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I was booking a redemption flight for a friend recently and discovered something I had no idea about – how to select your seat for free on Iberia when using Avios to book. What is particularly good is that you can even pick extra legroom / emergency exit seats for free too!
The process is remarkably simple, I simply had no idea it was possible before.
If you buy a cash Economy ticket (and don’t have elite status), you have to pay to select a seat and the booking fee for an extra legroom seat on a longhaul flight in Summer is at least £50 each way.
Book using Avios though, and it’s a different story:
“Customers with tickets purchased with Avios (or equivalent in miles) in Economy or Blue fares may select a seat free of charge when making their booking.”
As you can see, even the cheapest ‘Blue Class’ redemptions include free seat selection.
How to Select Your Seat for Free on Iberia
Book as normal on the Iberia site using Avios, then head to the ‘Your Bookings’ section under the ‘Your flights’ heading:
Click ‘see/manage’ and then on the flight info section to expand it:
You should then see a screen like the one below – just click on “Early seat booking”
click through again and you will be presented with the aircraft seat map
As you can hopefully see above, even selecting an extra legroom emergency exit seat is completely free.
The lack of a charge is confirmed below – note that the selected seat, 6A, is an extra legroom emergency exit seat at the very front of the Economy cabin:
Done!
Bottom line
If you’ve ever wondered how to select your seat for free on Iberia, the answer is simple – book using Avios.
I actually purchased this particular ticket as an ‘Avios & Money’ award for the lowest amount of Avios possible (just 6,250 Avios!) because the cash co-pay worked out at effectively buying Avios at a pretty decent rate (~0.7p each), so it doesn’t even have to be a ‘full’ Avios award to get the free seat selection.
I take it this doesn’t work in biz class too?
Sorry – I should have made clear, I’m pretty sure you get to select your seat in Biz regardless and definitely on Avios bookings.
You most definitely can pre-select your seat in Business.
Surprised to see Joe in Economy since there’s usually pretty good reward space to Medellin…
Haha, it wasn’t for me! I was helping a mate out – I’m not made of Avios though so couldn’t quite justify putting them in Biz.
Ha, excellent! We have standards to maintain here at InsideFlyer UK. 🙂
The low Avios, high co-pay is excellent for those situations though. Your mates get a great deal (if they repay you the cash portion) and you only spend a handful of Avios on the big favour…
Indeed we do! And yes, I get to feel overwhelmingly virtuous without it costing me an arm and a leg.
Old topic, but in case someone bumps in to this (like me)
Just tried this to save some money on XL seats. I used 1200 avios for a €10 discount, but I still have to pay for the seats. Although te statement is still on the site it didn’t work for me using the lowest amount of Avios possible.
On my last full avios booking teh seats we’re free.
Unfortunately you seem to have mixed up the “Part Pay with Avios” – where you discount a paid fare using Avios – with “Avios & Money”, where you replace Avios with cash as part of a reward ticket booking. Only the second gets you free seat selection.
If you have a link to Iberia’s website that suggests otherwise, please post it here.
You’re absolutely right, I’ve mixed those up. Sorry for the confusion, and thanks for the reply.
I’ve booked flights with Avios, Premium Economy, and can’t select seats, receiving this message: To reserve the seat on your flight, you must request this with our call centre