I’ve put out a few articles related to Iberia in the past couple of weeks, including one showing how Iberia is the best use of Avios for getting to Europe in business class. Well, the deals keep rolling in and now there’s an even sweeter way to make it to Europe.
The new promo
Iberia recently released a 25% Avios discount on award tickets but you’ve got to act fast to take advantage of the offer! Here’s the offer (taken from their official website):
Fly with a 25% discount in Avios at Valentine’s day. Surprise your loved one. Enjoy flying with Iberia with a 25% Avios discount when you book your flights between February 8th and 14th [and fly] between February 8th and 14th June 2017, except Abril.
The promo is good for several routes but the following US destinations are relevant:
- Miami
- New York
- Boston
- Chicago
New York, Boston, and Chicago are bolded because they fall in one of the best sweet spots available for getting to Europe in business class, which is the award chart band 5. Note: Chicago is actually over 4,000 miles roundtrip but for some reason it still codes in band 5 for right now, so it’s an even sweeter deal. 
This offer is especially worthwhile because it coincides with a hotel transfer bonus to British Airways. Right now, you can transfer hotel points to British Airways and receive a 35% bonus. I recently wrote an article on how you could use that bonus to get to Europe in business class roundtrip with Iberia Avios for roughly 40,000 points.
Now you can get an even more phenomenal deal by taking advantage of these routes!
For example, the 68,000 roundtrip from any of the above bolded cities would cost 51,000 Avios with this promotion. That alone is a pretty phenomenal deal for a roundtrip business class ticket to Europe. But if you had a huge stash of SPG points in the bank, you could transfer in the following ways to create one of the most worthwhile redemptions ever available.
Let’s say you have 33,000 SPG points sitting around.
You transfer those 33,000 to British Airways and you automatically receive the standard 25% bonus increase for every 20,000 SPG points transferred. So your 33,000 SPG points becomes 38,000. Then because that standard bonus stacks with the 35% British Airways promotional bonus, those 38,000 Avios actually come out to 51,300 Avios.
If you were able to make a business class booking before the end of Valentine’s Day you could take advantage of this 25% off booking prices and you could score a roundtrip business class ticket to Madrid from Chicago, New York, or Boston.
That means 33,000 points could get you a roundtrip ticket in business class to Europe.
That business class ticket out of pocket would cost $7,111. If you subtract the $220 in fees, that’s $6,891 in value for 33,000 points, which comes out to a redemption worth 21 cents per point. That is absolutely insane.
Toledo, Spain is a great day trip from Madrid.
I know it can be somewhat tricky finding award availability in business class on the Iberia flights, especially now with these promos getting more publicity. And unfortunately, the Iberia website is glitching pretty bad right now so I can’t check all of the dates for availability. However, if there’s an open flight and you’ve got the Avios to spare, I’d definitely consider this monster redemption, since you’re hardly ever going to find something that beats it. Just remember there are strict policies for transferring Avios from BA to Iberia and you can find more about that here (toward the bottom of the article).
H/T: Head for Points.
Daniel Gillaspia is the Founder of UponArriving.com and the credit card app, WalletFlo. He is a former attorney turned travel expert covering destinations along with TSA, airline, and hotel policies. Since 2014, his content has been featured in publications such as National Geographic, Smithsonian Magazine, and CNBC. Read my bio.
