BAH still best to BAC not Iberia Plus?

[Apple53]

Dear All

My first post as a newish member.
Thanks in advance, therefore.

We have begun to pursue the Iberia elite points approach for all BA and Iberia flights, due to a more generous scheme and our increasing time in Spain. (except for our young son who only has a BAC account – Iberia is more complex to get an account for him).

However, we have recently booked a British Airways Holiday (BAH) c. £3k spend for 3 of us. I believe with BAC we would get 1000 tier points each (our son is more than 2). As far as I can see Iberia would give me/us less, at 10% of the avios granted, so even though this may include the bonus avios for the lead traveller, this must surely be less than with BAC. However, if I have no chance of getting BA status, maybe I am better off using Iberia Plus number anyway? Can anyway confirm the Elite point calculation for such a BAH?

Or strategically maybe we should divide our approach and I go for BAC status and my Spanish wife for Iberia Plus status?

Do I have to decide before the outbound flight or can I remove all numbers and do a clawback within, say, a month?

Many thanks

[JDB]

@Apple53 – the flights within your BAH would credit to Iberia for both points and Avios in the ordinary way – based on the price paid (and they can see it even if you can’t) if it’s on BA/AA/IB or Iberia’s grid if another airline. You get no credit with Iberia for any hotel/car in the BAH. I think removing all the numbers and hoping to do a retro claim is a pretty high risk strategy.

[nike85]

I wonder if it’s possible to have the BAH points (hotel/car etc) deposited into BA Club account, but record Iberia frequent flyer number on the flights for tier point/status earnings purposes?

[JDB]

nike85 wrote:

I wonder if it’s possible to have the BAH points (hotel/car etc) deposited into BA Club account, but record Iberia frequent flyer number on the flights for tier point/status earnings purposes?

No, for BAH, it’s all or nothing, not ‘pick n mix’.

[LittleNick]

If crediting to IB though, how do they portion out the value for the flights if it’s based on spend as we only see the final package price?

[JDB]

LittleNick wrote:

If crediting to IB though, how do they portion out the value for the flights if it’s based on spend as we only see the final package price?

Iberia knows the price you paid, even if you don’t (though it’s usually not difficult for the passenger to extrapolate the price). While it’s new in relation to nTPs, the award of revenue based Avios has worked on this basis for some time.

[Apple53]

Dear JDB and others

Thank you for posting back. I didn’t check til just now since I didn’t expect this, my first post, to be accepted until Monday morning.

So depending on how the holiday discount is allocated, I would guess the flight is no more than half the booking price in our case. So broadly I can get Iberia Elite points associated with nearly half the booking price for me specifically, (plus any Iberia segment bonus, I guess 1 or 2 segments in economy) or BA Tier points associated with the sterling value for me specifically (presumably without segment bonus). I think I would get fewer avios using my Iberia number (the BAH booking mentions some ‘bonus avios’ for example).

I will try the Iberia whatsapp chat to see if they can confirm.

Thanks again.

[JDB]

@Apple53 – if you credit to Iberia, you will only get the value of your own flights credited, not those of anyone else on the booking. Each other passenger likewise. Nobody will get anything for car/hotel etc.

If you credit to BA, you will get the total spend divided equally between each passenger plus potentially a TP cabin bonus.

[AndrewC]

You don’t say which type of BA Holiday you purchased, which may be important.

If you buy online and start by choosing a flight-only itinerary, and then once you confirm this you then add a hotel/car hire on their upselling webpage, then in this case a breakdown of flight and hotel/car hire costs are available to you both during the sales process and on your receipt.

I think if you purchase by any other means (ie, online via the Flight+Hotel, Flight+Car or Custom Trip links), or by telephone, then there is no cost breakdown, neither pre-sale nor on your receipt.

Let’s assume that your existing booking falls into the no cost breakdown category.

Credit To Iberia Plus
According to their webpage, ‘where the paid fare is not disclosed or unavailable, including flights booked as part of a British Airways Holiday package’:
– Avios = flight distance in miles x fare class multiplier x Iberia Plus status multiplier. No BA Holiday bonus.
– Tier Points (elite points) is based on distance bracket and fare class. For example, if your £1000 holiday is a premium economy flight to somewhere 3001-6000 miles away, then that would be 900 tier points each way per passenger. There may be a small bonus based on class and whether or not the flight is > 3000 miles, but this is unclear.

Credit To BA Club
– Avios = flight distance in miles x fare class multiplier x BA Club status multiplier. Add to this a one avios per pound bonus on the entire booking cost for the lead passenger only.
– Tier Points are, as the initial post stated, one tier point per pound spent on the entire booking (divided by the number of passengers), so 1000 in this case (assuming a no cost breakdown holiday). There is also a small bonus per segment that varies on booking class, assuming that everyone has registered.

For Avios, the lead passenger (only) would be 3000 better off crediting to BA, which is probably not a huge consideration in the grand scheme of things. For tier points we would need to know the itinerary in order to properly compare.

But I would ask the OP – if there’s no hope of achieving BA Club status, then why is this even a consideration? Unless there’s equally no hope of Iberia Club status and it’s just about getting maximum Avios?