The Chase Iberia Visa Signature was unexpectedly launched today. This brand new credit card comes with a signup bonus to rival the Chase British Airways Visa Signature card and a $1,000 flight discount as a Big Spend Bonus that might make it more interesting. Early reports indicate that it is not subject to the Chase 5/24 rule.
The Offer
- 50,000 Avios after making $3,000 in purchases within the first 3 months plus an additional 25,000 Avios after making a total of $10,000 in purchases in the first year
- Find a link to this offer on our Best Offers page or our dedicated Chase Iberia Visa Signature Card page
Key Card Details
- $95 annual fee is not waived
- Earn 3x on Iberia, British Airways, Aer Lingus, LEVEL and OpenSkies
- Earn 1x everywhere else
- Get 10% off Iberia flights when booking at iberia.com/Chase10
- Spend $30,000 in a calendar year and get a discount voucher good for $1,000 off when buying tickets for two people on the same flight
Quick Thoughts
This is an interesting offering. Early reports at Doctor of Credit indicate that it is not subject to the Chase 5/24 rule.
| Chase's 5/24 Rule: With most Chase credit cards, Chase will not approve your application if you have opened 5 or more cards with any bank in the past 24 months. To determine your 5/24 status, see: 3 Easy Ways to Count Your 5/24 Status. The easiest option is to track all of your cards for free with Travel Freely. |
Keep in mind that as this is a personal card, it will add to your 5/24 count — the rule just doesn’t seem to be enforced in application decisions.
| Chase 5/24 semantics ("Subject to" vs. "Count towards"): Most Chase cards are subject to the 5/24 rule. That means the rule is enforced in making approval decisions. In other words, you probably won't get approved if your credit report shows that you opened 5 or more cards in the past 24 months. Meanwhile, most business cards (such as those from Chase, Amex, Barclaycard, BOA, Citi, US Bank, and Wells Fargo) are not reported on your personal credit report. These cards do not count towards 5/24. Example: Chase Ink Business Preferred is subject to 5/24, so you likely won't get approved if over 5/24. If you do get approved, it won't count towards 5/24 since it won't appear as an account on your credit report. |
Assuming that continues to be the case, between this new Chase Iberia Visa Signature and the British Airways Visa Signature, it would make for the ability to pick up a lot of Avios between the two cards. Assuming spend is done at 1x, meeting the 10K spend on each card and earning the full signup bonuses would yield 170K Avios on a total of $20K spend. While that’s a lot of spend, it’s more than 8x overall. Those who can make good use of the Avios could get excellent value out of them. Remember that you can transfer Avios between British Airways and Iberia, so you can combine them for larger redemptions (See: Bet You Didn’t Know: 3 Methods To Transfer Avios Between Iberia and British Airways).
Furthermore, the $1K savings voucher that comes with $30K spend looks interesting. While the British Airways Visa offers a companion ticket with $30K spend, it’s not a very exciting benefit as the companion is on the hook for high taxes and fees (See: British Airways Travel Together Ticket). Taxes and fees still apply to the full value of the ticket with this Iberia voucher, including the portion covered with the $1,000 voucher, but those taxes and fees should be significantly lower than with BA. Some key terms of the $1,000 discount voucher include:
- Voucher will be issued following the statement in which you reach $30K in purchases
- Purchases must post to your account by Dec 31st to get the benefit for that calendar year
- Primary cardholder must travel on the itinerary booked with the voucher
- Must book 2 tickets in the same class of service on the same flight
- Voucher must be redeemed by booking at: iberia.com/Chase10
- Only valid for flights operated by Iberia
- Valid for 12 months from date of issue and is not extendable or transferable
Another thing to keep in mind is that the terms state that you will receive the voucher within 4-6 weeks after the statement cycle in which you reach $30K in purchases and that once you receive the voucher you will not be eligible for another certificate until the next calendar year. The terms also state that purchases must post to your account by December 31st. However, if your purchases post in December, you would not receive your certificate until at least January — which might disqualify you from earning another certificate in that new calendar year. I’d suggest getting the purchases done by the beginning of November if you are looking to receive this benefit twice in the first cardmember year.
It’s certainly interesting to see a totally unexpected new card hit the market. Further, it will be exciting for those who are over 5/24 as it represents a newfound opportunity to pick up some useful miles. As always, we have added a link to this offer on our Best Offers page.
H/T: Reddit via IAD Gr8 on Twitter
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Another data point: I’m way over 5/24 and was instantly approved.
Is there an Iberia household account like the one that exists with BA Avios?
[…] addition to yesterday’s surprise launch of the Chase Iberia Visa Signature card (See: Chase launches Iberia Visa w/ 75K total signup bonus), Chase has announced that they will also be issuing a new Chase Aer Lingus Visa Signature card […]
Would someone please do a story explaining “Avios”. There are now just “Avios” that seem to be connected to Aer Lingus and are supposed to be connected to BA and Iberia but aren’t. But Avios.com is supposed to be for all three? Or not? Or what? Total mess. (yes, I’ve joined my BA and IB. No, I don’t like IB’s mess of a site.)
Those thinking to get this card assuming that Iberia Avios will make for great 11k rt deals on US travel may wish to pause for verification….I’m curious to see if the Iberia Avios interface to AA and Alaska has improved at all. (Last year, saw lots of reports, via mommypoints and elsewhere that such reservations — for 11k of Iberia Avois for short-haul rt AA flights — was quite difficult, if not impossible to pull off — and that’s assuming the first near miracle threshold was crossed — that is, finding AA award availability in the first place…. Do remember though that with Iberia Avios on AA, there was none of those nasty AA close-in booking fees….. sweet spot hint here…. if the inteface works.)
My experience is anything having to do with the Iberia site is a PITA. How can a European country’s airline site be so behind the 21st century?
Concur on the pita part — Ironically, they’re no longer a state carrier. BA, Iberia, and Air Lingus, & Vueling now all owned by “International Airline Group” (holding company)…. One recent improvement, they now have 24 hour customer service (even for award travel) available in English. (I had to call several times before I could get a newer staffer though, who could see my common sense complaint about Iberia’s idiotic membership naming system — the one that automatically gives everybody the same last name — twice – which in turn screws up transfers from BA Avios.
To be my own data point, I just managed to complete a close-in (within 3 weeks) reservation on AA short-haul, multi-hop domestic (US) round-trip itinerary using — tah dah — Iberia Avios points. (again, this is for a round-trip flight…. cost me a whopping *tic 11k Avios, plus $29)
Irony, I still can’t transfer my BA Avios to Iberia….. (bizzzzarree — somebody really needs to do a rube goldberg cartoon illustrating everything that can go wrong.) But I could transfer CUR points to iberia avios plus — INSTANT success. (and then instant reservations — and yup, when you’re flying AA close-in, then just magically, all sorts of AA award availability appears….. grrrrrr…. )
Ah, but real headline — no close-in booking fees with Iberia Avios on AA. (and you get free bag too — on board, — sic on that too)
Nick–can you move BA Avios to Iberia Avios (or visa versa) if you have a BA household account and are unwilling to lie about your address in order to set up an avios.com account? Thanks in advance.
I’m sorry – I don’t know.
Functionality has increased in the past year or so on being able to transfer from britishairways.com or from iberia.com into the other. If you have any in iberia now, try logging into the account and doing it.
A few weeks ago I managed to move Avios from Iberia to a household BA account, but i had to use avios.com (our maybe Aer Lingus) as an intermediate step. I do not remember exactly how it worked, but if you do not figure it out let me know and I will get on a computer to try again. I do remember it was not as immediate as would have been nice.
Thanks. That is good news. The last time I checked about a year ago, the only way to move Avios between a BA household account and Iberia was through avios.com, but avios.com required a European address in order to set up an account (the link provided by Nick in the article said the same thing–the suggestion was to use a hotel for a European address, which I am not willing to do). It would be great if that restriction has been removed.
I remember reading about that same issue when I did the transfer, but it is now possible to sign up with a US address. Again, I do not remember the exact details of how it worked, but it is now easier than the way I read about it previously.
Edit: My transfer happened on March 02. I think I made an Aer Lingus account to sign up with a US address and then used that to login to avios.com to do a “Combine Points” request.
went through similar awful saga….. (Address issue wasn’t on signing up for the Iberia account, but in being able to do ANY transactions other than actual flying of Iberia metal to count as a qualifying transaction — in order to make possible the transfer of BA points to Ibera…. Yet do remember later last year that I suddenly was able to purchase Iberia Avios points (sic) — did smallest purchase possible — and that counted as a transaction to open up the window. (Also, I read somewhere yesterday that Iberia is now a Chase UR transfer partner — so all that hassle last year now over)
I have 22 hard inquiries in the last 24 months and was approved instantly for this Iberia card.
For anyone in the same situation and thinking of applying for this (or any chase card), consider first reading through the recent Chase shutdown threads on flyertalk and r/churning. Chase seems to be shutting down accounts of people with lots of new cards in a short time (among other factors). Shutdowns reported after approval of new card with Chase due to Chase’s new Bustout scoring.
Yikes! Thanks
Lower your Chase credit lines to prevent ” “.
I’m flying Iberia in a couple of hours. I wonder if there will be a better offer on the plane.