Get A 25% (Or 56%) Bonus When You Transfer American Express Membership Rewards Points Into Avios; Here’s What You Need To Know Before Using Iberia To Cushion The Avios Devaluation!

Avios are practically worthless for me. I recently transfared a huge sum from amex to avios to get the 40% bonus, and whenever I’m looking for domestic flights, they have no availability on AA. I’ve even looked as far as 2 months ahead, but almost no availability to such destinations as LA and Chicago. Very disappointing. And for international flights they’re worthless due to the high fuel surcharges.

@Baruch:
If you’re searching BA.com you’re doing it wrong.

You need to be searching AA.com and then calling the BA call center in Singapore to book if the flight isn’t showing up on BA.com

More info:
http://www.dansdeals.com/archives/59617

How much will be the tax from Canada ?

Does it transfer instantly?
Can you book for a friend on my Iberia ?
What’s their cancellation policy?

Thanks for this update.

Dan is it still accurate that any saaver availability on AA is bookable through avios? because I have seen saaver availability this week and it didn’t show up on ba.com and I called British to book it and they did not see those availabilities

@Joe:
Which route?
You can check yourself on Iberia.com, no need for sufficient miles to search, just need to be logged in.

@Sol:
AMEX-Iberia takes a day or 2.
Iberia-BA and back is instant.

I’ve added this to the post, thanks.

You should be able to book for anyone.

Cancel policy is in the post.

@Avi:
You need to call the BA call center in Singapore. In can take a couple HUCAs, but they will get it done.
More info:
http://www.dansdeals.com/archives/59617

@Joe:
Just checked NYC-YYZ.
12K+$58.24 round-trip.

You mentioned Milt’s in your post. I checked their website. It says they donate 100% of the profits to charity. What’s that all about?

@gingy:
Pretty much exactly that, the owner is a successful businessman and opened up Milt’s with goals other than profit in mind.

But the best news is that they’ve finally added their off-the-menu rib sandwich onto the regular menu. In the past it required some serious string pulling to get it.
It’s one of their best dishes IMHO.

So a roundtrip NYC-Toronto will be 11k with Iberia instead of 14k with BA comes February?

@Dan: Since when did Milt’s add the rib sandwich to their regular menu. I was there on November 15 and did not see it on the menu.

@dan
So the tax to canada will be similar as ba charges now

@thingy:
12K instead of 15K.

@Ikey:
Yesterday 😀

@Joe:
BA is $51.31 round-trip.
Iberia is $58.24 round-trip.

Just to clarify, the reason you are mainly discussing transferring from Amex to BA is because Amex no longer usually offers 1:1 transfers to BA. However this post is actually pertinent to transfers from Chase UR to BA which always offers 1:1, and will also be affected by the devaluation on 2/1

@Alex:
Yes, it’s pertinent to AMEX and Chase or anyone who uses Avios.
The reason for the AMEX focus is due to the 25% bonus this month to Iberia.

@Dan would i be eligible for the 100k bonus on the Chase British Airways Visa if I closed mine about 8 months ago?

@mordy:
Officially it’s 24 months from when you last got the bonus. Nothing to do with when it was closed.
Though people have reported getting it even sooner than that.

@Dan does the same apply to other cards? Is it always from when you got the bonus last as opposed to when you closed the card?

“Cleveland-Chicago is a 315 mile flight, therefore BA currently charges 4.5K Avios for it. That goes up to 7.5K for tickets booked after 02/01.”

I think you meant to finish your think there with “That would be 9K Avios round trip.” Correct? Or I’m misunderstanding this?

When redeeming Iberia avios for full fare economy, does that mean I will have access to any open economy seat on the plane?

@ Dan I tought you wrote in a post lately that BA fixed their problems and now all available AA trips show up?
Also if you do need to check on AA I recall it’s only the none stops that are avail. for BA avios is that correct?

What are the chances for a 1 to 1.4 like this time last year?

Really the bonus is not to avios only to Iberia, right?

@dan in the long run (as in after the bonus), there isn’t really a disadvantage of amex not transferring instantly to Iberia, being that I can transfer to BA and then to Iberia both instantly, correct?
And, for the same price, during the bonus, if I can wait a day or two, I won’t be loosing by switching to Iberia although I’m booking on BA being that I can transfer at a 1:1 ratio from Iberia to BA, correct?
Btw thanks for all the posts they’re truly amazing and helpful!!

do you have to log in to iberia first?
im keep getting.

Combine my Avios was unsuccessful
Combine my Avios is not available at the moment. Please try again later

@mordy:
Depends on the bank and card.

@Moe:
Yup.

@Bob:
Nope.

@a yid:
BA has issues again.
And BA can book anything, but BA.com mostly just shows nonstops.

@Jonah:
Close to nil.

@dave:
You can transfer from Iberia Avios to BA Avios.

@Shmuli:
Correct for both.

Hey Dan,

All your posts are really helpful. Just one question, how is the availability of award seats in Iberia’s website? Do we have to call their Singapore call center just like we do for BA in case it is not shown on BA.com?

@Vivek:
Appears to be better than BA.com

A. BA account does not need to be open for 90 days.
B. You can book OW partner award
C. They do charge per leg

@SamKey:
Why so stingy with the explanations? We don’t charge by the word.

A. Is that true for transfers in either direction.
B. Assuming over the phone? Is there a one-way chart?
C. No, they don’t. Go search online and look at the AA partner chart in this post. Nothing I search for charged by the leg.

I don’t have an Iberia account yet- though I’m definitely going to open one right now. Of course, the 90 days won’t be up until after this bonus is over. However- does this mean that I can transfer my MR into Iberia Avios now, then wait until March, and THEN transfer them all into BA Avios?
Also- does anyone know if Iberia allows booking flights for others with the same ease that BA does? Thanks!!

@Dan:
A. Yes
B. C. Seems I am mistaken I thought you were referring to all partners not just AA. I’ve priced out international AA not domestic I’ll get back to you when I go over my notes

Transfering points back and forth between accounts is not available. I have been trying since last night and I get a message that its not available.

having trouble changing freq flyer info from BA Avios to AA. Using Finnair but keep getting error msg. Any suggestions, TIA

I tried calling Singapore to get a flight that was available on the AA sight for miles and they told me the only flights available were the ones on the BA site. Is there something I am missing?

Thanks

David

Can I transfer AA miles to BA Avios?

i booked iberia avios one way from tlv-mad-jfk 4 tickets in business class in july. i transferred from chase instantly to ba and then instantly to iberia.
on a side note, iberia customer service is by far the worst. they didnt have the kosher meals on board in business class from mad to jfk so i filed a complaint through their online system and it took them almost four months to get back to me… and then they lied and said my original flight was cancelled which is why they werent able to get kosher on the next flight. very difficult to reach and no one competent to talk to… i HUCA at least 15 times…
aircraft was amazing… very spacious lie flat business on the new aircraft which i was surprised to see being flown from tlv-mad as well because originally it wasnt supposed to…

@CtownBin:
Yes to all.

@Maury:
Have your accounts been active for 90 days?

@Terry Lefkowitz:
Try RJ.com or AA.com?

@David W:
HUCA. It works. I’ve done dozens of times.

@Denis:
No.

@yankel:
I’m aware that one-ways are allowed on Iberia.
The question is about partners.

@Dan how long does transfer to Iberia take I transferred yesterday and as of now they still have not hit.

@Michael:
1-2 days.

Thanks

Hi Dan – I was considering transferring 40k Amex MR points to Iberia, in order to take advantage of this 25% bonus. My fiancee and I are looking to head back to Maui in 3/2016, and this would really help out.

My question is, do you think this is something I should jump on, or do you think more Amex MR/BA transfer bonuses will be coming in the near future?

Thanks for all you do!!

What is HUCA ? And how does it work

That means if I tranfer over 9,000 points from MR to iberia and get the 56% bonus it comes out that 11,250 I got for only 9,000MR and that would even out the difference in the devaluation from ba …besides there will be 7$ more than ba since iberia its 58.24 for a round trip ..and 11k avois, what u will get is 250avios for the transfer after have 11k for ur flight so its 250avios gaining and loosing 7$ (I don’t know why ur comments back to joe u wrote 12k to go from NYC to YYZ (pearson intl airport) its under 600miles so that would be only 11k and tax …58.24$ …thanks dan

@Maury
if you have household acct its not available

@Abe M: Hang Up, Call Again = HUCA

@Dan
I have 100k Amex MR points for an account I am closing. Is this transfer the best return now?

how do I link my Iberia Plus account to my Membership Rewards account?

AMEX says that it has to be done directly through Iberia. But I can’t find the link on Iberia’s website.

The transfer to Iberia 2 weeks ago was only 1K:800, so this is definitely more recent.

to transfer from Iberia to BA avios, do both accounts have to have the exact same name?

@Mendel: It’s done on Amexs site. Log into membershiprewards.com. Click on travel>transfer. Then click on Iberia. There will be a link there to link your Iberia Avios account.

@Mendel: Forget it. My mistake (clicked “enroll” instead of “link”)

Dan,
Do you know what would be the best miles program if I flight often from São Paulo (GRU) to NYC? It was Advantage, but next year it will change..United and Delta is also 30K minimum. I checked Avios, I could book for 25K American flights, but I am not sure if there will be a devaluation also…..would you have an answer?
Thanks!

@Jason:
Where are you flying from?
I don’t foresee a better Avios bonus than this in the future.

@srully:
The 600 miles is round-trip distance, hence 12K.

@Celso:
That award won’t be changing. The only thing changing is the 4.5K award for travel to/from/within the US.

Incredibly helpful. Thank you so much. As a side note, I wonder if you would consider providing an occasional ALPHABETIZED listing of all AMEX offers so that we can better sort them out and take advantage. I have added over 50 that are currently active. Yet they are grouped on the AMEX site by expiration. It would be better to see all of these lined up alphabetically. Thanks.

sounds like they are using the same calculator they used last time they ran the bonus.

My Iberai account has been open since 9/14. However, it has no points in it. My Avios account has 150K Avios and my Amex MR account has 90K. How many BA Avios do I need to transfer into Iberia plus in order to get this deal? Once the Iberia Avios account has those Avios, when can I exchange the Amex points ?

I have 100K+ MR. I need 25K Avios for a flight, but I’m wondering if I should empty my entire MR account into Iberia. My Iberia account is already linked to BA. So far I did a small test transfer to see if the 25% x2 bonus still applies. Does anybody think it’ll work today but die in 2 days? Maybe just transfer everything now. I don’t have plans to transfer MR to any other airline, but things can change.

Do you guys think this will last until 12/31? Trying to decide if I should transfer everything now or do a little at a time to make sure 25% x2 bonus still applies

@Dan – I’m flying San Diego, so I think I’ll transfer the 40k points, so that my fiancee and I can have 2 RT tickets from San Diego to Maui… Thoughts?

Are there any current Iberia bonus points available?

what stops them from pulling back mistake points?

Thanks!

@JOEB1:
If you move them out of Iberia, I would think that you’re safe.

08/12/15 Promotion 25% Transfer Mrb Amex Avios Finance 32,313
08/12/15 Transferring Your American Express Membership Rewards Avios Finance 129,250

Beautiful! I hope they don’t try to pull these back! I can’t transfer them to BA Avios as I just made the Iberia account. Do you guys think they will take them back?

The combine avios option is not working for me. I keep getting this error message – Combine my Avios is not available at the moment. Please try again later.

Is anyone else seeing that?

@ryan
yes Im getting the same message. Any ideas ppl?

@Ryan:
@Meir:
Are you trying on the BA site or IB site?
Try on the other one yet?

@Dan
I used your link in the post.
Cant seem to find the option on the iberia site… do you where it is?

@dan
found it.
https://www.iberia.com/web/ssoLanding.do

Great find… It worked for me!

I get “Which way do you want to move Avios?
You can only move Avios from British Airways to Iberia Plus – you cannot move your Avios back again.” anyone else get that? Anyway around that? Tried both links up top.

@Chanan:
Has your Iberia account been open for 90 days?

I transferred on 12/13, points hit my iberia accoutn today at 1:1. Seems the extra bonus is dead.

Dan,

In your opinion what is the best way to spend AMEX rewards points? I usually travel from Boston so does it make sense for me to convert them to Avios points? Or are there better options out there.

i transfered on 12/15 and only got 1:1. seems that the extra bonus is dead

Dan in order to be able to transfer from my BA to my Iberia, I have to make one transaction, I transfered 250 points from my Amex, would that be good enough or do i need to transfer 1,000

@DZ the Telzer:
250 is fine.

Both links don’t allow to me to transfer
Iberia site says I can’t transfer at this time
Ba site allows me to click “combine” but nothing happens after

@Stephen:
I’m hitting a wall on both sites, too.
Seems buggy.
Maybe they’re already ringing in the secular new year and no one is monitoring the sites for functionality? 🙂

Is it ok to give my passport info on iberia when signing up to make an account ?