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If you’re like me and you recently bought 10 tickets in exchange for 90k Iberia Avios you may be looking at ways to make use of those cheaply purchased points. I specifically bought my Iberia Avios with the intent of using them to fly to a wedding I’ll be attending in a few weeks. The problem? If I booked wedding tickets on a partner ( i.e. American ) I’d need to book roundtrip, and my Iberia account had a whopping 50 points in it prior to the promo – which limits my options quite a bit.
Another option I’d found was to fly BA 1st ( eat the whopping $500 in fees), enjoy a comfy ride, good food and wine, and be done with it. The problem? The one way was going to take 100k Avios and I only had 90,050. One of the promo restrictions was that these Avios can’t be combined with other Avios ( as in transfer them to Avios to BA Avios/Aer Lingus Avios); however, as I found out post transfer, you can shore up your account to get the booking you want.
So how long did Ultimate Rewards to Iberia Avios transfer take? It was instantaneous.
I simply linked the account, transferred the Ultimate Rewards, and then logged out of Iberia and back in. Voila. They were instantly transferred. The only concern I’ve had is whether or not they impose the negative balance restrictions that had been rumored.
According the email that they sent out, I’m not too worried that this will be enforced as it isn’t specified in the T&Cs. If it is…I’ll just drop the account, unlink my Ultimate Reward account, and create a new one. Not a unique idea, and one I’m sure Iberia has thought of and realized it would be terrible PR if they created loads of negative balances, which is probably why they dropped it in the email ( if it was ever completely true to begin with.)
I still haven’t nailed down the ticket I want, but it’s looking more and more like my girlfriend and I will be enjoying one the best business classes in they sky: British Airways First Class ( probably on a 747 )
I’ve flown BA first a couple of times ( coincidentally, one of those times was to a wedding last year 🙂 )
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Is the best possible use for my Iberia Avios?
It comes down to what you consider best. I, for one, need a ticket to fly to England for a weekend wedding trip. While I’d love to find some sort of routing that flies me into Amsterdam, Dublin, Madrid, or another city with lower taxes on AA, or even Iberia metal, the fact of the matter is my dates are locked in, and the avail just isn’t showing up.
BA First is also fun. It’s a very nice product, and in order to shore up my account to 100k it cost me just 10k Ultimate Rewards. I still haven’t booked as I’m hoping to wait as long as I can, but part of me thinks…you’re going to England for the weekend, fly as simply and most comfortably as possible and enjoy the experience. For goodness sakes…you bought these points for $345 – use them up and be done with it. Plus, BA First is a nice step up from Club World.
Am I getting most time in a premium cabin for the lowest number of miles and taxes/fess? No. But I am getting somewhere I need to go, when I need to go, and in a great cabin to boot. What’s even better than that? There are a few routes that offer two seats so my girlfriend and I can travel together. BYAH!
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The Chase Sapphire Preferred is a great starter card that earns Premium Ultimate Rewards that can be transferred into over a dozen partners many of which are US based.
Welcome Offer
60k Points after $4k spend in 3 months
80k offer in branch currently – I think this should be online soon
Annual Fee
$95
Points Earned
Transferrable Chase Ultimate Rewards
Super solid welcome offer.
If you carry this card alongside Chase’s cashback cards like the Chase Freedom Flex℠and Chase Freedom Unlimited® or the business versions: Ink Business Cash , Ink Business Unlimited you can combine the points into Preferred account and transfer into hotel and airline partners
Annual fee is quite low at $95 a year + you get a 10% anniversary bonus on points + $50 hotel credit in Chase travel.
- 3x on dining
- including eligible delivery services for takeout
- 3x on select streaming services
- 3x on online grocery purchases
- (excluding Target, Walmart and wholesale clubs)
- 5x on all travel purchased through Chase Ultimate Rewards – Chase Travel Portal
- $50 Annual Credit on hotel stays purchased via Ultimate Rewards/Chase Travel
- The begins immediately for new cardmembers and after your account anniversary for existing cardmembers
- 10% Anniversary Bonus
- Every year you keep the card, your total spend will yield a 10% points bonus. If you spend $10k in a year, you’ll get 1k bonus points
- Chase Sapphire Preferred® continues to redeem at 1.25c in the Chase Travel Portal and the slew of other benefits remain in tact including primary rental car insurance, purchase protections, etc.
- Points are transferrable to 13 Ultimate Rewards partners
- Redeem in the Chase Travel center for 1.25 cents per point
- No foreign transaction fees
- Suite of Travel and Purchase Coverage
- Primary rental car coverage is my favorite
There is currently an 80k offer after $4k spend in 3 months available in branch, and up to 90k after $6k spend in 6 months. I suspect some version of this will be online soon if you don’t want the hassle of going into a branch.
We keep an up to date spreadsheet that lists the best ever offers: You can find that spreadsheet here.
Historically 60k is a very, very good offer. In 2021, we saw the offer hit an all time high of 100k. Who knows if that will ever come back. .
Main Cast:
Cards that earn flexible points and should be used on the bulk of your purchases.
Supporting Cast:
Cards that earn fixed points in the currency of the airline/hotel and can not be transferred at attractive rates. These cards yield benefits that make it worth keeping, but not necessarily worth putting a lot of your everyday spend on.
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