Iberia has an award ticket sale going on, where you can fly one-way from NYC/Boston/Chicago to Madrid for just 25.5K Iberia Avios in business class. You can also fly Miami to Madrid for 31.9K Avios. Economy awards are also discounted 25%, and the deal is valid for October – December 15, 2018, excluding certain dates (detailed below).
This is an awesome deal because one-way transatlantic business class usually costs 40-60K points and hundreds of dollars in fuel surcharges. So with this promotion, running until March 18th, you could fly round-trip to Europe for 51K Avios + $200 or use the cash option to pay 10K Avios + ~$1000 in cash (less on some dates).
There are certain “peak” dates which are excluded. The chart is here courtesy of our friends at Flyertalk. Blue dates = peak dates to avoid:
Booking
If you want to take advantage of this promotion, here are the steps:
- Sign up for Iberia Plus.
- Go here to search flights. Be sure you’re signed into Iberia Plus or else you’ll get an error. Some people suggest searching with AA.com, but they will not always show availability even if it’s there. So even though Iberia is a point, it’s better to go through them.
- Transfer Avios into Iberia Plus, and book!
Getting The Avios
You have a few options for transferring Avios:
- Transfer between British Airways Avios and Iberia Plus Avios if your Iberia account is at least 90 days old and both accounts have had some points activity.
- Transfer directly from Chase Ultimate Rewards, Amex Membership Rewards, or Starwood Preferred Guest at a 1:1 ratio nearly instantly. Remember to transfer to Iberia Plus and *NOT* British Airways.
- Marriott Travel packages take too long to transfer, so there’s no guarantee you’ll get the points in the next few days and have availability. Avoid this.
Conclusion
Overall, this is a fantastic deal. Iberia has 25% off business redemptions every now and then, but the availability and locations here is fantastic. Even if you don’t have enough points, the cash co-pay is excellent. Paying $1000 for 10K points for a transatlantic business class product is a pretty good paid rate, given that buying the flight regularly will cost ~$2600 for that period. With the award though, you won’t earn elite miles no matter how much cash you pay. This is a great way to burn BA Avios as well, which can be tough to redeem without crazy surcharges.
My travel schedule is packed so I can’t hop on this, but I hope some people can take advantage of this!