Purchasing Iberia Plus Avios for Cheap(er) Intra Europe Flights

Groupon Spain and Iberia is currently running a sale for Iberia Plus Avios at up to 40% off. Yes this is the same Avios currency as what British Airways uses, as well as all the other IAG airlines i.e Aer Lingus.

Before you go on reading, note that the deal ends in TWO DAYS. i.e 31 Dec 2017.

If you haven’t already read my article on Avios and its usefulness, check it out here!

Groupon Spain Avios Purchase Promo

Groupon Spain is offering up to 40% off the cost of purchasing Avios on their site. If you navigate to this page, you’ll be able to see the packages for purchase. Note that the site is in Spanish so you’ll have to use Google Translate to translate the site (but hey, money is a universal language). As per calculations, the best package is currently 8,000 Avios for EUR 99. Which gives you a price of around 1.23 cents (in Euros)/Avios

The other packages available for sale are :

• 4,000 Avios = EUR 59
• 15,000 Avios = EUR 189
• 20,000 Avios = EUR249
• 34,000 Avios = EUR429

The supply of packages for the 2,000 Avios at EUR49 has been exhausted.

Note also the restriction in the number of packages you can redeem per Iberia account :

• Limit of 1 coupon per Iberia card for the option of 2,000 Avios.
• Limit of 5 coupons per Iberia card for the option of 4,000, 20,000 and 34,000 Avios.
• Limit of 10 coupons per Iberia card for the rest of options: 8,000 and 15,000 Avios.

Iberia Plus also has a site similar to KrisFlyer Spree, by clicking through to Groupon on the portal before making your Avios purchase, you’ll earn an extra 9 Avios/EUR 1 spent! Using the DBS Woman’s World Mastercard for this would earn you 4mpd!

Here’s a video on how to redeem the Avios purchased from Groupon:

Iberia Plus Points Purchase Promo

Iberia is also running a promotion on its own site where you can purchase Avios direct from Iberia. Their promo however, maxes out at 30% bonus Avios. Here are the amounts of Avios you need to buy before activating the bonus :

• Between 2,000 and 15,000 Avios, you will get a bonus of 10%
• Between 20,000 and 45,000 Avios, you will get a bonus of 20%
• Between 50,000 and 100,000 Avios, you will get a bonus of 30%
  

Hence, the promo maxes out at 130,000 Avios for EUR 1,800. Leading to a cost of 1.38cents/Avios (in Euros).

At this point, Groupon clearly has the better deal. But if you feel inclined to purchase from Iberia, note that the purchase is processed by them so DBS Altitude Visa would net you 3mpd (up to $5,000), or using the DBS World Woman’s Mastercard would give you 4mpd (up to $2,000).

¿Por qué debería comprar Iberia Avios cuando no vuelo Iberia?

Avios in the Iberia Plus program can be transferred over to British Airways Executive Club for redemption at a 1 : 1 ratio. Note that once transferred, they can’t be transferred back.

This option can be found under Balances & Operations under the Iberia Plus profile page.

Note that Iberia Plus accounts need to be in existence for a period of more than 90 Days before Avios is transferable.

This would be a good opportunity for a Business Class flight redemption within Europe (if you really want to experience how bleh Intra Europe J is as well as the famed British Airways Galleries Lounges). A quick check on revenue fares on British Airways between London Heathrow and Rome Fiumicino Airport with checked baggage gives the below eye watering price :

However by doing an Avios redemption, the cost is brought down significantly to just 15,500 Avios and S$90 in taxes. Amounting to an out of pocket cost of GBP 218. That’s almost half the cost of a revenue ticket! (well S$500 is still an exorbitant sum for a 2hr flight in Intra Europe but hey, it’s the experience I guess) 

Sadly, I couldn’t find any Economy flights which are worth redeeming as the revenue prices are slightly cheaper than redeeming Avios with purchased points.

Edit : Avios is also very useful for intra-Japan flights where a one way ticket on JAL costs 4,500 Avios + less than S$10 in taxes! A steal if you ask me. Currently a one-way ticket on JAL costs S$114 (non-peak flight times), but by going the Avios route, it will only cost you approx S$90! Saving $20 for your flight!

Conclusion

This would be a good opportunity to sample intra-Europe Business Class flights for cheaper on British Airways (or Iberia even) and experience their legendary service cuts  on board service, as well as their lounges in Heathrow if you don’t have a stash of Avios with Citibank/American Express rewards. However, I would not recommend speculatively buying them unless you have travel plans in Europe coming up.