How to Fly to Spain on Points and Miles
I’ve been into the credit card points/airline miles game ever since I discovered 10x Travel four years ago. They offer a free course that I highly recommend you take if you’re at all interested in the points and miles game! Korri’s and my first big points redemption was in fall 2023 for our trip to Germany and Austria, and we redeemed points again in summer 2024 for our trip to the U.K.
After experiencing international business class the first time, we knew we were ruined for life and could no longer fly long-haul in anything other than lay-flat seats. Our recent trip to Spain was no exception. This was one of our best redemptions yet because we only had one layover between Boise and Spain, both directions!
Below, I broke down the exact award flights we flew to Spain and back, how many points each flight segment cost (and/or how much cash we paid), which credit cards we got to earn those points, and more! (Note that I’m not going to go into great detail about the credit card points “game”—take the free course I linked above and check out the 10x Travel website, podcast, and Facebook group for more details on that. This post isn’t sponsored; they’re just the resource I refer to most often. There are other websites/resources, too!)
I hope this post inspires you to take advantage of credit card points and airline miles to take your travels to the next level and fly how YOU want to fly. I want to make it VERY clear that the only way we could afford to fly business was with points—we aren’t rich, and there is no way we’d book the cash fare.
READ NEXT: How to Fly to the U.K. on Points and Miles
How to Fly to Spain on Points and Miles
How to Book Cheap Business Class Flights to Spain
The cheapest business class flights to Spain (or anywhere else in Europe) are flights you pay next to nothing for because you used points and miles!
The best resource I can share is the 10x Travel free course I mentioned at the start of this post. Basically, the point of the points “game” is to open new credit cards to earn the sign up bonus (SUB). There are many premium travel cards that give great sign up bonuses, including cards from Chase, American Express, and Capital One.
You have to spend a certain amount of money on each card in a set amount of time in order to earn the SUB. It’s important to focus on the SUB of each card—that’s how you earn enough points to book award tickets for premium classes.
Read a longer breakdown in my how to fly to Germany on points and miles blog post!
Award Flight from Boise to Madrid
The main purpose of our trip to Spain was to see the total solar eclipse. We booked our hotel for the eclipse in April 2025, 16 months before the eclipse, and that was the only part of our trip set in stone until we booked our flights from Boise to Madrid at the end of May 2026.
For this trip, we planned on flying into and out of Madrid, and I specifically checked American Airlines (via Alaska Airlines/Atmos Rewards) and Iberia Airlines (also via Alaska, though you can also book Iberia with Avios). It felt relatively easy to find our outbound flights compared to our inbound flights.
We originally booked American Airlines first class Boise to Chicago and business class Chicago to Madrid for 110,000 Atmos points total. Three weeks later, I noticed that the exact same flights on the next day were available for 70,000 Atmos points total, so we cancelled and rebooked. (I kept searching even after we rebooked, and our original flights also dropped to 70k weeks later, but we opted to keep our new flights based on the seats available.)
Atmos Rewards points needed: 70,000
Points transferred: 0
Cash spent: $5.60 (taxes and fees)
Credit cards used: Atmos Rewards Summit Visa Infinite (plus prior points earned from Alaska Airlines cash fares, the Atmos shopping portal, and using my Atmos Summit, Alaska Business, and Atmos Ascent credit cards)
Fortunately, I did not have to transfer any miles to book this flight. The only credit card rewards program that transfers directly to Atmos Rewards (Alaska Airlines) is Bilt, and I currently do not have a Bilt card. I do, however, have all three Alaska Airlines credit cards that are currently offered. We fly Alaska frequently, and my Atmos Ascent was one of my first-ever credit cards.
Award Flight from Madrid to Boise
It was much more difficult to find our return flight from Madrid to Boise. As the weeks ticked down, I started to worry that we may not find anything, and we were planning to cancel our trip entirely if we couldn’t find decent return flights.
I ended up searching other departure airports, including Bilbao (because we were planning to visit), Barcelona, and even Paris (a long train ride from northern Spain but doable). There was one option on Air France I considered, but I was determined to find something from Madrid.
I personally find the Iberia website (and other Avios airlines’ websites) absolutely painful to search, so I did not search that one as frequently as maybe I should have. I checked the Alaska website daily, though, and I really wanted to book the return flight with a layover in Dallas (at DFW) because we could get home the same night.
The Alaska website NEVER showed the complete MAD to BOI itinerary through DFW, but at the beginning of July, I decided to see if the two flights were available to book with points separately—and lo and behold, they were! We were able to book our return flights for 70,000 Atmos points total, split between two reservations.
Atmos Rewards points needed: 55,000 (MAD to DFW) + 15,000 (DFW to BOI) = 70,000
Points transferred: 0
Cash spent: $47.23 (MAD to DFW taxes and fees) + $5.60 (DFW to BOI taxes and fees) = $52.83
Credit cards used: Atmos Rewards Summit Visa Infinite (plus prior points earned from Alaska Airlines cash fares, the Atmos shopping portal, and using my Atmos Summit, Alaska Business, and Atmos Ascent credit cards)
While I try to avoid booking same-day flights across different reservations, I was okay with this one because a) it was the same airline, b) we had a long layover (almost four hours), and c) we had a backup plan if we missed our connection: staying in Dallas for the night and flying out the next morning.
This was our first trip where we did not stay one night between our long-haul flights on both ends of our trip, and I loved it! The traveling part felt like it went so much faster because—well—it did. Plus, having only one layover each way was a dream.
It’s normal for flights departing the US to have lower taxes and fees than flights departing the UK or Europe. I’m not sure what all goes into it, but don’t be alarmed if you see higher taxes and fees on your return leg. (And some airlines charge higher fees than others.)
Total Points Used + Cash Spent
Here’s the total number of points I used and cash I spent for our round trip flights from Boise to Madrid! (Korri purchased his own tickets for the same points and cash prices.)
Finding our complete itinerary including first class for the domestic flights and business class for the international flights for only 70,000 points each way was truly the dream situation. For our prior trips, we spent 80,000+ points for only the long-haul portion and had to spend more cash and/or additional points for our repositioning flights from/to Boise!
We only have enough PTO to take maybe one “big” trip a year, so spending a little more in points to fly business class is definitely worth it.
Total points spent: 140,000 Atmos Rewards points
Total cash spent: $58.43
I hope you found it helpful to read how we booked our flights and inspired you to take advantage of points and miles to fly in style on your next international trip to Europe, Asia, or any other destination! I’m so excited for our future flights on points, whatever they may end up being. Hit me up in the comments if you have any questions!