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Iberia changes announced – earning status could be almost as easy as it is now under BA!

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Iberia has announced changes to Iberia Plus this afternoon.

As expected, it will be easier to earn status by crediting British Airways flights to Club Iberia Plus than British Airways Club.

You will also earn elite points when you spend with non-flying partners, up to 30% of your status requirement.

Importantly, you will get bonus elite points on British Airways flights credited to Club Iberia Plus.

My maths shows that, for business class flyers, you could earn status as easily in Club Iberia Plus as you can currently earn it in British Airways Executive Club.

IMPORTANT: We have written this article based on information supplied by Iberia but, with so much to digest and some in Spanish, errors could have occurred.

How will Club Iberia Plus work?

In theory it is a similar system to the new BA one.

However, it is NOT linked directly to spend.

€1 of net spend =1 elite point BUT there will be bonuses on top based on your travel class.

This applies to spend on Iberia, British Airways and American Airlines. Other oneworld partner airlines are treated differently as I explain below.

What are the new Club Iberia Plus tiers?

This is what will happen:

  • Plata – equivalent to British Airways Bronze – 3,500 elite points or 20 segments
  • Oro – equivalent to British Airways Silver – 7,500 elite points or 40 segments
  • Platino – equivalent to British Airways Gold – 20,000 elite points or 90 segments
  • Platino Prime – also equivalent to BA Gold – 30,000 elite points

The Infinita and Infinita Prime levels remain but I am ignoring those given the spend requirement.

Note that Platino is actually only 19,000 elite points because, when you hit 18,000 points, you receive 1,000 bonus elite points. For simplicity I have used 20,000 elite points throughout this article.

Platino and Platino Prime will come with upgrade vouchers as an extra benefit.

IMPORTANT: Qualification by segments is ONLY available on Iberia and Iberia Express-coded flights. It does NOT include British Airways or even Vueling flights.

‘Travel class’ bonuses look decent

Whilst British Airways Club is offering short term tier bonuses, these will be a permanent part of the new Iberia scheme.

You get, when flying Iberia:

  • 75 to 150 bonus elite points per segment based on short haul economy ticket type
  • 175 to 275 bonus elite points per segment based on short haul business ticket type
  • 150 to 250 bonus elite points per segment based on long haul economy ticket type
  • 275 to 325 bonus elite points per segment based on long haul premium economy ticket type
  • 350 to 600 bonus elite points per segment based on long haul business ticket type and route
Iberia Plus changes

Iberia gave an example of someone flying 10 return trips to Bilbao from Madrid in flexible business at €270 return (€243 base fare).

In theory this earns you 2,430 elite points towards status.

However, the ‘class of travel’ bonus is substantial. You’d get an extra 550 elite points per return trip, giving you a total of 7,930 elite points for the 10 trips.

This means that you can earn British Airways Silver equivalent for €2,720 of spend – in this example – vs around £10,000 of spending if you were a BA flyer.

Don’t fly in flexible business class? It’s still not a bad deal.

Iberia gave an example of someone taking four ‘Optima’ economy flights to Paris Orly at €300 return.

€1,200 of gross spend means €1,080 of net spend. This would earn 1,080 elite points BUT you also get a bonus of 600, for a total of 1,680.

Important: British Airways flights earn bonuses

You will earn the following bonus elite points when crediting a British Airways flight to Club Iberia Plus:

  • Short-haul – 75 elite points in economy, 175 elite points in business
  • Long-haul (3,000+ miles) – 150 elite points in economy, 275 elite points in premium economy, 350 elite points in business, 450 elite points in first class

Important: oneworld flights will earn at an attractive flat rate

Unlike British Airways Club, which is giving you elite points on oneworld partners at a % of miles flown, Club Iberia Plus will earn at a flat rate.

Take a look at this:

If you fly business class to Bangkok from London on Qatar Airways, you would earn 5,000 elite points.

This is just about enough for BA Silver equivalent (Iberia Oro) status if you earn the maximum 30% of elite points that can come from partners. Oro is 7,500 tier points but reduces to 5,250 if you earn 22,500 Avios from partners.

You can earn status points via partner earnings

When you earn Avios with Iberia non-airline partners, you will ALSO earn elite points.

The rate will be 10:1.

Note that these do NOT replace the Avios you earned. You will receive Avios AND elite points on partner transactions.

You CANNOT convert American Express Membership Rewards points into status points. However, points earned from the Iberia shopping portal DO count.

You can earn 30% of the points needed for status via this method.

Iberia Plus changes

The following are EXCLUDED as ways of earning status points from partners:

  • Avios transfers and gifts
  • Transfers of currencies from other loyalty programmes to Iberia Plus Avios (this includes American Express Membership Rewards, looking at the small print)
  • Avios transferred or merged from accounts in British Airways, Vueling, Aer Lingus, Finnair or Qatar Airways programmes
  • Welcome bonus rewards (e.g. when signing up for a new credit card)
  • Promotional Avios collected with Iberia Plus bonus rewards
  • Avios collected as prizes in competitions and draws, whether for winning or participating
  • Complimentary Avios and compensation for incidents
  • Avios collected on flights

Conclusion

These spend thresholds, given the reduced purchasing power of the Spanish market, are at the very top end of expectations. I understand they were only set at this level under pressure from British Airways.

What Iberia has done in response is effectively reduce the thresholds by 30% by allowing you to earn elite points from partners.

The threshold has been reduced even further by offering permanent bonus points on all flights on BA, American Airlines and Iberia and generous earning rates on other oneworld partners.

It’s a shame that Membership Rewards transfers do not count as this would be an easy win for UK members. However, earning 22,500 Avios per year from the Iberia estore (to earn you the maxmium 2,250 elite points towards Oro / BA Silver equivalent) should be possible.

Here’s an example.

You pay £350 return for a BA Club Europe flight of which £275 is base fare.

  • In British Airways Club, you earn 275 base elite points towards the 7,500 required for Silver – you need 37 (!) trips to earn a Silver card
  • In Club Iberia Plus, you earn 330 base elite points (£275 = €330) plus 350 bonus elite points for a total of 680 points towards the 7,500 required for Silver (or 5,250 if you earn the maximum 2,250 elite points allowed from partners) – you need as few as 8 trips to earn the equivalent of a Silver card

In fact, the maths would actually be the same as it is now in many cases if you are flying business class:

Here’s a short haul comparison:

  • A Club Europe return flight to Frankfurt currently earns 80 tier points in Executive Club, so BA Silver requires eight returns
  • Under the new Iberia system, you also need eight return Club Europe flights to Frankfurt, assuming each is £350 return (£275 / €330 net) and you earn the maximum allowed number of elite points from non-flying partners

Here’s a long haul comparison:

  • A return Qatar Airways business class flight to Bangkok currently earns 560 tier points in Executive Club, out of the 600 you need for Silver
  • Under the new Iberia system, a return Qatar Airways business class flight to Bangkok earns 5,000 tier points in Club Iberia Plus, out of the 5,250 you need for Oro (Silver) status, assuming you earn the maximum number of elite points from non-flying partners

Perhaps Club Iberia Plus will be a happy home for many HfP readers?

More to follow as we get the full details.

You can find out more on the Iberia website here.

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Category

Iberia and Club Iberia Plus

Comments (443)

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

  • daveinitalia says:
    12 Feb12 February 15:14

    I thought the same initially, but this is not correct:
    Platino – 25,000 bonus Avios and two upgrade vouchers
    Platino Prime – 40,000 bonus Avios and four upgrade vouchers

    It’s not bonus Avios it’s an overdraft. You can go up to -25,000 with platino or -40,000 with prime.

    You can see this if you look at the current status benefits. Currently platino has a credit limit of 22,000 Avios.

    It’s just bad English on the part of Iberia calling them a credit.

    • Rob says:
      12 Feb12 February 15:35

      Thanks, will remove.

    • Jose Marques says:
      13 Feb13 February 11:14

      That is what I have highlighted as well. Best to go with the Spanish version of Iberia site, than the English version, as I can see translation errors tho.

  • BJ says:
    12 Feb12 February 15:18

    Oro and Silver are far too easy to get in their respective schemes.

    • RC says:
      12 Feb12 February 15:20

      How is Waterside today?
      Blind panic that Iberia are the better managed airline again?

  • RC says:
    12 Feb12 February 15:18

    Looks far more thought through. Rewards spend and premium cabin usage.

    No wonder Iberia is nowadays a more profitable airline than BA, has better customer ratings and is more reliable. (Though not sure if there is any legacy airline is as unreliable as BA in Europe?)

    It seems BA has become the home for ‘B’ grade management as the better ones work at IB.

    What is interesting will be how much attrition BA sees to IB on the rewards programme. No doubt BA will have tried to get IB to ‘ban’ UK based accounts. Seems that hasn’t succeeded.

    Looks like BA have got it wrong – yet again.
    Undermining customer rewards to such a degree in a mediocre reputation brand (BA) always looked a strange thing to .

    • daveinitalia says:
      12 Feb12 February 15:28

      Why would BA want to ban that? They’d rather those people move to IB than become Gold Sparrows or worse ditch oneworld completely. Both schemes are run by AGL (aka IAG Loyalty) and to get status the easiest way is to generate Avios

  • planeconcorde says:
    12 Feb12 February 15:27

    The results are skewed towards Iberia because in the calculations of tier points earnt in BA’s The Club has excluded the BA cabin bonus tier point. BA have said their current bonuses apply for flights booked up to 31st December 2025 and bonus tier points will be a permanent feature of the scheme. They have not stated the cabin bonus tier point earning rates for flights booking starting 1st January 2026. While we don’t know the long term rates, it skews the results by ignoring them completely.

    • Rob says:
      12 Feb12 February 15:34

      BA has said that occasional bonus point promotions will happen. They have absolutely not said that they are a permanent part of the programme.

      The fact that there is a ‘book by’ deadline for the existing bonuses makes it very clear there is no plan for them to be permanent.

      • Tom says:
        12 Feb12 February 15:46

        BA literally said in the press release a couple of days ago that they plan to offer a bonus offer at all times –
        – https://mediacentre.britishairways.com/pressrelease/details/21900

        “The latest offer, which, like the initial offer, requires members to ‘opt in’, replaces the airline’s first Bonus Tier Point offer, helping members achieve and keep their status – especially those flying in premium cabins. It’s expected the airline will always offer members a Bonus Tier Point proposition in addition to the general 1 Tier Point for £1 earning mechanism.”

        • Rob says:
          12 Feb12 February 16:52

          Yes ‘a’ bonus points proposition. Not necessarily the same as it is now, so pretty worthless in terms of forward planning.

      • planeconcorde says:
        12 Feb12 February 16:59

        We have different interpretations of the 5th February 2025 BA press release text:
        “…It’s expected the airline will always offer members a Bonus Tier Point proposition in addition to the general 1 Tier Point for £1 earning mechanism….”

        I have taken “always” to mean permanent. I had assumed that the book by deadline just gave them scope to alter the travel class bonus amounts after that date.

        • phantomchickenz says:
          12 Feb12 February 17:21

          There will ‘always’ be a bonus, but that bonus could be two points or two hundred.

          • LittleNick says:
            12 Feb12 February 18:40

            Exactly and perhaps only on certain routes. Also the fact that it’s “expected” there will be a bonus points proposition means it could be rescinded without there having to be one. What they may expect today may be different next year

  • CheshirePete says:
    12 Feb12 February 15:31

    This may have interested me, especially the trailers from Rob indicating it might have been better and not as soon, but it’s come sooner now than expected, not April’26 as th9ught but April ‘25. Also, even though it’s a little easier to gain status, the gulf between this and BAC is not as wide as expected. Considering how awful any contact I’ve ever had with Iberia CS has been, even to the point of having to launching S75 against them, and robotic replies saying they will response in exactly 18 days, and then still feigning ignorance about the issue, I could never imagine chasing missing TPs and Avios with Iberia! It will be more trouble than it’s worth! So, with all that in mind I’ve already ruled this out as an alternative main collecting mechanism after I lose my BA Gold. Just like with BA I’ll watch now from the sidelines for the rest of the year! It’s just a slightly better version of 2 new evils.

    • NorthernLass says:
      12 Feb12 February 15:44

      Indeed, you need to be flexible and patient with IB, but once you get your head around that you can just focus on price difference (cash and avios). If you’re flying from the regions and need to connect to many long-haul routes anyway, it’s a no-brainer.

    • webloid says:
      13 Feb13 February 11:22

      “I could never imagine chasing missing TPs and Avios with Iberia!”

      I’ve been chasing 270 TPs from flying with MH for 6 months. BA cs has been woeful.

  • r* says:
    12 Feb12 February 15:36

    As absurd as this whole thing is, is it possible that BA dont really care if status is easy to get on other OW airlines or if it sheds members, because BA would no longer be paying for the status?

    If someone has BA silver, BA are paying every time someone enters a lounge or uses priority security. If people credit BA flights to another OW carrier and get status with someone else, when they enter a BA lounge its the other airline that then pays BA?

    Infact it would probably be good for BA for other OW carriers to have better loyalty because the only time it would affect BA is if people stop booking BA flights – which wouldnt happen if they can still get status from IB.

    • Nico says:
      12 Feb12 February 15:42

      Operating airline pays, so unclear how it helps

      • kevinchoi says:
        12 Feb12 February 15:48

        I’m pretty sure I’ve read somewhere that OneWorld’s policy changed in the past few years, and that the FFP pays for lounge access if the class of travel itself doesn’t cover the lounge access? E.g. BA pays for it’s gold member for access into a First Class lounge if the member is only flying business class

        • Nick says:
          12 Feb12 February 17:22

          To be clear, oneworld rules are that the OPERATING carrier pays for the lounge, not the card issuer. Other alliances may do it differently, but it’s a hard rule for oneworld.

          If customers flying BA credit flights to IB, BA will be paying for the Avios issued.

          IB have handled this pretty well considering the constraints they were under. They may even get a decent revenue benefit if customers move across in significant numbers.

    • memesweeper says:
      12 Feb12 February 15:44

      Swings and roundabouts. If everyone flies BA and credits to other OW partners, BA has to make a payment on every flight to the partner to cover the cost of airmiles awarded and so on. This is probably a net inflow for BA at the moment, and about to turn into real cash out of the door.

      Marginal cost of slightly more food consumed in lounges is negligible. Cost of visits to partner lounges not negligible.

      I’m not sure there is a good business case to run an unattractive loyalty scheme inside an alliance with partners who run much more attractive ones.

      • Mikeact says:
        12 Feb12 February 15:54

        Since when was it a Loyalty scheme ? Never.

      • CheshirePete says:
        12 Feb12 February 15:57

        Mmmmm. I think if I changed FFPs I’d then tend to want to pay them, so BA would lose the initial revenue. Would that outweigh the cost of them then saving money by letting me into a partner lounge if on a 125 ticket!? I’ve heard 30-50 quid, but lose a £2000 revenue ticket!?

  • kevinchoi says:
    12 Feb12 February 15:37

    Does Iberia also have a distance/avios calculator just like BA does? Curious about the HKG-LHR route as it’s technically just under 6000 miles, but BA classifies it as just over 6000 miles. Wondering what Iberia would classify it as, as that would be quite a huge difference in amount of status points earned under the new system

    • LittleNick says:
      12 Feb12 February 18:45

      The fact that BA classify it as over for the sake of BAEC is them merely actually being a bit generous when they don’t have too. Don’t expect IB to do the same on that route. Treat it by actual distance. I suspect the CX flights LHR-HKG will be on actual distance in the new BAC

  • Nico says:
    12 Feb12 February 15:46

    Looks like there is a typoe below the 1st example: should be flexible “business” and not “economy”?

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

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