The Miles Are Posting From The Iberia Promotion – Time To Get Booking!

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If you participated in the recent Iberia promotion (as I eventually did) you should check your Iberia Plus account to see if you’ve been credited with the miles you’re expecting. A lot of people are now seeing their accounts balances boosted by up to 90,000 Avios but some don’t seem to have been so lucky…at least not so far.

I was genuinely considering not participating in the Iberia promotion as it just seemed to good to be true but, as I admitted, greed got the better of my and I dived in.

Fortunately for me things look to have gone ok and the 90,000 Avios I was expecting from my $277.30 outlay have now posted….

…but this doesn’t appear to be the case for everyone.

My Iberia Plus account is a few years old and has seen some minor activity in the not so distant past so there’s no obvious reason for Iberia to doubt the validity of my account – that probably helped me get the 90,000 Avios without any issues.

There appear to be four primary sets of people who haven’t seen all (or any) their expected Avios post.

1. People who booked the required Iberia flights on Sunday June 24th – they will probably start seeing their Avios post today (10 days after their bookings were made – as the promotion stated)
2. People who had issues when making their bookings – there are reports of Avios being credited for the bookings made without issues and no Avios being credited for the bookings where errors occurred
3. People who have very new Iberia accounts
4. People who have Iberia Plus accounts based in countries excluded from the promotion

Are You In Category 2?

If you fall into category 2 you should call up Iberia (good luck with their call centres!) and explain the situation and ask them to credit your account with the missing Avios – I can’t tell you how well this will work but, for now, that’s the best thing to try. If you haven’t broken any of the promotion’s rules or set up new/multiple accounts you should come out of this ok…eventually.

Are You In Category 3?

If you fall into category 3 you may be out of luck…but no one can be sure at this stage. Iberia appears to be trying to weed out people who set up multiple accounts just to take advantage of this promotion as you may have fallen foul of this purge.

As far as I can tell there was nothing in the promotion rules that said that people without Iberia Plus accounts couldn’t sign up and take part so, if you only opened up one account and didn’t already have an account, you should have grounds for calling up and asking for your missing Avios (emailing Iberia Plus may also help).

If you opened up more than one account and haven’t seen your Avios post then I can’t see how you have any grounds to complain…but at least you shouldn’t be out of pocket.

Reports are surfacing indicating that Iberia are being proactive in contacting those who have broken the promotion rules and are offering them refunds for the flights booked – that seems generous.

Are You In Category 4?

If you fall into category 4 you’re in a very similar situation to those in category 3 – you’re probably not going to see any Avios post but you should also receive an email from Iberia offering you a refund. If that’s how things work out you should count yourself fortunate as Iberia didn’t have to be that kind.

Did Your Avios Post?

If your Avios have posted don’t forget that you have to “use them or lose them” by 1 December 2018.

If you’re thinking of booking long-haul premium cabin fares on Iberia I suggest you start planning as soon as possible and get something booked sooner rather than later.

A lot of people will have taken part in this promotion (although probably not as many as some seem to be suggesting) and I highly doubt they participated just to be able to book intra-Europe short-haul Economy Class fares.

I expect premium cabin award space to start disappearing from the Iberia website pretty quickly as the Avios post so, if you’re thinking of traveling in a period for which awards can already be booked, I wouldn’t procrastinate too long – Iberia is unlikely to release a lot of award space just to keep everyone happy.

Note: If you’re planing to use your Avios for hotel stays there’s no hurry to book – that type of award booking will always be available.

Bottom Line

If you haven’t received the Avios you’re expecting you should either be….

1. Calling/emailing Iberia Plus
2. Waiting to see if your Avios post today (if you booked on Sunday 24 June)
3. Checking your inbox to see if Iberia have offered you a refund (because you broke promotion rules)
4. Contacting Iberia for a refund because you broke promotion rules

If you have received your Avios then congratulations are in order….now get planning and booking before you’re stuck with a load of Avios you’re struggling to use.

Have you received your Iberia Plus Avios? What Are you planning to do with them?