Aer Lingus introduces US immigration pre-clearance at Dublin for ALL flights

Aer Lingus redemptions to the United States are very popular amongst Head for Points readers.  There are two reasons for this.

The first is that they charge SUBSTANTIALLY less tax than British Airways when redeeming Avios.

The second is that, if you fly to Boston, the flight is under 3,000 miles which means it falls into the cheaper Avios pricing zone!  A business class return from Dublin to Boston is just 50,000 Avios rather than 80,000 from London.

You can learn more about Aer Lingus redemptions in this Avios Redemption University post of mine here.

A further benefit of Aer Lingus is US customs and immigration pre-clearance.  US immigration can be a painfully slow process, often taking well over an hour.  Dublin has its own branch of US immigration, however, which allows you to clear your formalities before leaving Ireland.  On arriving in the US, you are treated as a domestic arrival and can walk straight out of the airport!

The following has now been posted on the Aer Lingus website:

From 27 October 2013 all flights to the US will pre-clear US Customs and Immigration in Terminal 2 (Dublin) or Shannon airport before departure.

At the moment, these Dublin flights do NOT have US preclearance:

EI 125 – Dublin to Chicago

EI 137 – Dublin to Boston

EI 139 – Dublin to Boston

The following Dublin flights already have US preclearance and will continue to have it:

EI 105 – Dublin to New York

EI 109 – Dublin to New York

EI 121 – Dublin to Orlando

EI 123 – Dublin to Chicago

The Shannon flights which retain preclearance are:

EI 111 – Shannon to New York

EI 135 – Shannon to Boston

All in all, this in another good reason to keep Aer Lingus in mind when planning redemptions.

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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:

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

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.

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.

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 12th May 2024, the Capital on Tap Business Rewards Visa card is offering a bonus of 30,000 points, convertible into 30,000 Avios. You must have a Limited Company to apply. Click here to learn more and click here to apply.

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.

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.

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