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Where can you fly on Iberia with your BA Amex 2-4-1 companion voucher?

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One major Avios change that we’ve seen in the last two years was the opening up of Aer Lingus and Iberia Avios flights for American Express 2-4-1 companion voucher redemptions. Full details are here.

I am off to Boston today to check out Iberia’s new A321XLR business class product. Keep an eye on HfP in a couple of weeks for that review.

As a prelude to those pieces, I want to show you where you can fly on Iberia using your British Airways American Express 2-4-1 companion voucher. It is a follow-up to our December article on where you can fly on Aer Lingus long haul.

where does iberia fly?

Where does Iberia fly long-haul?

I want to use this article to look at the Iberia route network. It is NOT an article discussing the costs, in Avios and taxes, of Iberia redemptions.

For Summer 2025, these are the routes that will be operated (E&OE – we had to put this list together ourselves):

From Madrid to the US and Mexico:

  • Madrid – Boston
  • Madrid – Chicago
  • Madrid – Dallas Fort Worth
  • Madrid – Los Angeles
  • Madrid – Miami
  • Madrid – Mexico City
  • Madrid – New York JFK
  • Madrid – San Francisco
  • Madrid – Washington DC

From Madrid to Central and South America and the Caribbean:

  • Madrid – Bogota
  • Madrid – Buenos Aires
  • Madrid – Caracas
  • Madrid – Guatemala City
  • Madrid – Guayaquil
  • Madrid – Havana
  • Madrid – Lima
  • Madrid – Montevideo
  • Madrid – Panama City
  • Madrid – Quitox
  • Madrid – Rio de Janeiro
  • Madrid – San Jose (Costa Rica)
  • Madrid – San Juan (Puerto Rico)
  • Madrid – San Salvador
  • Madrid – Santiago de Chile
  • Madrid – Santo Domingo (Dominican Republic)
  • Madrid – Sao Paulo

From Madrid to Africa and the Middle East:

  • Madrid – Doha
  • Madrid – Cairo (A321 short haul aircraft)
  • Madrid – Dakar (check aircraft type – could be short-haul)
  • Madrid – Tel Aviv (check aircraft type – could be short-haul)

From Madrid to Asia:

  • Madrid – Tokyo

As you can see, Iberia has a very strong presence to the Americas. It opens up a lot of potential 2-4-1 voucher redemptions to cities such as Lima, Quito or Guayaquil which British Airways does not operate.

Where does Iberia fly?

How do you connect to Iberia flights from the UK?

Both British Airways and Iberia have a good range of connections to Madrid from across the UK. There are usually more than 10 daily flights from London alone.

If you are looking for Avios seats I would initially search for the long-haul flight on its own and then see what connections can be added later. You don’t want to risk not seeing long-haul availability simply because the most convenient short-haul connecting flight isn’t available.

You will make a substantial saving by booking your UK-Madrid flight on a separate ticket, as this avoids long haul Air Passenger Duty. The downside is that your baggage may not be checked through and Iberia is not obliged to help you if you miss your connection.

Iberia and Iberia Express UK route network to Madrid:

  • London Heathrow
  • London Gatwick
  • Manchester
  • Edinburgh

Some of these may be seasonal.

Don’t forget that, for cargo reasons, Iberia normally operates a long haul aircraft on at least one daily Heathrow flight. You can enjoy the pleasures of a ‘proper’ lie-flat business class seat on the two and a half hour flight to Madrid.

How to use your American Express companion voucher on Iberia flights

Booking an Iberia flight using an Amex companion voucher is exactly the same process as if you were booking a British Airways flight, as it needs to be done from your British Airways Club account.

This can be a problem if you want to book the ‘guaranteed’ Avios seats. Club Iberia Plus members can book seats from 360 days prior to departure (and so can you if you transfer Avios to Club Iberia Plus and book there) but British Airways only allows booking from 355 days before departure.

Make sure you are logged in at ba.com and then select ‘Book a flight with Avios’. You then need to tick the box to use your 2-4-1 companion voucher when entering your preferred destination and dates.

Remember that pricing will be driven by Iberia’s peak and off-peak calendar, even though you are booking on the British Airways website, which doesn’t always match BA’s peak and off-peak dates. It will also use Iberia’s pricing chart which normally matches BA but includes some bargains, such as 68,000 Avios return in Business Class from Madrid to New York off-peak.

Using a 2-4-1 voucher, two people can fly from Madrid to New York or Boston in Business Class, off peak, return, for just 68,000 Avios and (for two people) £430 in total. Yes, the taxes and charges are just £215 per person return. You can’t complain about that ….


earns points from credit cards

Want to earn more points from credit cards? – April 2025 update

If you are looking to apply for a new credit card, here are our top recommendations based on the current sign-up bonuses.

In 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

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Get 5,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher at £20,000 Read our full review

You can see our full directory of all UK cards which earn airline or hotel points here. Here are the best of the other deals currently available.

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

British Airways American Express Premium Plus

30,000 Avios and the famous annual 2-4-1 voucher 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

Virgin Atlantic Reward+ Mastercard

18,000 bonus points and 1.5 points for every £1 you spend Read our full review

Earning miles and points from small business cards

If you are a sole trader or run a small company, you may also want to check out these offers:

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

Capital on Tap Pro Visa

10,500 points (=10,500 Avios) plus good benefits Read our full review

Capital on Tap Visa

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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

Comments (117)

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

  • Chris says:

    Do you know if the 50% option when booking for only one person with 2-4-1 is also available with Iberia?

  • Barrel for Scraping says:

    This image was the one that got away?

  • Dezza says:

    Really useful/helpful article, thank you. Does anyone have any further info on the MAN-MAD Iberia Express route? Rhys you mentioned it was seasonal but I put a few random dates in and I can’t find anything that doesn’t require a change at LHR.

  • Alesacat says:

    Can you use the voucher on Iberia with a Spanish connection, e.g. Malaga-Madrid-San Jose return?

  • Iain says:

    Is IB Business quite standard across the long haul fleet or are there some routes/aircraft types that are best avoided?

  • BJ says:

    Can I book TYO-GIG or are connections using amex voucher restricted to/from UK? Presumably reverse open jaw ( MAD-GIG/GIG-MAD-EDI) are ok but need to be done via BA call centre? Are stopovers in MAD allowed? Thanks!

    • JDB says:

      There’s no such thing as a reverse open jaw! There’s no restriction on where you can stopover – the rules applicable to open jaws, stopovers etc are governed by IATA fare construction rules rather than voucher terms.

      TYO-GIG should be allowable although BA would be within its rights to balk at that if the cheaper fare for that routing is a transpacific one. It would only be a one way journey (as in a continuous direction) thus leaving a return leg that could be added.

      • BJ says:

        The travel literature is littered with reference to reverse open jaws or turn around open jaws where the pax returns to a different city from the one they originally departed from.

        AFAIK on BAEC reward tickets we have only ever been able to stopover in London. I was simply asking if we can similarly stopover in Madrid when flying via MAD on Iberia.

        • JDB says:

          @BJ – per my post above, there’s no restriction on where you can stopover, so yes Madrid is OK. I don’t know what ‘literature’ you are reading, but with a single open jaw it’s correctly term an origin or destination one or alternatively you can have a double open jaw.

          • BJ says:

            Multiple sources multiple times over many years including here on HfP.

            So you’re saying if I call BA they to book a QR reward flight EDI-DOH-BKK they will let me have a stopover in Doha on the same ticket as opposed to two tickets? Jf so, it’s the first I’ve heard of it.

          • JDB says:

            @BJ – as ever, it does rely on you falling upon a BA agent that is both helpful and knowledgeable, but yes you can stopover in DOH on that routing (not with a voucher obviously) BUT the fare may be higher, if the two segments cost more than the through fare plus any additional taxes for a stopover vs a connection.

            @qc references the possibility of a stopover in SIN en route to/from SYD which is allowed but does cost a bit more than the through flight.

          • BJ says:

            @JDB, I understand about the pricing and that voucher cannot be used on Qatar (sadly) but I doubt even the most helpful ever agent would allow that stopover. Loyalty scheme rules on stopovers differ by scheme but are generally clear and AFAIK BAEC sector pricing does not allow for stopovers with the exception of London and Singapore. I hope you’re right but doubt you are, I ‘ll give it a try when booking my 2026 flights with AY or QR, nothing ventured… 🙂

          • JDB says:

            @BJ – BA will issue return award tickets containing up to eight sectors. I’m not sure why you mention only London and Singapore? The restrictions to which you refer apply more to bookings involving vouchers which are self limiting by virtue of the carriers they can be used on. Of course there is also the multi carrier option with multiple stopovers.

        • qc says:

          And if flying to SYD you can stopover in SIN.

  • Richard says:

    Real shame IB isn’t on Seatspy. Is it just a case of lots of dummy bookings on ba.com to see what is available?

  • ADS says:

    i had to google E&OE

    i also had to google the airport Quitox – which i’d never heard of 🙂

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

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