Bizarre: You can’t book Avios flight tickets for babies / infants via Iberia Plus

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Last week we covered Iberia’s excellent ‘50% off all Avios redemptions’ sale. There were some amazing deals to be had (New York for 34,000 Avios + £130 of tax in Business Class, return, for example) if you were confident of travel restrictions lifting.

A reader posted a comment on this topic yesterday which came as news to me. If you do what I do for long enough you assume that you’ve seen every quirk out there, but there is always something coming along to surprise me.

You can't book Avios seats for babies via Iberia Plus

Iberia does not allow you to book Avios tickets for infants.

By ‘infant’, we mean a child which has not yet had its second birthday.

Does Iberia really not let you book Avios tickets for infants?

Yes.

It is, obliquely, mentioned on this page of the Iberia website:

Can I use my Avios to buy a ticket for my baby?

You cannot use your Avios to buy a ticket for your baby. To issue a ticket for a baby associated with a reservation bought with Avios please contact your Iberia Plus service centre.

When you read the paragraph above, there is an implication that you can’t buy an infant ticket online, but that the service centre can fix it for you.

It can’t.

When you ring the service centre, you are told that an infant ticket will cost 10% of the CASH cost of an adult ticket.

It isn’t clear exactly what fare the 10% is based on – is it the fully flexible price, or is it the cheapest cash fare available on that day?

It also isn’t clear if this fare is refundable or not.

How does this compare with British Airways infant policy?

If you book an Avios flight on British Airways via British Airways Executive Club, an infant will cost you 10% of the Avios and 10% of the taxes used for the adult tickets.

You can book it online too.

The rule seems to work slightly differently for partner airlines, where you pay 10% of the Avios but a low – but more than 10% – taxes figure.

Is the Iberia deal so bad?

IF (and this is a big ‘if’) Iberia prices the 10% off the cheapest possible cash ticket, it isn’t necessarily a bad deal.

Take New York. On a peak date, you are looking at 100,000 Avios + £130 taxes and charges for a return business class flight.

If Iberia had copied the British Airways Executive Club model of 10% Avios and 10% taxes, you would need to use 10,000 Avios + £13 for an infant. This is about £113 of value if you believe Avios are worth 1p each.

If Iberia charges you 10% of the cheapest cash ticket, and the cheapest cash ticket available on that day from Madrid to New York was £1,500 in business class, then you would pay £150 for your infant. There isn’t much in it.

However, if Iberia insists on pricing off a fully flexible business class ticket to New York, you would be asked for SUBSTANTIALLY more.

Having looked at a few discussion on Flyertalk, the majority (but, oddly, not all) comments said that it is 10% of the FULLY FLEXIBLE fare. One person reported paying $1,000 for a one-way infant ticket, based on a $10,000 one-way fully-flexible business class price.

If this really is how it works, it makes Iberia Plus redemptions for Avios a poor deal for most people with infants. It isn’t a terrible deal – in most cases it will remain cheaper than the equivalent British Airways Avios redemption – but most of the saving disappears.

Weirdly, British Airways WILL book you an Avios ticket on an Iberia flight

What is genuinely weird is that you CAN book an infant for Avios on Iberia flights if you make the booking via British Airways Executive Club.

The problem is that you don’t want to do this, because the taxes and charges are substantially higher when booked via BAEC instead of Iberia Plus. It is also impossible to book an infant ticket via British Airways Executive Club for 10% Avios to add to adult tickets booked via Iberia Plus.

If you have any experience of adding infants to bookings made via Iberia Plus, please let us known in the comments what it cost and how the process worked. I wouldn’t surprise me if the Iberia call centre made up the pricing as it went along.

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

Iberia and Iberia Plus

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

Elena says:

31 Aug31 August 07:10

Well at least they will sell you business class fare. I had some miles on Qatar Airways to use and they don’t even allow redemption with infant :/ in business class.

I can book via BA but not using Q miles. I guess babies only in economy for them. So annoying
- Polly says:
  
  31 Aug31 August 07:51
  
  It does make their J class that bit more attractive l suppose for those trying to avoid BA lies in J.
  Didn’t realise that they didn’t allow miles tkts for babies. We have seen the odd baby in J tho, must have been cash fares then.
  - Stron says:
    
    31 Aug31 August 08:49
    
    This is the same policy for Air France La premiere – to babies allowed, cash or air miles
    - Stron says:
      
      31 Aug31 August 08:49
      
      ^no babies allowed
    - TGLoyalty says:
      
      31 Aug31 August 10:01
      
      La premiere is a pretty exclusive first class product. Up to them if they want to make it adults only fullstop.
      
      Allow children for cash but excluding them from redemptions is odd
      - Michael C says:
        
        31 Aug31 August 10:41
        
        Along the line of prohibiting by age, having seen a Spanish tapas bar in Cornwall that didn’t allow anyone under the age of 16 (not really the purpose of tapas, but hey-ho!), I was wondering, from a legal perspective, if I could open a restaurant that said, say, No-one over the age of 60 allowed?!
      - Chrisasaurus says:
        
        31 Aug31 August 18:08
        
        Happy to chip in to crowdsource finding out!
        
        Seems commercially very odd – but from my perspective I can say if my money is not welcome when I’m with my family you don’t need it when I’m on business or when they’re older and I’m buying 5x seats either
      - Chris K says:
        
        31 Aug31 August 20:22
        
        Good question. They probably have a get out because a tapas bar is likely a licensed premises and one of the key “licensing objectives” is protection of children. So they’d just have to invent some rubbish along those lines to make that acceptable age discrimination. Whereas stopping a 60 year old would have no such nonsense get out and you’d be in trouble.
Chris L says:

31 Aug31 August 07:26

I booked a BA flight in Club Europe via Iberia Plus (90k promo) and from memory they charged us 10% of a full price business class ticket for our baby. I also remember the process being a total pain in the rear. This has made me hesitant to book through Iberia Plus again.
Jo says:

31 Aug31 August 07:51

Booked many times for both infants in Iberia for otherwise Avios tickets. Crap experience because u have to do it on the phone and the agent’s price they see on screen for whatever reason is always higher than the price u see on Iberia website for adult fare even af same moment. Non refundable so I don’t book it until I am really sure. Also no bassinets for those above 8 months. Only worth it if booking business class tickets otherwise kid has to sit on your lap for many long haul flights. 👎
Stron says:

31 Aug31 August 08:16

My wife and I booked business flights to Japan with avios (MAD-NRT) For Rugby World Cup last year and it’s was £800 for my infant daughter who got absolutely nothing for this fee. The cost was ultimately worth it for us as it meant 13hrs in flat bed business class but I genuine believe this policy is actively to dissuade people from booking infants in business class. The flight attendants made no effort like they do on BA, no baby food, no friendly chat, and on our return flight the purser was actively hostile when she accidentally pressed the call attendant button (once in 13hrs). My daughter is a happy experience flyer so was quiet and well behaved throughout, but we really felt unwelcome.
- Stron says:
  
  31 Aug31 August 08:21
  
  Should also add that I was quoted a lower price for infant by call centre agent before I booked, I knew it was going to be expensive so was comparing it with BA taxes and fees. To even get this erroneous quote I had to call multiple times and making any sort of amendment to the booking was tortuous, I would be told by phone agents to email, the email agents told me to phone and I was just pushed between the two as neither could be bothered to actually help. I won’t be rushing back to Iberia avios redemptions anytime soon, certainly not if I can get a direct BA flight with the new business suite instead
  - ADS says:
    
    31 Aug31 August 15:29
    
    It’s always good to hear other people with painful Iberia call centre / support stories !
    
    My best was an agent who’s english was so poor that I couldn’t understand what she was saying – so I asked to be transferred to another agent. She refused, and when I insisted, she hung up !!
    - Michael C says:
      
      31 Aug31 August 19:48
      
      I had an urgent sms at 2330h saying my flight for 0755h next day had been cancelled, to ring them urgently,,,and that the phone lines opened at 0800h….
      - John says:
        
        1 Sep1 September 05:32
        
        Well to play devil’s advocate the next flight is hardly going to be before 8am
Stron says:

31 Aug31 August 08:38

If you’re using a companion voucher you’ll have to book on BA via BA so shouldn’t have the infant seat pricing issue.
wolf says:

31 Aug31 August 09:19

Don’t have any recent experience. My suggestion: book one adult on baec with avios and baby for cash. The other adult(s) and children on iberia plus with avios. Make sure you get seats close by!
Goldmember says:

31 Aug31 August 11:33

Could always book as a child as opposed to an infant. The infant then gets their own seat to which their own car seat can be fixed. Yes it’ll cos more in Avios but the cash cost will remain low.
- xcalx says:
  
  31 Aug31 August 12:23
  
  That’s what we did (cash bookings back then) when we had three boys under 5 and at one time two under 2 years.
Always_in_the_air says:

31 Aug31 August 11:57

May I suggest that the title of the article is re-worded, and “seat” is changed for “ticket”.

I do not believe you can get a redemption seat for an infant with BA either. In the past, I have even tried to book a redemption ticket for my son when he was still an infant, even offering to pay full redemption fare (ie 100% Avios + taxes) and they refused. The best I could do was ask for a “comfort” seat, which for the one way leg they wanted to charge for a full flexible fare in cash (4600EUR)!!!

All of that said when selected our seats, I chose two seats (for me and my wife) with a space between, then called and asked them to block the seat in between, which they did at no cost! So in the end we got three seats in J for the price of 2.1 seats! I guess if the flight had been completely full they would have sold the blocked seat, but most people jammed in a middle seat are keen to change, so the risk of being separated was marginal in my view.

I have heard of people who have booked two seats next to each other as two separate bookings in the same name to get a seat for their child. This can throw up issues when checking in and boarding, but can sometimes work.
- Jonathan says:
  
  31 Aug31 August 12:38
  
  “ I have heard of people who have booked two seats next to each other as two separate bookings in the same name to get a seat for their child. This can throw up issues when checking in and boarding, but can sometimes work.”
  
  Definitely don’t do this on BA from T5. Will be offloaded automatically when the second ticket hasn’t been through security by 35minutes prior to departure. High chance someone else will then be plonked in your “spare” seat as they upgrade from the invariably over sold PE cabin.
  
  Obviously if the flights not full then you might be fine but you’d probably also then have been fine if you just booked 2 seats with an empty middle near the back of the cabin anyway!
  - marcw says:
    
    31 Aug31 August 12:53
    
    Can you not book just a flight for Mr Cello?
    - Jonathan says:
      
      31 Aug31 August 13:03
      
      No! If you need a spare seat for comfort or precious baggage etc you have to call & arrange through the proper channels. Mr Cello will be offloaded as mentioned above! Plus you’ll pay APD etc when it’s not due.
      - marcw says:
        
        31 Aug31 August 15:07
        
        You can book a seat for a cello over the phone perfectly.
- Genghis says:
  
  31 Aug31 August 13:03
  
  You were misinformed. Under twos can get their own seat but must sit on adults lap in lap belt for take off and landing. I’ve done it.