Iberia Plus has just launched one of the best award sales the program has ever offered. Of course that’s only of so much use, given coronavirus and border restrictions.
In this post:
Iberia Plus offering 50% off award tickets
The Iberia Plus program is offering a straightforward 50% off award sale:
- This is valid for bookings made by August 30, 2020
- This is valid for travel between September 1, 2020, and March 15, 2021
- Travel in economy, premium economy, and business class, qualifies
- Travel on Iberia, Iberia Express, and Air Nostrum qualifies for the discount
- There’s no registration required, and the discount should apply automatically when making an award booking
- Update: the promotion page now indicates that this is for residents of Spain, though my account is registered in the US and the lower price automatically shows, so…
We’ve seen Iberia offer discounts on redemptions in the past, though this is by far the best promotion I recall seeing from Iberia, as it’s valid across virtually all routes, and for 50% off.
Get 50% off Iberia Plus awards
How much does Iberia Plus charge for award tickets?
Iberia Plus has a distance based award chart, so here’s a look at both peak and off-peak pricing:
For example, Chicago to Madrid one-way on Iberia would ordinarily cost 17,000 Avios in economy, 25,500 Avios in premium economy, or 34,000 Avios in business class.
During this promotion you’d pay just 8,500 Avios in economy, 12,250 Avios in premium economy, or 17,000 Avios in business class.
The other great thing about Iberia Avios is that carrier imposed surcharges for travel on Iberia are quite low (in contrast to awards booked through British Airways Executive Club). For example, this one-way business class award would cost you just $81.19 in cash.
Best ways to earn Iberia Plus Avios
Fortunately, there are lots of great ways to earn Iberia Avios:
- Iberia Plus often sells Avios with a bonus, which can be quite a good deal; at the moment there’s a 50% bonus on purchased Avios
- Iberia Plus is transfer partners with Amex Membership Rewards, Chase Ultimate Rewards, and Marriott Bonvoy, so there are quite a few ways to earn these points
- You can transfer Avios between Aer Lingus AerClub, British Airways Executive Club, and Iberia Plus, assuming accounts have been open for at least 90 days
On top of that, there are three credit cards issued in the US that earn Avios:
- Aer Lingus Visa Signature® Card (review)
- British Airways Visa Signature® Card (review)
- Iberia Visa Signature® Card (review)
Iberia business class seat
Bottom line
Iberia Plus is offering 50% off award redemptions in all cabins for travel over a nearly six month period. This is one of the best award sales we’ve ever seen from Iberia, as you can travel transatlantic in business class for just 17,000 Avios one-way, plus taxes and fees of under $100.
While that sounds great, of course the major issue continues to be the restrictions on travel. International travel restrictions are constantly changing, which makes planning any travel tough.
Still, some might find it worth making a speculative booking, given the potential upside here. Furthermore, this is also useful for those looking to travel within Europe, where there are fewer restrictions.
Anyone plan on speculatively taking advantage of this Iberia Plus sale, or is there just too much uncertainty?
took the flight november 2021 jfk to mad round trip. JFK iberia employees were beyond rude, opposite to Iberia employees in Spain. Other than that everything else was great!
I gave Iberia a call, they said I could cancel for a small fee, or I could change the dates at no cost, but changing dates could only be done once at no extra cost. They asked for exact dates I wanted, I chose November 2021 hoping travel is allowed by then, it took them a while to make the change, agent said it was due to booking being done with miles. I even added an extra day, everything else stayed the same, same airplane/seating.
Due to the recent developments I am no longer allowed to enter my destination. Does any of you HD experience with changing/cancelling the booking from that offer? Were you able to get a voucher for a flight at a later date? If you were refunded did you get 50% Avios or full price (when booking the flight the account activity shows weird full avios deduction and 50% credit)?
I booked a one way award for March 15, MIA to MAD with Iberia Avios. Iberia appears to not be flying that route on that date now. My reservation still shows on their site. Will they transfer to a partner airline?
@Darren. 900$ ? That way too much!
I booked for feb 2021 business class round trip for me and wife, ended up paying close to 400$
@michael m I agree. I should have had enough avios to cover everything other than taxes, but ended up having to pay over $900 in taxes and some kind of fare/surcharge for my fiance and I to go from new York to Madrid.
First off - success! Need to fly from Switzerland to New York in 3 weeks and booked this for 21,500 avios and $138 in taxes and fees! GVA-MAD-JFK.
Also, for those not seeing the promo - you have to have a Spanish address in your account, and the discounted price will show up at the bottom of the page when you select the flights you want.
From past experiences I sort of frown at the amount of taxes/fees charged by Iberia on awards. People talk about how good the miles are, but not stating how low/high the taxes/fees are.
Has the author actually flown on Iberia? I'm seeing hundreds of terrible reviews online about Iberia saying they have terrible customer service, and aren't a good quality airline.
Transfer Avios: I had Avios in BA. Couldn't transfer to Iberia through the normal route, so I opened an account with AerLingus Aer Club, this allowed me to login to Avios, and then I transferred firstly to Avios.com and then to Iberia. This worked today 26th August.
Address in Spain was required to get the promotion, but this is easy to change on the system.
Iberia has a 50% bonus when you buy Avios, which...
Transfer Avios: I had Avios in BA. Couldn't transfer to Iberia through the normal route, so I opened an account with AerLingus Aer Club, this allowed me to login to Avios, and then I transferred firstly to Avios.com and then to Iberia. This worked today 26th August.
Address in Spain was required to get the promotion, but this is easy to change on the system.
Iberia has a 50% bonus when you buy Avios, which finishes on 27th August, so if you are short of Avios it's worth buying on their site.
@Kristina
Nope - no errors in my case. Just confirmed two Bus Class ORDMAD at about 4:00 CDT. If all goes well on the COVID front, I'll be taking my wife to Spain for Valentines day.
Is anyone else getting an error when trying to book? That Avios is down and to use another payment method? I hope I didn't transfer all these points for nothing. :(
Transferring avios form BA to IB is currently down
Promotion on site now includes USA. Just transferred from my Chase Reserve to book CHI to MAD in Feb 2021.
I am sorry! I made a mistake!! I have my address in another country! I change to my home in Madrid and it is working!!
I live in Madrid, my account is in Spain, I only see normal price for award tickets! I could not find any promo at Iberia Plus, are you sure about this promo?
Initially cannot see the discount. Changed the address to my friend’s in Spain made it work instantly
@JD, I had a flight ORD-MAD back on March 12-20 RT. Had to cancel. Initially asked for a voucher (because I was confused, it was less than 24 hours before my flight was to leave, couldn't reach them through calling and I just wanted some sort of proof that I, indeed, didn't want to fly). It took some emailing and such, but they eventually refunded my Avios to my account and refunded my fees to...
@JD, I had a flight ORD-MAD back on March 12-20 RT. Had to cancel. Initially asked for a voucher (because I was confused, it was less than 24 hours before my flight was to leave, couldn't reach them through calling and I just wanted some sort of proof that I, indeed, didn't want to fly). It took some emailing and such, but they eventually refunded my Avios to my account and refunded my fees to my cc. Most of that 'eventually' was my own doing and I think most of the rest was just that they were overwhelmed with cancellations, etc. in March/April/May.
Agree, I can see Iberia cancelling all awards booked for non-Spanish residents since you're basically circumventing the promotion rules
@Ben, how do you think Iberia will handle rebooking fees for awards? For example, If I book a business class at the award sale price and eventually have to cancel because travel restrictions for Americans are still in place, will they refund the miles or will I have to rebook my trip at a higher miles cost than what was originally booked during the sale? Very tempting, but realistically do not want to loose my miles.
Spanish resident here. Looking at early March flights on MAD-NRT/PVG. Can't see any availability in J to PVG, and there's some on NRT, but at the usual Band 8 rates (59.5k). Beyond the lack of availability, am I missing something that doesn't enable me to see the 50% discount?
I can see Iberia cancelling all the US resident tickets and giving them back their money/points, several months from now.
I just brought up regular USA browser. I have no points in account. Pressed view and said 17k points.
It seems in the terms and conditions that this an "exclusive promotion for Iberia Plus holders residing in Spain." Curious how others are actually accessing this? Perhaps it is possible to change address and get this to work?
Hmmm. this is tempting
6800 avios and $700 return business ord to madrid.... Although I hate the early takeoff time from ORD.....
This is cheaper than Lifemiles lol
@JRich I’m in USA. Using US Iberia page. When I looked up availability using avíos, it didn’t show anything, y had to choose flight then continue and it showed the 50% discount .
@ orlando you can always cancel avios tickets for a €25 fee. Which country is your account located in? Which Iberia page did you use?
NYC to Madrid shows 17k per trip. Seems to be working . Does Iberia refund miles in case ppl still can’t travel to Europe from America ?
It says for residants in Spain only...
@Lukas & Ben which country landing page are you guys using? I now have sufficient avios but can't get the discount from the US, Spanish, nor UK pages. I get all the way to the credit card page and it states the normal avios amounts....
Does the free cancellation policy as mentioned here(https://www.iberia.com/us/en/covid-19/flight-flexibility/) apply to award tickets too?
If so, could make it worthwhile to speculatively book some flights based on the hope that a vaccine comes out and makes it possible to travel, then cancel fee-free if the travel restrictions continue to make flying impossible.
Not having enough Avios in your account *is* the problem. I tried round-trip and it came back full price. Doing one-way search (I have 28,000 Avios) shows the right price of 17,000 Avios.
@All, works for me just fine.
@Ben I don't have the required avios in my account so perhaps that's the problem....
@Andy & @Scandinavian Traveler -- In the search results, you'll see 34,000 for business. However, if you don't have enough Avios in your Iberia account (like me), scroll down and you'll see an option to buy Avios. You'll see 17,000 Avios + $69 is an option to buy the Avios required to book. If you search dates outside the promo period, you'll see an option for 34,000 Avios + $69. It's a bit confusing since...
@Andy & @Scandinavian Traveler -- In the search results, you'll see 34,000 for business. However, if you don't have enough Avios in your Iberia account (like me), scroll down and you'll see an option to buy Avios. You'll see 17,000 Avios + $69 is an option to buy the Avios required to book. If you search dates outside the promo period, you'll see an option for 34,000 Avios + $69. It's a bit confusing since they don't list the correct award rate in the search results.
BOS-MAD on 1/20 for example. Still showing 34k for J
I tried Tokyo, Miami and Chicago. None of them worked. I have 0 Avios in Iberia Plus and Combine My Avios is currently out of function, so I cannot move across any from BA, but going as far as I can with the booking without any Avios it is still requiring the full amount of Avios.
I'm not seeing the 50% discount. Trying to book a flight in January. Do I need to register somewhere?
I can't seem to replicate this. It is showing full price for all redemptions, even the one used as an example in this article. Have tried both Spanish, US and Danish point of sale.
@ Scandinavian Traveler @ Andy -- There's no registration required. What routes are you searching, and are you going through to the booking page to see the discount?
@Ben are there black out dates around Christmas? I am only seeing standard avios amounts for flights between Madrid and Brazil in December 2020....
@ JRich -- There should be no blackout dates. What routes are you searching? I just searched MAD-GRU and on December 18 it shows a price of 62,500 Avios in business class, and once you select the flight and cabin, the price goes down by 50%.
In the past few weeks Iberia has cancelled our award tickets 5 times....
I no longer trust them.