A few thoughts.
- We should be grateful to yllanes, craig and lupinechemist. They are very knowledgeable, especially in Iberia Plus. They provide plenty of useful information and, IME, always helpful.
- Everyone knew how complicated, challenging, stressful it can be when searching and booking partner awards. It has been warned many, many, many times in this forum. In fact, IbPlus veterans tend to avoid partner awards - simply because they are non-refundable, and usually cheaper if booked via BAEC (+ the hassle of booking it via IbPlus).
- Iberia Plus doe not excel for customer service. We knew that before, it has been discussed, informed, commented, million times in this forum. Your chances of getting what you want increases significantly whether you speak, or not, Spanish.
- Iberia Plus has also it strengths. Cheap, affordable, low-taxes,.. business redemptions. Who offers you 34k Avios o/w Business transatlantic? The problem, there are only limited places available and Iberia does not have a massive Northatlantic route network.
If you had the previous points in mind, you would have probably made the following assumptions:
- "Goodness, this promotion is being highlighted by all blogs, forums, websites,...." = meaning, many people are taking part in this promotion, especially those in the USA.
- Iberia Business seats are Avios cheap across the Atlantic....
- "It's gonna get very competitive finding that Business class seat across the Atlantic on the dates I want". That's exactly what happened.
- The good thing is, Iberia Plus releases new Business Class seats available with Avios EVERY DAY (360 days in Advance - something like that).
- In fact, you could have booked a nice transatlantic C trip for next Summer... if you had planned accordingly.
- Many many many people did that, that's why for pretty much the next year, no Transatlantic C seats available.
Now people are frustrated because:
- Iberia Plus honored the promotion, as expected (it is not the first time Iberia Plus runs a similar promotion).
- Iberia Plus gave plenty of time to redeem the Avios.
- Some left the booking process for the last day, taking a massive risk (imagine the Iberia Plus page goes off line for the whole day - it has happened before)..
- Fact was, all transatlantic C seats were not available for the whole year... and people started to panic, no back up plan, nothing, nada. Then they realise "blimey - searching for partner awards is a bloody nightmare". They are angry with themselves because they left it until the last day, and they express this anger in this forum.
- And Iberia Plus promised that if you didn't spend the Avios according to their T&Cs (which you agreed to when you signed up to the program), they would remove them from their account. And that's what they have done, including if you transferred out the Avios to other programs. (It could be argued, that the promotional Avios were still available after midnight CET - I guess if you approach Iberia Plus in a kind, professional manner, they would probably accept and honor your case; but this has to be done on a one to one basis).
Extra: to all those that asked Iberia Plus to remove your data from their database, it is wise to do so from Avios Group Limited as well, as you agreed with Iberia Plus that your data will be also shared with Avios GL when signing up to Iberia Plus.
In accordance with the provisions of Spanish Organic Law 15/1999 on Personal Data Protection, the client is informed of and authorises the "registration and processing of their personal details" in automated files duly registered with the Data Protection General Register under the responsibility of IBERIA LÍNEAS AÉREAS DE ESPANA, S.A. OPERADORA Unipersonal and AGL UK (Avios Group Limited), a British company in which IBERIA has a stake and both of which belong to International Airlines Group (IAG).
Your details may be used for any activity related to the aims of the Programme and the contractual relationship it has with you, including the analysis and formation of profiles and, generally, the undertaking of promotional, marketing and analysis activities by Iberia, the Participating Companies and the Booking Systems.
And they specifically ask you, when users request it, to remove their data from Iberia and Avios GL
You may exercise, free of charge, your rights of opposition, access, rectification and
cancellation of your details and revoke their authorisation without retroactive effects under the terms specified in Spanish Organic Law 15/1999 on Personal Data Protection, in accordance with the legally established procedure.
These rights may be exercised by writing to the departments in charge of the computer file: for IBERIA, L.A.E., S.A.O., S.U. the address is Dirección Sistemas/U. Seguridad Informática, Zona Industrial nº 2, 28042, Madrid. Alternatively you can fax +34 91 587 55 64, addressing the fax to “Personal Data Care”, or email
[email protected] For the Avios Group Limited the address is PO Box 90, Birchwood, Warrington WA3 7XA, or email
[email protected].