Sweet Spot Sunday: Use Iberia Avios to manufacture your own cheap business-class fares to Europe

Do you know what a mistake fare is?

Mistake fares are a gift to travelers everywhere. On occasion, an airline will misprice a flight for impossibly cheap. If you don’t book a flight immediately, the fare will likely be fixed (or sold out) within hours — or even minutes.

Mistake fares are becoming more and more of a rarity. But there’s a way to “manufacture” a mistake fare — well, sort of. And it’s with Iberia Avios.

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You'll find this trick handy if you’d normally pounce on a $700 round-trip business-class flight to Europe. Let's take a closer look.

Why it’s special

The intent of many award travel enthusiasts is to use points and miles to travel for as cheap as possible. That’s an excellent goal (especially considering how easy it is to replenish your points stash when you’re running low). But if you’re willing to split your final bill with a bit more cash, you could skyrocket your redemption value.

On select Iberia routes between the U.S. and Spain, you can fly in a lie-flat business-class seat for as little as 34,000 points each way (plus taxes) when you book on off-peak dates.

Related: Fly business class to Europe from 34,000 Avios each way

For example, here is some business-class availability on a random date in January 2023. As you can see, the price is 34,000 Iberia Avios one-way in business class, plus $124.60 in taxes. A round-trip itinerary on off-peak dates prices out at 68,000 Avios and $281.57 in taxes and fees.

Meanwhile, a round-trip business-class flight to Europe on Iberia around the same time as the above one-way flight costs $3,842 in cash. Factoring in taxes and fees, you'd get 5.2 cents per Avios from this redemption, which is a great value.

When you go to the checkout screen, you'll notice an "Avios & Money" option. This lets you choose how many Avios and how much cash you'd like to use toward your booking. The more cash you spend, the fewer Avios you'll redeem.

Here’s the points value that each option provides when compared to the sample fare:

• 68,000 Avios + $281.57 = 5.2 cents per point.
• 57,800 Avios + $481.57 = 5.8 cents per point.
• 44,200 Avios + $681.57 = 7.1 cents per point.
• 34,000 Avios + $891.57 = 8.6 cents per point.
• 23,800 Avios + $1,091.57 = 11.5 cents per point.
• 13,600 Avios + $1,311.57 = 18.6 cents per point.

Surprisingly, you'll get more value from your Avios when you elect to spend more cash on your flight. TPG estimates Avios to be worth 1.5 cents each on average. By combining cash with points, you can easily receive 12 times that value when booking round-trip business-class flights on Iberia.

The same goes for one-way tickets, where you can book a business-class flight from Chicago to Madrid for 6,800 Avios and $639.60. This means you can turn a relatively small number of Avios into huge cash savings.

Related: The cheapest ways to book a trip to Spain with points and miles

How to book

There are a few big quirks about Iberia’s dirt-cheap award prices to Europe.

First, Iberia only flies to a handful of U.S. cities — and the prices vary by city and date. Here’s what you’ll pay if you were to use Avios during peak and off-peak dates. Refer to Iberia's pricing calendar to determine how your desired flight will price.

Also, the only routes you’ll find at these prices are nonstop to Madrid. That’s not a problem for most of us, because intra-Europe flights are super cheap (sometimes just $20 one-way). If Madrid doesn’t interest you, just hop to the city you actually want to visit and use Iberia as a comfortable shuttle across the ocean.

Here’s how to book these flights.

Step 1. Log in to your Iberia account

You won’t be able to search for award flights until you log in to your Iberia account.

After you’re signed in, you can click “Book flights with Avios” in the drop-down menu at the top right of the page.

Step 2. Enter your travel details

Keeping in mind the above table, choose your origin, destination and travel dates.

Step 3. Choose your flights and payment info

Hopefully, you’ll find the flights you want on your first try.

Once you select business class as your seat choice, you’ll see an “Avios & Money” section at the bottom of the page. The more money you’re willing to spend, the more your Avios will be worth.

How to earn points for this award

There are four main ways to earn Iberia Avios in a hurry.

The first is the most straightforward: earning with the Iberia Visa Signature Card. Right now, you can earn Earn up to 100,000 Avios. Earn 75,000 Avios after you spend $5,000 on purchases within the first three months of account opening and earn an additional 25,000 Avios after you spend $20,000 in the first 12 months of account opening. Plus, you'll earn 3 Avios per dollar on Aer Lingus, British Airways, Iberia and Level purchases and 2 Avios per dollar on hotel bookings paid directly to the hotel.

Iberia is also a transfer partner of American Express Membership Rewards (1:1), Chase Ultimate Rewards (1:1) and Marriott Bonvoy (3:1). These points are easy to accrue with cards such as:

• Chase Sapphire Preferred Card: Earn 80,000 bonus points after spending $4,000 on purchases in the first three months from account opening.
• The Platinum Card® from American Express: Earn 80,000 bonus points after spending $6,000 on purchases on the card in the first six months of card membership.
• American Express® Gold Card: Earn 60,000 bonus points after spending $4,000 on purchases on the card in the first six months of card membership.

You can also transfer Avios from British Airways, Aer Lingus and Qatar Airways to Iberia. Because of this, you can transfer Capital One miles to British Airways Avios and then transfer those points to Iberia. And you can even transfer Citi ThankYou points to Qatar Airways, then to British Airways and finally to Iberia.

You can earn these points with cards like:

• Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card: Earn 75,000 bonus miles after spending $4,000 on purchases within the first three months from account opening.
• Citi Premier® Card: Earn 60,000 points after spending $4,000 on purchases in the first three months of account opening.

Related: Why Qatar’s switch to Avios is huge news for Citi ThankYou points

Bottom line

To really maximize the potential value of Iberia Avios, split your points payment with cash. You could find that you’re consistently getting 18-plus cents per point in value — particularly if you’re booking business-class flights to Europe.

Iberia Avios are still extremely valuable if you elect not to use this method, but it’s a great way to stretch your points for more lie-flat seats at rock-bottom prices.