BA to Iberia???

[AlanMac]

Hello All, I have looked through both Headforpoints and Flyertalk and can’t find a definitive answer. Apologies if it’s been asked before ( many times?) but honestly my brain is sore trying to understand.

I’m BA silver and two days ago booked to go to Sydney from Jersey at Christmas. I paid £8700 for two tickets Premium economy. BA give me 34000 avios and 4320 tier points. my Mrs got 25000 avios and the same tier points. Obviously this will be when I fly in December. This will be almost bronze for me and my Mrs still a bit off.

I’ve looked at all the posts about moving from BA to better schemes such as Iberia. I’m already an Iberia plus member(clasica) as I take a couple of flights with them per year.

I have picked my seats but not sure whether I would lose that right if I moved the flights over to my Iberia plus account (1st question)

I think if I moved to Iberia I would get over 10000 elite points as the £8700 is about €10000. That would make me Oro straight away( similar to BA silver). Is this correct? (2nd question)

What would happen to my Avios earned if I did this? (3rd question)

Is everyone moving from BA to the various other schemes or am I missing something obvious? (Q4)

I paid for the flights using my Amex platinum card. For the £8700 spend my avios for this month went up 20000avios, is this an error? (Q5)

So sorry if you regular guys have answered similar questions many times but honestly I’ve tried and tried to find definitive answer. Hope you can help.

[John]

1. You might get to stay in your seat, but if BA does anything to the seat map you might get kicked out. You don’t have to change the FFP to IB right away, you could do it at check in time or even right up to departure (depending on how cooperative the gate staff are).

2. No, because your ticket is only half of £8700. Based on the HFP article, you’ll probably get around 5500 EPs with IB.

3. You will collect Avios in IB, probably the same base amount as in BA (confirm this using the booking class of your flight). As you have no IB status yet you won’t get any status bonus, i.e. the 9k difference between your and your wife’s projected earning. Avios in IB can be moved to BA.

4. Most people who don’t spend huge amounts with BA will find it easier to get status in another FFP, yes.

5. What does your Amex statement say?