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Are you getting a session timed out or log-in failed error?
BA and Iberia websites are both broken after a change to the way browsers work. If you get these errors:
Iberia: Your session has timed out, please log in again
BA: Sorry, your log-in details have not been recognised or Combine my Avios is not available at the moment
The solution is to use the Firefox browser. Download, install, and combine Avios at Iberia as shown below.
For other problems, try the three methods below.
Combine Avios not working? There is a fix
You can move Avios between Iberia and British Airways at any time, in any amount, instantly, and for free.
When it works.
The IT systems are flaky and are well known for throwing up errors.
I can fix it for you. Short version, easiest first, least buggy last:
- From your BA Executive Club account
- From your Iberia Plus account
- In two transactions using Avios.com and an Aer Club account as a middleman
Before you start, there are some rules:
- You can transfer between your own accounts, not to other people
- Your accounts must have the same postal address
- The Iberia account must be at least 90 days old
- The Iberia account must have “earned” at least 1 Avios
“Earning’ an Avios point in Iberia means crediting a flight, or a hotel stay, or a car hire, or shopping through the portal, or transferring in some Amex MR points.
Combine Avios at British Airways
The starting point is at your British Airways Executive Club page. If this isn’t working for you, skip ahead to the next section.
- Log in to your British Airways Executive Club account
- Expand the “Manage my account” menu on the left hand side
- Near the bottom, choose “Combine my Avios“
- That should get you to this screen: (a screen that says “Combine Avios points“, which is officially off-brand)
- Click the “Combine my Avios” button
- Select your program on the screen shown below
- Log in
If it works, the rest should be self explanatory.
Select the number of Avios to transfer, and in which direction, and proceed. The transfer will happen pretty much instantly and you’ll get emails from Iberia and from BA confirming the exchange.
If it doesn’t work, try the second way.
Combine Avios at Iberia
Quite commonly the BA way to combine Avios doesn’t work. The easiest alternative is to combine Avios starting from Iberia.
For some people the Iberia way fails. If you tried both, skip ahead to to the third option.
It’s not completely obvious (which is pretty much standard for travel related IT!) but you can combine Avios starting from Iberia.
- Log in to your Iberia Plus account
- Expand the Iberia Plus menu
- Under “Elite points and Avios”, choose “Buying or transferring Avios“
That brings you to the following screen.
The non-obvious part is the link right down at the bottom in red text:
“Don’t forget you can combine your Avios with those of other customer loyalty programs”
See it on the very last line of the image below. Click that.
The next two screens are very similar to the screens in your BA Executive Club account. Click through, choose the program, log in, select the number of Avios and which direction, and proceed. Done and done.
Combine Avios with Avios.com and Aer Lingus
There is a commonly heard cry of “Combine Avios doesn’t work!”. Yeah, it can be a pain. If the BA and the Iberia route didn’t work, there is a third way.
The third way is to use the Avios.com platform.
Avios.com used to be associated with British Airways but these days it exists as a separate entity. You can no longer log in to Avios.com with BA or Iberia credentials. Instead you need an Aer Lingus Aer Club account.
You can pull Avios into Avios.com from Iberia and then push them to BA.
Here’s how to combine Avios using Avios.com and an Aer Lingus account.
Skip the first step if you have an Aer Club account already.
- Register for an account at Aer Lingus Aer Club
- Log in to Avios.com with your Aer Club username and password
- Click to expand “Manage my account”
- Choose “Combine my Avios” from this screen
On the next screen, choose Iberia or BA, and transfer the Avios into Avios.com.
Then do another transaction to push them back out to BritishAirways or Iberia.
If you have trouble with password resets and logins
Resetting your password at Aer Club and Avios.com can be painfully unreliable.
Forgetting the password is a common problem because many people only have an Avios.com and an Aer Club account for occasional use like combining Avios.
If you have trouble resetting passwords at Aer Club or Avios.com, do this:
- Use the reset password function at Avios.com to request a password reset
- Create a new password
- If you can’t immediately log in to Avios.com, come back tomorrow and try logging in again
- If you can now log in at Avios.com, you can use the same credentials to log in at Aer Club
What you don’t want to do it try resetting at Aer Club and Avios.com. There is a connection behind the scenes that means resetting at one invalidates the password at the other. There also seems to sometimes be a glitch that means a reset on one side doesn’t correctly propagate to the other.
Reset from one side, without touching the other side. If you’ve already just tried a reset on both sides, come back tomorrow and try again starting from the Avios side.
tried but didn’t work. it hasn’t worked in 9 days. piece of sh*t websites – BA and Iberia.
If you’re getting a “Session timed out” error, use the Firefox browser – https://www.mozilla.org/en-GB/
For a while now there has been a problem in Chrome and Safari with BA and Iberia websites.
It does work with Firefox, just checked it again today.
If it’s a different problem, the Aer Lingus route usually works if you can be bothered with it, or you can try calling either Iberia or BA. They can do it manually.
It worked with Firefox!! Thank you!!
Thanks so much! I was about to pull my hair out until I read your description of how to locate the transfer link on the Iberia site – success at last!!
It’s sad that the design is so bad, but I’m glad you found what you needed 🙂