LEVEL adds flights from Barcelona to Miami

Six years ago, IAG, the parent of British Airways, launched a new low-cost airline – LEVEL.

Whilst LEVEL never operated from London, it did fly long haul from Barcelona and Paris and short haul from Vienna and Amsterdam. During the pandemic this shrunk to a handful of long haul flights operating from Barcelona:

• Boston (summer only)
• Buenos Aires
• Los Angeles
• New York
• Santiago de Chile
• San Francisco (summer only)

It is a similar operation to the one that IAG is running from Manchester via Aer Lingus UK. In the same way that British Airways is London dominated, ignoring England’s 2nd city, Iberia is focused entirely on Madrid. LEVEL is meant to fill the gap.

Miami is coming in 2024

The arrival of an additional A330 aircraft, taking the fleet to six, means that a new route – Miami – will launch on 31st March.

Flights will operate three times per week on Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays.

LEVEL won’t have it all its own way. American Airlines has a daily, year round, service between Barcelona and Miami.

Using Avios on LEVEL

You can use Avios to book LEVEL flights, but things seem to have changed.

I couldn’t find any Premium Economy flights (they were there six months ago) and they no longer appear to be bookable via avios.com. They were never bookable at ba.com. LEVEL has no Business Class.

Economy services can be booked off iberia.com. Typical off-peak pricing from Barcelona to New York, return, is from 34,000 Avios + £160 to 8,500 Avios + £360.

For clarity, LEVEL is not part of oneworld and is not a British Airways partner.  You will not receive any benefits at all when flying with LEVEL irrespective of your British Airways or oneworld status.

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How to earn Avios from UK credit cards (December 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:

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

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 9th January 2024, you will receive 30,000 Membership Rewards points (convertible to 30,000 Avios) with American Express Preferred Rewards Gold. You receive 25,000 points if you spend £3,000 in three months and a further 5,000 points if you hold the card for 15 months. You can apply here.

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 9th January 2024, you will receive a huge 100,000 Membership Rewards points (convertible to 100,000 Avios) with The Platinum Card. You receive 75,000 points if you spend £10,000 in six months and a further 25,000 points if you hold the card for 15 months. You can apply here.

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.

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.

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.

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