Spain’s flag carrier Iberia has confirmed plans to update its loyalty programme starting April 2025, a change that’s been on the cards for a while. The writing has been on the wall ever since similar changes were made to the British Airways loyalty programme, as both airlines are part of the International Airlines Group (IAG), and both use Avios as their reward currency.
Similar to how BA is renaming its British Airways Club to The British Airways Club, Iberia will change its loyalty programme’s name from Iberia Plus to Club Iberia Plus. However, in addition to cosmetic rebranding, it also announced other changes that will affect travellers.
For starters, the new programme will allow travellers to earn elite status via two routes: based on the number of segments flown or the number of Elite Points earned. Regarding the latter, Elite Points will be determined according to the amount of Euros spent on airfare, excluding taxes and fees. Intuitively, this also means that earning status under the new setup will be much harder.
Let's look at these changes in more detail.
Introducing a Revenue-based Model
The first and most obvious change is that starting April 1st, 2025, Iberia is revamping its tier-earning structure just like the British Airways loyalty programme. Under the new name of Club Iberia Plus, earnings will now be based on how much you spend on airfare. Thus, each Euro will translate into one tier point, excluding money spent on taxes and fees.
Secondly, how you earn bonus tier points will also change. The number of points you can earn will depend on your fare level and the total distance covered. Curious about how British Airways Tier Points work? You can find a full breakdown on our dedicated page here.
What Are the New Iberia Elite Status Levels and Qualification Requirements?
In line with the changes, starting April 1, 2025, Club Iberia Plus will also introduce a new tier called Iberia Plus Platino Prime. This is in addition to the updated criteria for earning elite status based on revenue. Here are the updated requirements:
- Plata: Earn 3,500 Elite Points or complete 20 flights.
- Oro: Accumulate 7,500 Elite Points or 40 flights.
- Platino: Reach 20,000 Elite Points or 90 flights.
- Platino Prime: Achieve 30,000 Elite Points.
- Infinita: Collect 400,000 Elite Points.
- Infinita Prime: Gather 640,000 Elite Points.
You Can Also Earn Elite Bonuses
Iberia has also updated the rewards system for its new Elite bonus threshold. Here's a breakdown of how many Iberia Plus Avios points you can earn through the Elite Points:
- 1,250 Elite Points get you a €20 voucher for additional purchases on Iberia.com.
- 2,500 Elite Points for 1,500 Iberia Plus Avios.
- 5,500 Elite Points get you 2,500 Avios.
- 11,000 Elite Points for 4,000 Avios.
- 15,000 Elite Points to earn 5,000 extra Avios.
- 18,000 Elite Points and enjoy Double Elite Points on subsequent flights.
- Earn 25,000 Elite Points to receive 10,000 extra Avios.
- Earn 40,000 Elite Points to receive an Iberia Plus Oro card, which you can gift to someone you choose.
Other Ways to Earn Tier Points
Another important update for flyers is that you can increase your Elite tier points by participating with Iberia partners. Thus, for every 10 Avios collected with these partnering companies, you will get 1 Elite point.
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What Does This Mean for the Average Traveller?
Right off the bat, it seems to be a step in the opposite direction, making earning status more difficult. For example, you must earn Iberia Platino to join Oneworld Emerald status. This requires earning 20,000 Elite Points, translating to spending €20,000.
There is some good news, though. You can now earn status by flying much more easily than before. For example, you only need 20 segments to earn Plata now as opposed to the previous number of 25. Similarly, the number of segments required to reach Oro has decreased from 50 to 40. You can also earn Platino status through flying, although the caveat is that you must take 90 flights with Iberia. These can be regular flights or Avios reward flights.
While these are some positive pieces of news, one must keep in mind that they apply to a very small subset of travellers who can avail themselves of these options. Ideally, the situation would suit someone based around Madrid who commutes regularly or goes on frequent roundtrips. For all other travellers, this system doesn't give much incentive.
What's the Verdict?
These changes are directed from higher up, with IAG looking to standardise the elite status programmes across the board. Following British Airways' shift to a revenue-based tier qualification system, many elite members considered switching to Iberia to avoid the new, less favourable conditions. However, IAG has closed this loophole by transitioning Iberia Plus to a similar revenue-based qualification system.
Speaking about this, Beatriz Guillén, Director of Global Sales and Loyalty at Iberia, said,
"We believe it's a fairer and more transparent way to reward our loyal customers. In addition, including the possibility of accumulating Elite Points with our main air and non-air partners undoubtedly strengthens our network and offers our customers more and better benefits."
If we look at the historical data, IAG seems to have learned from the criticism from dedicated customers who flew short economic segments and were affected when British Airways announced similar changes. Thus, Iberia has decided to continue allowing travellers to qualify for Club Iberia Plus elite status based on the number of flight segments.
Another plus point seems to be that achieving Silver status through segment flying on Iberia will be considerably easier compared to BA Silver. Moreover, attaining Gold status through segment flying is also an attractive option. However, there are even better alternatives in that scenario, such as Royal Jordanian, which requires only 46 segments compared to Iberia's 90.
But overall, it appears that valuable lessons have been learned from the problematic rollout of the British Airways programme, including the standard feature of permanent bonus earnings eliminating the need for opting in.
