Compare the Features and Benefits of Iberia Visa Signature® Card and
Chase Freedom Flex

Beyond a generous sign up bonus, the Iberia credit card earns 3x Avios points on Iberia, British Airways, LEVEL, and Aer Lingus and 2x Avios per dollar spent on hotel accommodations booked directly with the hotel.

Avios can be shared between any Avios program, which also includes Qatar Airways (home of the QSuite) and you can redeem Iberia Avios for award tickets on oneworld airlines like American Airlines, Alaska Airlines, Cathay Pacific, and more.

The sweetest sweet spot on the Iberia award chart is a 40,500,000 point one way flight in Business Class to/from the Eastern US and Madrid or Barcelona on off peak dates. That’s just 81,000 miles round trip. You’d need to leave from New York or Boston to get this deal.

Most importantly, you’ll get 10% off all round trip Iberia flights. (Must book through a special website provided with your new card and be the one traveling.)

And then, when you spend $30,000 in a calendar year, you’ll get a voucher in the form of a code that can be applied by a Cardmember for a discount of $1,000 when purchasing 2 tickets, for the same flights in the same class of travel.

If you fly Iberia frequently, this airline credit card can be interesting, f not just for the 10% discount on Iberia flights. However, if you don’t fly Iberia frequently, there are going to be other credit cards that offer you more flexibility.

Keep in mind, if we are only talking about the value of the points you’ll earn from spend on the card, that the Chase Sapphire Reserve® Card also earns 4x Chase Ultimate Rewards credit card points on these airlines (if booked directly) and can even be transferred to Avios if needed – as well as a range of other travel partners, like World of Hyatt which offers excellent and outsized value. A Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card would earn 2X Ultimate Rewards points on all travel.

In short, the card will pay dividends for a frequent purchaser of Iberia tickets, but you may not want to be limited to Avios over a credit card with flexible and transferable points.

If you don’t primarily fly Iberia, you might want to look at other airline credit cards or bank cards with transferable points.

Keep in mind that Iberia Avios expire after 36 months of inactivity, though that won’t be a problem if you are spending on this credit card!

Note: You will only be approved for a Chase card like the Iberia Visa card if you have applied for fewer than 5 personal credit cards within the last 24 months from any issuer. (Business cards do not count against the total, except for Capital One Spark Miles and Discover, but are subject to the policy).

This is a primary card in the Chase Trifecta, which includes a Chase Sapphire Preferred or Chase Sapphire Reserve, a Chase Freedom Unlimited, and this card, the Chase Freedom Flex. You’ll earn 3% on dining and drugstore purchases with the Freedom Flex. But whereas the Freedom Unlimited gives you 1.5% cash back on other spend categories, The Flex earns only 1%. That is because it has the rotating 5% bonus categories.

The rotating bonus categories each quarter can be fantastic. Amazon is a popular choice, meaning you’d earn 7,500 Ultimate Rewards points ($75) if you spent $1,500 during that quarter.

Since the Chase Freedom Flex is a pure cash back credit card unless you also have a Chase Sapphire Preferred®, Sapphire Reserve®, or Ink Business Preferred® with which to combine your Chase Ultimate Rewards points, it’s ideally used as part of a combo.

When you hold one of these premium Ultimate Rewards-earning credit cards, you can transfer points earned on the Freedom Flex to the premium card. Once you’ve moved the Ultimate Rewards over to the premium credit card, you can take advantage of points transfers to 12 Chase airline and hotel partners or book travel through the travel portal.

Best of all, you can accrue cash back on this card and decide to add a Chase Sapphire Preferred®, Sapphire Reserve®, or Ink Business Preferred® later on – if you suddenly decide that you’d like to delve into the world of credit card rewards that transfer to frequent flyer and hotel programs to book free award flights and hotel nights.

If you book through the travel portal and have a Sapphire Reserve, your points redeem for 1.5 cents each, meaning that you earn 1.5X points or cash back per dollar and redeem them for 1.5X, giving you an effective 2.25% return on your spend.

If you book through the travel portal and have a Sapphire Preferred, or Ink Business Preferred, your points redeem for 1.25 cents each, meaning that you earn 1.5X per dollar and redeem for 1.5X, giving you an effective 1.875% return on your spend.

But our absolute favorite way to redeem is always via airline and hotel transfer partners. The easiest high-value redemption is usually Hyatt. We often get better than 2 cents per World of Hyatt point. Keep in mind that Hyatt doesn’t charge any resort fees when you stay on a free night award. So let’s say you are looking at a hotel with a cash price of $259 and a $25 a night resort fee and 8% tax. That would come to $307 a night. But if that same room costs 8,000 or 12,000 Hyatt points, you could be using your points (which transfer at an even 1:1 ratio to all airline and hotel partners) with a rate of return of 3 – 4 cents.

To be clear, if you don’t also have a Chase Sapphire Preferred®, Sapphire Reserve®, or Ink Business Preferred®, the rewards earned with the Chase Freedom Flex are purely cash back rewards.

That said, even without a card combo, it’s still a solid card to earn cash back, including 3% on dining , including takeout and eligible delivery services, and drugstores) since it has no annual fee.

The Chase Freedom Flex credit card comes with a solid range of benefits for a card with no annual fee. You’ll get Purchase Protection and Extended Warranty on the shopping side and you’ll be taken care of on canceled or shortened pre-paid trips if a covered reason arises. with the included Trip Cancellation/Interruption Insurance.