Iberia Plus Has Moved To Revenue Based Program For Tickets Issued On Or After November 29, 2022

Iberia Plus announced back in October (read more here) that it would soon move to a revenue-based program, and earlier this month, clarified it (read more here) without giving an exact date.

Iberia Plus Avios are earned from tickets issued on or after today (November 29, 2022) based on the ticket price rather than the miles flown.

You can access Iberia Plus here.

Previous Coverage:

Iberia Tries To Clarify Moving To Revenue Based Program

Iberia Plus Moving To Revenue-Based Program November 2022

Iberia’s Press Release:

Iberia Plus Improves its Rewards System to Retain More Customers

• Now, members will earn a minimum of five Avios for every euro they spend.
• In addition, to reward the most frequent passengers on key routes such as the Air Shuttle, the airline introduced a bonus that will allow them to obtain up to nine Avios for each euro spent, depending on their card level.
• And customers will earn up to ten Avios per euro spent on flights to and from Latin America.
• The change will mean an investment of 22% more Avios, helping Iberia retain more customers.

The Iberia Plus loyalty programme is changing its customer reward system to make it more transparent and, at the same time, increase the rewards on the routes that frequent travellers on Iberia use the most.

Starting today, Avios will begin to accumulate in customers’ accounts based on the cost of their flight. In this way, each euro that is invested -excluding taxes and fees- will be converted into five Avios in the case of Iberia Plus Classic, six Avios for Iberia Plus Silver, seven for Gold, and eight Avios for Iberia Plus Platinum, Infinita and Infinita Prime.

In addition, flights to and from Latin America will have an extra advantage: two additional Avios will be added to the multiplier. In other words, an Iberia Plus Classic cardholder will get seven Avios for each euro spent, up from five. Iberia Plus Silver cardholders will obtain eight, Iberia Plus Gold cardholders will get nine, and Iberia Plus Platinum, Infinita and Infinita Prime cardholders will get ten.

Air Shuttle users will also obtain extra Avios depending on their card level, up to nine Avios per euro. And additional flight services, such as extra baggage and seat selection, among others, will also be taken into account.

Greater investment in Frequent Flyers

In this way, Iberia increases the rewards for its most frequent customers on the routes they use the most, as well as rewarding them for additional flight services, which makes the loyalty programme even more attractive.

The director of Commitment to Customers, Silvia Morán, pointed out that, “With this new reward system, which is more transparent for all our customers, we are going to invest 22% more Avios, which we hope will further boost the levels of satisfaction with the programme.

This month, Iberia Plus magazine features an interview with Silvia Morán, in which she shares more details about this change. You can read it online here.

The Elite Points, necessary to level up the Iberia Plus status and thus obtain more advantages, will remain unchanged.

Level of all Iberia Plus Customers to be maintained until March 2023

Because of the pandemic, in 2021 many of Iberia’s customers were unable to travel as much as they wanted. In order to thank them for their trust and contribution to the reactivation of travel, the airline has maintained their Iberia Plus level, regardless of the number of flights they have made in the last year. This allows them to continue enjoying the same benefits of the programme until March 2023.

In addition, for all those who have managed to maintain their travel levels by their own means, Iberia provides a bonus of additional Elite Points, necessary to raise or maintain their level in the next review, in March 2023.

Article By Iberia About This Change:

In late November, Iberia Plus will upgrade the way it rewards it customers.

We speak with Silvia Morán, head of customer engagement at Iberia, about the new advantages of the loyalty programme

How is the system for earning Avios changing?

The main advantage is that it will be a much simpler model, since customers will now earn Avios based on the amount they spend. A multiplication factor that changes according to the Iberia Plus tier will be applied to that amount. For example, if you’re Iberia Plus Plata, the Avios are multiplied by six; if the price (excluding taxes, fees and charges) of your last flight from Madrid to Paris was €324, you’ll earn 324 x 6; i.e. 1,944 Avios for that last flight to Paris. With the old model, you’d have earned 978 Avios on this same flight.

Why the change?

Essentially, because it’s an industry trend. Many airlines have already updated their earning models; consequently, many of our customers were asking for it. With this change, we are strengthening our commitment to our most loyal customers, as we will invest 22 per cent more in Avios. We believe this measure will significantly boost satisfaction with the programme.

Will the multiplier that each customer has (depending on their tier) be the same on all routes?

No, there’ll be routes with a higher multiplier. For instance, if you fly on the Air Shuttle, your multiplier will be plus one. That is, continuing with the previous example, if you’re Iberia Plus Plata and you buy a ticket for the Air Shuttle, your multiplier will be x7 and not x6, which is what you would have based on your tier. For the Latin American routes, the multiplier will be plus two. So, using the previous example of an Iberia Plus Plata customer, their ticket price will be multiplied by eight to calculate the Avios earned. Both the Air Shuttle and the routes to Latin America have a high component of frequent travellers, and our intention is to reward them more for what they use most.

What other advantages will this new way of accumulating Avios offer?

One that we consider important and that we’ve wanted to implement for a long time is that, from now on, Iberia Plus customers will also earn Avios when they book a paid seat or buy an extra piece of luggage for their trip. Our Iberia Plus customers are increasingly requesting these services and we want to reward them for this, too.

What will this change mean for Iberia?

We hope that it will lead to a higher level of satisfaction among our Iberia Plus customers. We’re very enthusiastic about making this change: we’re improving the way we reward our customers and we’re making quite a lot of effort to improve the programme conditions. Iberia Plus is already one of Spain’s best-valued loyalty programmes, and we work every day to maintain that level, constantly thinking about real benefits for customers. That’s why, for example, we introduced the on-board Wi-Fi service for instant messaging in our planes in the summer, and we made it free for our Iberia Plus partners from the very beginning. We also maintained all our members’ tiers during the two years of the pandemic as we were aware that many had been unable to fly to keep their tier. Once again, the company committed itself to investing in our most loyal customers because they’re our number-one asset.

Speaking of the progression in the programme, will this new system change with regard to earning Élite Points, which are the points that count for going up a tier?

No, Élite Points will be counted as they have been so far. The change improves the way of earning the Avios with each ticket and the services bought for each flight.

How do you see Iberia Plus in future? How do you think the loyalty programme will evolve further?

Iberia Plus must remain one of the main reasons for our customers to choose to fly with Iberia, and be increasingly competitive, not only in Spain, but also attaining a greater presence and preference in the Americas. How are we going to achieve that? We’ll continue to work while focusing on two main goals: one, to improve the experience related to the flight, creating new advantages and improving the existing ones; and two, to be increasingly close to our customers, to expand the ways of earning Avios in their day-to-day lives and not just when they fly with us.

Conclusion

The head of Iberia Plus doesn’t even try to pretend that this change would benefit Iberia Plus members and says that this change is due to industry trends.

The only fliers who benefit from this change are those flying on expensive short-haul and long-haul tickets. Everyone else is a sore loser. Period.

The biggest losers are leisure fliers who buy discounted premium economy and business class tickets to long-haul destinations. The earnings on these tickets are decimated by 50% to 70%.