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Where can you fly on Iberia with your BA Amex 2-4-1 companion voucher?

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One major Avios change that we’ve seen in the last 12 months was the opening up of Aer Lingus and Iberia Avios flights for American Express 2-4-1 companion voucher redemptions. Full details are here.

I am off to Bogota in two weeks to check out Iberia’s brand-new business class seat. Keep an eye on HfP in early February for that review.

As a prelude to those pieces, I want to show you where you can fly on Iberia using your British Airways American Express 2-4-1 companion voucher. It is a follow-up to our October article on where you can fly on Aer Lingus long haul.

Where does Iberia fly?

Where does Iberia fly long-haul?

I want to use this article to look at the Iberia route network. It is NOT an article discussing the costs, in Avios and taxes, of Iberia redemptions.

For Summer 2024, these are the routes that will be operated (E&OE – we had to put this list together ourselves):

From Madrid to the US and Mexico:

  • Madrid – Boston
  • Madrid – Chicago
  • Madrid – Dallas Fort Worth
  • Madrid – Los Angeles
  • Madrid – Miami
  • Madrid – Mexico City
  • Madrid – New York JFK
  • Madrid – San Francisco
  • Madrid – Washington DC

From Madrid to Central and South America and the Caribbean:

  • Madrid – Bogota
  • Madrid – Buenos Aires
  • Madrid – Caracas
  • Madrid – Guatemala City
  • Madrid – Guayaquil
  • Madrid – Havana
  • Madrid – Lima
  • Madrid – Montevideo
  • Madrid – Panama City
  • Madrid – Quito
  • Madrid – Rio de Janeiro
  • Madrid – San Jose (Costa Rica)
  • Madrid – San Juan (Puerto Rico)
  • Madrid – San Salvador
  • Madrid – Santiago de Chile
  • Madrid – Santo Domingo (Dominican Republic)
  • Madrid – Sao Paulo

From Madrid to Africa and the Middle East:

  • Madrid – Doha
  • Madrid – Cairo (A321 short haul aircraft)
  • Madrid – Dakar (check aircraft type – could be short-haul)
  • Madrid – Tel Aviv (check aircraft type – could be short-haul)

As you can see, Iberia has a very strong presence to the Americas. It opens up a lot of potential 2-4-1 voucher redemptions to cities such as Lima, Quito or Guayaquil which British Airways does not operate.

Japan is returning from winter 2024

Iberia has announced that flights to Tokyo will return for the Winter 2024 flying season, from late October.

You can find out more in this HfP article.

Where does Iberia fly?

How do you connect to Iberia flights from the UK?

Both British Airways and Iberia have a good range of connections to Madrid from across the UK. There are usually more than 10 daily flights from London alone.

If you are looking for Avios seats I would initially search for the long-haul flight on its own and then see what connections can be added later. You don’t want to risk not seeing long-haul availability simply because the most convenient short-haul connecting flight isn’t available.

You will make a substantial saving by booking your UK-Madrid flight on a separate ticket, as this avoids long haul Air Passenger Duty. The downside is that your baggage may not be checked through and Iberia is not obliged to help you if you miss your connection.

Iberia and Iberia Express UK route network to Madrid:

  • London Heathrow
  • London Gatwick
  • Manchester
  • Edinburgh

Some of these may be seasonal.

Don’t forget that, for cargo reasons, Iberia normally operates a long haul aircraft on at least one daily Heathrow flight. You can enjoy the pleasures of a ‘proper’ lie-flat business class seat on the two and a half hour flight to Madrid.

How to use your American Express companion voucher on Iberia flights

Booking an Iberia flight using an Amex companion voucher is exactly the same process as if you were booking a British Airways flight, as it needs to be done from your British Airways Executive Club account.

Make sure you are logged in at ba.com and then select ‘Book a flight with Avios’. You then need to tick the box to use your 2-4-1 companion voucher when entering your preferred destination and dates.

Remember that pricing will be driven by Iberia’s peak and off-peak calendar, even though you are booking on the British Airways website. This is NOT the same as the BA peak and off-peak Avios calendar which is here. It will also use Iberia’s pricing chart which normally matches BA but includes some bargains, such as 68,000 Avios return in Business Class from Madrid to New York off-peak.

Using a 2-4-1 voucher, two people can fly from Madrid to New York in Business Class, off peak, return, for just 68,000 Avios and (for two people) £430 in total. Yes, the taxes and charges are just £215 per person return. You can’t complain about that ….


How to earn Avios from UK credit cards

How to earn Avios from UK credit cards (January 2024)

As a reminder, there are various ways of earning Avios points from UK credit cards.  Many cards also have generous sign-up bonuses!

In February 2022, Barclaycard launched two exciting new Barclaycard Avios Mastercard cards with a bonus of up to 25,000 Avios. You can apply here.

You qualify for the bonus on these cards even if you have a British Airways American Express card:

Barclaycard Avios Plus card

Barclaycard Avios Plus Mastercard

Get 25,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher at £10,000 Read our full review

Barclaycard Avios card

Barclaycard Avios Mastercard

5,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher at £20,000 Read our full review

There are two official British Airways American Express cards with attractive sign-up bonuses:

British Airways American Express Premium Plus

25,000 Avios and the famous annual 2-4-1 voucher Read our full review

British Airways American Express

5,000 Avios for signing up and an Economy 2-4-1 voucher for spending £12,000 Read our full review

You can also get generous sign-up bonuses by applying for American Express cards which earn Membership Rewards points. These points convert at 1:1 into Avios.

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold

Your best beginner’s card – 20,000 points, FREE for a year & four airport lounge passes Read our full review

The Platinum Card from American Express

40,000 bonus points and a huge range of valuable benefits – for a fee Read our full review

Run your own business?

We recommend Capital On Tap for limited companies. You earn 1 Avios per £1 which is impressive for a Visa card, along with a sign-up bonus worth 10,500 Avios.

Capital On Tap Business Rewards Visa

Get a 10,000 points bonus plus an extra 500 points for our readers Read our full review

You should also consider the British Airways Accelerating Business credit card. This is open to sole traders as well as limited companies and has a 30,000 Avios sign-up bonus.

British Airways Accelerating Business American Express

30,000 Avios sign-up bonus – plus annual bonuses of up to 30,000 Avios Read our full review

There are also generous bonuses on the two American Express Business cards, with the points converting at 1:1 into Avios. These cards are open to sole traders as well as limited companies.

American Express Business Platinum

40,000 points bonus and an annual £200 Amex Travel credit Read our full review

American Express Business Gold

20,000 points sign-up bonus and free for a year Read our full review

Click here to read our detailed summary of all UK credit cards which earn Avios. This includes both personal and small business cards.

Comments (121)

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

  • CheshirePete says:

    Does the circa £430 in taxes go up a lot if you start in UK? So MAN>MAD>JFK for instance.

    • cin4 says:

      Yes, obviously.

    • CheshirePete says:

      I guess, for instance, by stopping over >24 Hrs in Madrid you’d mitigate any long haul UK APD.

    • CheshirePete says:

      I guess I should experiment! But if you did MAN>LHR>MAD>JFK would the domestic still be ‘free’ of additional air miles……

      • e14 says:

        I don’t think so (happy to be corrected) as this falls into a dual carrier redemption

  • Chris W says:

    I couldn’t give a rats about Aer Lingus but I’m very pleased that Iberia was added to CV redemption airlines.

    Next stop Qatar or Finnair?

  • Mikeact says:

    No way…you need a separate ticket to connect..read the comments.

  • Melanie McInerney says:

    I am having trouble checking avios availablity to some of these places – on the BA flight flinder cheking availability, Havana & others eg SJO isn’t recognised either from LON or Madrid – any thoughts on this please

  • Patrick says:

    Hi All – I note that Iberia opens availability further in advance than BA does. Does that mean that bookers via Iberia.com (who aren’t therefore using a 2-4-1) will have an advantage over those of us who have to wait until the inventory shows up on BA.com 355 days in advance? Or does the call centre have access to whatever is available on Iberia.com even if it’s further in future than BA’s own booking window?

  • John Christopher Johnston says:

    Can you actually pre book seats on long haul Iberia. I have BA silver status and through an agent have a flight book from Madrid to Panama, starting in the UK. BA website says I can book seats, Iberia website says I can’t and both BA and Iberia ustomers say I can’t. At the momentteh agent says I can through him but only by paying.

    • David says:

      I managed to book MAD-BOG seats for free usingg Iberia site a good 8 months before the flight takes off.

    • Rhys says:

      I booked my seats before Christmas for free.

      Is it because you booked through an agent?

  • AK says:

    Having read your two excellent articles on the advantages of using 241vouchers on IB, I’ve just booked MAD-SCL for December. Assuming 1Avios = 1p, then even after including the LHR-MAD flights, that saved us over £1500.

    However, as it’s not a codeshare (I’ve never booked a non-BA flight on ba.com), I’m now confused about seat selection and OLCI. I can retrieve the booking on IB.com using the BA PNR and it is offering me FREE seat selection now.

    I don’t want to screw up the booking, so looking for advice on what to do.

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

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