment. I can’t be bothered doing the math but that makes the return on the £424 outlay for the 180k Avios pretty decent.

    • VK says:

      If you earned these avios by crediting BA flights to EC, then instead, if you had credited the BA flights to Alaska alrlines, this same flight (including return back to south east asia) would have cost 25k miles per person in business class on JAL.

      • Delbert says:

        The mind boggles, VK. I’ll bear this in mind for the future as I do earn Avios on BA.

  • Jtz says:

    I’m still waiting for 9000 points…tried emailing iberia CEO a couple of weeks ago and had the reply they will look into it but have nothing since…tried calling and can’t get through to someone who I can speak to about this…pressed option 1 then 1 then said missing avios but was directed to website
    Any ideas?
    Thanks

  • Plizatnum says:

    Is it true that you cannot transfer miles from IB to BA if your BAEC account is part of a household account?

    All of my info matches on my IB and BA accounts. In addition, my IB account has been open for 3+ months, and it has a couple thousand miles. But my BA account is part of a household account.

    But when I follow the process to combine my avios miles – I ONLY get the option to transfer *from* BA *to* IB. The reverse option of sending avios miles from IB to BA is not available (i.e. there is no radio button for that option on the transaction screen).

    The only advantage I see for using BA to book flights using avios miles is because of BA online visibility for finding domestic AA flights.

    Anyway – any thoughts on why I am being restricted?

    • the streets says:

      Do you not have an avios.com account you can transfer it through?

    • Delbert says:

      You need to transfer your points through avios.com. Transfer points from IB to avios.com then a separate entry to move the points to BA. I’ve a household BAEC account with my wife and I’ve never experienced any problem moving points from IB to Avios to BA or Aer Lingus to Avios to BA, not that this option will be available for much longer anyway.

      • Plizatnum says:

        Thanks Delbert – I’ll create an account at avios.com, and do as suggested.

        Users in the USA can create avios.com accounts, correct?

        • Delbert says:

          Yes, but for a very limited time now.

        • Alex Sm says:

          They have closed avios.com a short while ago, have they not?

          • Rob says:

            No. Accounts are closing at around 1% per day and the site remain a key part of the scheme.

            Eventually BAEC will part-close and all redemptions moved there.

    • Rob says:

      Your BAEC account is part of a HHA.

      • King K says:

        OT, been working diligently collecting points towards my first 241 redemption ever, so would be appreciative of some expert insight on getting it right!
        So here’s where my points currently sit:
        – Around 55K MR points under my name
        – Around 27K MR points under Mrs Name
        – Around 35K in Tesco CC under my name
        – Around 72k in Iberia under my name
        – Around 33K SPG points under my name
        Transferring majority of the above in BAEC is fairly straight forward, apart from the IB ones, which I understand has to be pulled in Avios and then BAEC.
        I have a household BAEC account with my son (under 16 ) as a member.
        Mrs K has her Amex card in her married name but passport under her maiden name. She doesn’t currently have a BAEC account.
        – What would be the best way to transfer the Amex MR points under her name to the BAEC household account so the points can be pooled to use towards my 241?
        – Does she need to have the BAEC account name as the same as her Passport name?
        – Can I use the avios in BAEC towards the 241 voucher in my name ( with her being the named companion)?
        Oh and forgot to mention, the 241 expiry is 31 August 2018, so I have probably left it too late?!
        Any ideas/ advice much appreciated.
        Thanks
        K

  • VK says:

    my worry is not about -90k on iberia after 1st dec, but once IAG merge the avios programmes (as Cruz has said they will), then suddenly all remaining/new avios will disappear. I would love to hear Rob’s thoughts on this situation.

    • Brian W says:

      I’d love to know this too.

      I wonder though, what if the 90k are transferred now to BAEC so your IB balance is zero. You then close your IB account now (or before 1st Dec) before it goes -90k (if that does actually happen).

      Surely IB can’t block you closing an account with zero balance. You could always open another in the future could you not?

      • the real harry1 says:

        It’s a very clear part of the IB T&Cs that you can cancel your a/c on demand

    • Delbert says:

      It’s a ridiculous scenario. Now that the Avios can indeed be shipped out then I can’t see that IB will put accounts into negative balance in December. Think about the bonkers mathematics involved like 180k – 180k Avios = -180k. Come on.

      • Lady London says:

        I’m far more concerned about still being able to change any booking I made before 1st December, after 1st December if necessary. That’s in the standard conditions for avios which I assumed would still apply to these avios. Also in the standard conditions for avios is the 25 euros fee to change. I assumed this would be fine if needed after December 1st – and there was nothing about any nonstandard avios terms applying to the purchase of these avios at the time.

        I’ve sent Iberia a legal note that as I wasn’t notified of any nonstandard conditiions applying to avios earned under this promotion at the time I purchased I do expect to be able to change any booking I make using these avios, if necessary after 1st December, and that I do not accept any change in terms.

        I’m not planning to be unfair in any way I used or earned these avios, all flights I booked could reasonably be used that qualified me for the promotion, and if I find I am forced to change my avios booking after 1st December I still want to be able to do that as with any other avios. I really hope not to get into an argument with Iberia if I have to make a booking change but will fight it as far as I can legally if it turns out to and they won’t let me.

  • Jenni says:

    https://loyaltylobby.com/2018/07/29/iberia-promotion-update-missing-promotional-miles-refusal-to-activate-account-finally-resolved-after-u-s-dot-complaint/

    Email from Iberia to John at Loyalty Lobby states clearly, that the Avios can be redeemed for flights, cars and hotels.

    I can’t book my intended hotel for a couple of months yet (for September 2019), but I will be extremely unhappy, if they try to backtrack on this, as has been reported recently.

  • Leo says:

    I haven’t been able to access the Iberia site for 48 hours…..

    • Leo says:

      As in it appears to be down…App not working either.

      • the real harry1 says:

        IB site was working fine across 2 a/cs yesterday, shipped out all remaining points. 1 direct to BAEC. The other to avios.com and onwards to BAEC.

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