40% bonus Avios on transfers from Marriott Rewards and MeliaRewards

Two transfer promotions have been launched by Iberia Plus for anyone who wants to convert their hotel points to Avios.

You will need an Iberia Plus account in order to take part.  If you don’t have one, you can open one for free at iberia.com.  Note, though, that you cannot move Avios from an Iberia account to a BA account until the Iberia account has been open for 90 days.

Marriott Rewards

Iberia is offering a 40% bonus when you convert your Marriott Rewards points to Avios.  Full details can be found on the Iberia website here.

You need to initiate the conversion by 31st October.  The minimum transfer out of Marriott is 10,000 points = 2,000 Avios.

The ratio gets better if you convert a larger amount as you can see on the Marriott website here.  At the higher levels, the deal looks pretty good.

70,000 Marriott Rewards points, for example, are worth 25,000 Avios.  With the extra 40% bonus, you would receive 35,000 Avios.

I tend to value a Marriott point at 0.5p.  If you also value an Avios point at 1p, the 40% bonus means – at the 70,000 point level – you are not losing any value by transferring into Avios.  This is a very good result.  There are very few occasions when it makes sense to move hotel points into airline miles if you have enough hotel points for a free night.

It seems that Marriott’s ‘Hotel & Air’ packages would also qualify although this is not specifically stated.  I doubt that Iberia would be able to tell the difference between a standard miles conversion and a package redemption.

MeliaRewards

Of more niche interest, Iberia is also offering a 40% bonus on transfers from MeliaRewards into Avios points.

You can find out more details here.  I am not an expert on the Melia scheme so I can’t say if this offers good value or not.  However, if you have a small quantity of Melia points sitting around without any plans for them, this may be a good opportunity to clear them out.  The deadline for this deal is also October 31st.

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 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 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:

British Airways Accelerating Business American Express

30,000 Avios sign-up bonus – plus annual bonuses of up to 30,000 Avios Read our full review

Click here to read our detailed summary of all UK credit cards which earn Avios. This includes both personal and small business cards.

(Want to earn more Avios?  Click here to visit our home page for our latest articles on earning and spending your Avios points and click here to see how to earn more Avios this month from offers and promotions.)