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Iberia is a oneworld airline based in Spain with an underrated fully flat business class product. They’re owned by IAG, the same airline that owns British Airways, and they’re a oneworld partner of American Airlines.
The great thing about Iberia is that when you use Iberia Avios to redeem for Iberia flights they charge fewer miles than British Airways or American does and they do not add usurious fuel surcharges. What’s more they occasionally discount their already reasonable award prices.
For a long time I would suggest that you open an Iberia account even if you didn’t plan to use one. That’s because once an Iberia account has been open for 90 days and has earned at least one mile (there are sometimes opportunities to earn a few miles for free) you can move British Airways Avios over to Iberia and make them move valuable.
Now, however, not only does American Express Membership Rewards transfer directly to Iberia but so does Chase Ultimate Rewards. So your Chase Sapphire Preferred Card and Ink Business Preferred Credit Card transfer right to Iberia.
Right now Iberia is discounting many awards 25% (HT: Ultima Llamada via God Save the Points).
- Boston and Chicago – Madrid are 51,000 points roundtrip in business class (or 25,500 points roundtrip in economy)
- Full taxes and fees will run ~ $215 roundtrip for a business class roundtrip
- Using “miles and money” an economy roundtrip can be as low as $418 and 6400 points roundtrip though of course we sometimes see transatlantic flights around $400 and those earn miles.
Book by January 31 for travel between February 1 and May 15 (excluding March 24-31). Availability is an issue so make sure the flights you want are available before transferring points.
They offered a similar deal back in the spring and have done so several times in the past, so this may not be the last time we see it.
By the way another option to cross the Atlantic for under 100,000 Iberia Avios, regularly very available, is to redeem for Royal Air Maroc flights to Casablanca.
Are there options to book a lap infant seat for these fares?
Why blow the miles for a short trip w/o much shut eye time (unless you skip the meals) Unless you are flying West of The Mississippi . From The EC Id fly in Y and save the miles
Did the Iberia business product back/forth Miami to Madrid this past spring and while the hard product was fairly good, the service and food in particular left a lot to be desired.
Can you hold an award until the points transfer go through? I don’t want to risk transferring UR points only to find out that the award is no longer available.
Can you hold an award until the points transfer goes through? I don’t want to risk transferring UR points only to find out that the award is no longer available.
@Al Just book the ticket and then call the airline to have the lap infant added to your reservation. I believe you are charged taxes and fees for “full fare” ticket at that time. Regardless, it’s very easy. Our daughter is about to turn two, but for over 60 flights, I would always just book flights and then add the infant to the reservation later. Much easier than trying to do it online in many instances.
Since Amex has transfer bonuses occasionally, it is easy to get these flights reasonably. When there was a 40% Amex bonus I booked this flight for 49K MR’s. If you can catch both an Iberia sale and an Amex transfer together, it would be 40K or less.
Last month a helpful BA agent helped me find seats for a one way from Lisbon to LAX, when I couldn’t find any on the website. They were on Iberia. So I checked Iberia and it was fewer Avios, 51500 plus $177 compared to 58000 plus $331. I just checked and Iberia shows now availability now during my dates, so the sale doesn’t help. Maybe it has to be RT?
But it was tricky to transfer the Avios. First when it didn’t work, they told me I needed point activity on my account first or the Avios wouldn’t transfer from BA. So I transfered a few Chase points. Still didn’t work. Then they said the only way to activate the account for transfers was to actually fly, or to buy Avios from Iberia. So I purchased the smallest number of miles I could. Then I was able to transfer the Avios from BA.
@qofmiwok the sale is for specific routes, the US routes are Boston and Chicago that I mentioned
Trying to book for early April MAD-ORD but can’t get the 51k return promo rates to show for a J booking (or the promo rate for Y even) and only seeing the standard 68k. Am I missing a step?
Is round trip required or can you do one way for half? I guess that’s a question both for this deal and for Iberia in general