Iberia removing checked baggage and refunds from economy Avios redemptions

Iberia appears to be rolling out changes to economy Avios redemptions.

The cheapest Avios seats in economy are now being treated as if they were ‘hand baggage only’ cash fares.

This means no checked baggage and no refunds. Date changes are still available.

For now, you can get around the ‘no refunds’ rule by making your Iberia Avios booking at ba.com. You don’t get around the ‘no baggage’ rule though.

Here is an example of what you now see when making an Avios redemption on the Iberia website. At present only some routes have been switched but we have to assume that all will be moved over in the coming weeks.

Confusingly, Iberia has always offered two different types of economy Avios redemption. It offered extra availability, exclusively to Iberia Plus members, in return for more points. The terms of these tickets have now changed.

This is what you see for a one-way flight from Madrid to Tokyo:

The Avios figures shown are actually wrong. Iberia adds an extra 1,500 Avios when you come to pay – I don’t know if this is a booking fee or an IT issue. If you book at ba.com you see the total price from the first screen.

A ‘basic’ economy ticket is 29,750 Avios + £70 of taxes outbound. For comparison, a flight from Heathrow to Tokyo on BA would be 30,000 or 40,000 Avios one-way, depending on season, plus £100.

The screenshot shows that baggage is charged. What you don’t see, without clicking through, is that cancellations are not allowed. Date changes are €25.

A ‘comfort’ economy ticket is 44,250 Avios + £70 of taxes outbound. One free 23kg checked suitcase is included. Cancellations are allowed for €25.

If you book via British Airways ….

Let’s look at the same flight over at ba.com.

The ‘comfort’ availability is not bookable at ba.com. Whilst we haven’t written about this for a while, Iberia Plus members get access to a LOT of extra availability in economy, albeit at a higher price.

The ‘basic’ ticket is available for the same price as at iberia.com – 29,750 Avios + £70.

Here are the ticket rules:

As you can see:

• you still don’t get any checked baggage allowance when booking at ba.com

• you DO get the right to cancel when booking at ba.com

This puts you in a bit of a pickle if you need to book an economy Avios flight on Iberia:

• Do you book at ba.com because you can still cancel, even though you have to pay for checked baggage?

• Do you book at iberia.com at the higher ‘comfort’ price because you get checked baggage included?

I suspect that BA Avios redemptions made at ba.com may also lose some flexibility at some point. The blowback to the British Airways Club changes appears to have pushed back any further tweaks to the loyalty scheme for now.

PS. It isn’t clear if elite members of British Airways Club would receive a free checked bag or not on an Iberia ‘basic’ redemption. Silver and Gold members do NOT receive a free checked bag if purchasing a ‘basic’ cash ticket, even though they receive an additional checked bag for free on all other fares.