Can you actually benefit from Iberia’s ‘2,500 Avios for enrolling your kids’ bonus?

I posted a few days ago about the Iberia Plus offer of 2,500 Avios points for your kids if you enrol them in the new ‘Iberia Plus Kids’ programme for 2 to 11 year olds. 

At the time, most people including myself thought that you could sign up your children and then move the Iberia Plus Avios across to a BA Household Account including the same child.

It seems, though, that some parts of this plan will not work in practice.  This is because of the, frankly, odd T&C’s of the Combine My Avios function used by Iberia, BAEC and avios.com.

Here is the key rule :

3. Members of a Household Account under the Programmes may not use ‘Combine my Avios’ other than (a) from a British Airways Executive Club Household Account to an individual account under the Avios Programme or the Iberia Plus Programme and (b) from the individual account under the Avios Programme to a Household Account under the British Airways Executive Programme. Any other Household account transaction will not be permitted under Combine my Avios.

(I genuinely have no idea why Iberia Plus members cannot transfer their Avios to a British Airways Household Account.  But the ‘why?’ part of all this is a question for another day!)

You then end up with this train of logic:

• A child cannot have an avios.com account so you cannot move their Iberia Plus Avios to avios.com
• A child cannot have a standalone British Airways Executive Club account.  The child must be part of a Household Account.
• However, as per rule 3. above, you cannot transfer INTO BAEC from Iberia Plus if you are in a BA Household Account.
• Inter alia, there is no way of combining the 2,500 Iberia Plus Avios with your existing BA Avios.

All is not totally lost.  You CAN transfer FROM a BA Household Account to Iberia Plus (see rule 3 again).  You could therefore move just enough Avios from your childs BAEC account into the new Iberia Plus Kids account to get to enough for a redemption, and then empty the account out.

However …. the IB account would still need to be 90 days old before it would accept a transfer in.  The account must also be ‘active’ (see rule 2 of the full rules) which means in theory it has had a proper transactions (flight, car hire, hotel stay etc) go through it, although it would be odd if this applied to a childs account and in any event the 2,500 Avios bonus may count as ‘activity’ anyway.

All a lot of bother, though.  I haven’t posted the form yet for my kids and I may not now.

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How to earn Avios from UK credit cards (April 2025)

As a reminder, there are various ways of earning Avios points from UK credit cards.  Many cards also have generous sign-up bonuses!

In February 2022, Barclaycard launched two exciting new Barclaycard Avios Mastercard cards with a bonus of up to 25,000 Avios. You can apply here.

You qualify for the bonus on these cards even if you have a British Airways American Express card:

Barclaycard Avios Plus Mastercard

Get 25,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher at £10,000 Read our full review

Barclaycard Avios Mastercard

Get 5,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher at £20,000 Read our full review

There are two official British Airways American Express cards with attractive sign-up bonuses:

British Airways American Express Premium Plus

30,000 Avios and the famous annual 2-4-1 voucher Read our full review

British Airways American Express

5,000 Avios for signing up and an Economy 2-4-1 voucher for spending £15,000 Read our full review

You can also get generous sign-up bonuses by applying for American Express cards which earn Membership Rewards points. These points convert at 1:1 into Avios.

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 27th May 2025, the sign-up bonus on the ‘free for a year’ American Express Preferred Rewards Gold card is increased from 20,000 Membership Rewards points to 30,000 points. Points convert 1:1 into Avios (30,000 Avios!) and many other programmes. Some people may see even higher personalised offers. Click here to apply.

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 27th May 2025, the sign-up bonus on American Express Platinum is increased from 50,000 Membership Rewards points to a huge 80,000 points. Points convert 1:1 into Avios (80,000 Avios!) and many other programmes. Some people may see even higher personalised offers. Click here to apply.

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold

Your best beginner’s card – 30,000 points, FREE for a year & four airport lounge passes Read our full review

The Platinum Card from American Express

80,000 bonus points and great travel benefits – for a large fee Read our full review

Run your own business?

We recommend Capital on Tap for limited companies. You earn 1 Avios per £1 which is impressive for a Visa card, and the standard card is FREE. Capital on Tap cards also have no FX fees.

Capital on Tap Visa

NO annual fee, NO FX fees and points worth 1 Avios per £1 Read our full review

Capital on Tap Pro Visa

10,500 points (=10,500 Avios) plus good benefits Read our full review

There is also a British Airways American Express card for small businesses:

British Airways American Express Accelerating Business

30,000 Avios sign-up bonus – plus annual bonuses of up to 30,000 Avios Read our full review

There are also generous bonuses on the two American Express Business cards, with the points converting at 1:1 into Avios. These cards are open to sole traders as well as limited companies.

American Express Business Platinum

50,000 points when you sign-up and an annual £200 Amex Travel credit Read our full review

American Express Business Gold

20,000 points sign-up bonus and FREE for a year Read our full review

Click here to read our detailed summary of all UK credit cards which earn Avios. This includes both personal and small business cards.