Buying BA Avios to Save 85% off Qantas Business Class

This hack opportunity to get Qantas Business Class at upto 85% off that we wrote about in July is back again already! We’ve updated this article as of 12th August 2017 to reflect the new offer Groupon expiring 30th September (if not sold out prior). The bonus avios through IberiaPluStore expires 31st August 2017, so you need to get in quickly before then.

In this article, we’ll show you how to get $2,148 worth of Qantas Domestic Business Class Fares for only $316.76.

These avios come in useful for other travel hacking purposes such as in our article on Hacking a Business Class trip from Perth to Bangkok for less than economy. These techniques can be adapted by the savvy travel hackers to other capital cities such as Sydney or Melbourne.

This avios travel hack is a more advanced hack using the ability to buy miles through Qantas’s Oneworld partner Iberia and redeem them for flights on Qantas flights.

This is a killer deal in terms of savings of 85% off the price of domestic Business Class Fares.

Here’s some examples of some of the discounted business class fares possible:

From	To	Business Class Avios Required	Taxes (GBP)	Cost of Avios via Deal	Taxes ($)	Total ($)	Regular Fare ($)	Saving(%)
Sydney	Melbourne	9000	10.5	141.00	17.38	158.38	1320	88%
Melbourne	Perth	20000	11.7	313.34	19.36	332.70	2151	85%
Brisbane	Melbourne	15000	10.9	235.01	18.04	253.05	1061	76%
Perth	Sydney	37500	13.6	587.51	22.51	610.02	2351	74%
Cairns	Sydney	20000	16.3	313.34	26.98	340.32	999	66%
Gold Coast	Melbourne	15000	10.6	235.01	17.54	252.55	717	65%
Gold Coast	Sydney	9000	12.5	141.00	20.69	161.69	607	73%
Canberra	Melbourne	9000	19.7	141.00	32.60	173.61	813	79%
Sydney	Auckland	20000	75.5	313.34	124.95	438.29	1135	61%

Avios Australia and New Zealand Sample Destinations and Savings using Avios Offer

But (and a very big BUT) it requires some effort. It’s not for the faint hearted or the lazy but it gets you sitting up front for way less including lounge access, priority boarding etc.

All the details are below step by step with screenshots but there are a number of hoops to go through.

It basically involves doing the following:

1. Sign up with OneWorld and Qantas Partners Iberia.com and BA.com (you’ll need to borrow a UK address for BA.com)
2. Go to Groupon.es (Spanish site) via the shopping portal at Iberia.com. They give you extra points (avios) for buying through them as the affiliate.
3. Buy their Avios Deal and accept them into your Iberia.com Avios Account.
4. Send your avios to British Airways (fully exchangeable currency)
5. Book Qantas flights using Avios.

If you don’t have BA.com and Iberia.com frequent flyer accounts then both accounts need to be open for 90 days before transferring avios.

What Can you Get as an Example?

We’re going to show you how to get the following flights:

For less than the cost of their economy equivalents below:

In addition, the change fees and cancellation fees are more favourable on the fares we will be booking.

For those chasing status, please bear in mind that they will not earn any status credits or points. So we can factor in 1600 points not earned on the economy fare at an approximate value of $16 valuing Qantas points at 1 cent per point.

How to Book a Qantas Business Class Fare for Less Than Economy Prices

Step 1 – Signup with OneWorld and Qantas Partner Iberia by going to Iberia’s Website and clicking on Register.

Go To Iberia Website

 

Once you have your Iberia number you can proceed to Step 2.

Step 2- Go to the IberiaPluStore and Find the Groupon Site

The IberiaPluStore frequent flyer site allows us to earn bonus points for purchases made on sites once we have selected them from the Iberia Site.

Navigate to

• Iberia Plus; then
• IberiaPluStore; then
• IberiaPluStore

 

Click on the Go To IberiaPluStore Button or try our button below if logged in

Go To IberiaPluStore

Find the Groupon Site Logo or search for Groupon

Go to the Groupon Spain Avios Deal Site

So for any purchases made on the Groupon site you will gain an additional 13 Avios per Euro spent until 31st August 2017. The usual rate is 5 Avios per Euro.

Step 3 – Purchase Avios through the Groupon Deal Site

Find the Avios deal by scrolling down or searching for Avios

Click on the Deal

Select the 8,000 Avios deal and Click on Compra. This will get you 9,287 Avios with the shopping deal, so buy more packages if you need more points for your redemption.

Complete the checkout process. We suggest you use PayPal using your best overseas earning credit card or no forex debit card to complete the transaction. For our purposes we used the Commonwealth Bank Diamond American Express that earns 1.5 Velocity Points per $ and charges no foreign exchange fees.

If you use a mastercard or visa card, ensure you select to let the card provider handle the conversion to avoid Paypal’s outrageous foreign exchange fees.

 

You should get a success message similar to the one below:

 

Step 4 – Assign the Groupon Avios to your Iberia Account

Click on Mis Groupones in the confirmation message.

Click on “Ver Detailles”. Screenshot from the July offer.

Click on Imprimir Coupon

Go to the following link to register your purchase with Iberia.

 

Register Purchase of Avios

You will need your Iberia Frequent Flyer Number  and the details from the top of your coupon:

Enter Groupon Voucher Details

Enter Iberia Frequent Flyer Number

Success!

Step 5 – Transfer the Iberia Avios to British Airways Avios.

You will need to create a British Airways Login if you don’t have one already via www.ba.com.

You will need to use a non Australian address for this such as a friend’s UK or European address. British Airways haven’t updated their site to allow Australian addresses from the days of their close alliance with Qantas where they directed customers to join the Qantas Frequent Flyer Scheme instead!

Once the Avios have credited to your account from Groupon and from the shopping portal, login to your Iberia account and do the following:

Navigate to the Buying or Transferring Avios Screen

Scroll to the bottom and there’s a hidden option to combine avios.

Select that Option.

Click on Combine my Avios

Enter your BA.com account details and then follow the prompts to transfer avios across.

In some cases if family pooling is enabled in the BA account, we’ve found it easier to transfer to avios.com then onto ba.com (requires a free avios.com setting up too!)

Step 6- Choose and Book the Flights on BA.com

Once your Avios have been credited to the BA.com account (which should be instant), then you can login to the BA.com site and book your selected flights.

Here we are booking the same flights selected earlier on the Qantas website

Let’s crunch the numbers!

We paid $145.50 for a batch of 8,000 Avios plus 1,287 bonus Avios for a total of 9,287.

This gives us a cost of  1.56c per avios.

Our desired redemption, a return flight from Sydney to Melbourne in Business Class costs 18,000 Avios plus £21.

This gives us a cost of $282 plus $34.76 in taxes when converted to AUD. Total $316.76.

We also earned 1.5 Velocity points per dollar as we used our Commonwealth Bank Diamond Card that came free as part of our home loan package to buy the points. This card also has had no forex fees since July 1st 2017.

The cost of the exact same flights on Qantas.com was $2,148, giving us a saving of $1831 or 85%!

That’s why we love this hack for discount business class tickets. Avios are great for short distance flights upto 650miles which would encompass routes like Sydney to Hobart, Sydney to Melbourne, Brisbane to Sydney, Sunshine Coast to Sydney. Not all of these are available online so you may have to call British Airways to book examples like Maroochydore to Sydney. There is usually a $25 phone booking fee but if your flight is not listed on ba.com you should be able to ask them to waive the fee.

Update 3rd August 2017: My Avios just landed in my Iberia Account!

 

Summary of the Process

Step 1 – We signed up with OneWorld and Qantas Partner Iberia by going to Iberia’s Website and clicking on Register.

Step 2 – We went to the IberiaPluStore and Found the Groupon Site

Step 3 – We purchased Avios through the Groupon Deal Site

Step 4 – We assigned the Groupon Avios to our Iberia Account

Step 5 – We transferred the Iberia Avios to British Airways Avios.

Step 6- We chose and booked the Flights on BA.com

 

Happy Flying!

Let us know whether you’ll be buying Avios and what you’ll be using them for.