💡 Maximise Your Miles: Stopovers and Discounts in Madrid with Iberia

Hello, Adventurous Travellers, and Happy Thursday!

If you find a fantastic long-haul redemption ticket with Iberia, the chances are that the ticket will include a stopover in Madrid. Iberia flies to over 140 destinations from the Madrid hub.

With the Hola Stopover programme, you can see Madrid and stay overnight rather than having a shorter airport stopover. We’ll cover all the details here!

Let's get started:

• ✈️ Book A Free Stopover with Iberia: Stopovers up to 10 days and 9 nights with amazing discounts in the city.

• 💳 UK Air Passenger Duty: How a Madrid stopover could make your miles go further.

• 🛡️ Barclays Travel Packs: A little-known benefit of banking with Barclays. Get the Travel + pack six or six complimentary lounge visits each year.

• 🎉 The British Airways Shopping Portal: Earn Avios buying travel insurance.

✈️ Book A Free Stopover with Iberia: The Hola Stopover Programme

The Iberia website has lots of ideas on what to do during your stopover + plenty of amazing discounts. While there are no free hotel stays offered like other stopover offers (e.g. Turkish Airlines), there are plenty of other discounts, including:

• Accommodation discounts include up to 25 off Melia hotels.

• Transfer discounts

• Show discounts (e.g. The Lion King)

• 5% discount on domestic flights with Iberia during your stopover. Visit destinations like Ibiza or Seville as well or instead!

• Free Maki platter (5 pieces) + a beer at Quispe and Ponja Nikkei.

• A free Madrid public transport card valid for two days

• VIP access to some breweries

There are some fantastic excursion discounts, too:

🎟️ How to Book

1. Book a flight with a stopover in Madrid. Tick stopover when using the flight search engine.

2. Choose how many nights to spend in Madrid. You can stay for a maximum of 9.

3. Choose whether you want to do the stopover on the way there or the way back.

4. Book your stopover

5. Look at the offers available to make your trip cheaper.

💳 UK Air Passenger Duty

We recently covered Iberia as an excellent airline to reduce the number of Avios spent on redemption flights. When flying from the UK and stopping in Madrid, you still have to pay air passenger duty.

To enjoy a stopover and avoid paying hefty air passenger duty, consider buying a cash flight or a cheap redemption to Paris or Rome and booking a long-haul flight redemption with Iberia (e.g., Rome to New York via Madrid).

This obviously takes a lot longer, but if you have the time, you can see some amazing European cities along the way and enjoy a great value redemption + loads of discounts in Madrid.

🛡️ Barclays Travel Packs: Optional Free Lounge Access

When you bank with Barclays, you can also add travel packs. Two options are available: the Travel Pack and the Travel Plus Pack.

Travel Pack: £14.50/Month

• Worldwide family travel insurance with Aviva

• RAC breakdown cover in the UK, Europe, and at home.

Travel Plus Pack: £22.50/Month

• Discounted fast-track security

• Six free lounge passes per year with DragonPass Premier +

• 24/7 digital concierge

If you’re looking for a monthly plan that includes lounge access and you won’t want to get a credit card to do this, consider the Barclays Travel Plus Pack. The insurance has recently been awarded Which? Best Buy June 2024.

Other non-credit card options to get lounge access with Barclays include having a Barclays Premier Bank Account with Barclays Avios Rewards added on for £12 per month. Barclays Avios rewards include 1,500 Avios per month (plus some amazing sign-up and loyalty bonuses) + six discounted lounges. By discounted lounges, they mean £18.50 per visit!

You also have to earn over £75,000 OR £100,000 in savings or investments to be eligible for Barclays Premier Banking (but there is a loophole if you have a new bank account for the first year).

I’m currently looking for a yearly travel insurance plan, and I couldn’t find one much better than the Barclays one, although the price tag is a bit higher than that of other good options like Post Office Insurance.

There are also upgrades available for long trips and health conditions.

You can also swap a free lounge pass for a £15 meal voucher at over 50 airport restaurants (although this isn’t as good value).

How to Apply: Log into the Barclays App and go to ‘Products’ in the bottom left-hand corner. Go to ‘Insurance’ to view the options available, then click ‘Apply Now’ for the one you’re interested in.

• A 6 month minimum commitment applies.

🎉 Buying Travel Insurance Through the British Airways Shopping Portal

If Barclays insurance isn’t for you but you’re still looking for a good policy, lots of insurance companies have partnered with British Airways.

If you purchase the policy via the British Airways Shopping Portal, you can add some extra Avios to your balance!

Here are the current offers and potential Avios:

• Confused.com – Up to 3,000 Avios (was up to 1,500 Avios)

• MoneySuperMarket – 22 Avios / £1

• Compare the Market – 350 Avios

• Go.Compare – Up to 1,500 Avios

• Coverwise – 20 Avios / £1

• Admiral – Up to 1,500 Avios (was up to 1,000 Avios)

• Columbus Direct – 23 Avios / £1 (was 18 Avios / £1)

• Post Office – Up to 20 Avios / £1

• Staysure – 5 Avios / £1

• AllClear – 10 Avios / £1

• Avanti – 5 Avios / £1

• Holiday Extras – 15 Avios / £1

• Explorer – 16 Avios / £1 (was 8 Avios / £1)

• TravelSupermarket – 17 Avios / £1

• Good to Go – 12 Avios / £1

• CoverForYou – 8 Avios / £1

• Your Travel Cover – 14 Avios / £1

• Justtravelcover.com – 12 Avios / £1

• Insure with Ease – 15 Avios / £1

Final Words

That’s all for this week! We hope these tips help you maximise your travel rewards and have better experiences.

Safe travels, and always aim for the upgrade!

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Bye for now!