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!
Churros in Madrid, Spain.
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).
Daniel Gillaspia is the Founder of UponArriving.com and creator of the credit card app, WalletFlo. He is a former attorney turned full-time credit card rewards/travel expert and has earned and redeemed millions of miles to travel the globe. Since 2014, his content has been featured in major publications such as National Geographic, Smithsonian Magazine, Forbes, CNBC, US News, and Business Insider. Find his full bio here.
The Best Ways to Use Miles and Points to Get to Europe
There are a number of ways to use miles and points to get to Europe for very cheap. Some of the best redemptions depend on your specific route and destination but others are great deals regardless of where you’re departing from and landing. Here’s a list of 8 of the best ways to use points and miles to get to Europe!
Flying Blue offers amazingpromo deals that sometimes offer as much as 50% off to Europe! These deals pop up at the beginning of each month so you’ll need to keep a close on them to take advantage of them. Even if you don’t catch one of the promo deals, the standard rate of 50,000 miles roundtrip to Europe is not bad, especially if you can minimize the fees by booking with a SkyTeam alliance partner like Delta. Flying Blue also allows you one stopover and one open jaw so you have increased value.
How to get miles for Flying Blue
American Express Membership Rewards
Chase Ultimate Rewards
Starwood Preferred Guests
Citi Thankyou Points
2) British Airways Avios
British Airways Avios operates on a distance-based chart, so to take advantage of these best redemption rates you need to be departing from the East Coast of the United States and landing somewhere in Western Europe. However, even if you’re coming from the West Coast, some of the redemptions can still be pretty decent. And remember, with British Airways you can stopover and/or open jaw pretty much anywhere but you’ll have to factor in the increased distance added to your redemption.
Photo by Daniel Mennerich
There are several ways to take advantage of the British Airways Avios distance-based system when getting to Europe. I’ll show you how to utilize these Avios with three different One World airlines, including British Airways.
a) Aer Lingus
25,000 Avios – Boston to Dublin
40,000 Avios – NYC/Chicago/Toronto to Dublin
50,000 Avios – LA/San Francisco to Dublin
One popular way to get to Europe with British Airways is to book flights with the Irish airlines Aer Lingus. The Boston to Dublin route is highly valuable because it contains a total of 2,987 miles, which puts it just under the 3,000 mile range of the next bracket for British Airways. That’s how you can do a round trip for only 25,000 Avios and the route is only about 6 hours so it’s very doable in economy. Check here for a list of all Aer Lingus direct flights from North America.
You’ll need to search United’s website to find availability for Aer Lingus and then call in to British Airways to proceed with the booking.
b) British Airways
34,000 Avios – NYC to Dublin
Off-peak flights from the East Coast to Europe can be as low as 34,000 Avios. However, I don’t generally recommend to fly with British Airways to Europe because you will get hit with heavy fuel surcharges. Take a look at the fees for the route below.
While the off-peak redemption requires fewer miles than the Aer Lingus redemption, it also requires much more in fees than the same route would require booked with Aer Lingus.
c) Air Berlin
40,000 Avios – NYC to Berlin
40,000 Avios – NYC/Boston to Düsseldorf
50,000 Avios – Chicago/Miami to Berlin
50,000 Avios – Ft. Meyers/Miami to Düsseldorf
Air Berlin is a solid choice to get to Europe from the East Coast with minimal fees. Just take a look at the redemption below… the fees pale in comparison to what you would have to pay if you booked a British Airways flight on its own metal.
Iberia Airlines Plus is part of the same Avios system as British Airways and implements a distance-based system as well. However, it has its own unique redemption policies that do differ and has an advantage over British Airways in that you can avoid higher taxes and fees.
One sweet redemption is getting from Chicago or New York to Madrid for only 34,000 Avios and “only” about $180-$200 in fees (which compared to British Airways is actually not bad). You can lower the fees by booking flights on American Airlines, but keep in mind that the milage requirement will go up since Iberia charges more miles for certain partners and you can’t book one-way awards on American Airlines with Iberia.
How to get Iberia Avios
American Express Membership Rewards (10:8)
Transfer 1:1 from British Airways Avios
4) Singapore Airlines
34,000 miles – East Coast (JFK and Houston) to Europe II
Singapore Airlines is another great way get to Europe but you’re restricted geographically just like British Airways. If you depart from the East Coast/Houston to “Europe II,” you can get rates as low as 34,000 roundtrip if you capture the online 15% booking discount. The following locations fall into the Europe II category:
Barcelona
Frankfurt
London
Manchester
Milan
Moscow
Munich
Paris
Zurich
However, you need to note that Singapore Airlines will charge you significant fees. For example, I came across the following fees when trying out some bookings:
NYC to Frankfurt – $464
Houston to Moscow – $393
You can get around these hefty fees by booking Star Alliance partner United with Singapore Airlines. As shown on their Star Alliance partner award chart, flights from North America to Europe can be booked as low as 55,000 miles, but partner airlines are not given the 15% discount and the redemption rates are higher, so the deal is not to sweet (though still decent).
One thing to remember: Singapore Airlines allows one stopover and one open jaw on round trip saver awards to everywhere except Europe and the U.S.
American Airlines MileSAAver awards allow for redemptions to Europe as low as 45,000 round trip. Try to avoid booking British Airways flights on the American Airlines website to cut down on fees charged. If you stick with American Airlines you can keep your fees as low as about $50 but if you route with British Airways through London, your fees can easily amount to $650 plus.
American Airlines does not allow for stopovers at international destinations although open jaws are permitted. The lack of stopovers is a bummer but if you only have your sights set on one destination in Europe this becomes less of a concern and the roundtrip for 45,000 becomes much sweeter.
Korean offers decent redemptions to Europe. When booking with a SkyTeam partner you are allowed one stopover during the entire journey that can be in the zone of departure or arrival and one “surface segment” (open jaw) at the destination that is not considered a stopover. This allows for great flexibility when booking. Korean Air will often require surcharges when getting to Europe but if you can find availability on airlines like Delta that shouldn’t be a major problem.
How to get Korean Air SKYPASS miles
Chase Ultimate Rewards
Starwood Preferred Guests
SKYPASS Visa Signature Card
7) ANA
55,000 miles to Europe
ANA is a great option to get to Europe because you can avoid high fees by booking with Star Alliance partners like United and they allow for flexibility with generous stopover and open jaw policies. With ANA, you’re allowed to open jaw twice and stopover once. The rules for the open jaw are a little confusing because they define some continents as “countries” and alternate the terms “zones” and “areas” without clear definitions of exactly what they are referring to.
However, in terms of going to Europe, you can pretty much open jaw anywhere in the continent and stopover there one time as well. To find out more about these booking policies, read more about booking ANA award flights here.
How to get ANA miles
American Express Membership Rewards
Starwood Preferred Guests
8) United
60,000 miles to Europe
United’s Saver Awards allow you to get to Europe in economy for 60,000 miles (the same mileage requirement applies to Star Alliance redemptions). While this redemption is among the highest of the airlines on the list, you have to remember that with United you don’t have to worry about fuel surcharges and so your tickets to Europe will cost next-to-nothing. You’re also allowed an open jaw on a roundtrip ticket and two open jaws, allowing for superb flexibility and maximization of miles.
Daniel Gillaspia is the Founder of UponArriving.com and creator of the credit card app, WalletFlo. He is a former attorney turned full-time credit card rewards/travel expert and has earned and redeemed millions of miles to travel the globe. Since 2014, his content has been featured in major publications such as National Geographic, Smithsonian Magazine, Forbes, CNBC, US News, and Business Insider. Find his full bio here.
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