London Dude

Very shortly, the way you collect Avios on the tickets you buy will change. Instead of Avios being awarded for the miles flown, the method used until now, you will start collecting Avios for every euro you spend,* according to your card level.

https://www.iberia.com/es/iberiaplus...lu.20221031.en

Tomas E

Just got an email from Iberia with the following message:

"Tomas, at Iberia Plus we know that the way people travel is changing, that’s why we’re adapting to evolve with the times. The way you collect Avios on your flights is about to change.
Until now, Avios have been earned based on air miles flown, but from now on you will collect Avios for every euro (applies to net spending, excluding taxes and charges) you spend. This new method is clearer and easier, just the way you like things.

Of course, every time you fly, you will still collect Elite Points the same way you always have."

So a "US-style" earnings system, but only for Avios, not for Elite Points.

There's also a link to a page on the Iberia website that contains a bit more info:

The earning rate is 1€ = 5 Avios for Clásica (i.e., "no status")
1€ = 6 Avios for Plata/silver
1€ = 7 Avios for Oro/gold
1€ = 8 Avios for Platino/platinum as well as Infinita and Infinita Prime

This seems to be noticeable less than what I have previously earned, at least from reasonably cheap business class tickets. And the status premium is slashed from previously +25%/+50%/+100% to +20%/+40%/+60%. Since it is revenue-based, perhaps the difference is less for medium-priced economy class tickets.

The date when this is introduced is "shortly", whatever that means.

What is still not clear to me:
- The exact date this will take effect.
- What will happen to Avios earnings from other Oneworld carriers, including BA. As far as I know, the US-based airlines that use a similar system still base miles earnings for partners on distance flown and booking class, because other airlines don't know what you've paid someone else for the ticket. However, since IB and BA are both part of IAG and both programmes are handled by IAG Loyalty, perhaps BA flights credited to IB will also become revenue-based because they have the info?
- Will BA also introduce a similar system since they are also a part of IAG?

Freddorick

Got this too, not great. I would assume earnings on non-IB flights will remain the same. I guess this will hold for BA flights too as IB and BA would need to integrate their IT backends otherwise (which I doubt will ever happen). I would assume that BA moves to a system similar to this shortly too.

ndwint

Yes, this is a bit of a shocker. I have Platino status and here is an example of one of my regular trips to the UK.
I got the cabin bonus (50%) for Business Class and the Status (100%) bonus for being Platino.
These trips usually cost me about 400 Euros.

In total this was 6,430 Avios
So, looking at the new Avios earning I will receive approx. 400*8 = 3,200

HALF the Avios.

Seanish

Will be interesting to see how they implement it. I assume they will honor, even begrudgingly, previously pledged Avios for current bookings. Really hope there won't be a need to fight for those.

DTCFlyer

same here… not great move,
as an example I’ve a trip LHR-JFK-GRU-JFK-LHR in F which is over 16k miles, would give me originally 48k Avios without Gold bonus, with the new mechanics would award only 18k Avios…
let’s wait and see from when it will be implemented

tmac100

I hope so as well.
I flew to Madrid this week end from Lisbon to get the 10 Tier Points needed to maintain my BAEC Silver. I return today (Nov 1) in booking class O to give me the last 5 TPs needed. Hope IB gives them to me, even though it is a very inexpensive ticket. Under their rules when I booked the RT ticket, the A and O classes on the 2 flights were to give 5+5=10 TPs.

chejus

Hello, maybe even less because the AVIOS are based on the ticket fare and not the final price (that includes taxes)? If you pay €400 maybe there are taxes involved and those do not earn AVIOS?

Deckter

The change is not instant, and in any case, it doesn't affect TP's nor earnings on BA.

kcaluwae

Taxes are sometimes half of the ticket cost...

LupineChemist

Yeah, the part that really gets in my craw is the earning rates excluding taxes. They are a massive part of a lot of my fares.

I'm not anti revenue based in general but this seems to be pretty poor. Especially given credit card earning opportunities are so much worse in Europe compared to the US.

feysul

This will not be good.

csycsycsy

A dissenting opinion...is the issue not the exclusion of taxes but the low multiplier (x5-x8)? If one's ticket has a massive part in taxes, perhaps that suggests th fare component was a good fare deal? Why should a revenue (to Iberia) based reward system reward/rebate revenues that IB does not keep? Whereas it's the (low) multiplier values that truly determines the ratio of revenue kept by IB and (low) reward/rebate given....

At least if paying by amex one still gets 1.2 avios/€ (including the tax/fees) and if using the santander-ibera non-Icon 10% off (including the tax/fees) and also a further 0.5 avios/€ (also including the T/Fs)....

LupineChemist

I suppose if it's going to be taxes and fees or just government imposes taxes and fees.

I even have a problem with excluding things like airport fees. Like part of running a business is just dealing with costs and usage fees are part of that.

craigthemif

The original Spanish language version says impuestos y tasas.

There's no way to stretch that to include carrier-imposed surcharges. Relax...