Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

Breaking: Aer Lingus redemptions now bookable on avios.com – but Boston loophole closed

Links on Head for Points may support the site by paying a commission.  See here for all partner links.

The Aer Lingus Aer Club programme launched this morning.

At the same time, Aer Lingus reward availability has been loaded into avios.com.

You do NOT need to be an AerClub member to book these.  You can log in with your usual avios.com UK account details and book.

This is the first time ever that Aer Lingus awards have been bookable online with Avios.

aerclub-membership-cards

The good news ….

Some rewards are down in price.   Before yesterday, all Aer Lingus rewards were treated as ‘peak date’ pricing in the same way as any other BA partner airline.

Aer Lingus now has peak and off-peak pricing.  Apart from Easter, Christmas and the summer, the rest of the year is off-peak.

The bad news …..

Taxes have gone up.  A return flight in Business Class from Dublin to New York used to have taxes of around £75 return.  It will now cost you £200.

However, if you travel off peak, the reduction in the Avios required would mean you are no worse off.

It is also £300 cheaper than a British Airways Club World redemption from London.

The worse news …..

Dublin to Boston SHOULD be in Zone 4.  Until yesterday, it cost 75,000 Avios for a return business class flight from Dublin to Boston – which is what you expect to pay for a partner airline flight of 2,986 miles.

Aer Lingus has now moved Boston 14 miles to the west.  Dublin to Boston has been moved into Zone 5 which means it now costs 100,000 Avios off-peak and 120,000 Avios peak – the same price as Dublin to New York.

Other thoughts

The real win would be if Avios allowed you to use Lloyds Avios Rewards upgrade vouchers on Aer Lingus.  That would be an exceptional result as you could get their excellent new business class seat for the Avios of economy, as Aer Lingus does not have premium economy.  We need to see if this happens or not.

More on this story tomorrow.


How to earn Avios from UK credit cards

How to earn Avios from UK credit cards (April 2024)

As a reminder, there are various ways of earning Avios points from UK credit cards.  Many cards also have generous sign-up bonuses!

In February 2022, Barclaycard launched two exciting new Barclaycard Avios Mastercard cards with a bonus of up to 25,000 Avios. You can apply here.

You qualify for the bonus on these cards even if you have a British Airways American Express card:

Barclaycard Avios Plus card

Barclaycard Avios Plus Mastercard

Get 25,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher at £10,000 Read our full review

Barclaycard Avios card

Barclaycard Avios Mastercard

5,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher at £20,000 Read our full review

There are two official British Airways American Express cards with attractive sign-up bonuses:

British Airways American Express Premium Plus

25,000 Avios and the famous annual 2-4-1 voucher Read our full review

British Airways American Express

5,000 Avios for signing up and an Economy 2-4-1 voucher for spending £15,000 Read our full review

You can also get generous sign-up bonuses by applying for American Express cards which earn Membership Rewards points. These points convert at 1:1 into Avios.

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold

Your best beginner’s card – 20,000 points, FREE for a year & four airport lounge passes Read our full review

The Platinum Card from American Express

40,000 bonus points and a huge range of valuable benefits – for a fee Read our full review

Run your own business?

We recommend Capital on Tap for limited companies. You earn 1 Avios per £1 which is impressive for a Visa card, along with a sign-up bonus worth 10,500 Avios.

Capital on Tap Business Rewards Visa

Huge 30,000 points bonus until 12th May 2024 Read our full review

You should also consider the British Airways Accelerating Business credit card. This is open to sole traders as well as limited companies and has a 30,000 Avios sign-up bonus.

British Airways Accelerating Business American Express

30,000 Avios sign-up bonus – plus annual bonuses of up to 30,000 Avios Read our full review

There are also generous bonuses on the two American Express Business cards, with the points converting at 1:1 into Avios. These cards are open to sole traders as well as limited companies.

American Express Business Platinum

40,000 points sign-up bonus and an annual £200 Amex Travel credit Read our full review

American Express Business Gold

20,000 points sign-up bonus and FREE for a year Read our full review

Click here to read our detailed summary of all UK credit cards which earn Avios. This includes both personal and small business cards.

Comments (71)

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

  • Paul says:

    How can TFCs go up simply because it has become Aerclub? Just looked on matrix and Dublin to Boston says £92 Avios.com want nearly double that? It is bordering on theft unless they have a secret service fee. Has anyone got them to justify price increase?

    • Paul says:

      That’s Dublin to Boston return I should have said.

    • Rob says:

      You should start by asking why BA adds fuel surcharges to AA redemptions when (if you book using AA miles or any other oneworld miles) you don’t pay a fuel surcharge …..

      • Paul says:

        Phoned up and asked for a breakdown of tfcs. Was given a fuel surcharge of £135, Aer Lingus only charge £20.40 according to matrix so there’s an extra £115 now added for no apparent reason. I even asked was it any other charge but they were adamant it was the fuel surcharge. When I queried the difference between cash ticket they said Aer Lingus is charging more fuel charge on Avios redemption flights.

  • Kathy says:

    Well, I guess if I ever get an airline flying SEN-DUB again I might look at flying out of DUB to the US for the convenience of not having to travel over to Heathrow or Gatwick. Given the hassle, increased Avios and taxes I suspect it’s not worth going too far out of the way for – by the time you’ve paid for a flight to Dublin and a hotel the night before to avoid mis-connecting you’ve eaten into a chunk of that tax saving anyway.

  • Dannyrado says:

    I need a specific MAN-DUB flight. I’ve been waiting for the ability to use avios on aerlingus..

    4500 avios and an outrageous £52 per person tax. I can fly on the flight before for £19 full fare. Even the flight I actually want is £80 full fare.

  • Genghis says:

    “The real win would be if Avios allowed you to use Lloyds Avios Rewards upgrade vouchers on Aer Lingus. That would be an exceptional result as you could get their excellent new business class seat for the Avios of economy, as Aer Lingus does not have premium economy. We need to see if this happens or not.”
    I’ve had a little play and this doesn’t appear to be the case. Trying to apply the voucher and coming up 100k return DUB-JFK.
    Doesn’t surprise me as T&Cs state BA metal only…

    • Rob says:

      Only Day 1, let’s see. We could also see the (economy only) 241 Lloyds voucher extended to Aer Lingus – this was valid on Eurostar until recently, remember, so it is not impossible.

  • netxu says:

    It seems that avios.com membership eligibility has changed as a side-effect of launching aerclub and non-UK resident can join avios.com now.

  • Andrew H says:

    So economy from DUB-BOS is no longer 12.5k avios? What’s the new price?

    • ADS says:

      I just had a play and you can fly on Saturday DUB-BOS for 13,000 avios and 100 gbp … or 4,550 avios and 165 gbp !

  • Rob says:

    For info, the new system doesn’t include Aer Lingus Regional, aka Stobart Air. All EDI-DUB routings are shown through London – not a viable option with the direct flights from about Euro25 in Stobart’s flying trucks…. Disappointing…

  • bill says:

    Using my mobile, not sure if I am making an error, I can’t see anything for MAN-DUB or IOM-DUB

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

The UK's biggest frequent flyer website uses cookies, which you can block via your browser settings. Continuing implies your consent to this policy. Our privacy policy is here.