I guess I should have known better. After all, Iberia has an awful reputation and was the airline that bumped 3 kids of a DDF member off of their connecting flight in Madrid and stranded them overnight in a foreign country.
When I first heard about the Iberia promotion with the ability to earn 90K Avios for under $300 I thought it sounded too good to be true.
On June 21 I wrote on DDF that buying tickets you don’t intend to take for the promotion “Sounds like a great way to get banned.” DDF member Abey asked what if he would actually fly the flights and I said “You’re going to fly 10 times for some promo Avios that will expire before the year is up? Probably can’t even transfer them to BA.” When other members expressed surprise at my cynicism I wrote that the “odds seem high that they renege.”
I wrote here about the risks in detail on June 22. One of 5 bullet points in that post was, “Will Iberia actually honor this promotion as stated or will they try to change the promo terms when they see how many people are taking advantage of it? Iberia does not have the best reputation when it comes to honoring promotions and complaining to the DoT won’t help for a non-US airline, but as long as you save a screenshot of the promotion I guess you can always try to file a credit card chargeback if things go south.”
But after Iberia confirmed with me and others on Twitter that the promo was legit and that they didn’t care if you bought flights without actually flying I decided to go for it. I spent $277 on 10 tickets, hoping to earn 90K Iberia Avios. It seemed worth risking $277 for award flights that would be worth many times that.
Luckily I only did it for myself and not for my family members. Iberia locked my account and refuses to award my miles. I plan on filing a chargeback and hoping for the best.
I’m hardly alone here.
We made a poll on DDF and here are the results:
I have not seen any reports of award tickets being cancelled yet, so if you did get Avios you should probably use them quickly for a ticket to, from, or within the US. Of course Iberia can still cancel your ticket, but that would be in violation of DoT confirmed ticket regulations.
I have no clue what Iberia is thinking here. The promo was ridiculously generous and they had to know this would happen. Iberia Twitter reps told people to book flights even if they won’t fly on them to take advantage of the promotion. And now they are clearly regretting the promotion and are handling it quite poorly, destroying any goodwill they were hoping to achieve.
Vote in the poll below and share your experience in the comments!
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45 Comments On "Poll: Did Iberia Cheat You Out Of Your Miles? Or Did You Get An Amazing Deal?"
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Of all people Dan, I wouldn’t have expected you to believe that airline reps know what they’re talking about.
I have it in writing. That should help with a chargeback.
The upside was too high to ignore, but it’s still annoying.
Is it possible to post the actual writing for others in the same situation
Only half of the miles posted for me (45k out of 90k)
Added that as a poll option.
Are you sure they wont give you the 90K
They’re saying ineligible. Who knows what they’re thinking.
But you got your account on locked.
Why only a charge back? Why not file a claim in small claims court?
I could, but I don’t think it will be worth my time.
Hopefully others to take them to court though.
Did you try logging in on the app? I can get into my acct using the app but not on a desktop.
You spoke to them and they won’t give you the points? What was the excuse?
All 90K posted without a problem. Already booked two 24K domestic first class tickets.
They supposedly pointed to a loophole that you had to be a resident of only certain countries to be eligible.
Used for ticket that doesn’t touch the US. But issued ticket does show a US Address (Miami) of Iberia as ticketing. Do I still have DOT protection?
Points posted and we already booked a trip with them.
The miles posted without issue for all passengers for whom I booked. Big win for me.
Do you have a screenshot of the offer?
Received my 90K on an old account, but not on a legit, new one I made. They account has not been locked and I have not received any e-mails advising disqualification, so I guess I will sit tight and wait to see what happens.
I stuck to the terms, only purchased them on one previously established account and booked partner flights through Iberia’s site. I have had zero issues. I’d be curious to see how many people of those you polled did the same or if there was a common theme of multiple accounts, attempted transfers to BA, or anything else of the like.
Where did the terms say you needed a previously established account?
Not saying that was part of it, just providing that info for the sake of a DP.
I wonder if those who did 10 similar trips in same direction etc were the ones that didn’t work.
I did not do that and i got my points!
when you say that they refuse to reward you with miles are you still hoping that theres a small chance that they will pull through in the coming days adn reward you with the miles? or did you call up your credit to request a chargeback?
The only relevant responses to the headline of your post is from those who *did* participate. The response that says “I didn’t participate” is irrelevant.
Hey Dan, I actually did take a flight as I was in Madrid for business…ORY-MAD. They have since locked my account, sent me emails requested proof of who I am. I have submitted my Passport and DL. They still have not unlocked my account….tried calling a few times and I’m sure you know how that goes with them. Any idea’s.
I had another problem with Iberia. Flying from TLV-MAD-PHL I checked an extra suitcase. The agent in TLV charged me $174 rather then the usual $100 because it’s a conneting flight. The website is vague about this.
Anybody know if this is legit ?
I didn’t do this promotion because I thought there was about a 50% chance I wouldn’t actually get the points or that I’d have to undertake “heroic” efforts to get them awarded. I figured $300 for 90,000 points was .3 cents per point. Given the risk, it was like buying points at .6 cents per point. That’s very good, but not extraordinary. I didn’t think it was worth the hassle at that price. Had this been a USA airline — more accustomed to frequent flyer promotions and the USA rule of law — I would have gone for it.
Let’s sue and bankrupt these arrogant MFers. I don’t care how small the reward is, it should send a message to others not to screw around and renege on their promises. I diligently emailed them all my passport information they requested to unlock my account. I did that twice, and still I haven’t heard back from them. Time to act!
I got my points and booked a ticket. Trying to find a pattern of where points were not granted or clawed back. Did anyone who booked VARIOUS routes that could physically be traveled by one person get clawed back or no points? How it seems like many people who booked SDR-MAD tickets had issues. Anyone have issues with other routes?
I bought 10 tickets from SDR-MAD.
I booked 10 tickets SDR-MAD and had zero issues.
To be fair to iberia I don’t think they cheated anyone. The offer was legitimate and everyone who had existing iberia plus accounts, and put the iberia number into the bookings, and didn’t book 10 flights on the same day at the same time (!) got the avios.
The challange for them was so many individuals creating multiple fake accounts to get millions of avios. We can’t really blame them for not awarding the avios to new accounts becuase of all the fraud and taking the time to request verification for the new accounts.
It’s fair to hire terrible reps who promote an offer that they don’t plan to honor???? No one would be blaming Iberia for cancelling Avios if it was a mistake. The issue is that they led people on and wasted peoples time (i.e. lied about the offer) by telling everyone they plan to honor it.
If they don’t want to honor, it’s fine. They should have owned up to their mistake, give everyone 30,000 free Avios and refunded the tickets.
@dan maybe they read ddf and ddms and are punishing you
Along with the other 50% that didn’t get their Avios?
I got locked out of my new account and I call them. I set it up 2 days before the promotion expired. They said they did not get all my information. It does explain why I did not see my flights in my account but now I am locked out of my account a day after I bought the tickets. They said I need to email them with a copy of my passport and tell them the number of tickets I ordered. They did not want any information about my actual flights. This is a really strange way they do business.
גונב מגנב פטור
I think everyone who had a prior, existing Iberia account before the promotion started got their Avios. It’s the brand new accounts and the people from countries not covered by the promotion who have the problems. We had 4 existing accounts which got all the Avios we were due. We booked set of round trip overseas IB business class tickets and will be booking the second set in the fall. It worked out great for us!!!!
So I have sent in the tickets alone with ID documentation. Anyone know how long does it take for them to get back to you?
Me it took 7 days.
First the Inquisition, and now this.
¡Muerte a Iberia!
I received the following:
Dear ________,
Please accept our sincere apologies for the inconveniences we may have caused you for not being able to respond until today the e-mail you sent us few days ago.
We correctly received your documentation. However, we are sorry to inform you that the details of your identification document do not match your Iberia Plus account information. Therefore, it is not possible for us to activate your account.
If you wish to cancel any of the tickets you bought for the promotion, you may do so free of charge on this exceptional occasion by sending us the ticket number (which begins with 075) before the 31st of July (Spanish Time – UTC/GMT +2 hours).
Kind Regards
Your Iberia Plus Service Center.
At least they will refund, but my passport matches my account
#maybe someone should teach them english 🙂
Whats a good route to use these 90,000 avios for a business class ticket?