I think it goes without saying that there are a lot of people with a lot of Iberia Avios, given the recent promotion for up to 90,000 Iberia Avios.
The Avios expire on December 1, 2018, so you potentially only have a few months left to redeem them. It’s fine if you travel on a later date, but what matters is that you book by then.
If you’re looking for a way to redeem your Avios, Iberia has wide open business class award availability for travel this winter between the US and Madrid. Of course that’s not the ideal time to travel, but this is a great opportunity to plan a getaway with some cheaply acquired Avios. Also keep in mind that Madrid is a gateway to Northern Africa, and that can be a good time of year to travel there.
As a reminder, the Iberia Avios program charges the following number of Avios for transatlantic travel (off-peak and peak):
- 17,000/20,000 Avios for economy or 34,000/50,000 Avios for business class for an itinerary covering 3,000-4,000 miles
- 21,250/25,000 Avios for economy or 42,500/62,500 Avios for business class for an itinerary covering 4,001-5,500 miles
There seems to be wide open business class award availability to/from Chicago between December and April. Every single date in both directions has business class award seats in March, actually (though I imagine that will change shortly).
There’s also pretty good availability out of New York (though it’s not as good).
I’ve reviewed Iberia’s A340 business class, and found the experience to be solid, and I especially like that each seat offers direct aisle access.
Personally I’d recommend using aa.com to search for award availability, and then you can use Iberia’s website to actually book. I only say this because American’s website is much better about displaying availability across weeks at a time, in case that’s how you prefer to search.
The other benefit to redeeming Iberia Avios (rather than British Airways Avios) for travel on Iberia is that they have reasonable surcharges. A roundtrip business class ticket will only cost you about $230 in taxes and carrier imposed surcharges.
68,000 Avios plus $230 in taxes and fees is a heck of a deal, especially given how inexpensively many of us acquired these Avios.
Anyone plan to take advantage of this excellent Iberia award availability?
(Tip of the hat to Monkey Miles)
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