2017/2018 Avios Off Peak Calendar for Redemptions

[Please note that this entire post is now superseded by the 2019 off peak calendar]

The peak and off peak Avios redemption calendars for 2018 has been released for British Airways and Iberia. You can read this page in combination with the Avios award chart page, or the BA Avios Spending Calculator

You can book your Avios flights on either the BA or Iberia websites, taking note of the peak (blue) and off-peak (green) dates in the calendar below. As we are only part way through this year, I have included the 2017 calendar in addition to 2018.

Aside from pointing out that there are different off peak systems for BA and Iberia, the main things to note are:

• If you are flying on an Iberia marketed and operated flight, you should move your Avios points to your Iberia account there, as you will not be charged “carrier imposed charges” a.k.a. fuel surcharges. This has a significant saving if you are flying long haul routes.
• There is no February half term holiday period for Iberia, so the entire month is off peak.
• Easter 2018 on BA is 3 consecutive weeks, whereas Iberia has a block of 3 then 4 days. This can be handy for long-haul travel, but you will need to separate your Avios redemptions for maximum savings.
• The summer 2018 peak period lasts 9 weeks on BA while on Iberia this lasts for (more or less) 13 weeks.
• Note the complexity of the December periods of Iberia, compared to BA's two halves. As many Christmas period travellers will know, the week between Christmas Day and New Year is usually a quiet one, so it feels strange to me that BA still counts that as a peak period. For 2017 Iberia have classified the entire week as off peak, but for 2018 there are a couple of days of peak travel.

British Airways 2017

British Airways 2018

Iberia 2017

Iberia 2018