I write this whilst aboard Iberia’s flagship A350 in Business Class - but I didn’t pay full price, and neither should you. 

There’s four options you’ve got for upgrades to Business Class on Iberia - two of which could save you a large amount of money.

First is simply calling up Iberia to pay to upgrade but all you will be doing is paying the difference between the standard Economy fare you paid and the current Business Class price. This will be pricey - and you shouldn’t do it because there’s no deal involved that will save you anything.

Second is the option Iberia will try to push you whenever you log in to manage your booking online - Upgrade Bids. These are very common across almost all airlines now in that they try to gamify your upgrades. Bid a low price, it will say you’ve got a small chance of getting it, or if you bid large you’ve got a bigger but not guaranteed opportunity to get a better class of service. I gave this a go around 6 weeks prior to booking, bidding a starting price of GBP 75 - but it never came to be, until I got a surprise email - more on that later.

The next option is to Upgrade with Iberia’s loyalty points called Avios. These are very well known to UK reader’s because Iberia share this points scheme with their sister airline British Airways. They can be a good option if you have a nice stash of Avios laying around but there are some caveats. The biggest caveat of this method is availability - not every empty business class seat will be made available as award space seats, which they must be in order to pay with Avios to upgrade. If all the award seats are booked weeks prior to the flight, there is zero chance you will be able to use your Avios to upgrade. 

The final option is one that is only going to happen by luck and the route you are flying - and this is how I got upgraded on my London to Madrid flight.  Seven days prior to my journey, I received a slightly conspicuous email from Iberia which I thought could be spam - although it did feature my Iberia Plus number which made me think it was genuine.

Clicking the link then takes you through to a contact capture form for Iberia to call you back which sounds like a scam all over! That being said, Iberia called me back within 6 hours to make payment for the upgrade and the best part it was only EUR 68! This came back confirmed and I was able to select my seat whilst on the phone. The upgrade includes access to the Business Class lounge but no additional luggage allowance - which may be an issue for some.

The best part of this deal was that the retail price of the one way from London to Madrid in Business was GBP 500 - my total was only GBP 120 one way! A massive difference - but it is dependent on how busy your flight is and whether Iberia decide to offer the cheap upgrade. Better still, I got the availability to upgrade myself and my partner on the booking - which can be quite a rarity. I am yet to see if I get additional tier points and Avios based on the upgraded class but I highly doubt this will be the case - I’ll update this article if it does happen. Sometimes, you can just be a little lucky to get a cheap upgrade...