The peak and off-peak Avios redemption calendars for 2019

British Airways, Iberia and Aer Lingus have released their peak and off-peak Avios redemption calendars for the whole of 2019 which you can see below and in our 2nd article today.

There is a permanent link to this article in the HfP menu bar if you need to refer to it later.

There are substantial differences between the two main calendars for BA and Iberia. Especially when travelling during school holidays on a route served by both by BA and Iberia, it may well be cheaper to book on Iberia.

If, for example, you want to travel on British Airways in April 2019, you will be paying the peak Avios price from 5th April until 23rd April. However, if you look at the Iberia calendar, you can see that Iberia’s peak period is only from 17th – 22nd (as well as 12th + 13th and 26th +27 th).

There are also differences around February half-term. The whole month of February is off peak for Iberia whilst BA has peak days between 15th and 18th as well as 21st and 24th February.

For example, Saturday 10th February is peak for BA and off-peak for Iberia. On that day, a Club World return from London to New York would be 120,000 Avios return (peak BA price).  In comparison flying from Madrid to New York on the same day would be only 68,000 Avios return (off-peak Iberia price).  The taxes and charges would also be £380 lower on the Iberia ticket as long as you book it via the Iberia website (£537 v £157).

The summer holidays peak season starts earlier on Iberia (19th June) and ends one week after BA.

The days around Christmas are also interesting as BA sees the full second half of December as a peak travel time whereas Iberia sees 25th and 26th December as off-peak dates.

For clarity …. these charts apply irrespective of which website you book on.  If you book an Iberia redemption on ba.com, it still uses the Iberia peak and off-peak chart.  Similarly a BA redemption book on iberia.com will use the BA chart.  You should still ensure that Iberia redemptions are booked on iberia.com as the taxes and charges are usually substantially lower.

There is a separate article with the Aer Lingus 2019 peak and off-peak Avios calendar which is here.

British Airways calendar:

(green=peak, blue=off peak / click to enlarge)

2018

2019

Iberia calendar:

2018

2019

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.)