Iberia launches Avios sale – 50% off 17 business class routes & 50% off London

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I spent some time on Thursday and Friday looking at the British Airways and avios.com November sales. These offer redemption flights from £1 of tax on short-haul and a 25%-50% discount on selected economy long-haul routes.

BA’s sister company, Iberia, is having an Avios redemption sale of its own.

The most interesting part of the deal is that 17 business class routes are on offer at a 50% discount. These are:

40,000 Avios return: Chicago, Luanda

50,000 Avios return: Mexico, Guatemala, San Salvador, Panama, San Jose, Caracas, Bogotá, Quito, Guayaquil, Lima, Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paulo

60,000 Avios return: Santiago, Montevideo, Buenos Aires

You should remember that taxes on Iberia redemptions are 75% lower than the taxes on a similar British Airways redemption. A return business class flight to Santiago is just 60,000 Avios plus €191.

Here is the small print:

All of these prices are for flights from Madrid

The discount pricing will only appear if you book direct Madrid to XXXX flights. Any connection from London to Madrid must be booked separately.

One-way tickets can be booked for half the above numbers

The deadline for booking is November 15th

You must travel between December 1st and January 31st

You must have an Iberia Plus account to book these deals. You can move your Avios from avios.com or ba.com to Iberia.com for free, instantly, via ‘Combine Your Avios’. This is only possible if your Iberia Plus account is 90 days old AND has earned at least 1 Avios point.

(If you don’t have an Iberia Plus account, I would recommend you open one and try to earn 1 Avios point in it – credit a BA flight or move some hotel points or Amex points – so that you are able to take advantage of these offers the next time they come up.)

You can book these deals at iberia.com here.

Get 50% off short haul too

Iberia is also offering 50% off the following short-haul routes from Madrid in economy and business class. The economy prices are:

4,500 Avios return: Barcelona, La Coruna, Bilbao, Oviedo, Santander, Lisbon, Geneva, Oran, Algiers, Casablanca

7,500 Avios return: Gran Canaria (Las Palmas), Paris, London, Brussels, Venice, Rome, Milan, Munich, Zurich, Prague, Vienna

10,000 Avios return: Athens, Moscow, Istanbul, Dakar

12,500 Avios return: Tel Aviv, Lagos, Malabo

You will see that London is included. However, it is NOT a no-brainer to book a flight to Madrid via Iberia.

Using ba.com, a one-way to Madrid in economy is 7,500 Avios + £17.50. Using iberia.com it is (in the sale, booking Blue class) 3,750 Avios + £45.15. This big price gap opens up because Iberia does NOT have Reward Flight Saver.

Using ba.com, a one-way from Madrid in economy is 7,500 Avios + £17.50. Using iberia.com it is (in the sale) 3,750 Avios + £16.40.

The logical thing to do is therefore to book your flight TO Madrid on ba.com and your return flight home on iberia.com!

Don’t forget that, if you want to come back in business class, some Iberia flights to London are operated by A330 aircraft with fully flat beds in business. This is DEFINITELY worth spending the extra 7,500 Avios over economy class.

How to earn Avios points from UK credit cards

How to earn Avios from UK credit cards (December 2021)

As a reminder, there are various ways of earning Avios points from UK credit cards. Many cards also have generous sign-up bonuses!

There are two official British Airways American Express cards with attractive sign-up bonuses:

British Airways BA Amex American Express card

British Airways American Express

5,000 Avios for signing up, no annual fee and an Economy 2-4-1 voucher for spending ….. Read our full review

British Airways BA Premium Plus American Express Amex credit card

British Airways American Express Premium Plus

25,000 Avios and the UK’s most valuable credit card perk – the 2-4-1 companion voucher Read our full review

You can also get generous sign-up bonuses by applying for American Express cards which earn Membership Rewards points, such as:

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold

Your best beginner’s card – 20,000 points, FREE for a year & two airport lounge passes Read our full review

The Platinum Card from American Express

30,000 points and an unbeatable set of travel benefits – for a fee Read our full review

Run your own business?

We recommend Capital On Tap for limited companies. You earn 1 Avios per £1 which is impressive for a Visa card, along with a sign-up bonus worth 10,500 Avios:

Capital On Tap Business Rewards Visa

The most generous Avios Visa or Mastercard for a limited company Read our full review

You should also consider the British Airways Accelerating Business credit card. This is open to sole traders as well as limited companies and has a 30,000 Avios sign-up bonus: