lexluthor

I have a ton of Chase UR points and want to see how many Iberia Plus/Avios points the flight would cost for JFK-MAD, BCN-JFK, but it doesn't look like you can book a multi city flight with Avios on Iberia.com. I also called Iberia and they said they only way to do it as 2 one ways. The points for that are way too high.

Am i missing something here?

craigthemif

You can either book 2 one-ways on IB metal, or you can try to book a non-refundable reward on AA metal that is based on total distance flown.https://www.iberia.com/gb/iberiaplus...ican_airlines/

Be prepared to HUACA repeatedly, and that's assuming that you've found saver level award space on ba.com in Economy (Business is a unicorn except on very off-peak dates).

lexluthor

I'm not sure what you are suggesting? What's Iberia Metal? I looked at one way flights in Iberia using Avois and the redemption value for Avios economy flight was terrible. Would just be better using the Chase UR portal to book with points. Though the ur value is terrible compared to cash at iberia.com, so I'll probably just have to buy with cash.

tobsw

Economy Saver (Azul) is 17k off-peak and 20k peak on IB metal, one way (non-stop).

lexluthor

If I could book this as 2 one ways for 34K total Avios points, that's good value and I would do that.

But, what is IB metal and where do I go to book these for 17K points each way?

Sorry, I'm new to this, but the help is much appreciated.

craigthemif

IB metal means an Iberia airplane, as opposed to AA or BA or any other partner airline or codeshare.

If you think the redemption value was terrible, then you are probably looking for dates without any Blue (economy saver) award space.

You will also need to pay extra Avios for a BCN-MAD-JFK.


To be honest, if you can't figure out how to use miles, you're better off just booking via the Chase portal. Otherwise you'll convert your points to Avios, not get the award you're looking for, and then return here to complain about having Avios you can't use...

lexluthor

That's why I'm here first i'm certainly not transferring any points until I'm 100% sure. And no, can't use the Chase portal for this flight. They are want to charge something like 15% more than iberia.com directly. It would be a bad use of my points.

So i just go to iberia.com, log in with my iberia plus login and price out 2 one ways using pay with avios and i may or not see it for 17,500 miles? I'm not doing BCN-MAD-JFK. I'm looking at JFK-MAD/BCN-JFK or maybe JFK-MAD-SVQ/BCN-JFK. I'll look those up and be back.

craigthemif

Iberia don't fly from BCN to JFK. It would be Level, which is a low cost carrier.

lexluthor

I guess it says Level operated by Spain. I guess that's not IB Metal then?

I just looked up JFK-MAD and it's 22,000 points, plus $74 listed as economy class. The lower classes are not available. I'd never do that.
BCN-JFK is Level Spain operated by Iberia and is 17000 points, plus $104 listed as blue class. I'd never do it for that much either.
Both are poor redemption values.

Is the 2nd flight the 17K that someone else referenced? Adding $100 cash to that really kills the value though. Is that always there too?

AA has a JFK-SVQ (with a stop in MAD, I think) and BCN-JFK at a decent price, but that was starting at 30K points each way, so that's a no go.

Not sure exactly what else I should be looking for here. I'd like to avoid using cash, but I'm not going to redeem points at poor value. I know I get at least $.015 for domestic flights that I book so wouldn't do much less than that.

craigthemif

Keeping a "ton of Chase points" and spending cash most of the time because of the "poor redemption values" isn't all that clever IMO. You need to adjust your valuation if you are constantly spending cash instead of points.

If you want to fly internationally, you'll have to pay the taxes and surcharges. IB is better than most.

The main value, however, is Business Class or better. Far more miles of course, and far less award space, but airlines are practically giving away Economy seats at rock bottom prices so there's rarely going to be good value in redeeming miles for economy flights.

lexluthor

That's pretty much exactly what I thought. I'm fine flying economy so while I maybe could get better "value" for a business class seat compared to cash, it's not worth it to me if I can just book economy using cash and later use the points for domestic flights at $.015.

I guess the decision for me for this flight is do I book at $520 (times 4 people) cash at Iberia.com or $631 (42,066 points) via Chase UR. Seems like UR would be dumb to me. I do decent amount of domestic travel so why not just book my next $520 worth of domestic flights at full value and only use 34,666 points for that vs using 42,066 points for the same flight value. A "ton" is really around 350,000 for me. I'm still in the chase ecosystem so I add a lot of points, but it's not like I won't use 350,000 points eventually. Why use them up at poor value?

tobsw

To be fair, on Optima fare or Avios redemptions the difference isnŽt that much. Same plane, same seats, "same" crew (they are, after all, Iberia crew)... the only difference are the touches in the service. Of course if you value IFE, then thereŽs that as well, but IŽd rather read my book.

IŽd rather fly BCN-JFK non-stop with LEVEL than transitting through MAD.

pulokk1

IB business using Avios is a bargain. We scored MAD-ORD this October (admittedly shoulder season) for 34K each + $2-300.

You are correct, they do not seem to offer award open-jaws.

Since you say you have lots of points to transfer, enjoy yourself and fly business. If you never have, you will never want to go back to coach for transatlantic if you can help it.

And if you have to choose which way to fly business, do east-to-west. Europe to U.S. Those are all daytime flights. Business sure eases the pain. Almost a pleasure.

US to Europe flights are often overnight, so a person can conceivably sleep even in coach.

When we can't afford business both ways US-EU-US we always choose the business flight for EU-US, and every frequent flyer I know agrees.

lexluthor

Air is booked!

Wound up having to do a stop in each direction due to better airfare and the fact that I could use Chase UR points at a fair value, but I'm happy. Iberia.com was $485 and Chase was $499 (33,318 points)+no cash. That's a solid redemption value considering that I was never going to use the extra points to fly business class even at a much better redemption value.

Iberia (ticketed through AA) Friday JFK-MAD-SVQ with a 1:25hr layover arriving SVQ 8:50am
Iberia Monday week later BCN-MAD-JFK 1:40hr layover arriving JFK at 2:30pm.

The alternative return flight was a Level plane leaving 2:55pm arriving 6:20pm direct. There's not that much to do with a morning in Barcelona anyhow and this way we get home earlier in the day Monday even with the layover, plus the cost/points was enough less with the stop to make it worthwhile.

Thanks for everyone's assistance!