Bits: interesting Iberia / Avis deal, 1950’s BA amenity kits

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News in brief:

Intriguing Iberia / Avis promotion

Iberia and Avis have launched an interesting new promotion to win a share of 25,000,000 Avios.

This is how it works. You book and complete an Avis rental, anywhere in the world, between 1st and 31st July. You then go to this website and input the 11-digit booking reference.

You will instantly receive a prize of between 250 and 100,000 Avios into your Iberia Plus account.

In theory you must be based in Spain to play. However, it may well work for others unless Iberia is blocking the posting of miles to non-Spanish accounts.

Here is the odd thing. The rules make no mention of having to credit the original rental to Iberia. In theory, you can take an Avis rental you credited to another airline, put the number into this website and claim some Iberia Plus Avios too.

Will it work …..? If anyone has booked and completed an Avis rental this month, please give it a go and let us know.

Old 1950’s BA amenity kits

Reader Kate – who, bizarrely, recognised me in a remote Austrian ski hotel when we were away in February – was at the IWM Duxford (the Duxford Air Museum) recently and kindly sent me these pictures of old British Airways amenity kits from the 1950’s.

For the man (click to enlarge – you should be able to read the notes):

and for the woman:

Things have definitely gone downhill since then …. although I haven’t seen the new Liberty First Class bags yet. I found out last week that Anika got one on the British Airways press flight at Easter but it never made it into the office.

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:

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.)

Category

Avis and Avis Preferred, British Airways and Avios, Iberia and Iberia Plus

This article is closed to new posts. Discussion continues in the HfP Forums.

Nishant Tharani says:

10 Jul10 July 04:31

OT: I’m aware (through helpful comments here) that the amex MR and Avios cards can be churned every 6 months. Can the SPG card also be churned every 6 months in the same way? Finding it tough to get the info from the T&C. thanks!
- Matt says:
  
  10 Jul10 July 04:44
  
  Yes. I’ve done it several times, most recently last week…you can also exchange MR points for SPG points at 2:1 if you want to boost your SPG balance.
  - Oh! Matron! says:
    
    10 Jul10 July 08:30
    
    Have just cancelled my Plat Amex after 14 years.
    
    retention offer was double points for the next few days so I could away and think about it≥ Really quite poor considering http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/american-express-membership-rewards/1812751-american-express-retention-offers-14.html
    
    So, I’ll churn instead….
    
    (Seems a little peevish, but the £450 is quite a lot when there’s an imminent house purchase 🙂 )
Phillip says:

10 Jul10 July 04:42

I’m not surprised, regarding BA Holidays. BA’s IT fares through agents, as a rule, were mostly only valid with ground product that covers the entire duration of the holiday. On rare occasions you could get a discounted fare with ground product covering 3 days.
- Tom says:
  
  10 Jul10 July 06:35
  
  Brittany Ferries used to have a similar loophole which unfortunately they closed a couple of years ago. It used to be a brilliant source of cheap ferries – especially with an early departure from France requiring a short overnight stop the night before..so 1 night in a hotel didn’t even go to waste 🙂
johnny_c-l says:

10 Jul10 July 05:47

Tried the Avis / Iberia promo with a walk-up rental from earlier this week where I hadn’t used any FF number.

Couldn’t get it to work, just kept highlighting the section where it says to enter an 11 digit number.

Must be for pre-booked rentals only I assume.
Frank says:

10 Jul10 July 05:50

I just tried it with my Avios booking completed on July 2nd and it says I won 500 Avios.

Will try with the one completed last night. Question is is they actually arrive in my account..
Mike says:

10 Jul10 July 05:59

Re Churning , once you cancel an amex card, do you still have access to old statements etc?
- mark2 says:
  
  10 Jul10 July 06:38
  
  Not through your online account.
- Charlie says:
  
  10 Jul10 July 06:39
  
  Yes
  - Charlie says:
    
    10 Jul10 July 06:41
    
    I have full statement access to my SPG Card that I cancelled a few months back. If you don’t remove the card from your online login it’s still there to view.
- Genghis says:
  
  10 Jul10 July 06:41
  
  No. Download them all before you cancel
  - Roger says:
    
    10 Jul10 July 07:20
    
    No, don’t think you have online access.
    You get a red exclamation mark against card to say it is cancelled.
    Download PDF statements before you cancel the card.
    - Charlie says:
      
      10 Jul10 July 07:44
      
      Well, downloading them will obviously save any hassle. But you certainly do retain access to cancelled cards (even with the red exclamation mark). You can still view the old transactions and even the proper statements. I looked just a minute ago at my Amex account.
      
      Now Barclaycard, that’s a different story! They told me I’d be able to access for six months but access was revoked the moment I cancelled.
      - Genghis says:
        
        10 Jul10 July 12:32
        
        Amex Plat / Gold you certainly can’t see statements. All you can see is balance and “make payment”.
      - John says:
        
        10 Jul10 July 14:45
        
        Which expired cards (statements) can you see exactly? I’m like Genghis, I can’t see old statements.
      - Charlie says:
        
        10 Jul10 July 20:00
        
        @John
        I can see SPG and BA.
- Alan says:
  
  10 Jul10 July 13:05
  
  You can’t access PDF statements anymore, but I’ve found the app still lets you access all your previous transactions – website doesn’t seem as keen to let you do that though.
  - Hidehi says:
    
    11 Jul11 July 05:33
    
    I have never been able to access statements on a cancelled amex card. and I have cancelled a lot of them in my time.
    - Alan says:
      
      11 Jul11 July 08:33
      
      Same for statements as I said, but can you access transactions via the app?
Anna says:

10 Jul10 July 06:05

I’ve highlighted the different terms for booking full stays and part stays a couple of times recently, but been contradicted! This has been the case for at least three years, as I spoke with BA customer services when trying to book a package back in 2014 and was told that in order to benefit from package terms, either the hotel stay or the car hire element of the holiday had to be for the full duration. I had started to think BA were just having a downer on me!
mark2 says:

10 Jul10 July 06:39

The BA First wash bag was surprisingly small when we travelled last month.
- AVM says:
  
  10 Jul10 July 08:47
  
  Did you mean “unsurprisingly small”?
the real harry1 says:

10 Jul10 July 07:12

the IB/Avis comp is for permanent residents in Spain only – might be an idea to change your address to a Spanish one for a few weeks
- The Original Nick says:
  
  10 Jul10 July 07:54
  
  Harry, Any ideas of an address I can use in Spain? I’m a winner.
  - the real harry1 says:
    
    10 Jul10 July 07:59
    
    just look up any hotel eg
    Hermosilla 2 | Plaza De Colon, 28001 Madrid, Spain
    - The Original Nick says:
      
      10 Jul10 July 08:10
      
      Thanks Harry.
    - Genghis says:
      
      10 Jul10 July 12:34
      
      I stayed on Calle de Hermosilla a couple of weeks ago