I thought British Airways was already very slow in publishing their COVID-19 membership extension policy, but obviously there are worse ones out there – its sister airline Iberia hasn’t even started it yet.
Instead, Iberia has decided to run a promotion to “help”: for any tickets purchased between 01/06/2019 and 15/07/2020, and travel dates falling between 01/07/2020 and 31/08/2020, the passenger will be awarded bonus Elite Points (EP).
You get quadruple points on short- and medium-haul flights (under 3,000 miles), and double points on long-haul flights (IB6XXXX). Note that only Iberia, Iberia Express and Air Nostrum operated flights are included.
This chart shows the EP earned between Spain and some countries.
| Discounted Economy | Discounted Business | |
| Spain Domestic | 15 | 35 |
| Portugal | 25 | 75 |
| UK, Ireland, France, Italy | 35 | 115 |
| Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Denmark, Sweden, Finland | 75 | 225 |
| Egypt, Lebanon, Israel | 100 | 300 |
So if you fly discounted business between Spain and Germany, 3 one-ways will elevate you to Sapphire already, and 7 for Emerald. This is very probably the fastest way to attain Oneworld Elite status across the entire alliance.
Departing from UK, it requires 5 and 14 one-ways respectively. The status is valid through March 2022, so around 20 months validity which is very good.
However, I’ve had a quick look and the prices are definitely not cheap – a business return from London to Madrid costs more than £300. And I’m not sure I should / want to fly at this moment either.
So instead of extending its members’ status directly, Iberia is basically encouraging them to purchase tickets and fly – very creative…