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Iberia increasing flights to Tokyo and upgrading the aircraft to a new A350

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Iberia is increasing seats on its Madrid to Tokyo Narita route next year, just in time for the Summer Olympics and the inevitable increase in tourists. It currently flies five times a week between the two cities.

From the 29th March 2020 it will replace the existing A330-200 service with its new A350-900 aircraft which we reviewed here. This will increase the size of the business cabin from 19 to 31 seats, as well as add 24 premium economy seats.

Iberia adding Japan flights

From 17th June, Iberia is adding an additional two daily Tokyo flights, making it a daily service.  These will operate on Tuesdays and Wednesdays outbound and Wednesday and Thursdays on the inbound.

If you are heading to the Olympics next year or simply want to visit Tokyo, flying via Madrid is a cheaper way of doing it.  If you want to learn how to redeem Avios points via Iberia Plus, to save a fortune on taxes and charges, take a look at this article in our ‘Avios Redemption University’ series.

how to earn avios from credit cards

How to earn Avios from UK credit cards (July 2021)

As a reminder, there are various ways of earning Avios from UK credit cards.  Many cards also have generous sign-up bonuses!

There are two official British Airways American Express cards:

British Airways American Express card

British Airways American Express

5,000 Avios for signing up, no annual fee and a companion voucher for spending £20,000 Read our full review

BA Premium Plus American Express card BAPP

British Airways American Express Premium Plus

25,000 Avios and the UK’s most valuable credit card perk – the 2-4-1 companion voucher Read our full review

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

Nectar American Express

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold

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

American Express Platinum card Amex

The Platinum Card from American Express

30,000 points and an unbeatable set of travel benefits – for a fee Read our full review

We also recommend Capital On Tap for limited companies. You earn 1 Avios per £1 which is impressive for a Visa card:

Capital On Tap Business Rewards Visa

The most generous Avios Visa or Mastercard for a limited company 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.

(Want to earn more Avios?  Click here to visit our home page for our latest articles on earning and spending your Avios points and click here to see how to earn more Avios this month from offers and promotions.)

Category

Iberia and Iberia Plus

Comments (71)

  • Bum says:
    26 Aug26 August 16:05

    What limit do people have on curve, I have an annual limit of 10k which is a bit limiting. How long before it increases?

    • Peter K says:
      26 Aug26 August 16:20

      It’s possible your name doesn’t help the situation. If you do normal spending on the card and not just cash like purchases then it increases or you can ask for an increase and they will do so. If you do not do normal spending on it they will quite likely refuse.

    • H says:
      26 Aug26 August 16:21

      50k annual

    • Anne says:
      26 Aug26 August 16:48

      It took about 3 months from me starting to push decent amounts of spend through my Curve, and about £7k spend total, to my limits being increased – £10k annual has gone up to £50k and £2k per day up to £3.75k per day. I’ve used it for occasional normal spending, hardly at all abroad, the rest are cash-like transactions.

    • Genghis says:
      26 Aug26 August 17:50

      £100k. Just spend on the card and ask them for increases.

    • Will says:
      26 Aug26 August 17:54

      Spend pattern is key.
      I use mine for legit bus spend mainly forex and after asking was granted £100k limit.

      I had previously asked for an extension having only used it for hmrc and was refused.

  • Hub says:
    26 Aug26 August 17:46

    OT wasn’t sure to post here or on BA strike. Obviously chose here………………my flight that is scheduled for Sept 6 to Phoenix is no longer visible on the BA website. It uses a companion voucher and avios. I have tried calling BA without success – should I be worried or is it another IT glitch?

    Thoughts appreciated. In anticipation, thanks for taking the time to answer.

    Ian

    • Shoestring says:
      26 Aug26 August 17:51

      what does Manage My Booking tell you?

      • Hub says:
        26 Aug26 August 18:01

        Hi Shoestring,
        Thanks for the quick response, it says “We can’t find any bookings for this account”. It was there on Saturday when I checked just in case we had been impacted by the strike.
        Cheers
        Ian

        • Shoestring says:
          26 Aug26 August 18:08

          then you should be ‘a bit’ worried – yes, I’d be contacting BA in due course to get the real picture

          I wouldn’t be panicking & putting in 100 calls a day to over-worked lines – unless you have a wedding to get to, of course 🙂

          check if your flight can still be booked online, in which case, no problemo

          also, if you received no cancellation text/ email, probably much less to be concerned about

          Sept 6 does *not* sound like a re-positioning or strike day

          • Hub says:
            26 Aug26 August 18:20

            Hi Shoestring,
            It isn’t anything critical like a wedding and all hotels and car I can revise cancel at no cost. Only annoying thing is I paid for the seats as I am a meager blue now. Will that be refunded in the event I have been bumped?
            The flight is still scheduled, with three seats remaining in business.
            I have not had a cancellation email.
            I will try calling tomorrow and attempt to stay chilled……………….. 🙂 🙂
            Cheer
            Ian

          • Shoestring says:
            26 Aug26 August 18:21

            sometimes the money/ payment doesn’t get processed for a booked flight with BA

            you do everything normally, think you paid but something goes wrong with the payment

            it all looks good online until near the flight, then it turns out your payment wasn’t processed & you don’t actually have a booking

            so another thing to look at is: was payment processed normally?

        • BJ says:
          26 Aug26 August 18:45

          That happens regularly, normally it would reappear again soon like the next day. However, if the flight has also disappeared from the schedule and us no longer available to book I would call them.

    • Hub says:
      26 Aug26 August 18:35

      I will get “the boss” to check. I was booked around Oct last year.
      Thanks for the tip.
      Ian

      • Hub says:
        26 Aug26 August 18:42

        Hi Shoestring,
        Just checked. We paid 4 x £100 on 4 Oct 2018 to reserve upstairs business class seats.
        Thanks for your help.
        Ian

        • Shoestring says:
          26 Aug26 August 18:46

          sounds like you’re all set and I’m sure MMB will look perfect tomorrow or Weds when BA sort out their issues

    • Doug M says:
      26 Aug26 August 18:49

      Have you just looked in your account, or did you try to find specifically on your name and flight reference?

      • Hub says:
        26 Aug26 August 19:10

        Hi Shoestring, BJ and Doug M,

        I have just rechecked and it is now showing in manage my booking. No changes made and seats still reserved. It just goes to show “don’t always assume the worst” and as my son says “take a chill pill”.
        Thanks to you all for your excellent support.
        Ian

        • Doug M says:
          26 Aug26 August 19:25

          MMB has a habit of deleting and repopulating your future flights. Often things not shown can be found with a specific search of the booking reference.

  • BJ says:
    26 Aug26 August 18:12

    O/T: Pointsbreaks are loaded: potentially good deals in UK are Staybridge and M4 at Heathrow. Indigo at Stratford-upon-Avon and Dundee.

    • BJ says:
      26 Aug26 August 18:21

      Sorry that should have been CP T4. Also HIX Chester Racecourse. HI Paris Monparnasse, CP Venice East, HIs in Lisbon, IC Sao Paolo, and CP apartments Dubai.

      • BJ says:
        26 Aug26 August 18:30

        Arguably the best list for ages, a lot of decent hotels in USA, also see Indigo Phuket and IC Hanoi. HIX Krabi is only 5000 but cash rates there are usually around £25-30.

  • S says:
    26 Aug26 August 18:17

    OT: Can I get a supplementary card on my Plat account for a friend who lives overseas?

    And if I get him the gold/green card, would he get the full insurance benefits?

    • Shoestring says:
      26 Aug26 August 18:38

      you don’t have to give a different address for your supp

      you are legally liable for all the expenditure (as main cardholder) so Amex basically wash their hands of most other complications

      you can give a supp card to your best mate, an old girlfriend, your 15YO kid if you skip the facts a bit, yourself (ie get 2 cards) etc etc – Amex don’t care that much because their risk has not been increased, since you the main cardholder will still have to settle the bill

    • S says:
      26 Aug26 August 19:16

      I called them, and the advice they gave me was to just use my address. So I did.

      I’m sure I’ll get a letter in mail asking for his proof of ID and residence, but I’ll deal with that when I get there

  • Concerto says:
    26 Aug26 August 19:07

    Link for new Pointbreaks list. Not too bad this time:

    https://www.ihg.com/rewardsclub/content/us/en/redeem-rewards/pointbreaks

    • Mark2 says:
      26 Aug26 August 20:15

      As somebody said Hotel Indigo in Stratford upon Avon or 15,000. Just refurbished at a cost of millions in next town to me.

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