Santander to Madrid shows as $28 USD on Iberia.com (it’s actually $27.73 when you buy).  Even though this deal has been out for a few days, availability remains decent. Last night, I was pretty sure about letting this one pass, but once the economics started to sink in, I jumped on it.

I bought 10 flights, each at a cost of $27.73, for a total cost of $277.30:

When you purchase a ticket from Iberia by June 24, 2018, you get 9,000 bonus Iberia Avios through the Iberia Plus program. The Avios are deposited into your Iberia account within 10 days of purchase, and you don’t have to take the flights for the Avios to post. The promotion allows earnings of up to 90,000 bonus Avios per account.

90,000 Avios for $277.30 means that you can effectively “buy” Avios at a cost of slightly more than 3/10th of a cent each.  Plus, I purchased the flights with an American Express Platinum card that gives 5 Membership Rewards Points per dollar on airfare (for 1385 Membership Rewards Points), which decreases the cost slightly.

Iberia is the national airline of Spain. Iberia partners with American Airlines, which means you can use Iberia Avios for American Airlines flights between cities in the United States without paying fuel surcharges–just the $5.60 charge each way. Iberia, like British Airways, ues a distance-based award chart.  That means the number of Avios you pay for a flight depends on the distance between the cities you are flying.

Using Iberia Avios, a round-trip coach flight within the US is:

–11,000 Iberia Avios for flights under 600 miles

–12,000 Iberia Avios for flights between 601 and 1,000 miles

–17,000 Iberia Avios for flights between 1,001 and 2,000 miles

–23,000 Iberia Avios for flights between 2,001 and 4,000 miles

How will I use the Avios? 

With college football season starting in a few months, some of these points are likely to go towards flights to Michigan. At 11,000 Avios round trip, that makes flights about $45 each ($33 for the Avios, at 11,000 times .003, plus $11.20 in taxes). Also, a trip to New York from Chicago is 17,000 Avios, which translates to $51 for the Avios plus $11.20 in taxes. It would be possible to take 2 trips to New York and 5 trips to Michigan for football games (nearly every home game this season) on those 90,000 Avios!

Terms and conditions of the promotion: 

Tickets must be purchased before June 24, 2018, and you can earn a maximum of 90,000 bonus Avios. Flights must be operated by Iberia, Iberia Express or Air Nostrum to be eligible for bonus Avios. If you request a refund for any flight, you lose the promotional Avios. You must redeem the bonus Avios no later than December 1, 2018.