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Chase Ultimate Rewards is offering a 30% transfer bonus when transferring points to British Airways Avios, Iberia Avios, or Aer Lingus Avios through 11:59pm EST on September 26, 2021. This can certainly be a terrific deal if you’re looking to take advantage of one of the Avios sweet spots for award travel.
The Deal
- Chase Ultimate Rewards is offering a 30% transfer bonus to British Airways Avios, Iberia Avios, and Aer Lingus Avios through September 26, 2021
Key Terms
- Valid until 11:59pm ESTW on September 26, 2021
- Bonus will be reflected on the airline side after making your transfer
Quick Thoughts
We never recommend transferring points speculatively, but with the right use in mind this could be a great deal.
For instance, Iberia charges just 34K Avios one-way for business class from several Eastern US cities to Madrid during off-peak dates. With the transfer bonus, 27K Ultimate Rewards points would be enough for a one-way business class ticket to Madrid. That’s a fantastic deal and is one of quite a few Avios sweet spots. Keep in mind that British Airways adds hefty surcharges for awards on its own flights, so you’re better off using Avios for flights on other partners. Iberia has moderate surcharges of around $300 round trip for business class to Europe on its own flights (keep in mind that additional segments will add to the cost of your itinerary both in terms of Avios and surcharges). Another situation where this bonus could make flights quite reasonable is for those on the west coast who can find availability on American or Alaska to Hawaii as those nonstop flights can be a great deal via British Airways Avios.
Note that while you will see the bonus advertised on the Chase Ultimate Rewards side, it won’t actually be reflected in the transfer until the points land in your Avios account. That is to say that when you go to transfer 1,000 Ultimate Rewards points, the Chase portal will show that you’re getting 1,000 Avios. You will see the 300 bonus Avios reflected on the British Airways / Iberia / Aer Lingus side after making the transfer.
While Avios isn’t Chase’s most valuable transfer partner in most situations, there are certainly times when it can work out to be quite attractive and a big transfer bonus like this surely helps in that regard. Keep in mind that Avios are also an American Express transfer partner. Check our resource How long does it take to transfer points to airline and hotel programs? to check transfer times before making a transfer.
H/T: maxmilespoints via One Mile at a Time
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Dang! A few weeks ago I booked Iberia Via BA transferring from
Chase. I did so to avoid huge infant fees. Can I upgrade to business using points and transfer the rest from
Chase?
[…] HT: FM […]
Yay! This saves the 3K avios I had at BA from expiring. With a bonus too!
Iberia just added a bunch of flights JFK and BOS to/from MAD. Lots of business class availability. With this deal that’s 26,154 Ultimate Rewards to Europe in Business!
Can anyone confirm the surcharges on a business class flight from west coast (LAX) to Madrid on the Iberia site? The ITA matrix is showing $700 in fuel surcharges which would make these transfers less viable.
If it’s on Iberia metal it’s about $306 in fuel surcharges. On BA metal much higher.
Yeah, as Jim says and I noted in the post, fees should be about $300 RT from the US. You used to be able to search and see the totals even without enough Avios, but I just logged in and found days with availability from LAX and I see that it isn’t showing the taxes and fees without enough Avios. I actually just went back to check a booking I made last year and I paid $175 round trip per passenger in business class from JFK-MAD. That seems low to me, but maybe it is less when booking round trip than booking as separate one-ways.
I do not have enough Avios to do a test through the booking process to get a confirmed answer. However my similar-ish DP is that I spent $198.56 for all fees ORD-MAD round-trip late last year. So I assume the dollar amount would be about the same from LAX.
These bonuses occur yearly so it may be best to leave in Chase if you have enough Avios for a year in case some great deal or urgent need happens in another partner.
BA Avios is the main way I book AA in the US. Iberia Avios is an awful website.
I used to use BA a lot before the pandemic, but lately, when I’ve looked, AA has had sky high prices for award bookings, so they haven’t been available at all in BA. Hopefully things change in the future.
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