Bits: Iberia launches 50% ‘buy Avios’ bonus, Delta adding fuel surcharges to Virgin redemptions?

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News in brief:

Iberia launches a 50% ‘buy Avios’ bonus

Last week we saw a 50% bonus if you bought Avios points via British Airways Executive Club, AerClub or avios.com.

Iberia has launched its own 50% bonus Avios offer as you can see from this page. You need to log in to see the discounted prices.

The Iberia system is a little odd as you can only buy certain numbers of points. Once you get beyond 10,000 Avios then it must be a multiple of 5,000 Avios, pre bonus.

The maximum you can buy is 100,000 Avios – 150,000 with the bonus – for €1,800. That works out at £1,565 so, basically, exactly 1p at the top end if you use a credit card with no foreign exchange fees.

I am not a buyer at this price. I explained my logic in my article on the BA 50% bonus last week. If you regret missing out last week, however, this is your second chance. The offer runs until 1st June.

Remember that you cannot transfer Avios out of an Iberia Plus account until it is 90 days old, so there is no point opening one purely to take part in this offer. If you don’t have an Iberia Plus account, I strongly recommend opening one so that you will have one which is older than 90 days in case a good Iberia offer comes along.

Delta adding surcharges to Virgin Atlantic redemptions?

If you have been crediting Virgin Atlantic flights to Delta SkyMiles because of the lack of fuel surcharges on Virgin Atlantic redemptions, you should take note.

Over the weekend, ‘carrier imposed surcharges’ of over $900 return suddenly appeared on Virgin Atlantic return flights from the US to the UK. There are already such surcharges imposed on Virgin redemptions using Delta miles if you fly FROM the UK to US, which is why it makes sense for UK residents with Delta accounts to book Virgin Atlantic redemptions as 2 x one-ways. This means that you avoid the surcharge on the return flight.

These surcharges disappeared on Monday. Given Delta’s track record – which this US article summarises nicely – it is likely that they are about to introduce this change and were either testing the functionality or it went live too early.

You really shouldn’t be putting flights into Delta SkyMiles in any case. The programme has become a bit of a joke in recent years. Delta doesn’t even publish reward charts any longer and randomly hikes the price of reward flights every few months, with no prior – or even post event – notice.

How to earn Virgin Points from UK credit cards (December 2021)

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

You can choose from two official Virgin Atlantic credit cards (apply here, one has a bonus of 15,000 points):

Virgin Atlantic Reward Mastercard

The UK’s most generous free Visa or Mastercard at 0.75 points / £1 Read our full review

Virgin Atlantic Reward+ Mastercard

15,000 points bonus and the most generous non-Amex for day to day spending Read our full review

You can also earn Virgin Points from various American Express cards – and these have sign-up bonuses too.

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold is FREE for a year and comes with 20,000 Membership Rewards points, which convert into 20,000 Virgin Points: