Iberia Club Award Booking Instructions

Iberia is the flagship airline of Spain, with its headquarters at Adolfo Suárez Madrid-Barajas Airport (MAD). The airline operates a wide variety of routes around Europe as well as many transcontinental routes. Iberia has its own frequent flyer program, known as Iberia Club, which allows members to earn and redeem rewards for flights, as well as in several other ways.

The Iberia Club program uses the Avios currency, which is also used by a few other frequent flyer programs (most of which are operated by IAG-owned airlines), including Aer Lingus AerClub, British Airways Executive Club, Finnair Plus and Qatar Airways Privilege Club. Avios can be transferred freely between any of the frequent flyer programs that use this currency, which means there are a ton of options for earning and redeeming Avios.

In some cases, the most beneficial way to redeem Avios is to purchase award flights through the Iberia Club program. And, because navigating frequent flyer programs can sometimes be tricky, we’re going to show you the step-by-step process of booking award flights through the Iberia Club program in this article.

Joining Iberia Club

First things first, before you’re able to either earn or redeem Avios, you’ll need to be enrolled in the Iberia Club program. So, if you don’t already have an Iberia Club membership, you’ll need to visit the Iberia website and click the “Log in” button on the top-right corner of the homepage. Then, click the “Register” hyperlink at the bottom of the drop-down menu that appears.

From there, you’ll be redirected to a new page, where you’ll be asked to enter an email address and password. Once you’ve done that, press the red “Register” button at the bottom of the page.

On the next page, you’ll be asked to enter your first and last name as well as verify that you’re at least 18 years old. If you received a special sign-up offer code, this is the page where you should input that code in order to receive your bonus.

Once you’ve done all that, click the “Register” button again to create your account. Then, you’ll be redirected to your account info page where you can view your account number as well as your Elite Points balance, your Avios balance and your elite-qualifying flights.

How to Earn Iberia Club Avios

Now that you have an Iberia Club membership, you’re able to earn and redeem Avios. Now, let’s look at how to earn enough Avios for your desired flight.

The Iberia Club program offers many different ways to earn Avios. Some of these ways are much more effective than others. The best ways to earn Avios through this program is to transfer Avios from other frequent flyer programs that use the currency, transfer credit card points into the Iberia Club program, or sign up for an Iberia co-branded credit card and take paid flights on either Iberia or one of its airline partners.

Let’s take a look at each of these earnings methods to help you save up for your next award flight.

Transfer Avios From Other Frequent Flyer Programs

The Avios currency is used by several frequent flyer programs, including Aer Lingus AerClub, British Airways Executive Club, Finnair Plus, Iberia Club and Qatar Airways Privilege Club (as well as by several smaller regional airlines). Avios can be transferred freely between any of these programs.

So, if you had a balance of 50,000 Avios in your British Airways Executive Club account, and you wanted to make a specific award flight redemption through the Iberia Club program, you could transfer all 50,000 Avios (or fewer) to the Iberia Club program completely free-of-charge.

You can transfer Avios to Iberia Club from either Aer Lingus or British Airway by going to Avios.com and logging in with your Iberia Club credentials and then going to the “Combine My Avios” page and selecting the programs you wish to transfer between from the drop-down menus.

If you want to transfer Avios from either Finnair or Qatar Airways to Iberia Club, you’ll need to first transfer to British Airways and, from there, transfer to Iberia Club.

These Avios transfers aren’t always instant. So, you should pay attention to transfer times if you’re trying to book an award flight with Avios in a certain time frame.

Transfer Credit Card Points

Perhaps the most effective way to earn Avios with the Iberia Club program is to transfer points from eligible credit card rewards programs. Currently, American Express Membership Rewards, Bilt Rewards, Chase Ultimate Rewards and Wells Fargo Rewards all allow you to transfer points to the Iberia Club program at a 1:1 ratio. All transfers must be in increments of 1,000 points.

So, for example, if you were to earn 70,000 Chase Ultimate Reward points (by receiving the welcome bonus from the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card, for instance), you could then transfer those points to the Iberia Club program and receive 70,000 Avios in your account within seconds, which is certainly enough to purchase an award flight.

If you have a credit card from a different major issuer, chances are you can still transfer your credit card points to the Iberia Club program indirectly. For instance, Capital One Rewards allows 1:1 transfers to the British Airways Executive Club program. So, you can transfer Capital One miles to British Airways and then from British Airways to Iberia Club.

Citi ThankYou points can be transferred at a 1:1 ratio to the Qatar Airways Privilege Club program. So, you could transfer Citi points to Qatar Airways, from Qatar Airways to British Airways and then from British Airways to Iberia Club (because you have to use British Airways as an intermediary between Qatar Airways and Iberia).

Iberia Co-Branded Credit Card

Another very effective way to earn Avios in the Iberia Club program is to sign up for an Iberia co-branded credit card. There is currently only one Iberia co-branded credit card available to U.S. consumers. The Iberia Visa Signature® Card is issued by Chase and has an annual fee of $95. However, this card is currently offering the following welcome bonus to new cardmembers, which is an amazing way to earn a lot of Avios quickly:

In addition to its welcome bonus, this credit card offers everyday spending bonuses and other notable benefits that apply to Iberia flights. The following table includes everything you need to know about the Iberia Visa Signature® Card:

As you can see, this Iberia co-branded credit card is a great way to earn Avios quickly. However, you should be aware that there are co-branded credit cards available from both Aer Lingus and British Airways that are similar to the Iberia Visa Signature® Card. So, if you tend to fly with one of those airlines more often than you fly with Iberia, it might make more sense to get that airline’s credit card instead of the Iberia Visa Signature® Card.

Flying With Iberia and Partner Airlines

Of course, you can also earn Avios by taking paid flights with either Iberia or one of its partner airlines. To earn Avios on flights, select Iberia Club as your frequent flyer program of choice and provide your membership number when booking or checking in for your flight.

The number of Avios you’ll earn when flying with Iberia depends on your status in the Iberia Club program and on your airfare. Here’s how many Avios you’ll earn for every euro spent on airfare at each status tier:

• Plata: 6 Avios per €1 spent
• Oro: 7 Avios per €1 spent
• Platino: 8 Avios per €1 spent
• Infinita: 8 Avios per €1 spent
• Infinita Prime: 8 Avios per €1 spent

On top of these Avios earnings, you can earn additional bonus Avios for flying on certain routes. Iberia Latin American routes earn 2X bonus Avios, and “Air Shuttle” flights (between Madrid and Barcelona) earn 1X bonus Avios.

In addition to earning Avios for Iberia flights, you can earn Iberia Club Avios by taking paid flights on any of the following partner airlines:

Each of these airline partners has its own earnings chart that determines the number of Avios you’ll earn for flying with them. You can view these earnings charts by visiting the Partners page on the Iberia website and clicking on the partner airline that you’re interested in flying with.

Other Ways To Earn

Aside from the methods described above, there are several other ways to earn Avios through the Iberia Club program. These include booking hotel stays, renting cars, shopping online, subscribing to magazines, answering surveys and purchasing Avios with cash.

In general, these other earning methods aren’t the most lucrative way to earn Avios. However, you can use them to pick up a few extra Avios and get a little bit closer to your next award flight.

We also typically advise against purchasing Avios, as you’ll usually pay more per Avios than the value that you can get out of them.

How to Book Award Flights Through Iberia Club

Now that you know how to join Iberia Club and earn Avios, you should be ready to redeem Avios for award flights through the Iberia Club program.

The first thing you’ll need to do is go to the Iberia website and click the “Log in” button at the top-right corner of the homepage. Then, sign in with your Iberia Club account number or your email address and your password.

From there, scroll down to the flight search tool (the same one you’d use to book flights with cash). Then, click the “Pay with Avios” button.

Once you’ve done that, just search for flights as you normally would. You can enter your departure and arrival airports, your travel dates, which type of flight you want (one-way or round-trip) and the number of passengers. Once your search information is correct, click the red “Search” button.

You’ll then be brought to a list of flight results that match your search query, including award flights operated by Iberia as well as partner airlines. From this list, you can choose the flight that works best for you and add that flight to your cart by clicking on your desired cabin class beneath that flight. You can also filter this list for number of stops, available cabin classes and departure and arrival times.

Once you’ve selected both your departure and return flights (if applicable), you’ll be asked to choose a combination of Avios and cash to pay with. If you don’t have enough Avios to cover the entire cost of the flight, you’ll be asked if you want to purchase Avios. In general, we’d recommend covering as much of the cost of the flight with Avios as possible. We also recommend that you don’t purchase Avios. Only spend Avios that you already have in your account.

After you’ve chosen your payment method, you’ll be asked to provide passenger information, including name, email, date of birth, preferred frequent flyer program and travel document number (if applicable). You’ll then need to add a payment method to cover any applicable taxes and fees.

Once you’ve done all that and confirmed your booking, you should receive an email with your confirmation number within minutes. You’ll need to enter this confirmation number when checking in for your flight.

As you can see, the Iberia website makes it easy to search and book award flights with Iberia and partner airlines all in one place.

The Bottom Line

The Iberia Club program is one of several frequent flyer programs that uses the Avios rewards currency, which means that you can freely transfer Avios from any of the other programs that use this currency into the Iberia Club program. There are also several other ways to effectively earn Iberia Club Avios, including signing up for an Iberia co-branded credit card, transferring points from credit card rewards programs and taking paid flights on Iberia or one of its partner airlines.

Since earning Avios through this program is relatively easy, you’ll probably want to familiarize yourself with the process of booking award flights through Iberia Club. And, by following the steps above, you can search for and purchase the perfect award flight.

Of course, before you book any award flight, you should calculate the value per Avios that you’d get from each potential redemption. Avios can be worth several cents apiece in some cases. So, you may want to save your Avios on high-value redemptions instead of squandering them on low-value redemptions.