Do Iberia add redemption seats short notice?

[TimM]

I am looking to redeem Avios for Iberia business class Madrid-Sao Paulo. I have been checking since November for my date and there never has been any availability. There are at least 4 seats available for cash but none for Avios. Do Iberia have a habit of releasing redemption seats short notice?

Many thanks.

[meta]

They usually don’t, but you might be lucky.

[gtellez]

Very weird, especially in business class; in economy they some time release many seats, but business is usually 2 per flight, and once have been booked nothing else is added. However if those seats are cancelled, they are normally directly available to be booked again (I have done it a couple of times in the past to take advantage of promotions that came later). So you can keep checking and hope for some cancellations around your dates.

[TimM]

Thanks for the replies. I yielded and booked a day earlier to get the business seats with Avios. What hurt me is not having to pay for a hotel in Santos for one night (Ibis – a bargain at £43 inc breakfast) but giving up the Iberia Express flights MAN-MAD for nothing and having to pay £160 pp extra to fly Ryanair!

I took advice and booked two window seats with the cubby hole to the aisle side, two rows apart. An 11 hour night flight needs some privacy rather than the alternative ‘honeymoon’ position in the centre for two.

It should be a good start of our repo cruise Brazil-Spain – and still the best use of Avios that I know.

[zapato1060]

How early is Iberia redemption inventory released? and is it possible that more redemptions are released if say searching from other Spanish cities?

[JDB]

zapato1060 wrote:

How early is Iberia redemption inventory released? and is it possible that more redemptions are released if say searching from other Spanish cities?

You will find quite a bit of extra availability from domestic Spanish cities and sometimes other nearby ones in southern France but like BA this unfortunately doesn’t appear to make any difference for the return.

[Scott]

zapato1060 wrote:

How early is Iberia redemption inventory released? and is it possible that more redemptions are released if say searching from other Spanish cities?

It’s around D-360, i.e. 5 before BA have it available. Which is a bit of a pain for the new use of 241 vouchers on Iberia, as it has to be booked via BA.

[brian]

Based on the above, am I right in thinking that there are only 2 redeemable Business class seats on Iberia flights and that they are available on Iberia for a short time before becoming available on the BA system ?

I had grand plans of using two 2-4-1 vouchers to try get 3 seats from Madrid to Sao Paulo but on further investigation

– getting any Business availability is a challenge
– getting 3 seats may now be virtually impossible

[Scott]

My feeling is that it’s 2 seats but don’t know if this is a hard and fast rule

And yes, they’re available to book directly on Iberia for 5 days before you’d be able to use your 241 with BA. If you log into the Iberia site today you’ll be able to see what’s available for the furthest out date and then watch to see if it changes over the next few days before they hit ba.com

One thing I would say is they don’t seem to get snapped up as quickly as when BA release their own rewrd seats, but I guess this depends on the popularity of the destination.

[brian]

Thanks, looking at both Iberia and BA sites with this newly discovered information regarding the limit of 2 seats and it’s all becoming a bit clearer. I am seeing decent availability for 2 seats but obviously none for 3. This really messes up my plan for using 2 x 2-4-1 to get my child, wife and I over to Sao Paulo with those very reasonable rates when starting from Madrid.

This article says

Iberia guarantees to release Avios seats for all flights but does not commit to a specific number in each class

but it looks like it’s just 2.

https://www.headforpoints.com/2023/01/16/how-do-british-airways-american-express-2-4-1-vouchers-work/

I assume the 2-4-1 offers no mechanism for opening up other seats on Iberia or Aer Lingus and it’s just BA.

Back to the drawing board.

[meta]

I’ve sometimes seen more than 2 seats on routes to Lima, Bogota and Santiago. Didn’t check Brazil, but I guess there are no clear rules with Iberia.

[brian]

Thanks, we haven’t yet earned the vouchers so any redemption would be a long time away. I’m just trying to way up a way to maximise value and 3 business class tickets to GRU with Iberia seems like it would be ideal.

Will keep a close eye on both BA and Iberia over the coming months. I believe there’s not third party app that helps with Iberia availability?