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An interesting day – Iberia Plus will reveal its new status system

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Today is an interesting day for anyone who has been impacted by the changes to the British Airways Executive Club status system.

Iberia Plus will be announcing the changes to its programme this afternoon.

Because of the way the IAG frequent flyer schemes link together, this has the potential to throw the cat among the pigeons in the UK.

EDIT: The new Iberia frequent flyer scheme is now launched. Click here for our article.

Iberia Plus will reveal its new status system

We don’t know what is coming. However, it seems likely that whatever Iberia announces will not come into effect until next year.

This means that you may get a one year window where you could credit British Airways flights to Iberia Plus and earn status relatively easily.

The second issue is more important.

It will be very difficult for Iberia to have the same spending targets for status as British Airways.

Gold for €24,000, the equivalent of £20,000? The average salary in Spain is only €29,000. Using American Express Platinum as another example, the Spanish version requires a salary of €30,000 vs £35,000 here.

But if Iberia sets a Gold threshold at, say, €20,000, it will be a no-brainer for British Airways Executive Club members to start crediting their flights to Iberia Plus. Would Iberia try to insist that a Gold member must also do a certain number of IB-coded flights to put British Airways flyers off?

There’s one interesting quirk ….

You will remember that British Airways snuck out its announcement on 30th December because it hoped no-one would notice.

Iberia, intriguingly, has invited selected top tier members to its head office in Madrid to hear the announcement. If it is planning to ‘fire’ the majority of its elite members, as British Airways is doing, surely you wouldn’t invite them around to tell them to their face?!

We’ll do an article tomorrow on what is happening and how, if at all, it should impact what you do with your British Airways flights.

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Category

Iberia and Club Iberia Plus

Comments (154)

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

  • Chris W says:
    12 Feb12 February 11:50

    You say the average salary in Spain is “only” €29,000, but isn’t the average salary in the UK about £29,000?

    I wouldn’t be surprised to see spend for Gold equivalent at €20,000 Euro.

    They clearly set the BA numbers to massively reduce the number of top tier status members

    • Rob says:
      12 Feb12 February 12:02

      …. which is the same figure I quoted in the article 🙂

      However I know there has been substantial pressure put on Iberia by BA to make it €25,000, so lets see.

    • BA Flyer IHG Stayer says:
      12 Feb12 February 12:12

      € 29,000 = £ 24,200 (at todays rate)

      So 83% of the UK level

    • ChrisBCN says:
      12 Feb12 February 13:08

      Wouldn’t the average income of the top (say) 20% be more relevant than the average income of everybody?

      • Rob says:
        12 Feb12 February 13:12

        That’s massively down. There are 25,000 people in the UK who earn (ie from employment or self employment, not capital gains etc) £1m+ according to HMRC – Spain would be a fraction of that.

        A chart posted on Flyertalk had just 0.2% of the Spanish population earning €150,000+. A trainee solicitor for a City law firm earns that in London.

        • ken says:
          12 Feb12 February 14:25

          This is ridiculous

          A trainee solicitor, ie someone under a training contract (used to be called articles) doesn’t earn £150k

          A first year trainee will earn up to about £60k, 2nd year trainee up to £70k

          This is for Magic Circle firms like Clifford Chance, Slaughter & May or a bg USA firm like Weil’s

          The much quoted £150k are for newly qualified solicitors in these firms.
          They are not trainees.

        • Gerry says:
          12 Feb12 February 14:48

          That is not correct, Rob. Trainee solicitors in London earn nowhere close €150,000 a year. More like 50% of that at top-paying firms in the City.

      • BJ says:
        12 Feb12 February 13:30

        There are siestas in Spain and ‘working’ from home in the UK to factor in.

  • ringingup says:
    12 Feb12 February 13:11

    Changes have been announced

    • daveinitalia says:
      12 Feb12 February 13:15

      Well tell us…

    • G says:
      12 Feb12 February 14:00

      1EUR = 1 Iberia Elite Point (same as the new BA Club £1GBP = 1 Tier Point)

      3,500 EUR (2800 GBP) or 20 Segments = oneworld Ruby (BA Bronze).

      7,500 EUR (6000 GBP) or 40 Segments = oneworld Sapphire (BA Silver)

      20,000 (16,000 GBP) or 90 Segments = oneworld Emerald (BA Gold)

      There is a 2 year version of oneworld emerald, but only obtainable/renewable at 30,000 EUR spend (24,000 GBP)

      Threshold for Iberia’s equivalent of GfL is 400,000 EUR (320,000 GBP). and GGLfL at 650,000 EUR (520,000 GBP)

      • G says:
        12 Feb12 February 14:02

        No comment, thus far, whether the “segements” need to be IB marketed AND operated, or if BA numbers can count.

        Ironically, if BA flight numbers (-125 tickets) DO count; it might make more sense to credit (for regular commuters, crew etc) to credit to IB…., given one can obtain BA Gold equivalent status though segements.

      • Reeferman says:
        12 Feb12 February 14:11

        It probably doesn’t make much difference in the great scheme of things, but, just in case – based on current x-rates:
        €3,500 = £2,920
        €7,500 = £6,257
        €20,000 = £16,686
        €30,000 = £25,029
        €400,000 = £333,723
        €650,000 = £542,301

      • ChrisBCN says:
        12 Feb12 February 14:18

        Currently you need 25 segments for Ruby (BA Bronze equivalent) so if it reduces to 20, and VY sold flights are still valid (as they are today), then 20 flights at 9.99 each would mean 200 euros will get you bronze, 400 euros for silver, 900 for gold.

        Works for me. You just need to find a few days mid week in January or February to bounce around Spain/France/Portugal…

        • ChrisBCN says:
          12 Feb12 February 14:23

          (For clarity, book direct via Vueling and add your IB number during booking. 10 euro fares are available a few times a year – cheapest routes today are 12-15 euros)

        • tootsci says:
          12 Feb12 February 14:35

          I would have been close to Plata this year without much effort had I known that before now! have just been collecting the Avios under my VY Club FFN…..

        • ChrisBCN says:
          12 Feb12 February 14:38

          I’m not sure that VY flights will be included under the new plan. Here is the condition, but we could argue about the meaning of the comma –

          *Qualifying flights are those taken with the Iberia code (IB) or Iberia Express code (I2), operated by Iberia or another airline associated with the Iberia Plus Programme.

  • Zain says:
    12 Feb12 February 13:17

    Looks like they succumbed to pressure from BA…

    • daveinitalia says:
      12 Feb12 February 13:19

      It’s AGL that’s pushing through these changes

    • BJ says:
      12 Feb12 February 13:33

      Hip hip hooray 🙂

    • JDB says:
      12 Feb12 February 14:48

      Well, it would have looked very strange if the Iberia scheme offered some big arbitrage opportunity vs BA.

      • ChrisBCN says:
        12 Feb12 February 15:38

        @JDB it does offer arbitrage vs BA; silver with BA needs 50 flights vs 40 with IB. And don’t forget that there are plenty of IB flights for 20-30 euros, much lower than you can get with BA.

  • Zain says:
    12 Feb12 February 13:22

    Who’s next in line? QR? IAG are making it very hard for the average punter…
    Has anyone compared earn and burn rates for RJ and AS?

  • Barrel for Scraping says:
    12 Feb12 February 13:25

    So Rob’s guess was wrong. He didn’t expect anything this year.

    So platinum is 20000 TP or 90 segments – this is their emerald tier
    They’ve introduced a tier above that with 30000TP (platino prime)
    1 euro is 1 TP

    Mentions platino prime gets full speed wifi free.

  • Zain says:
    12 Feb12 February 13:30

    Wonder how Iberia’s top tier members who were invited to HQ took this? Is this how they ‘fire’ their most loyal folks in Spain?
    Enjoy some rioja and tapas on us, but don’t come back!

    • JDB says:
      12 Feb12 February 13:35

      I’m quite sure they only invited those who will meet the criteria and benefit from greater exclusivity.

    • Marcw says:
      12 Feb12 February 13:56

      Only those that satisfy the new tier requirements were invited, obviously.

    • Barrel for Scraping says:
      12 Feb12 February 13:58

      I’m sure those who were invited were those who’d easily qualify for the new platino prime tier so they’re getting something out of these changes. Are these tiers that unreasonable considering you get all the good stuff at 8k as IB don’t have a first wing or lounge (as they don’t have first class) so getting above that level only has small benefits.

  • Jonathan says:
    12 Feb12 February 13:32

    Does anyone have any data on how Iberia Plus status holders are based in Spain, and how many are based elsewhere across the world ?

    Up until very recently, there’s almost certainly been a number of U.S. based travellers (that travel a lot internationally) using the likes of BAEC and VSFC due to the overall structure of loyalty schemes based in the U.S. for instance

  • sigma421 says:
    12 Feb12 February 13:34

    Up to 30% of the points required to advance a level can be earned from partners. Judging from the latest slide in the deck, that includes anywhere that you can gain Avios. Avios can be ‘converted’ (I’m assuming you lose the Avios) at a rate of 10 Avios=1 elite point.

    So far, that’s a far better setup than BA. 5,000 for Silver with the bonus points offers begins to look just about doable.

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