How Santiago shows up the disparities in Avios flight reward pricing – with taxes from £42 to £604

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On Saturday I ran an article on how and why you should book long-haul Avios Business Class redemptions on Iberia via Madrid.

I used New York as an example of how you can get great deals with Iberia (on some days, you’re comparing 68,000 Avios + £155 of taxes on Iberia from Madrid vs 120,000 Avios + £667 of taxes on BA from London!).

A reader recommended I take a look at Santiago in Chile as another example of huge pricing disparities. This route is especially interesting because it also lets you compare a partner airline (LATAM) with very low taxes.

Let’s assume that you want to go to Chile. Even if you DON’T want to go Chile, keep reading because the same principles apply to other Iberia routes such as the six in the USA, Tokyo, Shanghai, Johannesburg etc.

Option 1: Fly British Airways direct from London to Santiago

Santiago is in Zone 8 on the British Airways Avios reward chart. British Airways is being generous here, because the flight is 7,228 miles and it should technically be in Zone 9 and priced the same as Sydney! You pay:

175,000 Avios + £588 of taxes off-peak (see screenshot below)

210,000 Avios + £588 of taxes peak

Option 2: Fly Iberia direct from Madrid to Santiago, booked on ba.com

Even though we are booking this flight on ba.com, it still prices off the Iberia Avios reward chart because it is an Iberia flight. Santiago is in Zone 7 on the Iberia Avios reward chart. Iberia is also being generous here, because the flight is 6,649 miles and it should technically be in Zone 8.

102,000 Avios + £604 of taxes off-peak (see screenshot below)

150,000 Avios + £604 of taxes peak

You also need to add in the cost of getting to/from Madrid on a separate ticket. You won’t save anything in taxes but the Avios saving is chunky. However, don’t book this, because …..

Option 3: Fly Iberia direct from Madrid to Santiago, booked on iberia.com

Let’s be clear here. This is the IDENTICAL flight I just priced above in Option 2, except that I am booking it on the Iberia website instead of the British Airways one.

102,000 Avios + £162 of taxes off-peak (see screenshot below)

150,000 Avios + £162 of taxes peak

This is an astonishing saving of £442 per person in taxes and charges! The ONLY difference is that you are booking the Iberia flight on iberia.com instead of ba.com.

Option 4: Fly LATAM direct from Madrid to Santiago, booked on iberia.com

Finally, here is an option with a partner airline. LATAM is a very respected airline and a oneworld alliance member, with a good business class product. You can check out its website here.

This is what you pay to fly with LATAM. Remember that, as a partner airline, all dates are priced as peak dates:

175,000 Avios + £42 (see screenshot below)

You also need to add in the cost of getting to/from Madrid on a separate ticket. You also need to remember that this ticket is non-refundable because Iberia does not allow changes to redemptions on partner airlines outside BA and Iberia.

Which option is best?

As I said earlier, this article isn’t really about Santiago. It is more about highlighting the huge differences in taxes and charges if you can fly with Iberia instead.

Of course, you can’t use a British Airways American Express 2-4-1 voucher on Iberia, LATAM or any other partners. You will need to pay BA’s taxes and charges.

Even then …..

On a peak British Airways day, two people using a 2-4-1 voucher will be paying 210,000 Avios + £1,176 in taxes and charges to fly from Heathrow to Santiago.

If you DON’T use the voucher, you could either pay 350,000 Avios + £83 on the LATAM flight from Madrid to Santiago, or 300,000 Avios + £324 on the Iberia flight from Madrid.

I would see all three of those options are roughly equal, but of course you’d still have your 2-4-1 voucher for another BA trip.

PS. How do you move Avios from British Airways Executive Club to Iberia Plus?

Here is a quick reminder of how it works:

You need an Iberia Plus account, which you can open at the Iberia website

Your Iberia Plus account MUST be 90 days before it will accept transfers

Your Iberia Plus account MUST have earned 1 Avios before it will accept transfers – the easiest option is moving 1,000 American Express points into it, but you could also credit a hotel stay or a BA or other partner flight or a car rental etc

In theory you can then use ‘Combine My Avios’ on ba.com to do the transfer

If you get error messages, you need to use avios.com as an intermediary. Log in at avios.com, go to ‘Combine My Avios’, pull the Avios from BA and then push them to Iberia

If you no longer have an active avios.com account, go to this page of the Aer Lingus website and open an AerClub account. You can log in to avios.com using 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

British Airways and Avios, Iberia and Iberia Plus, oneworld alliance partners

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

Iberia-business-class-service-sucks says:

1 Apr1 April 06:16

The Avios cost may be a little higher if your Iberia account still has a negative balance after transferring out promo earnings…
- James says:
  
  1 Apr1 April 09:14
  
  I just closed the account after the transfer last year and set up a fresh one. (Y)
  - newpassport says:
    
    1 Apr1 April 22:13
    
    same passport and same address?
Alex W says:

1 Apr1 April 06:20

If you can get an off peak date then Iberia is the clear winner there. Another reason for people in the regions to avoid Heathrow.
Lewis says:

1 Apr1 April 06:21

What do avoid redemptions out of Inverness cost. Trying to work out if it’s worth the three hour drive
- Spurs Debs says:
  
  1 Apr1 April 06:27
  
  Do a mock booking and it will tell you.
- Polly says:
  
  1 Apr1 April 07:21
  
  Think you save roughly £150 in APD taxes pp. worth the drive.
- Keith says:
  
  1 Apr1 April 09:47
  
  The journey I’m taking in a couple of weeks was booked as Business from Inverness to Heathrow then First Class Heathrow to Johannesburg. We saved £172 pp booking from Inverness.
  - Shoestring says:
    
    1 Apr1 April 18:58
    
    Nice place to look around for a few hours, Inverness. When my parents lived at the top of Sutherland (in my student days), I often had to hang around waiting for my train to Lairg, then onwards with the connecting post bus.
- yorkieflyer says:
  
  1 Apr1 April 18:39
  
  or perhaps more temptingly from Newquay to Heathrow
  - Shoestring says:
    
    1 Apr1 April 18:54
    
    I don’t think we established if Newquay-Heathrow is just no APD on that leg or if the connecting SH/ LH flight is also free of APD.
    
    I *did* try to check it for obvs reasons (Newquay is just down the road for me) but it looked like the concession on APD was just for the hop to LHR (or Gatwick as was).
    - Rob says:
      
      1 Apr1 April 20:39
      
      ITA Matrix adds APD if you look at Newquay to Frankfurt via Heathrow.
Tony says:

1 Apr1 April 06:29

Booked MAD-PVG in J with IB for 88 pounds and 59500 (cheeky IB moved PVG to the same zone as TYO, but still a good deal thanks to the 90k promotion!).
Also not so off topic: Does anyone know how much time do I need to have for transit in Madrid airport? I can either fly STN-MAD with Ryanair for 26 quids or LHR-MAD with BA RFS. My flight to Shanghai leaves at 1220 and whilst the Ryanair and BA positioning flights lands at 1000 and 0940 respectively. My concern is BA uses the T4S terminal, which is the same one for my Shanghai-bound flight, whereas the Ryanair one uses the T1 terminal. I also saw the ‘Passenger link bus with boarding pass’ mentioned on the airport website – which presumably will take me from T1 to T4S without going to the landside. I will be traveling HBO so it should work for me.

Has any one done T1 to T4S transit? If yes how much time would you suggest to leave for headroom. Would appreciate the wisdom from HFP thinktank. I have a non-EEA passport if it make any difference.

TIA
Tony
- RIccatti says:
  
  1 Apr1 April 06:39
  
  Non-EU document is even more reason to transit within T4S: after exiting the plane and walking, there will be sign to security point — after which you go floor down to departures zone.
  
  But landing 10 am having departure time 12:20 is cutting it close. DO NOT do T1 arrival.
  - Shoestring says:
    
    1 Apr1 April 06:52
    
    Yep you’re seriously risking your main flight #2 with just a 2 hr gap – not many travel insurance policies would cover you if you missed it if flight #1 is delayed. Iberia will just laugh & shrug shoulders.
    - RIccatti says:
      
      1 Apr1 April 06:54
      
      Yep, true that. Iberia will just laugh — even if you arrived on delayed Iberia flight (on different ticket).
- RIccatti says:
  
  1 Apr1 April 06:41
  
  Spanish border document check is usually a very fast sight of the document, but have to account for walking distances and long elevators down/up in Barajas.
- TokyoFan says:
  
  1 Apr1 April 06:44
  
  I had a T4S-T4S transit of 50 minutes last Sunday and managed it as well as having lunch and a beer in the lounge 🙂
- RIccatti says:
  
  1 Apr1 April 06:52
  
  AENA website says “The bus route for non-Schengen passengers is run on request.” Translated from Spanish, I would read it “if a bus driver available”.
  
  In case of any problem — you will be directed to landside transit, go out, wait a bus to T4, go through security and taking train shuttle to T4S.
  
  One point of booking business class is to be able to enjoy the lounge on departure — even with BA option there is only about 1h20min time… given inbound flight doesn’t delay.
- Mike says:
  
  1 Apr1 April 07:20
  
  Tony – go the night before and have a leisurely start to the day
  - Polly says:
    
    1 Apr1 April 07:24
    
    Yes, always our advice too. If possible, position the day before. Even for ex Dublin LH departures. Just not worth the stress of unconnected missed departure.
- Ralphy says:
  
  1 Apr1 April 07:58
  
  Strongly recommend you DO NOT book separate tickets for the same day. Not worth it if there is any delay out of London, for any reason.
  
  We follow this mantra and it recently paid off for us flying to, oddly enough, Santiago.
  
  I needed a connecting flight to Madrid from London, having booked Madrid to Santiago using Avios from that crazy “book up to 10 flights” Iberia promotion. The Santiago leg was around midday from memory and I could have gotten the first flight out of London in the morning to Madrid, but I flew the day before.
  
  My wife was on a paid ticket with Latam, LHR-SCL, so flying the day after me and we would meet at the gate in Madrid.
  
  After I flew out to Madrid the weather closed in for that winter storm at the end of January and I got a text from her telling me her flight to Madrid for the next day was cancelled!
  
  BA put her that night on a direct flight to Santiago and she arrived before me, which was amazing.
  
  But, the point of my story is that, with a paid flight to Madrid connecting to an Avios flight, had I booked these for the same day I would have been royally stuffed.
- roberto says:
  
  1 Apr1 April 09:11
  
  Madrid airport has some pretty cheap hotels with free shuttles. I would invest some of those savings into a nights accommodation to be on the safe side.
  - Brian says:
    
    1 Apr1 April 13:21
    
    Or stay in Madrid itself and have the evening there! Plenty of time to get to the airport in the morning.
- Tony says:
  
  1 Apr1 April 09:58
  
  Thanks all, much appreciated. Will go one night before then.
  - Alan says:
    
    1 Apr1 April 20:22
    
    Very sensible – you could also be hit by schedule changes that would cause problem same-day. I could have booked my EDI-OSL positioning flight earlier in the day before OSL-LHR-SIN-SYD in F. Thankfully I opted for the night before. In the ensuing months BA cancelled their afternoon flight and moved it to the morning. Norwegian then moved their flight from morning to afternoon – suddenly what would have been a 4h gap became a -2h one! Very glad I’d booked the Park Inn Oslo for an overnight!!
Netxu says:

1 Apr1 April 06:31

And if sonebody wants to fly in economy or PE, there is another option:
BCN-SCL direct flight (LEVEL airline, operated by Iberia), PE flights booked on avios.com:
76,500 Avios + 38£ of taxes off Peak
105,000 Avios + 38£ of taxes Peak
This flight is 6.924 miles and it still falls into band 7. Taxes are higher if the same flights are booked vía Iberia.com
E says:

1 Apr1 April 06:32

Is it still the case that non-Iberia flights booked with Iberia aren’t refundable so you’d not get the Avios back if you cancelled? Might have changed but used to be the case for LATAM..
- RIccatti says:
  
  1 Apr1 April 07:01
  
  Yes, partner award booked via IB — non-refundable.
  - Polly says:
    
    1 Apr1 April 07:26
    
    That’s what puts me off using IB, plus their awful CS.
    - Matt says:
      
      1 Apr1 April 08:04
      
      I was so pleased when the news hit that we could transfer the Iberia promo avios out to BA. Using Iberia CS is painful and it’s put me off ever wanting to fly them.
  - RIccatti says:
    
    1 Apr1 April 09:30
    
    I exercised honour and used miles to book the famed JFK-MAD on Iberia.
    
    I had tried online to book JFK-MAD-LHR award but IB website did not bring the option. Separately JFK-MAD and MAD-LHR were available (all Iberia). I have called the Iberia Plus call centre and asked them to book the whole journey: they experienced the same problem.
    
    I was advised to make separate bookings (online), which I have done, and the agent annotated Booking 1 to request JFK station to allow for the luggage to be checked through. On arrival to JFK instead of a note on Booking 1, I have found an Edict of Expulsion which the whole collegial Council of the Supreme and General Inquisition could not have worded better prohibiting me, the checkin agent, the station to check the luggage through under any circumstances. It seems some of the supervisors reviewed the note and issued a prohibition without caring to notify the passenger (myself).
    
    The aforementioned Edict was read to me to the letter and Spanish accent.
    
    Food/service on those flights to the US were abysmal — I have left many dishes and entire breakfasts untouched. Apparently, several pieces of sweet? bread can serve as a main dish of the breakfast.
    
    Business Class seat was so-so — if I travel to South America, might have endured IB Business product given the alternatives (but LATAM better seats/food and BA at least direct). But to North America — no.
    
    Therefore, I do not value Iberia business experience much above economy, and anyone will have more enjoyable journey in Virgin PE or front of AA (or Norwegian) than Iberia Business.
    - Marcw says:
      
      1 Apr1 April 09:35
      
      Iberia has married segments awards: 2 one-way does not guarantee connection availability.
- Rob says:
  
  1 Apr1 April 09:15
  
  Correct.
Mikeact says:

1 Apr1 April 08:52

We’re off soon, 204000 Avios plus £ 320, as Rob points out. Real bargain. Out of Heathrow on first RFS to connect late afternoon in Madrid.
Steve says:

1 Apr1 April 09:15

BA in taking the piss with taxes / surcharge shocker. Also a slight apples / oranges comparison as not identical flights but still a really good reason to consider all options before booking.
- Rob says:
  
  1 Apr1 April 11:49
  
  Easier comparison if you live in the regions and connect to Heathrow.
  - TripRep says:
    
    1 Apr1 April 12:30
    
    Hence why I’m trying out a CE/CW combo from Inverness later this year
    - Matt says:
      
      1 Apr1 April 15:02
      
      Does anyone outside the HfP community define the UK as London + the regions? It seems such an odd way to talk about our country.
      - Rob says:
        
        1 Apr1 April 15:30
        
        We treat it as ‘places which are within reach of an airport BA flies from’ vs ‘everywhere else’!