Iberia Avios are posting from the crazy 90K promo

If you got in on the recent crazy Iberia Plus promotion (See: Crazy: 90,000 Avios for $180 (too good to last) and Holy moly: Iberia is honoring it. 90K Avios for ~$260, and it’s for real), I’ve got good news for you: Iberia Avios from that promotion are starting to post to accounts.

It’s early, so I don’t yet know if these are widely posting for everyone who participated. I’ve seen reports on a couple of other blogs and I know some have reported success at Flyertalk and so far it looks like only accounts created before the promo have received the Avios. As you can see above, I was not fully vested in this promotion. I purchased 3 tickets and expected a total of 27,000 Avios from this promotion. I purchased one flight on Thursday the 21st, one on Friday the 22nd, and one on Saturday the 23rd of June. As you can see, all 27,000 Avios that I expected have posted.

Not all of my bookings were made on the US site

A key piece of data I wanted to include here is that not all three of my bookings were made on Iberia’s US site. In fact, two of my three bookings were made on the Spain – English version of Iberia’s site. I include that here because there was a report last night on a blog about a person in Thailand being told that the promo would not be honored because that customer had not purchased from the Iberia site for their country and the promo was not intended for residents of Thailand. While I do live in one of the countries where the promo was reportedly targeted (the USA), I did not purchase all of my tickets on the USA version of the site and I did still receive my Avios.

That is far from an earth-shattering data point, but here’s the takeaway: you did not necessarily need to buy tickets on the version of the site for your home country (though Iberia may still maintain that the promotion wasn’t intended for people from countries where it wasn’t marketed), so if you’re waiting for Avios and thinking it’s because you purchased from the Spanish version of the site, that’s likely not the problem. You just might need to wait — like, for example……..

If your account is still locked…

As we reported yesterday, some accounts are currently locked. If that applies to you, Ryan from our Frequent Miler Insiders Facebook group suggested the following:

Here’s a work around for the lock-out.
If you have not already done so, download the Iberia app
Use the option Have you forgotten your PIN from the app (from the app, not from the web)
You will receive a new pin by email.

That may work, or it may not. Even if it doesn’t, I’d sit tight a day or two. It certainly seems that Iberia has full intentions of honoring this promotion. I think the worst case scenario is that they want to make sure that those who participated are using real accounts, so they have been asking some people for ID. If you can produce that, I think you will likely get your Avios.

Avios are working for Iberia bookings

The good news is that users on Flyertalk are not only reporting having received the Avios, but they have also been able to make bookings. While that may not seem like good news if you are waiting on Avios to post and concerned that all of the availability will be gone by the time yours are awarded, the good news is that you’ll have about 5 months to find availability even if it thins over the next couple of days.

Avios appear to work for American Airlines bookings

Tiffany at One Mile at a Time reported going through to the final checkout screen with her new Avios (and that she wouldn’t have otherwise have had enough Avios in her account to get that far) for an itinerary on American Airlines. Some had speculated that these Avios would be more restricted and not available for partner bookings, but that does not appear to be the case.

Keep in mind that partner bookings are totally nonrefundable in most cases. If you book an itinerary on American Airlines and later need to change or cancel, you will not get any Avios back. Be sure your plans are set in stone.

It looks like Avios are working for hotel bookings

In response to a question in the comments on this post, I took a look at Iberia’s hotel booking site, and it does let me get all the way through the final booking page:

It’s not a screaming deal — but bear in mind that “not a very good deal” means “only doubling or tripling your money on this promo”. It’s a pretty good backup plan if you can’t find flights that are more valuable — or if you’re just more interested in saving money on a hotel you’d have otherwise paid the bill for. Really, don’t let anyone tell you it’s a bad Plan A. Saving half or more on hotel bookings would be a great deal any day of the week. The hotel above would come to $144 with tax via the Hilton Honors rate for the same date. If you got in when flights were about twenty bucks, the above represents about $42 worth of Avios. Don’t let someone tell you that saving two thirds on a hotel room you’d otherwise pay for is a bad use of your Avios. And those of you who would be tempted to tell someone it’s a bad idea, remember that each person using Avios for a hotel booking is one less person to compete with for flight availability. It’s a win all the way around.

You can’t combine them with BA

Reports from Flyertalk indicate that these Avios will not transfer over to BA (it produces an error message). We expected that would likely be the case, and it looks like that has been confirmed.

Call for data points

I’m curious to collect datapoints. In my case, I’ve had an Iberia account open since sometime earlier this year or late last year. My Iberia Plus number never disappeared from my reservations, though I know many people with new accounts reported that problem. If your account is unlocked, I’m curious to know the following:

1. New account (created during the promotion) or old?
2. # of bookings made
3. # of Avios posted
4. Date of first booking
5. Date of last booking
6. Did you have any issues with your number disappearing from reservations?

All in all, I’d say that this promotion is a huge win for those who are starting to see the Avios. I know I’m pumped as I was looking to save big on a domestic itinerary that I’ll now be glad to book. Congrats to those whose Avios are posting — and if your Avios haven’t yet posted, keep an eye on your account as I imagine they will in the coming hours/days.

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