Sweet Spot Sunday: How to Fly to Israel in Business Class with 55,250 Points

Iberia is Spain’s flagship airline and it has a very valuable loyalty program called Iberia Plus.

One of the best highlights of the program is the ability to fly between the East Coast and Israel simply by:

• 28,000 Iberia Avios in Economy Class.
• 55,250 Iberia Avios for Business Class.

For perspective, here’s what other airlines charge (usually) to fly from the US to Israel:

• American Airlines: 40,000 miles in economy class and 70,000 miles in business class.
• Delta Air Lines: 37,500 miles in economy class and 130,000 miles in business class on partner airlines.
• United Airlines: 42,500 miles in economy class and 75,000 miles in business class.

Granted, Iberia doesn’t offer as many open award seats at such a low price compared to other airlines. However, if you can plan your vacation around Iberia’s availability, you can easily save 30,000 miles round trip.

Let’s take a look at this great deal.

why it’s special

TPG Valuation estimates that Avios are worth an average of 1.5 cents each. But when you book Iberia Business Class, you’re sure to get more than that.

Below are award prices for round-trip flights between New York John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK) and Tel Aviv Ben Gurion Airport (TLV) in early March. As you can see, these flights will cost 110,500 Avios and an annoying $366 in taxes.

However, the same flight would cost $4,528 in cash. That means you’re getting over 3.76 cents worth per point — 2.5 times TPG’s valuation estimate.

As you can see above, if you want to expand your rewards, Iberia’s website allows you to split your payment between cash and Avios. The more cash-friendly your payment, the more valuable your points will be. For example, with the above flight, you can pay for:

• 93,900 Avios worth 4.09 cents per point.
• 55,300 Avios worth 5.73 cents per point.
• 22,100 Avios worth 11.28 cents per point.

related: Create Your Own Cheap Business Class Fares to Europe with Iberia Avios

How to book this award

Step 1. Search for award flights

To search for award flights with Iberia, you must first log in to your account. You can then enter your flight date and desired airport.

Before you start your search, you need to know two things:

1. These super low fares are only available on flights from the following East Coast cities:

• Boston Logan International Airport (BOS).
• New York John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK).
• Dulles International Airport (IAD) in Washington, DC.
• Chicago O’Hare International Airport (ORD).

1. These prices are for off-peak periods only. You can find off-peak dates for Iberia here (off-peak for most of the year).

Step 2.Find flights operated by Iberia

Thanks to the airline’s partnerships with British Airways, American Airlines, Royal Jordanian and other oneworld airlines, Iberia usually offers a pretty good inventory of award flights. However, you can only get the lowest prices if you fly with Iberia for the entire journey. Be sure to find and book routes operated by Iberia.

Step 3. Choose your cabin

Likewise, your Avios are best rewarded when you book business class. But the 28,000 Avios one-way economy class trip to the Middle East is also a good deal. If you choose to fly in economy class, make sure you choose “Blue Class” on all sectors of your journey to get the cheapest price.

related: Watch TPG fly in all 3 Iberia cabins on the same flight

How to earn points for this reward

There are several ways to easily earn Iberia Avios points.

Perhaps the most obvious way is to open Iberia Visa Signature® Card. This card comes with a sign-up bonus of up to 100,000 Avios:

• Earn 75,000 Avios after spending $5,000 in the first three months of account opening.
• Earn an additional 25,000 Avios after spending $20,000 in the first 12 months of account opening.

You can also transfer Avios from British Airways and Aer Lingus to Iberia. Each airline has its own co-branded Chase credit card with similar benefits to the Iberia Visa Signature card.

Additionally, Qatar Airways Premier Club is a CitiThankYou points transfer partner. The program also uses Avios as its loyalty currency, so if you have ThankYou points, you can transfer them to Qatar and then to Iberia.

You can even transfer your Qatar Airways Avios to Iberia first by transferring them to British Airways first. This unlocks the ability to convert Capital One miles into Iberia Avios as British Airways is Capital One’s transfer partner. In other words, you can quickly accumulate Iberia Avios by opening the following cards:

Finally, Iberia is a transfer partner for American Express Membership Rewards (1:1) and Chase Ultimate Rewards (1:1). You can earn these points when you open:

Related: How (and why) you should earn transferable points

bottom line

You can fly from the US to Israel for just 28,000 Iberia Avios in economy class and 55,250 Iberia Avios in business class. For a relatively small number of points, this is a large distance.

However, you must fly from selected East Coast cities on off-peak days. To get the best price, you must also take flights operated by Iberia, which connect via Madrid. If that’s no big deal to you, this is a great deal.