How to use ‘part pay with Avios’ to book Iberia, Vueling or Air Nostrum flights
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‘Part Pay With Avios’ for British Airways flights booked at ba.com has, apparently, been very successful since it was launched. It allows you to redeem your points for a discount against a cash ticket, although you are not allowed to pay the entire price with points.
Unlike an Avios reward flight redemption, you will still receive tier points and earn Avios when you take the flight. All you have done is to use Avios to make a standard cash ticket cheaper.
There are also no availability constraints. ‘Part Pay With Avios’ is available on all British Airways flights in all classes, and on direct American Airlines flights to or from the UK. It is also available on Iberia flights from the UK which are codeshared with BA.
You can find full details of ‘Part Pay With Avios’ on the BA site here.
We also wrote a full ‘Avios Redemption University’ guide to how ‘Part Pay With Avios’ works which is here.
The downside of ‘Part Pay With Avios’ is that it isn’t great value unless there is a special promotion running.
On short haul European flights, you currently receive between 0.48p and 1.0p per point. The value gets worse the more points you redeem, but it can be decent value if you just redeem a handful (eg £10 off for 1000 Avios or £20 off for 2600 Avios).
You can’t use PPWA on most Iberia flights via ba.com, but ….
The only Iberia routes you can book on ba.com are those which originate in the UK. You cannot, for example, book Madrid to Lisbon or Madrid to Milan. For these, you need to book on iberia.com.
You can also use ‘Part Pay With Avios’ if you book via iberia.com.
It’s not just Iberia mainline. You can also use Avios for bookings on Iberia Express, Vueling or Air Nostrum. You can also use it to book British Airways flights by calling an Iberia call centre.
Iberia calls this feature ‘Avios & Money’ rather than ‘Part Pay With Avios’, although for simplicity I have used the latter term throughout this article.
There some odd residency restrictions to note. You can only use this feature if you live in Spain, France, Netherlands, Belgium, United Kingdom, Germany, Croatia, Greece, Italy, Turkey, Israel, USA, Mexico, Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, El Salvador, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama, Peru, Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Russia and Switzerland.
The Iberia website requires your Avios to be in the Iberia Plus loyalty programme. You cannot log in with a British Airways ID.
In order to get your Avios into Iberia Plus from British Airways Executive Club, you will need an Iberia Plus account which can be opened quickly at iberia.com. To do the transfer, your account will also need to fulfil the following two conditions:
your Iberia Plus account must be 90 days
your Iberia Plus account must have ‘earned’ 1 Avios – the easiest way to do this is to transfer in some Amex Membership Rewards points or credit a flight, hotel stay or car hire
You can then use ‘Combine My Avios’ on ba.com to move your points to Iberia Plus. If you get an error message, the workaround is to move your points from ba.com to avios.com and then from avios.com to iberia.com – this will work 95% of the time. In order to log in at avios.com, you will need to open a free account at Aer Lingus Aer Club or Vueling Club.
But is Part Pay With Avios worthwhile on Iberia?
Unfortunately, the answer is ‘not really’. Unless you are getting all of your Avios for ‘free’ via business travel, you won’t want to redeem them at the rates Iberia offers.
This is what I was quoted to reduce the price of an economy Iberia flight between London and Madrid:
£8 discount for 1,850 Avios (0.43p)
£43.46 discount for 9,000 Avios (0.48p)
£72.44 discount for 15,000 Avios (0.48p)
£115.90 discount for 24,000 Avios (0.48p)
£144.87 discount for 30,000 Avios (0.48p)
This is really, really bad.
On ba.com, you can get 1.0p per Avios if you redeem a small number (1,000 Avios usually) and it usually gets no worse than 0.48p. Getting 0.48p however few Avios you use is simply shocking.
(If you are looking to book a Vueling flight, try using ‘Part Pay With Avios’ at vueling.com which should give you a better deal.)
Unless you are Avios rich and cash poor, I would advise against using ‘Part Pay With Avios’ on iberia.com. The option is there if you want it, however.
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How to earn Avios from UK credit cards (April 2025)
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 Mastercard
Get 25,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher at £10,000 Read our full review
Barclaycard Avios Mastercard
Get 5,000 Avios for signing up 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
30,000 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 £15,000 Read our full review
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.
SPECIAL OFFER: Until 27th May 2025, the sign-up bonus on the ‘free for a year’ American Express Preferred Rewards Gold card is increased from 20,000 Membership Rewards points to 30,000 points. Points convert 1:1 into Avios (30,000 Avios!) and many other programmes. Some people may see even higher personalised offers. Click here to apply.
SPECIAL OFFER: Until 27th May 2025, the sign-up bonus on American Express Platinum is increased from 50,000 Membership Rewards points to a huge 80,000 points. Points convert 1:1 into Avios (80,000 Avios!) and many other programmes. Some people may see even higher personalised offers. Click here to apply.
American Express Preferred Rewards Gold
Your best beginner’s card – 30,000 points, FREE for a year & four airport lounge passes Read our full review
The Platinum Card from American Express
80,000 bonus points and great travel benefits – for a large fee 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, and the standard card is FREE. Capital on Tap cards also have no FX fees.
Capital on Tap Visa
NO annual fee, NO FX fees and points worth 1 Avios per £1 Read our full review
Capital on Tap Pro Visa
10,500 points (=10,500 Avios) plus good benefits Read our full review
There is also a British Airways American Express card for small businesses:
British Airways American Express Accelerating Business
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
50,000 points when you sign-up and an annual £200 Amex Travel credit 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.
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