My Iberia Avios technical difficulties, and no more 90-day rule?

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Last month, I wrote about how we had some big insurance premium bills coming up. My husband and I ended up opening two new credit cards to charge those big bills and pay them off with our savings in order to earn some big miles and points for free travel. During this process, we ran into a few minor issues. But, we also discovered an old rule may no longer apply.

Issue #1: No Room for Iberia Plus Number on Application

My husband decided to apply for the Chase Iberia Plus Visa Signature Card (our affiliate link currently has an 85k bonus). Right before that, he signed up for an Iberia Plus loyalty account. When he applied for the card, he tried to enter his Iberia Plus number on the application so that his Avios would go directly into his account that he had already set up. Oddly enough, the field on the application would only allow 8 digits. Last year, Iberia Plus numbers converted to 9-digit numbers.

Anyway, we went ahead with the application and left the loyalty number blank. A few days later, my husband called the number on the back of his card and got his Iberia Plus number added. No big deal.

Issue #2: Avios Didn’t Go Into Correct Account

He made the minimum spending requirement for the bonus with just one transaction (our car insurance bill, ugh!). So, on the very first statement, it said he had earned his big bonus chunk of Avios. But, they weren’t in his Iberia account. I sent a secure message through his Chase account to ask where the Avios went. I received a reply that Chase would investigate and get back to us within 5 business days.

About a week later, he received a letter in snail mail that said Chase fixed the problem, and he would see his Avios in his account within the next 30 days. I was a bit bummed, because I was hoping to use those Avios to book award flights in the next week or two. Thankfully, the Avios appeared just a few days later. In total, the Avios were only about 3 weeks “late”.

Issue #3: His Iberia Plus Account Hadn’t Been Active for 90 Days

While we were happy to have the Iberia Avios in hand, I realized that ideally I wanted to convert them to British Airways Avios instead. Why? While we could use either currency to book award flights on partner Japan Airlines, British Airways has a much better refund cancellation policy on award flights compared to Iberia.

However, according to many reddit threads and multiple blogs, Iberia requires your account to be open for 90 days before transferring Avios in or out from British Airways/Aer Lingus/Qatar. I was kicking myself for not setting up my husband’s Iberia Plus loyalty number sooner, as it had only been open for ~45 days.

But, I decided to try the transfer anyway. And, it worked! So maybe this 90-day Iberia rule is no longer active, or maybe we just got lucky?

Bottom Line

Sometimes, we run into glitches in this miles and points travel hobby. I recommend checking in on your miles and points balances, especially on a new card, to make sure everything is accumulating correctly. And, maybe Iberia no longer has this 90-day open account requirement for transfers.