Buy avios from 1-7 October and get 40% bonus, and from 8th of October spend your avios on fantastic redemptions for only half the price!

2×1 BA AmEx vouchers might not exist in Spain, but there is an equally exciting promo from Spanish credit card company called IberiaCards. Every year in Spring and in Autumn all Spanish avios-o-nados (sorry, I tried a pun on ‘avios’ and ‘aficionados’) go crazy for the right reason. Now is the time for the crazy Autumn promo!

This is how it works (and I have to say, I love how it all thought out!): first, there is a promo for avios purchases with 40-50% of bonus avios, so that you can boost your avios balance. And then straight after – redemption tickets sale with 50% avios discount! That’s like double savings!

Sadly, the promo is only accessible for the holders of Iberia Classic or Iberia ICON cards issued by various Spanish banks.

From today, 1st of October and until the end of the week (7th of October) every such lucky cardholder can buy avios with 40% bonus!

The avios should be bought via Iberia.Com or via participating credit card’s portal. The bonus avios are not shown during the purchase process (at least I couldn’t see it neither via Iberia.com nor via IberiaCards.com), but should post within 3 working days.

Bonus is awarded for avios purchases from 2,000 and up to 100,000 avios.

Bonus avios can be bought here or via your IberiaCard provider.

And then from 8th of October…

…50% off tickets purchased with avios! This is an exceptional deal which allows you to fly to New York in business for 17,000 avios o/w from Madrid (34k return)! Or think big: return flight Madrid-Tokyo-Madrid in business for 60,000 avios! These are truly incredible deals!

Let’s do a bit of math. We are rightly told by many respected travel and loyalty experts that we should not buy avios speculatively, but rather with a specific redemption in mind. After all, avios or any other pseudo ‘currency’ issued by an airline, can be devalued in a blink of an eye.

So let’s imagine that we have no or very little avios balance and try to buy and use them during this promo. To simplify things, let’s look at the cheapest off-peak avios prices. And since historically this promo only applies only to Iberia flights on their own metal, let’s look at the flights to/from Madrid – Iberia’s main hub.

New York: Madrid – New York – Madrid:

Off-peak avios price: 34,000 avios one-way. During promo, this becomes return price.

You only need to buy 25,000 avios (477 EUR)  + 40% (10,000 avios) = 35,000 avios. Enough for a return business flight to New York (plus taxes)!

Japan: Madrid – Tokyo – Madrid

Off-peak avios price is 60,000 avios one-way. During promo, this becomes return price.

45,000 (845 EUR) + 40% bonus (18,000 avios) = 63,000 avios. Enough for a return business flight to Tokyo (plus taxes)!

Alternative avios promo with Groupon

Funny enough, Groupon avios promo is still running and seems like the prices are even lower in some cases.

The only downside that Groupon avios might take some time to post and avios bough directly from Iberia should post quicker.

In any case, I suggest you count your avios, buy more if you must and research where you might want to fly from October until March and avios availability on these routes. This will give you some idea. This deal is epic and it will be silly to miss out. The next one supposed to be run in spring, but since this is not an official benefit of this card, it is not guaranteed and can disappear anytime.

A word of caution 

If you are going to take part in this IberiaCards promotion, it’s important to keep in mind that avios bought in this promotion have only 6 months expiry, so they meant to be spent quickly.

Let’s wait until next week to see what the is the ticket usage window. Usually, it was until spring (beginning of March) next year.

I took part of these sales in the past and it worked a charm. I enjoyed my return business flights to New York immensely! Iberia business class is considered one of the best in Europe. It is very modern, has fully flat beds, all with direct aisle access and offers free limited wifi on long-haul flights and solid catering with excellent Spanish wines.

Currently, I am pricing up New York, Latin America and Japan.

Where are you going to fly?! 😉

Bonus avios can be bought here or via your IberiaCard provider.

Image courtesy of Iberia.

See promo’s T&C below (only available in Spanish).