25% discount on reward flights with Iberia Express
Iberia Express, the short-haul sister company of Iberia (and of course BA and Vueling) has launched a number of new European routes. As an introductory deal, it is offering 25% off the number of Avios required on these routes if you book by 26 February, and travel between 29 March and 15 July 2015.
The new (and therefore discounted) routes are as follows:
To/from
- Gran Canarias – London Heathrow
- Madrid – Edinburgh
- Madrid – Ibiza
- Madrid – London Gatwick
- Madrid – Lyon
- Madrid – Nantes
- Madrid – Nice
- Tenerife – London Heathrow
- Oviedo – Tenerife
By way of example, the London Gatwick to Madrid flight would ordinarily cost 15,000 Avios plus €55.40 in Blue Class (the cheapest option). During the sale period it is 11,250 Avios plus €55.40. Similarly, London Heathrow to Gran Canaria is ordinarily 20,000 Avios plus €79.69, but 15,000 Avios plus €79.69 during the sale.
In all cases, the reduced Avios amounts were pricing up for me without any issues. There is no need to add any Iberia discount code or similar – the 25% reduction will apply automatically. The key point is that when you are looking at the redemption flights, you must select the flights operated by Iberia Express – not Iberia or Vueling – to get the 25% discount. This may sound obvious, but it’s easy to overlook when the various search result options appear.
While the sale understandably doesn’t cover the full summer period, this is nevertheless a great opportunity to get some discounted redemption flights for Easter or the early summer season, including from the UK to some “prime” Spanish holiday spots such as Tenerife and Gran Canaria.
As ever, however, it is worth looking at the cost of a cash flight for your dates, to work out whether the (reduced) Avios plus taxes/fees rate is better value than simply paying for the flight (bearing in mind a ballpark valuation of Avios at around 0.75p each). In the examples we looked at, the discounted Avios route was invariably the best option.
Don’t forget that if you are after some free/no spend Avios, you can get hold of thousands on our dedicated Free Miles/Points page.