Chase Adds 2 Transfer Partners: Iberia and Aer Lingus

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When you have a Chase Sapphire Preferred Card, a Sapphire Reserve or Chase Ink Business Preferred Credit Card,
you can transfer your points to airline miles or hotel points. If you have other Ultimate Rewards-earning cards you can transfer them to your Sapphire Preferred or Ink Preferred cards and onto miles as well.

The transfer partners have been:

  • Airlines: United, British Airways, Korean Air, Air France KLM, Southwest, Singapore, Virgin Atlantic
  • Hotels:Hyatt, Marriott, Ritz-Carlton, IHG

Chase has just added two transfer airline partners (HT: IadisGr8): Air Lingus and Iberia.

These are both Avios programs, and you already could transfer from Chase to British Airways and from British Airways to Iberia or Aer Lingus, however to do so your Iberia or Aer Lingus account had to:

  1. Have been open for 90 days
  2. Have had some points-earning activity

Chase’s move to add both Iberia and Aer Club means you no longer have these restrictions. I haven’t found Aer Lingus Aer Club to have usefulness beyond what British Airways and Iberia offers, it seems like they built Aer Club to eventually just be folded into a broader Avios program. However there are real sweet spots in the Iberia program.

  • Low fuel surcharges redeeming on Iberia flights. If you use British Airways Avios for Chicago – Madrid roundtrip you’ll pay $956 in fuel surcharges. Using Iberia points instead it’s under $150.

  • Cheaper awards. Boston and New York – Madrid costs just 34,000 points each way in business class outside peak season using Iberia. Miami costs just a bit more. You save miles and money booking through Iberia.


Iberia Business Class

Here are the Iberia metal off-peak and peak award chart prices:

I’ve had great success using Iberia Avios to redeem business class travel on Royal Air Maroc for 94,500 miles roundtrip.

I find their American Airlines redemption chart useful as well. Here’s the pricing:

Chase Sapphire Preferred Card
Chase Ink Business Preferred Credit Card

About Gary Leff

Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel - a topic he has covered since 2002. Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »

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Editorial note: any opinions, analyses, reviews or recommendations expressed in this article are those of the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by any card issuer. Comments made in response to this post are not provided or commissioned nor have they been reviewed, approved, or otherwise endorsed by any bank. It is not the responsibility of advertisers Citibank, Chase, American Express, Barclays, Capital One or any other advertiser to ensure that questions are answered, either. Terms and limitations apply to all offers.

Comments

  1. Hi Gary;

    Aren’t Iberia awards on partners non refundable- in other words , you don’t get the points back if you cancel.

  2. Hi Gary, sometimes I find Iberia to charge more fuel fees.

    8/23/18 20:40-02:25 MIA to ATH via LHR on BA metal
    BA AVIOS pricing is 35,000 Avios + $ 147.37
    Iberia AVIOS pricing is 35,000 Avios + $ 179.28

    Can you do an article with when Iberia avios is cheaper fees than BA avios?
    Or is it just flight by flight?

  3. How did you have success booking Royal Air Maroc award using Iberia Avios ?? Iberia’s agent seem to be lacking training about booking Royal Air Maroc awards.

Comments are closed.