Booked: A Trip to Greece on Iberia’s New A321XLR

Points and Places
Jan 20
4 min read

Booked: A Trip to Greece on Iberia’s New A321XLR

When planning a late-summer getaway, Greece quickly rose to the top of our list. It had been a few years since our last visit, when we spent the entire trip in Crete, and while we loved it, the time there was far too short. This time, we wanted a mix of light adventure, island time, and a slower overall pace. Late summer felt ideal, fewer crowds and a way to stretch the Canadian summer just a little longer.

With the destination set, the real work began: figuring out how to get to Greece using points.

The Flight to Greece

Finding a reasonable Aeroplan routing from Toronto to Athens proved more difficult than expected. Most options either required a huge number of points or involved multiple, less-than-ideal connections. I’m usually happy to piece together creative routings, but my wife is far less enthusiastic about long layovers and multi-stop itineraries, so I had a clear mandate to keep things relatively simple this time.

While Aeroplan is by far the easiest currency for Canadians to earn, I also had a healthy balance of British Airways Avios and Flying Blue miles, which opened up a few more options.

In the past, I’ve booked Qatar Airways Qsuite from Toronto to Athens via Doha using Avios. The routing isn’t great, but Qsuite can make the extra flying worthwhile. Unfortunately, availability just wasn’t there this time.

British Airways did show some business class availability via London, but once you factor in the Avios pricing and high taxes, the value wasn’t particularly compelling. That’s when Iberia entered the picture.

Late last year, Iberia announced a new Toronto–Madrid route launching for summer 2026, operated by the Airbus A321XLR. Yes, a single-aisle aircraft flying across the Atlantic. I have mixed feelings about this trend, but the combination of value and availability was simply too good to pass up.

On the plus side, the smaller business class cabin should feel more intimate, with just 14 business class seats spread across seven rows. Large cabins can sometimes dilute the experience, something I’ve noticed on aircraft like the Emirates A380, where business class can feel less special despite the hard product. The downside, of course, is scale: fewer bathrooms, less room to move around, and from what I understand, no pre-departure drinks. The horror.

We booked two business class tickets from Toronto to Athens via Madrid for 66,600 Avios total, plus $244 CAD per ticket in taxes and fees. For business class to Greece, that’s outstanding value.

Booking Challenges with Iberia

One of the strengths of Avios is the ability to transfer points freely between partner programs, including British Airways, Iberia, Qatar Airways, Aer Lingus, and Finnair. Since my Avios were originally sitting with British Airways, I transferred them to Iberia Plus to book this route directly.

Unfortunately, Iberia’s website lived up to its reputation. I ran into multiple issues during the booking process. Some were manageable by switching browsers and retrying searches, but I was never able to get the payment to process successfully.

In the end, I transferred the Avios back to British Airways and booked the same Iberia flights through the BA website as a partner redemption.

Iberia reviews tend to be polarizing, with no shortage of negative feedback online. I’m genuinely curious to see how much of that is overblown versus justified. Either way, I’ll be sharing a full review after the trip.

The Return Flights

The return initially looked easier. I booked Swiss business class through Aeroplan at the base level of 70,000 points, routing ATH–ZRH–YYZ. When base-level inventory lines up with your dates, Aeroplan can still deliver excellent value.

I’ve flown Swiss business class across the Atlantic many times. The experience is solid, though the A330 seats are starting to show their age. Swiss is in the process of refreshing the fleet with A350s and a new business class product, but that wasn’t guaranteed on this route.

In the end, we cancelled the Swiss booking and opted to fly Athens–Madrid–Toronto with Iberia again as the Iberia date worked better for us. It looks like we’ll be getting the full A321XLR experience on this trip.

Hotels in Greece

In Greece, we’ll spend a few days in Athens before heading out to the islands.

In Athens, we’re using Marriott Bonvoy points for a stay at the Hotel Grande Bretagne. This is one of the city’s most iconic luxury hotels, located steps from Syntagma Square and within walking distance of major sights, including the Acropolis. It’s a great base for sightseeing and a solid use of points in a city where cash rates can be high.

From Athens, we’ll take a ferry to the islands.

Our first stop is Tinos, where we’ll be staying at Odera, Tinos, Autograph Collection, a recently opened property that has been getting strong reviews. It’s always fun to try a new hotel, especially when it’s part of a major loyalty program.

From there, we’ll head to Paros and stay at Andronis Minois, which participates in the SLH program and is now bookable through Hilton. That opens up some interesting options for Hilton Honors redemptions on the islands.

Final Thoughts

This isn’t the most complex or adventurous points trip we’ve ever booked. There are no round-the-world routings or aspirational first class products involved. But it perfectly highlights the flexibility that comes with having access to multiple points currencies.

This entire trip came together quickly, sparked by a winter snowstorm and a bit of spontaneous browsing. Being able to book business class flights to Greece and luxury hotels with minimal out-of-pocket cost is exactly why we collect points.

Stay tuned for full flight and hotel reviews once we’re back.