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Over the weekend, Chase added the ability to transfer directly from Ultimate Rewards to two more valuable partners, Iberia Plus and Aer Lingus AerClub. While transfers have always been possible to make indirectly (See: Bet You Didn’t Know: 3 Methods To Transfer Avios Between Iberia and British Airways), that has been kind of a pain and required some setup. It will be nice to be able to avoid those hoops and transfer directly from now on.
As a reminder, Iberia has some great sweet spots, such as off-peak business class flights from parts of the US to Europe. For example, you could fly from New York to Europe in business class in off-peak season for 34,000 Avios one-way. Earlier this year, they even ran a promotion for 25% off of those rates.
However, keep in mind that Iberia has some downsides. For example, partner awards are completely nonrefundable and nonchangeable. That is to say that if you book an American Airlines flight with your Iberia Avios and you later need to cancel that flight, you will not get anything back. You can’t even change your flight. In general, it is probably best to use Iberia Avios just for Iberia flights.
Bottom line
While these transfers have always been possible, it will be nice to have access to a simpler path from Ultimate Rewards to Aer Lingus and Iberia. I haven’t yet made a test transfer, but would expect that these will likely be instant.
H/T: IAD Gr8
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Yay! I have flown Iberia business class from ORD to Madrid last fall and loved it. We’re booked in March 2018 JFK to Madrid then Rome business class.