I generally value Avios at around a penny or a bit more a piece, but you can extract much greater value using them on short but pricey flights, such as New York to Toronto (using partner American Airlines) or Sydney to Melbourne (using partner Qantas) as well as BA flights around Europe.
Essentially, they are worth enough that it seems bonkers to bonus people 9,000 Avios per flight – regardless of ticket price. Yet that is what Iberia seems to be doing.
Here’s a link to the offer.
And here’s the fine print:
Special offer of an extra 9,000 Avios for each ticket purchased between 21 and 24 June 2018 (maximum of 90,000 promotional Avios per member) on iberia.com for a flight operated by Iberia, Iberia Express or Air Nostrum. The Avios will be added within 10 days of the purchase to the Iberia Plus account of all customers identified as members of the Iberia Plus programme during the purchase process.
If the customer requests a refund, either because it is permitted by the fare or for any other reason, the promotional Avios will be withdrawn from their account. The extra promotional Avios not redeemed by 1 December 2018 will be withdrawn from the customer’s account. The redemption terms and conditions are subject to the general terms and conditions of the Iberia Plus programme.
For example, if a customer purchases tickets on Iberia.com for three people to fly from Seville to Madrid and two of the people are identified as Iberia Plus members during the purchase process, 9,000 Avios will be credited to both of these people within 10 days of the purchase. These two people must have redeemed at least 9,000 Avios by 1 December 2018, or this same amount of Avios will be withdrawn from their account.
So if you are based in Europe, you could book the cheapest flights you can find and do a 10 segment run (probably for under 300 Euro) and make out with 90,000 Avios that could be used for an international longhaul business class flight or many shorthaul flights.
You will have to redeem them all by Dec 1st of this year, though, so you don’t have infinite time on the redemption side.
I am seeing flights from Madrid around Spain for under 35 Euro per flight. There were reportedly fares under 20 Euro last night from PMI to MAD, though they seem to be gone now. Let us know if you find any.
I think there are additional risks, such as Iberia getting slammed by people taking advantage of short, cheap flights and trying to change the rules mid-stream. It also may heavily rely on manual input over at Iberia, especially with the various conditions around cancelled flights and using these particular miles on time. Of course, they’d also be mingled with your other Avios, which you may or may not be spending or transferring to BA Avios, etc.
Long story short, I don’t quite think they’ve thought this completely through.
Updated to add that Loyalty Lobby reached out to Iberia and got back a pretty hard to misinterpret reply. You don’t have to fly the flights to get the bonus Avios, however you DO need to use them by Dec 1 and you CANNOT transfer them to BA. Here’s the update that Loyalty Lobby just posted:
Here’s the statement that Iberia spokesperson emailed us:
I have just sent you an e-mail with further information on our 9,000 Avios special promotion, but, please let me try to explain the doubts in your article, that I have just read
Our Iberia Plus cardholders will be able to keep the promotional Avios, if they don’t fly the purchased segments. And you can only redeem the Avios awarded through this promotion through the Iberia Plus programme. If the customers transfer these Avios to their BA Executive Club account, they will have a negative balance in the Iberia Plus programme, as those Avios wouldn’t have been spent by the date mentioned above.
Please, let me know, if you need further details on this. We would be grateful, if you can include this information in your article.
Here’s the full press release:
So for any flight ticket, either one way or return, bought on iberia.com until the 24th of June on a flight operated by Iberia, Iberia Express or Iberia Regional Air Nostrum, our Iberia Plus cardholders will get 9,000 Avios.
Each Iberia Plus cardholder will be able to earn up to 90,000 Avios during the promotion period. The Avios will be added within 10 days of the purchase to the Iberia Plus account of all customers identified as members of the Iberia Plus programme during the purchase process. These 9,000 Avios per booking will be additional to the Avios the customer will get for flying.
If the fare booked allows it and the customer decides to refund the ticket, these Avios will be withdrawn for their account. But if the customer buys the ticket and doesn’t fly, he will be able to keep those promotional Avios. The promotional Avios not redeemed by the 1st of December 2018 will be withdrawn from the cardholder’s account. These promotional Avios can be used to pay for services such as flight tickets, hotel booking, rental car… to be used next year.
Iberia Plus cardholders will receive those 9,000 Avios even when booking a ticket with multiple flights and carriers, if just one of the flights booked are operated by Iberia, Iberia Express or Iberia Regional Air Nostrum. For instance:
Madrid-London flight operated by Iberia
London-Madrid flight operated by British Airways
The promotion is available when the tickets are bought on iberia.com in the following countries: Spain, France, Italy, Germany, Portugal, Russia, United Kingdom, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Brazil, Argentina, Colombia, Chile, Peru, Mexico and USA, regardless of the origin of the flight. So, you will get the 9,000 Avios, if you book a flight from Athens to Madrid, or from Johannesburg to Madrid, etc… operated by Iberia, on any of the iberia.com sites mentioned above.
H/T: Loyalty Lobby
If anyone goes for this, please let me know here, on Twitter, or in the private MilesTalk Facebook group.
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