iahphx

So last August I snagged a good Iberia Avios promo deal for my wife and I to fly roundtrip from the USA to TLV in biz class with a 10 day stopover in Spain. I booked for March -- the latest the promo allowed. Several months ago, Iberia sent me an email allowing me to travel as late as May, and I jumped on that and rebooked.

But now my May travel date approaches and it's not looking great for us being allowed to visit Spain or Israel (we were also hoping to cross into Jordan on this trip). You never know with Covid, but I suspect I need a few more months delay. I assume Iberia would refund my points and taxes/fees, but that's not what we want -- we want to go whenever it is realistically possible to do so. At this point, maybe I'd bet on late summer (and hope!).

Does anyone have recent experience with how Iberia is handling situations like mine, and is there anything I can do to improve my chances of successfully rebooking for later travel? Thanks.

UKdiver

Go online to manage my booking. Check if any of your flights had a schedule change (even a few minutes change appear to qualify) or cancellation If any has you will have the opportunity to change the dates. See how far ahead the choices are. In my experience all flights are open regardless of Avios availability and off-peak/peak mileage requirements. It is important NOT to accept any proposed changes unless you are prepared to travel on these dates.

iahphx

Thanks. I definitely have had schedule changes -- but each of my segments (USA-MAD, MAD-TLV, TLV-USA) has a separate record locator, and maybe not all of them have changed. Any downside to calling? I'm thinking of waiting a couple weeks because I'd actually prefer to do the trip as currently booked in May instead of, say, July. I just don't think my odds are looking very good for May right now. Any feel yet for whether Spain will allow USA tourist arrivals this spring? And if I can gain entry, would I WANT to try to travel around Spain this May?

craigthemif

Americans are not going to be allowed into Spain in May.

Maybe the vaccination passport will be running by July/August.

jayfernandez

I'm in the same situation and booked last year during the 50% Avios promotion(transferred from Chase Reserve) from ORD to MAD 13-Apr-2021 (Original trip in Feb. 2021 was cancelled) which was just cancelled last month. The email Iberia sent said we may reschedule 10 days + or -, but there is no availability and it doesn't appear they will be allowing Americans anytime soon. I haven't tried contacting Iberia yet, but was wondering if you had any updates.

iahphx

I guess you've got to deal with this before me. I'm hoping to get more information/guidance here but, obviously, it's not looking good for Americans to travel to Europe or Israel this spring. At the moment, I'm looking at booking a domestic trip (they're now fully refundable, so it's easy) as a back-up to my May int'l plans. From what I can tell, there are still good USA deals for travel before Memorial Day. It's from Memorial Day and beyond that the airlines/hotels think there may be a travel boom (and I don't blame them for believing that). Really a shame that I need a back-up plan, but it's pretty obvious that I do at this point. Let us know if you hear anything. I'm not sure when I'll call Iberia, since it's hard to know what to even ask for at this point. I think I booked my original ticket in August (probably the same promo as you), so I suspect I'd have problems asking for a September travel date.

craigthemif

If you call in, they might be more flexible on the dates (without repricing).

The Spanish government's efforts - weak as they are - is to have some kind of vaccination passport to save the summer season (July/August). This might include non-Europeans, but the priority is to get Northern Europeans onto the beaches, not Americans into the museums, etc.

I see no reason why IB won't do more 50% discount deals in the future - they were regular enough pre-COVID. You might just want to take your refund and have the Avios ready for the next promo.

iahphx

Yeah, I suspect that's where we'll wind up. I wouldn't give a fig except these are biz class tickets, and deals on those are harder to come by (as is seat availability). I rarely fly biz class to Europe because it almost always works out to be 5x the price of coach for me and I don't find that "worth it." This was 2x, and we were looking forward to the additional comfort. Also, it would be nice to make our long-delayed return to Europe a bit more special. But it looks like it will take a bit of luck to make this one work out.

TravelingZoomer

I wonder if you guys had an update. I have travel that’s cancelled scheduled Mar 14 2021 that I have not changed, as they hadn’t even rebooked me on anything else. At the very least, am I entitled to refund of taxes + fees and avios if I don’t touch the ticket before tomorrow?

iahphx

For obvious reasons, my MAD and TLV trip for May is looking impossible. I want to reschedule to September. I've called Iberia a few times and, honestly, it's been hard to get information due to the language barrier (the English of Iberia's agents isn't usually very good). But I did reach one agent who suggested I say "bookings Iberia plus" when prompted by the computer, and then "Avios" if the voice asks for more. This did get me to an award ticket agent who I could reasonably speak to (his English wasn't perfect, but we could communicate). I was told that Iberia had not yet waived its 25 euro service fee for May award bookings, but likely would in the next few weeks. He suggested I call back in late April. 25 euros isn't a lot, but my reservation is in 3 different record locators, so I'd certainly prefer not to spend 150 euros on change fees for flights I still may not be able to take in September. So I will wait a few weeks. I am now vaccinated, so I suspect this should eventually enable me to visit Spain and Israel sometime this year -- hopefully using these Biz Class award tickets! Fingers crossed.

London Dude

I think the EU is eager to lift travel restrictions for Americans ahead of the summer tourist season, especially with vaccinations in the US well under way. However It's highly likely that the removal of any restrictions will need to be reciprocal as Trump's sudden unilateral decision to close US borders to Europeans last year didn't go down well on this side of the pond. CNBC reported that the Biden administration is considering a relaxation of the transatlantic travel restrictions in May, so I'd be watching for a joint announcement from EU and US authorities in the next few weeks. US airlines have been pushing for it pretty hard, and the fact that a lot of the seasonal US-EU flights operated by AA et al. are still on the schedule means that their educated guess is that this may be well happening soon.

iahphx

I happened to look down at the current restrictions in France -- basically you can't travel beyond 10 km from your home and you need papers -- and I'm pretty sure I'm not getting to the EU next month. In the USA, the half of the states that have had modest Covid restrictions have done a bit better than the states with strict restrictions -- and this is only SLOWLY causing the lockdown states to relax their rules. So I'm not expecting a miracle in Europe.When you make people afraid, it's very hard to get them to be less afraid.

https://fr.usembassy.gov/covid-19-in...lling%20reason.

JessicaB

I have had schedule changes, but online it only lets you change within 10 days of the original flight. But when I called, they just let me change to another date no problem. No mention of a change fee. My route (SDQ - MAD - LHR) tends to have Avios availability most of the time in any case. I find if you call the number in Madrid and ask for the English option, you get through quicker than if you use the Spanish option.

andrew10412

Same thing happened to me on an ORD-MAD itinerary. I called and they changed it for a few months in advance.

This was one of the 50% off tickets... New issue is that we are all approaching the one year validity on those tickets. I wonder what they will do if we are all unable to use the tickets before the one year mark? Extend validity?

iahphx

Yeah, I wonder about that, too. HUCA seems very effective, albeit time consuming, with Iberia. I guess I'll try calling again tomorrow.