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% |
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:
- Sign up with OneWorld and Qantas Partners Iberia.com and BA.com (you’ll need to borrow a UK address for BA.com)
- 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.
- Buy their Avios Deal and accept them into your Iberia.com Avios Account.
- Send your avios to British Airways (fully exchangeable currency)
- 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:

Qantas flights sydney to melbourne Business Class
For less than the cost of their economy equivalents below:

Sydney to Melbourne Economy Red E Deal
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

Iberia Registration Page
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

IberiaPluStore Navigation

IberiaPluStore Welcome
Click on the Go To IberiaPluStore Button or try our button below if logged in
Go To IberiaPluStoreFind the Groupon Site Logo or search for Groupon

Click on Groupon Logo
Go to the Groupon Spain Avios Deal Site

Groupon Special Offer
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.

Groupon Shop Now Special Offer August 2017

On your way Groupon Message
Step 3 – Purchase Avios through the Groupon Deal Site
Find the Avios deal by scrolling down or searching for Avios

Groupon Avios Deal
Click on the Deal

Groupon Avios Deals
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.

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

Groupon Success
Step 4 – Assign the Groupon Avios to your Iberia Account
Click on Mis Groupones in the confirmation message.

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

8000 avios groupon voucher
Click on Imprimir Coupon

Groupon Coupon Details
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

Redeem Coupon Step 1
Enter Iberia Frequent Flyer Number

Redeem Coupon Step 2
Success!

Redeem Step 3
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

Buy or Transfer Avios
Scroll to the bottom and there’s a hidden option to combine avios.

Combine Avios Option
Select that Option.

Combine My Avios Step 1
Click on Combine my Avios

Combine My Avios Step 2
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

British Airways Return Business Class
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!

Groupon Avios Just Dropped
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.
Leave a Reply
9 Comments on "Buying BA Avios to Save 85% off Qantas Business Class"
Great article Dave. I’ve now utilised two of your articles (the other being the Irish newspaper subscription). This one took a little longer than the 15 days Groupon stated but got there in the end. Do you know if this new promotion allows you to buy just one package or one package of each?
Yong
Hi Yong,
Great to hear that!
Purchase limit HAS CHANGED this time : Limit 1 coupon per Iberia card for ALL options so if you need more then buy one of the bigger avios options:
4.000 Avios Iberia Plus 59 €
8.000 Avios Iberia Plus 99 €
15.000 Avios Iberia Plus 189 €
20.000 Avios Iberia Plus 249 €
34.000 Avios Iberia Plus 429 €
cheers,
Dave
Thanks Dave. I thought as much but wasn’t sure if google translate got it correct.
Yong – Of course you could always setup a separate groupon account and BA Avios account in a family member’s name and setup a British Airways Executive Club Household Account which lets you and your family pool your Avios if you wanted to buy more than one. Cheers, Dave
Trying to combine the IB Avios to BA but the link isnt there any more…
Any ideas?
Also tried copying and pasting the actual link: https://www.iberia.com/web/bttLandin…enuId=IBBTPT_1
but after going through all the steps it comes up as an error.
Hi Bob,
It’s there for me. Click on Your Avios at the top right hand side once logged in then follow the instructions in the article. It’s well hidden but there. This link may work https://www.iberia.com/web/bttLanding.do?tabId=&menuId=IBBTPT_1
It could be your account isn’t old enough to transfer.
The other option I’ve used in the past is setup an avios.com account then transfer from Iberia.com to Avios.com then to Ba.com One extra step that sometimes gets around any issues with transferring points. Let me know if that works.
Cheers,
Dave
I never got my bonus points from the IberiaPluStore. I followed up but they deflected it saying they cant investigate the groupon bonus points (even though I received this). I’ve gone back to them but not sure if everyone received the bonus points.
Hi David,
Did you get an email acknowledging the purchase via the IberiaPluStore? So long as you clicked through Iberia to Groupon and didn’t have cookies turned off on your browser the purchase should credit.
I got a purchase confirmation email with the following:
“Dear David,
Groupon ES has informed us of your transaction with them on 18/07/17, and the Avios you have earned are pending.
Retailer: Groupon ES Avios: 1288 Purchase ID: 1234567”
They should post if you got that email but it can take several weeks. If you have an email with a purchase ID as per the one above you could follow it up with them. My purchase was 18th July and the IberiaPluStore avios posted a few weeks ago so maybe 60 days after the transaction. I can’t say exactly when because it posts with the original transaction date as if it was there all the time!
Only a few more days before I can transfer them across to BA!