Do you have some Iberia Avios left over (see the 90,000 Bonus promotion) and are wondering if you can transfer Iberia Avios to British Airways? It is not too late to transfer out any leftover Iberia Avios. I used up most of my Avios on Iberia and transferred the rest to British Airways, which Iberia has stated is allowed. Warning: It seems that your Iberia account may go negative if you transfer miles out to BA. The deadline to use (or transfer) up your Iberia Avios is soon, December 1.
Keep in mind it is cheaper to use BA Avios than Iberia, such as NYC to Miami. There are pros and cons to redeeming from each which I won't get into here. As a general rule I have used my BA Avios for short distance flights in the US, South America, and maybe Europe, where there are rarely any fees. Read more about if you should transfer your Avios.
How does one transfer Iberia Avios out? The easiest way, which no longer works, was to use the “Combine Avios” feature on British Airways. I wasted a lot of time first trying to find awards to burn my Iberia Avios. Then more time trying different methods to transfer and having problems way too often — it was a royal pain. On BA's site, they conveniently removed the option to “move Avios FROM Iberia” leaving only the “move Avios TO Iberia” option now. There is another way using Avios.com which lets you move Avios between British Airways, Iberia, as well as Aer Lingus (it should also work for Vueling). I'll walk you through the steps below.
How To Transfer Avios From Iberia Plus to British Airways Avios
- Login to Avios.com (create an account at AerClub if you don't have a login, my BA and Iberia did not work to login despite the website suggesting to create an account there). If you have an AerClub account, just use that to login to Avios.com
- Click My Account (top right corner), then click My Account again on the menu that opens up. Or try this direct link.
- Click Combine my Avios or try the direct link. Sometimes this link disappears.
- On the right side click the drop down to select Iberia Plus then enter your ID and password to login. Note: Your Iberia Plus account must be at least 90 days old and the name and address should match. If you still get errors, open a chat to ask for help. They can make the transfer for you.
- Now you should see the below showing your Avios balance on the left and your Iberia balance on the right. On the bottom, choose “Iberia Plus to Avios” and enter the number of miles (all of them?). Click “Review My Transfer”.
- Confirm the details, click “Confirm Transfer”.
- DONE. You will see the transfer summary – points are now moved over to your AVIOS.com account.
Errors? Problems?
As I mentioned above, you may have a problem linking your Iberia Plus account. If so, try using the chat feature where they can transfer to Avios.com for you.
So what if the balance goes negative after transferring the 90k? That’s assuming you’ll be wanting to use the same account in the future and your risk starting from a negative Point. Couldn’t you just open a new Iberia account and credit everything else in there instead?
Sounds right. You can probably open a new account but maybe they will match up your details and try to merge the accounts. Bigger risk for someone with existing Iberia Avios unrelated to the 90k bonus who doesn’t want to move everything to BA. If you had 100k in the account before the 90k bonus, then transfer out 90k, then they can deduct/clawback 90k from your 100k balance leave you with 10k.
Excellent/timely article. I earned Avios this year with the Iberia Visa card, but got an error trying to combine them with my BA Avios (a few weeks ago). This alternative method seems to work fine, thanks!