How to move Avios from Britsh Airways to Iberia (and vice versa)

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This is your step by step to moving Avios points from British Airways Executive Club to Iberia Plus, or vice versa. It is a process that is far more difficult than it should be.

The migration from Avios Travel Rewards Programme to British Airways Executive Club is underway. The first batch of avios.com accounts have already been closed and the rest will be done over the next couple of months.

One common question that comes up is this:

“When my Avios Travel Rewards Programme account is closed, how will I be able to move Avios from British Airways Executive Club to Iberia Plus? ‘Combine My Avios’ appears to be permanently broken when you try to go directly from BA to Iberia or vice versa.”

The good news is that you are not doomed to pay the price for Avios’s IT failure.

If you want to move Avios between BA and Iberia in the future, you will need to open an Aer Lingus Aer Club or Vueling Club account. The reason this works is that both of these schemes use the avios.com IT platform and you can use it as a conduit between British Airways Executive Club and Iberia Plus.

Here is a worked example using Aer Lingus Aer Club, although Vueling Club works the same way:

Visit the Aer Lingus website here and click on ‘Join Aer Club’ under the Aer Club dropdown menu

Fill in your name and email, using the same email address you use for BA Executive Club and Iberia Plus

You will be asked if you have an Avios account. Say ‘No’.

Fill in your address – again, this needs to match your BA and Iberia details

Create a username and password to use on avios.com – use a non-alphanumeric character even though it is not required

(Aer Club and avios.com do not have the same requirements for what must be included in your password. This is despite the fact that you will be logging into both websites using the same details. Your Aer Club password will be rejected by avios.com unless you include a non-alphanumeric character.)

You need to use matching details from your Iberia and BA accounts because that it is the only way to pass the ‘Combine My Avios’ security checks.

So …. my Aer Club account is now happily open:

Off I go to the avios.com website and I log-in by using my new Aer Club details. Under ‘My Account’ it confirms that this is an Aer Club balance:

And I can now do a test transfer. I pull in 1000 Avios from my British Airways Executive Club account using ‘Transfer Avios to / from British Airways or Iberia’ under ‘Your Account’:

…. and then I send them off to Iberia Plus, where they arrived immediately:

I then reversed the process and was able to get the Avios back into my British Airways account without any trouble.

So, good news. Despite the closure of the Avios Travel Rewards Programme, you can still move Avios from British Airways to Iberia by opening an Aer Club or Vueling Club account and logging in to avios.com with those details.

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

Aer Lingus and AerClub, British Airways and Avios, Iberia and Iberia Plus

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

Ben says:

23 May23 May 08:55

I had created an AerClub account but linked it with my Avios.com account. Will it work too? I have a BA Household account so this took is jut very useful! I have an error message this morning on Avios.con when trying to Combine my Avios. I hope it is not linked. Any thoughts Rob? Thanks!!
- Rob says:
  
  23 May23 May 09:46
  
  If, under My Account, is says you are an Aer Club member (like the screenshot I took) then you’re fine and the account won’t be closed.
  - Ben says:
    
    23 May23 May 13:18
    
    Thanks Rob but indeed that is the weird thing. It does not show the same “You’re a member of…” though I am sure both accounts are linked because this is the same membership number when I log on AerClub website. Am I missing something here? Thanks for your help!
    - Rob says:
      
      23 May23 May 13:28
      
      No idea on that basis! I would sit and wait to see if the Avios account is closed or not, although if you’ve had the emails about the closure then you should assume it will be and so you might need to open another via AerClub.
    - Arcadius says:
      
      23 May23 May 14:42
      
      Ben,
      I started a chat on Avios website and asked them to link my Aer Club and Avios accounts. The next day I had my ‘you’re a member of..” badge showing on.
      Regards
    - Ben says:
      
      23 May23 May 21:29
      
      Thanks a lot Rob and Arcadius I will try a chat tomorrow then! 😉
- C77 says:
  
  23 May23 May 11:19
  
  I took to twitter posing the household account issue when the closure announcement was made. The avios answer was they were aware of the issue and the only way to get the transfer between IB and BA will be to disband the household account, make the transfer and then make another household account. There are no plans to rework the technology to allow an inter-program transfer when part of or head of a household account. Suffice to say I responded that this is a somewhat user unfriendly work around.
Steve Blower says:

23 May23 May 09:03

What if, like me, you are already a member of Aerclub? Do I have to delete this and start again?
- Rob says:
  
  23 May23 May 09:45
  
  No, you’re fine. That account won’t be closed.
- Jay says:
  
  23 May23 May 10:27
  
  +1
  - Rob says:
    
    23 May23 May 10:36
    
    No. If you log in to avios.com using your AerClub details it should show under ‘Your Account’ that you are an AerClub member, which means your account won’t be closed.
Drolma-la says:

23 May23 May 09:28

Clicking the button ‘Transfer my Avios’ prominently displayed on the Avios home page returns the message that ‘Combine my Avios is not available at this moment.’
- ColinJE says:
  
  23 May23 May 12:06
  
  |I had that message after I did a transfer from Aerclub to BA, but it worked again after a minute. Keep trying.
  - ColinJE says:
    
    23 May23 May 12:31
    
    Correction, thought it was OK but after I did my transfer it gave me that ‘Combine my Avios is not available at this moment.’ Maybe Rob’s post has flooded them with people doing transfers! Or maybe Avios.com doesn’t like people doing more than one move in 24 hours? I’ll try again later and hope it’s fixed.
Mikeact says:

23 May23 May 10:04

Not strictly related, but, with Summer holidays on the horizon, it may be worth some looking to ‘spend’ Avios on FlyItaly….the old Meridiana outfit. I can’t see a way to combine, but they have some interesting routes. You currently have to call them to make a reward booking, and it’s only 60k Avios to upgrade to their Gold Card….but not sure it’s possible without combining or flying a lot with them.
Perhaps when Rob gets a minute, he could take a look and review.
Jonny says:

23 May23 May 10:27

Slightly OT – can someone confirm if the Lloyds Avios upgrade voucher (for spending £7k) is based on “calendar year” or “card membership year” – I can never quite remember and the T&C’s are unclear.
- Genghis says:
  
  23 May23 May 11:17
  
  Membership. There are (were?) two inconsistent versions of the T&Cs
Scottydoggiom says:

23 May23 May 11:18

I had a bad experience trying to transfer from Iberia to BAEC , they went ‘missing’ . I got an email from Iberia to say that something went wrong and i needed to call them and i should click on the link provided to get a contact number , the link didn’t work ….
I then phoned the number that is on the Iberia plus website , they then said that they could only deal with bookings and not missing Avios problems …….?
Tried some numbers i found on the internet , still didn’t get through to anyone that could help , sent a few emails , got no reply , tried there twitter account and they gave me a different number and i spoke to a guy on the phone who sounded like he half knew what he was talking about . He said he would give me a call in a few days as he had to try and find the missing avios , he never called back ….
After about a week , the Avios showed up !
A great deal of stress
Troubleonline says:

23 May23 May 12:02

Slightly OT and this may have been mentioned but why is there a difference when booking flights with avios on the avios website compared with booking on BA website?

I just looked at a return flight from EDI-LON which is 8,000 avios + £35 on avios. website and 8,000 avios and £54.24 on BA website – exact same flights and times. Almost £20 more in taxes, fees and carrier charges.
- Rob says:
  
  23 May23 May 12:11
  
  You have not earned 1 Avios in BAEC in the last 12 months and so do not qualify for Reward Flight Saver pricing.
- ColinJE says:
  
  23 May23 May 12:12
  
  That’s weird. Were you booking BA flight as a redemption or part-paying with Avios? I thought BA reward saver payment was £35 if it’s economy?
  - ColinJE says:
    
    23 May23 May 12:14
    
    Sorry, Rob just beat me to a reply. As always, it’s much more insightful.
Andrew says:

23 May23 May 12:35

Bit confused… created the Aerclub account and don’t seem to have a username, just a membership number starting 3081… but this doesn’t seem to work for the login to Avios.com. Should it?
- Rob says:
  
  23 May23 May 13:33
  
  You had to create a username during the Aer Club sign-up process – or at least you do now, not sure if you joined earlier. Your 3081 number should work on avios.com – I assume it works on Aer Club?
  - Andrew says:
    
    23 May23 May 15:52
    
    Ah so I did, sorry it was my failing memory. Now that I’m logged in to my Aer Club account on Avios.com, whenever I try to combine my Avios it tells me my session has expired. Pretty sure it’s just a bit of a temporary IT issue because I managed to do a transfer from my old, non-Aer-Club Avios.com account to BAEC this morning. I’ll keep trying. Thanks a lot for the help.