It’s a miracle – finally move Avios between BA and Iberia if you have a household account
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One upside from the long Avios IT migration and subsequent downtime in November is that the long-running problems with ‘Combine My Avios’ seem to have been fixed.
It is now possible to move Avios from British Airways Executive Club to Iberia Plus, or vice versa, in one transaction. This means:
- you no longer need to use avios.com as an intermediary
- there are no longer any issues if you have a BA Household Account

To be fair, some people – those not in household accounts – never had many problems moving Avios directly between BA and Iberia, although the process often threw up IT errors. For everyone else, life is now a bit easier.
How to move Avios from Iberia to British Airways
I tried the process from inside Iberia Plus and it worked fine.
You need to visit the ‘Combine My Avios’ page of Iberia Plus which is here.
Alternatively you can select the ‘Buying or transferring Avios’ option in the main Iberia website menu navigation, and click the link at the bottom.
When in ‘Combine My Avios’, all you need to do is fill in your British Airways Executive Club number and password and the number of Avios you want to move.
The transaction completes immediately.
If it still doesn’t work, the chances are that there is a mismatch between your British Airways and Iberia accounts. A common reason is that, when you opened your Iberia account, you filled in the ‘Surname’ and ‘Second surname (optional)’ boxes incorrectly.
Why would you want to move Avios between British Airways and Iberia?
On the face of it, you might be struggling to think of reasons why you may want to move Avios between BA and Iberia, given that you can book Iberia flights on ba.com anyway.
Here are some good reasons:
- Taxes on Iberia redemptions are far lower when you book the flight via Iberia Plus rather than BA Executive Club. Madrid to New York in Business Class, for example, has £205 of taxes and charges when booked via Iberia Plus but £379 when booked via the BA website. (What happens to the extra £175? BA pockets it.)
- Iberia makes additional Economy redemption seats available to its own members. These seats are not visible via ba.com. Even better, these additional seats, known as ‘Blue Class’, require fewer Avios than standard Economy redemption seats.
- Some partners have a better deal with Iberia Plus than British Airways Executive Club. Transfers from the Accor Live Limitless hotel scheme, for example, are 1:1 into Iberia Plus but 2:1 into British Airways Executive Club.
- Iberia still has some exclusive partnerships, eg NH Hotels. If you are visiting mainland Spain, the Cabify taxi app lets you earn Avios and has a decent 400 Avios bonus for your first ride.
It’s also worth remembering that some Avios redemptions require fewer points via Iberia Plus. Madrid to New York in Business Class, off peak, is 68,000 Avios vs 100,000 Avios for a BA flight from London to New York. You get this pricing irrespective of whether you book your Iberia flight via iberia.com or ba.com – but, as per my first point above, you’ll get ripped off on the taxes and charges if you use BA.
Our full guide to redeeming Avios on Iberia is here.
For clarity, transfers are free, instantaneous and can be done unlimited times in both directions. There is no reason to keep a balance in both programmes.
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How to earn Avios from UK credit cards (February 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.

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
50,000 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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