How do I move Avios from Iberia Plus to British Airways Executive Club?

In this article I want to look at how you can transfer Avios from Iberia Plus to British Airways Executive Club.

As you might already know, Avios is the reward currency used by British Airways, Iberia, Aer Lingus and various other airlines.  In this article we’ll look at how you can move Avios between Iberia Plus and British Airways Executive Club.

To collect Avios you can signed up with any or all of British Airways Executive Club, Iberia Plus, Aer Lingus AerClub and Vueling Club. However, your Avios balance is not shared between the accounts. It may be that you are signed up to both Executive Club and Iberia Plus, meaning you have two separate “bank accounts” for your Avios.

In theory, it is extremely easy to move Avios from Iberia Plus to British Airways Executive Club, meaning you can pool your Avios in one place rather than spreading them out.

In reality, it is not.

The first thing to say is that you can cannot move Avios into or out of an Iberia Plus account unless:

the Iberia Plus account is 90 days old and

the Iberia Plus has ‘earned’ at least 1 Avios

The easiest way to have the account ‘earn’ an Avios is to transfer 1,000 American Express Membership Rewards points.  You could also credit a BA or oneworld flight to the account or transfer some hotel points.

How do I transfer Avios from Iberia to British Airways, or from British Airways to Iberia?

The British Airways and Iberia websites have a tool on them called ‘Combine My Avios’.  This menu option allows you to push or pull Avios between your accounts.

Historically, this has not worked well due to IT issues.  However, after a new IT system was introduced in November 2021, it DOES now work most of the time.  This article explains the change.

If you are still having problems, there is another solution.

You need to use the avios.com website as an intermediary.  In order to open an Avios account which can be operated at avios.com, you need to visit the Aer Lingus website and sign up for AerClub.

Once you have signed up for Aer Club, this is what you do:

Log in at avios.com using your new AerClub account details

Find ‘Combine My Avios’ in the menus

Use ‘Combine My Avios’ to PULL your Avios from iberia.com to avios.com

Repeat the process to PUSH your Avios from avios.com to ba.com

This process works 99% of the time, which is about 75% more often than an attempt to make a direct transfer from Iberia to British Airways will succeed.

Moving points between accounts is instant and extremely easy – you can choose how many you would like to shift and complete the transaction. However, ‘Combine My Avios’ does not let you transfer Avios to another person – you must hold both accounts and they must have the same registered address.

(This article is part of our ‘BA Q&A’ series which explains how British Airways Executive Club works.  You can see all of our ‘BA Q&A’ articles here. )

(Head for Points is the UK’s biggest frequent flyer website with 2.4 million monthly page views.  Want to learn more about earning and spending Avios?  Click here to read our latest news stories and click here to join the mailing list for our weekly or daily email newsletters.)

---

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:

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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