TravelingForMiles.com may receive commission from card issuers. Some or all of the card offers that appear on TravelingForMiles.com are from advertisers and may impact how and where card products appear on the site. TravelingForMiles.com does not include all card companies or all available card offers.
Some links to products and travel providers on this website will earn Traveling For Miles a commission which helps contribute to the running of the site – I’m very grateful to anyone who uses these links but their use is entirely optional. The compensation does not impact how and where products appear on this site and does not impact reviews that are published. For more details please see the advertising disclosure found at the bottom of every page.
I wasn’t going to take part in the promotion Iberia launched two weeks ago but greed got the better of me and I dived in.
It’s like we’re living in the 80’s again and “greed is good” because, on Tuesday, I was rewarded for my greed when Iberia dropped 90,000 Avios into my account….and I’ve wasted no time in using most of them.
The rules of the Iberia Avios promotion stipulate that any Avios earned from the promotionmust be used up by 1 December 2018 or they will be removed from the Iberia Plus account into which they were deposited – it’s a case of “use them or lose them”.
Because people are being forced to use their Avios by a set date (and a date that’s not all that far in the future) I suspect that award availability will dry up pretty quickly….at least on Iberia.
If you’re looking to use the Iberia Avios for travel on partner airlines things aren’t quite so urgent but, if you’re looking to book Iberia long-haul premium cabin awards, it’s probably a bad idea to procrastinate if you can see award availability you’re happy to book right now.
I’ve known all along that I would use any Avios I earned from the promotion for an Iberia long-haul Business Class trip so I’ve taken my own advice and booked an award I’m very happy with.
While the Iberia promotion was still in progress I researched award availability on a variety of Iberia’s routes to make sure I had a good idea of what my options were going to be should the promotional Avios actually post.
By the time the promotion closed I knew that I’d be using any Avios I earned to take one of two trips:
- Roundtrip Business Class between Madrid and Los Angeles or
- Roundtrip Business Class between Madrid and Rio De Janeiro.
Both options would give me a great return on my original outlay and both options would give me a chance to review Iberia’s long-haul Business Class product.
Not only had I narrowed down my choice to one two routes before the Avios dropped into my account but I also made sure I knew the dates on which Business Class awards were available on those routes.
I even narrowed down the dates to ones that worked well with my schedule.
By last Sunday I knew what my preferred option was (out of the two I had chosen) but I was still happy to book option #2 should my first choice no longer be available when/if the Avios posted.
On Tuesday, when I saw that Iberia had posted 90,000 Avios to my Iberia Plus account, I didn’t waste any time.
I pulled up a screenshot of a dummy booking I had made last week to remind myself of the dates I wanted to travel and I searched for the exact same itinerary on Iberia.com.
The award flights were still available!
Minutes later my Platinum Card from American express had been charged the taxes and fees for the award (that earned me 5 Membership rewards points per dollar spent) and I was booked to fly to Rio.
I spend a lot of time in Los Angeles but I’ve never been to Rio so, as much as I love LA, I decided it makes more sense to broaden my horizons and visit a city I’ve never explored.
What All The Flights On This Trip Will Cost
To earn 90,000 Avios in the Iberia promotion I spent $277.30 on 10 Iberia short-haul flights.
I’ve used up 85,000 of those Avios on a roundtrip Business Class award between Madrid and Rio De Janiero….
…and I also had to pay £149.80 (~$198) in taxes and fees.
I’ll be in the UK leading up to this trip so I’ll have to book flights between London and Madrid to connect to and from my long-haul Iberia flights.
I haven’t booked these flights yet but, when I do, I’ll be using:
- 5,000 Iberia Plus Avios (the remaining Avios from the promotion)
- 1,500 Chase Ultimate Rewards Points (worth ~$23) which I’ll convert to Iberia Plus Avios
- ~$100 for taxes and cash fares
All these put together bring my total flight costs to ~$598
Considering Rio has been on my list of cities to visit for years and considering that non-stop roundtrip Business Class fares between Madrid and Rio usually cost at least $2,800, I think I’ve done ok 🙂
Has anyone else managed to book flights (or anything else) with the Avios they earned from the recent Iberia Plus promotion?
