Iberia changes the rules of the game: more expensive award tickets, no more checked baggage, and flexibility. But it could have been much worse

Business class award tickets in the off-season with Iberia from Madrid to the east coast of the U.S. cost "only" 34,000 avios, but unfortunately it is now just a memory. This is yet another devaluation of the past 12 months, but I say it now: It could have been much worse.

Iberia's new award chart

Yesterday Iberia released its new fixed award chart and two situations emerge. Economy tickets, among the lowest in the market, are now potentially even cheaper though at the expense of flexibility and benefits, while business class tickets have become more expensive, not by much, but more expensive.

If previously 34,000 avios were enough to fly from Madrid to New York now the minimum asking price has risen to 40,500 avios, an increase of almost 20%, but still the best in the market.

IB maintained the two seasonalities, high and low, and in the hottest travel period the same ticket goes up to 59 thousand avios. Certainly a lot, but when compared to the prices of other carriers still more than acceptable.

A practical example

This was the pricing situation until Monday night, business class at 34 thousand avios was the norm.

This is the situation now, the business class ticket went up by 6,500 avios, As said almost 20%, but what matters is the total number of points increased, but it is still very low.

What has changed if you book an economy ticket

One step back, to make 3 steps forward. Iberia's choice was very smart, they decided to lower the economy ticket by 1000 avios, so as to sweeten the pill, too bad that in recent days they had introduced two categories in the Basic and Comfort award tickets

Previously the cost was 17 thousand avios for Basic fare and 22,000 for comfort fare.

It is now 16 thousand for Basic and 25 thousand for Comfort. The Cheapest Economy fares booked with Avios on Iberia.com are treated as the classic "Basic" rates, that is. hand luggage only, no refunds. It remains possible to change the date, but complete deletion is no longer allowed.

In conclusion

Yes it was a devaluation, but if we look at what happened in the rest of the world it was predictable that Iberia would also tweak its premium table, and already the fact that it kept it instead of moving toward a dynamic pricing system is already a good thing. In addition to this one must be intellectually honest and say that they have tweaked the cost in points, but it is still the absolute lowest in the European market.

• Avios
• depreciation