If you occasionally need to redeem your Avios for award flights for friends or family – rather than just yourself – then you might have struggled with Iberia Plus. Unless you – i.e. the Iberia Plus member – are travelling on the same flight(s), you must complete an additional step before you are allowed to book award flights for somebody else. You must add one or more “Beneficiaries” to your Iberia Plus account.

Luckily, this is very straightforward online. Your first step is to login to your Iberia Plus account and look for the Iberia Plus drop-down box on the far right side of the Iberia homepage. While hovering, you are looking for “Iberia Plus Card” underneath “My profile”.

Once you’ve clicked on that link, you should be taken here, where you can see the additional menu option of “My beneficiaries”…

From there, it’s relatively straightforward to add one or more beneficiaries…

Don’t forget that Iberia Plus uses the European system for dates, which is date (1-31) / month as a number (1-12) / year (all 4 digits)

An Interesting Travel Hack for Flyers with Elite Status

Many readers will collect Avios from all of British Airways Executive Club, Iberia Plus and even AerLingus AerClub. You can easily Combine Your Avios to book award flights from wherever works out easiest or cheapest.

You are far less likely to have elite status with Iberia Plus. But you might have elite status from another Oneworld partner airline. That might be British Airways Executive Club, American Airlines AAdvantage, Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan or of course any of the other frequent flyer programs offered by a Oneworld airline.

So, you are quite incentivized to attach a different frequent flyer number to your award reservation – instead of the one you are using to book the award flights. No, you won’t earn miles on an award ticket, but your elite status might come in handy with priority boarding, baggage allowance, seat selection, etc  (especially if you are booking an Economy or Premium Economy award). Sometimes it is possible to call the operating airline and ask to change your frequent flyer number. Sometimes you can manage your booking on finnair.com and attempt the change. But Iberia Plus account numbers are notoriously “sticky”.

So… instead of making an Iberia Plus award booking as the “member you”, you can set yourself up as a Beneficiary, with the crucial difference coming in the frequent flyer details you provide when you set yourself up a “Beneficiary”.

Once you’ve set your “elite you” up as a Beneficiary, you can issue Iberia Plus award tickets with your preferred frequent flyer number firmly attached to the booking…

So, whether you are looking for a little travel hack to improve your travel experience, or simply want to use your Avios to book a flight for a friend or family member, then you need to be aware of Iberia Plus “beneficiaries”.