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Fly a flat bed to Madrid for 25,500 Avios and low fuel surcharges this spring. Economy awards start at 12,750 Avios + $71 or 3,200 Avios and $181 one way.
Iberia is offering a 25% discount on economy and Business Class awards booked by today (2/14/17) between Madrid and:
- Miami, New York, Boston, Chicago, Zurich, London, Vienna, Moscow, Bogota, Medellin, Johannesburg, Panama, Shanghai, Mexico City, Lima, Santiago de Chile, Buenos Aires, and Havana
The discounts to/from the USA must be flown by June 14, 2017 with blackouts dates including all of April; May 2, 3, 6, 7, and 8; and June 9-12. The other cities have slightly different blackout dates.
Background
Iberia and British Airways are owned by the same company. They both have a loyalty program with a currency named Avios, but the loyalty programs are separate and slightly different. Let me run through Iberia’s if you’re not familiar with it, so you can take advantage of this promo.
Iberia’s program is distance based. Here are its charts.
Every segment adds to the cost, so if you flew New York to Madrid to Venice in economy during peak season, that will cost 28,250 Iberia Avios–20,000 for New York to Madrid and 8,250 more for Madrid to Venice.
Iberia charges big surcharges on British Airways flights and even American Airlines flights, but it collects very small fuel surcharges on its own flights.
The Deal
On days that are 25% off, New York, Chicago, and Boston to Madrid are 12,750 Avios + $71 one way in economy.
An even better deal is to use only 3,200 Avios and $181. It’s like buying the 9,550 Avios you save for 1.15 cents each.
Miami to Madrid is a longer flight that costs 15,950 Avios and $82 one way.
Again, you’re better off using 4,000 Avios and $222, which is like buying the 11,950 Avios you save for 1.17 cents each.
Where do $71 and $82 come from? About $28 are taxes and the rest are part of the fuel surcharge.
Business Class awards from New York, Chicago, or Boston to Madrid theoretically cost 25,500 miles one way during the promo. From Miami, awards theoretically cost 31,875 miles.
I say “theoretically” because I searched all four cities on many dates and didn’t find any Business Class award space. Some probably exists because I didn’t search every date, but Business Class space is, at best, very rare.
I believe award space is better between Europe and the US on Iberia.
Share the space you find in the comments.
How do you get Iberia Avios?
There are two easy ways.
You can transfer your BA Avios over. Both accounts need to be open for 90 days and have some activity to make this work, so open your Iberia Avios account now to do this in the future if you don’t already have one open. Sign up here.
On ba.com, click on Manage My Account after signing in.
Next choose Combine My Avios.
Next click the red button that says Combine My Avios on the next page.
After that, select Iberia Plus from the drop down and type in your account info.
At this point, hopefully you’ll have a smooth, intuitive transfer. Unfortunately I got an error. I called BA at 800-AIRWAYS (hit 1, 1 to get to the Executive Club where you want to be) to straighten it out. The agent did a manual transfer that he said will show up in 24-48 hours.
The second way to get Iberia Avios is via a Membership Rewards transfer. Instead of selecting British Airways Executive Club, select Iberia Plus. It should be an easy, instant 5:4 transfer.
Recap
Fly a flat bed to Madrid for 25,500 Avios and low fuel surcharges this spring. Economy awards start at 12,750 Avios + $71 or 3,200 Avios and $181 one way.
Iberia is offering a 25% discount on economy and Business Class awards booked by today (2/14/17) between Madrid and:
- Miami, New York, Boston, Chicago, Zurich, London, Vienna, Moscow, Bogota, Medellin, Johannesburg, Panama, Shanghai, Mexico City, Lima, Santiago de Chile, Buenos Aires, and Havana
The discounts to/from the USA must be flown by June 14, 2017 with blackouts dates including all of April; May 2, 3, 6, 7, and 8; and June 9-12. The other cities have slightly different blackout dates.
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