Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

Three new Avios redemptions are now bookable from Newcastle Airport

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Iberia Express has launched three new routes to Spain from Newcastle. There’s only one catch – they are only operating for eight days over the New Year!

Madrid, Lanzarote and Gran Canaria will all be running over this period, presumably to attract those looking for a bit of winter sun.

The flights don’t seem to be targetted at those returning home for Christmas, as the start on Boxing Day and finish before Epiphany, when the Spanish traditionally open their gifts!

This is the ENTIRE schedule:

26th December

I2 3990 departs Madrid at 8:30am and arrives in Newcastle at 10:10am

I2 3997 departs Newcastle at 10:50am and arrives in Lanzarote at 15:25

27th December

I2 3990 departs Madrid at 8:30am and arrives in Newcastle at 10:10am

I2 3999 departs Newcastle at 10:50am and arrives in Gran Canaria at 15:35

2nd January

I2 3991 departs Newcastle at 17:35 and arrives in Madrid at 21:15

I2 3994 departs Lanzarote at 12:30 and arrives in Newcastle at 16:55

3rd January

I2 3991 departs Newcastle at 18:10 and arrives in Madrid at 21:50

I2 3998 departs Gran Canaria at 12:55 and arrives in Newcastle at 17:30

From Newcastle, that means you can fly direct to Gran Canaria for a week long stay for 27th December – 3rd January or Lanzarote for 26th December – 2nd January.

You could also fly to Madrid on the 2nd or 3rd January, although you would have to fly another airline back!

Iberia Express runs an all Airbus A320 fleet. You can see Rob’s review of business class on Iberia Express here.

What do Avios redemptions cost?

As these flights are operated by Iberia Express the Iberia redemption chart applies:

Iberia Avios reward flight prices (plus taxes, fees and carrier charges)
Zone Distance Discount Economy Economy Premium Economy Business Class
Offpeak Peak Offpeak Peak Offpeak Peak Offpeak Peak
1 1—650 miles 4,500 5,000 6,750 7,500 9,000 10,000
2 651—1,150 miles 7,500 8,250 11,250 12,500 15,000 16,500
3 1,150—2,000 miles 10,000 11,000 15,000 16,500 20,000 22,000
4 2001—3000 miles 11,000 12,500 16,000 18,750 21,250 31,250
5 3,001—4,000 miles 17,000 20,000 22,000 28,000 25,500 35,000 34,000 50,000
6 4,001—5,500 miles 21,250 25,000 27,750 35,000 31.750 43,750 42,500 62,500
7 5,501—6,500 miles 25,500 30,000 33,250 42,000 38,250 52,500 51,000 75,000
8 6,501—7,000 miles 29,750 35,000 38,750 49,000 44,250 61,250 59,500 87,500
9 7,001+ miles 42,500 50,000 55,250 70,000 63,750 87,500 85,000 125,000
Madrid-Barcelona Shuttle 4,500 4,500 9,000 9,000
Madrid-London 6,500 7,500 9,750 11,250 12,750 15,000

In theory you can also book these via ba.com, although I couldn’t find the same redemption availability as on Iberia Plus.

Both flights are just under 2,000 miles which mean they SHOULD fall into Zone 3. Somewhat cheekily, however, Iberia has decided that 1,993 miles is actually 2,000+ and put Gran Canaria in Zone 4.

All the flights fall on peak dates, which means you are looking at 22,000 Avios each way in business or 16,500 in economy. Gran Canaria, being in Zone 4, is 18,750 in economy and 31,250 in business.

To book, you need to move your Avios from British Airways Executive Club to Iberia Plus using the method we outline here. You MUST have an active Iberia Plus account which is over 90 days old to do this – ie one which has earned 1 Avios in the last three years (and so is ‘active’) and it over 90 days old. Your transfer will be rejected otherwise.

If you don’t have an Iberia Plus account, make it your mission to open and activate one ASAP so you don’t miss out on future Iberia redemption opportunities.

You can activate it by moving 1,000 American Express Membership Rewards points into Iberia Plus, crediting a BA or oneworld flight, crediting a car rental, transferring some hotel points etc. It is then perfectly fine to move the points across to BA via ‘Combine My Avios’.

Get 30% off Iberia Express redemptions

In reality, a redemption on these flights should be cheaper than the numbers in the table above. This is because Iberia is currently offering 30% off Iberia Express redemptions as you can see here.

There are some blackout dates, including 3rd January, but a dummy booking for Lanzarote shows it is automatically applied.

The return trip is 23,100 Avios and £46.36 whilst the equivalent cash price (with a comparable luggage allowance) is €360. That means you are getting around 1.18p of value per Avios, which isn’t bad.

Conclusion

With just eight flights in total, these are, clearly, niche opportunities!

Nonetheless, if you’re eyeing up a break during the Christmas school holidays and live in the North East you may find these Iberia Express flights play to your advantage.

It’s probably best to book sooner rather than later as availability is already missing in some cabins on some flights – you can do so on the Iberia website here.


How to earn Avios from UK credit cards

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 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 card

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.

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.

Comments (34)

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

  • Anna says:

    Presumably you could mix & match an outbound on IB and use a LCC for the return? And don’t forget to get your PCR test prior to depature!

    • BigDave says:

      Indeed as from 23rd November Spain will make you present a negative PCR test up to 73 hours max. prior to landing in a Spanish Airport.

      • Grandma canaria says:

        In Canary Islands I don’t think you have to present at airport .
        Only at holiday accommodation .
        As it’s only for tourists
        Also it’s from the 14th I believe

  • Chrisasaurus says:

    This 1993>2000 nonsense – how are they (and same for EI ref Dublin to Boston) justifying this? Surely that have to withstand a challenge on that don’t they? It seems dishonest to me

    • Anna says:

      It’s cheeky but they can do what they want in terms of setting their own Ts and Cs. I imagine IB would just completely ignore anyone who took exception!

      • Stuart says:

        We all complain about them moving up but there are examples of moving down bands too. I’m sure Cyprus and South Africa book into a lower band on BA for their distance

  • Michael C says:

    Same routes over same period from Manchester too!

  • Jan M says:

    Presumably Madrid is aimed at those connecting to elsewhere because it will be very cold there for Christmas.

    • Stuart says:

      Guessing the Madrid is just the positioning flight and they’ve opened it up for booking instead of running an empty plane!

    • PerkyPat says:

      Wont be as cold as Newcastle!

      • marcw says:

        MAD is pretty cold in the winter. Very dry. Very high. The opposite is true in the summer: very hot and dry weather.

  • Stuart says:

    I tagged you on Twitter about this a day or so ago. Amazed at how much work you have put into making this a stand alone article with all the workings out. Thought it would just be a ‘bits’. Thanks!

    • Rhys says:

      You don’t want to know how long it took me, given all the weird intricacies (it took us longer than it should have to figure out why the fares weren’t pricing off the normal redemption chart!)

      • Stuart says:

        I am currently imagining Rob stood in the Canaries holding one end of a tape measure and you at Newcastle trying to figure out where they get the extra couple of miles from! Strange that they would put one island in a higher bracket than the other though!

  • ChrisBCN says:

    I thought you might comment more on WHY they are doing this Rhys! To me it seems like they are doing a test of demand for the four routes (MAN/NCL to the two canary islands) whilst they are not using their full fleet elsewhere, which means there is a possibility that they may in future base an aircraft year round at Manchester or Newcastle for canary trips.

    • Anna says:

      Any competition would be welcome – LCCs regularly charge around £400 pp to the Canaries at peak periods!

    • Rhys says:

      It’s hard to get any meaningful data from what amounts to a single trip for these places. A lot of new routes take 1+ years to properly mature!

  • Rich says:

    It dues seem a lot of effort. Effectively launching a new route on an unfamiliar airline, in competition with Jet 2. Positioning flights etc, for a single week’s worth of pax!

    I wonder if it will survive the PCR test requirement.

    • Stuart says:

      Will the BA staff at the airport not just manage it? It’s effectively only one flight a day and the BA schedules are reduced at the minute

  • Barry cutters says:

    Looks like outbound all gone

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

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