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Iberia launches a new route to Orlando – Avios and Amex 2-4-1 vouchers accepted

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It’s been a while since we covered a new long-haul route launch from Iberia, so it is good to hear about flights to Orlando.

Iberia will launch flights from Madrid to Orlando on 26th October and continue until the end of March.

These will be bookable on Avios although availability is thin at the moment. Remember that British Airways 2-4-1 American Express companion vouchers can be used on Iberia as long as you book via ba.com.

Iberia launches a new route to Orlando

Flights will operate four days per week, on Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Sunday.

The outbound leaves Madrid at 11.30am, which means that you will probably need to stay overnight in Madrid the day before. It arrives in Orlando at 4.45pm.

The return leaves Orlando at 6.20pm, landing in Madrid at 7.55am the following day. This makes it easy to get a connection back to the UK.

In terms of aircraft, Iberia is using an Airbus A330-300. This has 29 business class seats, 21 premium economy seats and 241 economy seats.

How to book with Avios

The ‘base’ Avios cost of Madrid to Miami is:

  • Economy – 21,250 or 25,000 Avios each way, peak or off-peak
  • Premium Economy – 31,750 or 43,750 Avios each way
  • Business – 42,500 or 62,500 Avios each way

The Iberia peak and off-peak dates are here.

Iberia launches Madrid to Orlando flights

The Iberia website was not allowing you to book these flights for Avios yesterday. It was only showing Economy redemptions and even those were not bookable because the site could not calculate taxes and charges. ba.com was not showing any availability in any cabin. It may be fixed by the time you read this.

That said, with only 75 flights or so in each direction over the whole season, you will struggle to find a lot of Avios availability.

In terms of taxes and charges, the IT issues yesterday mean that I don’t know the cost. However, if you fly from Madrid to Miami, return, the taxes and charges are (this is what you pay at ba.com where it prices in £):

  • Economy: £186
  • Premium Economy: £189
  • Business: £253

…. which is all very reasonable given the low Avios requirement. I assume Orlando taxes and charges will be very similar.

You can read more about the new service at Iberia’s media centre here.

Our last Iberia business class review, albeit of the new A350 seat, is here.

You can look up pricing and availability on iberia.com here.

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How to earn Avios from UK credit cards

How to earn Avios from UK credit cards (April 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 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

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.

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 27th May 2025, the sign-up bonus on the ‘free for a year’ American Express Preferred Rewards Gold card is increased from 20,000 Membership Rewards points to 30,000 points. Points convert 1:1 into Avios (30,000 Avios!) and many other programmes. Some people may see even higher personalised offers. Click here to apply.

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 27th May 2025, the sign-up bonus on American Express Platinum is increased from 50,000 Membership Rewards points to a huge 80,000 points. Points convert 1:1 into Avios (80,000 Avios!) and many other programmes. Some people may see even higher personalised offers. Click here to apply.

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

The Platinum Card from American Express

80,000 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

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Capital on Tap Pro Visa

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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.

Category

Iberia and Club Iberia Plus

Comments (33)

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

  • Gordon says:
    26 Mar26 March 06:00

    I would have definitely taken advantage of this, if it had been available in Q4 last year, instead of paying excessive taxes and surcharges from LGW, with my 2-4-1, This will be popular with a lot of families.

    • Andrew. says:
      26 Mar26 March 07:52

      With the flights starting on the Sunday 26th October, and return flight on the Friday, it’s not ideal for the week long English holidays is it?

      The Scottish “tatty” fortnight starts on Saturday 12 October, so it misses them completely.

      • Gordon says:
        26 Mar26 March 08:04

        You’re not restricted to a week?
        You’re forgetting a lot of parents take their children out of school term, and just pay the fine! I’m not condoning it!

      • Iain says:
        26 Mar26 March 14:45

        I’m 53, Scottish, and only heard the term “tatty fortnight” for the first time in my life last October!

        • MKCol says:
          26 Mar26 March 18:05

          A Lowlander?

        • CJD says:
          26 Mar26 March 20:36

          I hadn’t heard it until I started browsing here.

          We also didn’t get a fortnight, we had a long weekend at the end of September and then a week in October a couple of weeks later.

  • Jane says:
    26 Mar26 March 06:26

    Do Iberia guarantee a number of seats? I have been looking for patterns to see if it’s a viable option for us but never see more than 2 so not much use for families

    • G says:
      26 Mar26 March 09:19

      Usually just 2 in Premium/Business on Ba.Com

      • CJD says:
        26 Mar26 March 11:07

        They also release seats 360 days in advance to Iberia Plus members, and 355 days in advance to BA members, so there’s a small window where IB customers can nab reward seats before they become available using a 2-4-1.

  • Sadoldman says:
    26 Mar26 March 07:53

    Just back from Panama with Iberia via Madrid. Worked well with an overnight in Madrid on way out on separate ticket.
    Mad-PTY-LHR on a 2-4-1.
    Shower in Madrid on way home.
    Only downside Iberia are short of aircraft so flight was operated by Iberojet. Food the same but outdated and worn cabin and Iberojet crew not familiar with Iberia standards- there was an Iberia supervisor on board to direct.
    Risk this new flight might go the same way.

  • Richie says:
    26 Mar26 March 07:56

    Fortaleza and Recife flights are also launching https://grupo.iberia.com/news/25032025/headline-news-2

    • Rob says:
      26 Mar26 March 08:14

      Yes. Doing a separate article on that.

      • Andrew T says:
        26 Mar26 March 09:02

        That be very interesting. At the moment there is really just TAP that flys to multiple destinations in Brazil, or Air France to Fortaleza.

      • ADS says:
        26 Mar26 March 10:42

        when you do the article on Fortalez and Recife – can you also mention how the reward flights work on the Iberia website … do they just show up as “Avios & Money” … or is that not proper reward flight availability?

        for MAD-FOR single economy I’m getting options of

        22,000 + £70.30
        18,700 + £100.30
        14,300 + £130.30
        11,000 + £145.30
        7,700 + £160.30
        4,400 + £185.30

        • NorthernLass says:
          26 Mar26 March 12:40

          IB doesn’t have RFS pricing like BA, but it’s usually cheaper in terms of both avios and cash to book business class on IB, as long as you start in Spain and not the U.K.

          • Gordon says:
            26 Mar26 March 13:31

            In fact I saved £600 MAD-BOG J, after the IB return flights LHR-MAD, and overnight stay in a hotel in Madrid were taken into account at Christmas.

    • redlilly says:
      26 Mar26 March 15:06

      Now we’re talking!

  • LittleNick says:
    26 Mar26 March 08:27

    Iberia has very limited avios availability to/from US, I literally searched every route for a lot of September and yielded nothing

    • david says:
      26 Mar26 March 18:56

      flighttimecalendar is brilliant search as it does BA and IB. To be honest Sep is low so there should be a lot of flights in J.

  • Voldemort says:
    26 Mar26 March 12:26

    America? Eww.

  • jannis says:
    26 Mar26 March 14:17

    better redeption on flight to latin america.
    madrid to Rio.
    47.5k avios + 100 euro tax
    even cheaper than eco

    • G says:
      26 Mar26 March 17:44

      Hens teeth for premium cabins on IB to Brazil though. The pricing difference vs UK redemptions on BA are night and day.

  • VinZ says:
    26 Mar26 March 18:18

    I didn’t know vouchers could be used on IB – amazing. Will definitely look into it to fly to South America. Great!

    • NorthernLass says:
      27 Mar27 March 14:30

      You have to book via BA, though, so you don’t benefit from IB’s lower fees.

      • jannis says:
        28 Mar28 March 14:37

        book from madrid, and add the seperate leg of london-madrid to the booking.

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

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