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New: use your Avios for low tax redemptions to Miami with Aer Lingus

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Aer Lingus announced a new route from Dublin to Miami yesterday.  This offers a new way to spend your Avios points and a new way of getting to the US without paying heavy taxes and charges.

The Miami service will start on 1st September 2017 and operate three times per week.  It will use an Airbus A330 which will feature the impressive new Aer Lingus business class seating with a 1-2-1 layout that you can see below:

Aer Lingus new business class

Extra flights have also been announced for Summer 2017 on three existing US routes:

Dublin to Los Angeles will move to a daily service

Dublin to Chicago will move to twice daily

Dublin to Orlando will move to four flights per week

Miami flights are already available for purchase at aerlingus.com.

Avios redemptions can only be made by telephone via British Airways Executive Club.  There is no way of checking availability in advance unfortunately – whilst United Airlines and Qantas both partner with Aer Lingus and do shown online reward availability, this is NOT the same as Aer Lingus makes available to BAEC members.

You should expect to pay around £75 return in taxes and charges for a Business Class Avios redemption.  This is based on ticketing from Dublin to Miami.  If you add a connecting flight from the UK to the same ticket then you will need to pay c £150 in long-haul Air Passenger Duty on top.

All Avios partner redemptions are charged at peak day pricing.  It will cost 150,000 Avios per person return for Business Class.  Economy Class would be 50,000 Avios points.

You will probably want to buy a separate connecting ticket to Dublin, although you should try to stick with Aer Lingus as they will be more inclined to help if your inbound flight is delayed.  The only way to make Aer Lingus be legally liable to get you to Miami if your connection is late is to have both flights on one ticket and therefore incur the APD.

You can learn more about redeeming Avios for Aer Lingus flights in this ‘Avios Redemption University’ article.

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

Category

Aer Lingus and AerClub

Comments (39)

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

  • Highland Traveller says:
    16 Nov16 November 05:55

    For those in Scotland consider booking through INV-DUB and avoid the APD?

    • Ian says:
      16 Nov16 November 08:44

      I have booked a R/T LHR-INV return for next week and was surprised to see that BA is charging £13 APD for the return segment. As I thought Highlands & Islands flights were exempt from APD, do you know if this is correct please?

      • Rob says:
        16 Nov16 November 08:52

        Flight must start in INV. If you had booked 2x one ways you would have been fine.

  • Andrew says:
    16 Nov16 November 06:47

    And of course the added advantage of US pre-clearance in Dublin, landing as a domestic passenger in Miami.

  • PGW says:
    16 Nov16 November 07:07

    Can AAdvantage miles be used to redeem on Aer Lingus? I know it used to be possible a few years ago and I have a stash of AA miles looking for a home.

    • Stuart says:
      16 Nov16 November 07:25

      Will we be able to accrue tier points/Avios eventually with Aer Lingus?

      • Rob says:
        16 Nov16 November 08:04

        Avios – you’ve always been able to do this. Tier points (on a non codeshare) – not clear. You can’t get TP on Vueling for example despite the IAG ownership.

        • Stuart says:
          16 Nov16 November 08:54

          Thanks Rob, I checked the calculator and it said no tier points Thought with them coming into IAG properly that might change.

    • JAXBA says:
      16 Nov16 November 13:22

      Not yet PGW. They haven’t announced when EI will join Oneworld or when they’ll switch from UA to AA. Eventually, yes.

  • Mark says:
    16 Nov16 November 07:31

    Personally I’d go for a BA redemption with a 2for1 or Lloyds upgrade vouchers in preference, especially for BA off peak dates. Considerably more in taxes and fees of course but a 170-175k avios saving for two and a direct flight trumps an £800 taxes and fees saving in my book.

    All depends on how avios rich you are, and whether you have the vouchers to use of course but I’d also look at Iberia redemptions via Madrid first which are likely to offer considerably better redemption value to Iberia Plus account holders (albeit without the US preclerance).

    • Daz says:
      16 Nov16 November 08:05

      It’s nice to see from the picture above they don’t pack you in on a business flight like CW. 7 across versus 4; I know which I would take.

      • Brian says:
        16 Nov16 November 08:12

        Isn’t CW 8 across? It is on the BKK route.

        • Rob says:
          16 Nov16 November 08:55

          7 across on a 787, 8 across on the rest (4 across upstairs on a 747!).

          Yes, it is ironic that IAG is positioning Aer Lingus as a ‘value carrier’ (to quote the Capital Markets presentation) to NA and then putting in a better J seat than BA!

          I am keen to give this a go and get a full review up.

      • Mark says:
        16 Nov16 November 09:24

        Difficult to make a direct comparison since the layouts are quite different. Aer Lingus is 4 or 5 abreast (half the rows are actually 1-2-2) on the A330’s narrower overall cabin width. BA uses 747s and A380s on the Miami route which are either 2-4-2 (main deck), 2-3-2 (A380 upper deck) or 2-2 (747 upper deck). However what that doesn’t reflect is that Aer Lingus’s rows overlap, with the bed extending out into the space between or next to the seats in front.

        A more useful comparison is that Club World seats are 20″ wide vs 21″ for Aer Lingus, less difference than you might think albeit that the latter has direct aisle access to most (not all) seats and more storage space, the two main aspects of the Club World seat that really lag in my opinion.

        I’d be interested to try it, though I suspect sale cash fares might end up being more attractive to us than avios redemptions.

        • John says:
          16 Nov16 November 12:51

          And the single seat for us solo travellers is brilliant.

          Catering and wi-fi is excellent too. Service not that dissimilar from BA.

          • John says:
            16 Nov16 November 12:53

            …oh and under deal with government to waive through takeover, there should be another transatlantic route announcement to come

    • Josn says:
      16 Nov16 November 08:33

      That’s exactly what I have just done for May – using my companion voucher . Also used the BA Amex £100 credit for spending over £500 with BA. Too much hassle to fly to Dublin . Only booked a couple of weeks ago – guess was very lucky to get to use to companion voucher which expires in June

  • Frankie says:
    16 Nov16 November 08:59

    And free seat selection in business class with Aer Lingus saving you 100s of £ compared to BA.

  • Jason Hindle says:
    16 Nov16 November 09:03

    Sound good. With split tickets I’d probably take a belt and braces approach, traveling to Dublin the day before (or maybe two – I’ve never been to Dublin).

  • Leo says:
    16 Nov16 November 09:42

    Slightly but not completely OT – and perhaps something Rob may want to cover one day –

    Does travel insurance cover you in cases of 2 flights on 2 separate tickets, say LON-DUB & DUB-MIA? Will you be ‘looked after’ even if it’s 2 separate airlines?

    • Mark says:
      16 Nov16 November 10:03

      Having looked into this previously it depends on the policy.

      Most will not cover you for missed connections. Some will, but you’ll likely need to pay more.

      • Rob says:
        16 Nov16 November 10:56

        This is a big can of worms and not the sort of thing that can be covered fairly in an article. If you have ‘travel delay insurance’ or whatever then – as long as you arrive within the Minimum Connecting Time specified by that particular airport (data which exists but is often hidden away) – you should in theory have a claim.

    • World Traveller says:
      16 Nov16 November 10:22

      It depends on your travel insurance policy – the Missed Connection cover on a Post Office Money policy covers you when booked on separate PNRs.

  • mark1980 says:
    16 Nov16 November 10:38

    Out of interest, if a family of 3 booked 2 redemptions in J and a redemption or cash ticket in Y, could the parents swap seats halfway through? i.e. spend half the time in Y and half in J or would cabin crew not allow that?

    • Rob says:
      16 Nov16 November 10:51

      Crew are fine, this happens more often than you think.

      • Chris says:
        17 Nov17 November 09:27

        Is this how a family of 4 gets best use of 2 x companion vouchers to go on holiday?

        I was wondering how you would manage to get 4 seats in business, when only 2 reward seats are released per flight.

        • Genghis says:
          17 Nov17 November 09:30

          At least 2J and 4Y seats. There are often many more.

          • Chris says:
            17 Nov17 November 09:40

            Thanks,
            Any Tips for destinations during school holiday weeks?

          • Genghis says:
            17 Nov17 November 09:48

            We have total flexibility but I guess booking at T-355 helps. Depends also where you want to go. Going to popular holiday destinations such as Orlando are harder to find than going to Tokyo for instance.

        • Rob says:
          17 Nov17 November 10:56

          2 are released at 355 days out. More, often lots more, get released nearer the time but it varies by route.

          We got 4J to Abu Dhabi and 4F back from Dubai over both Easter and October half term this year.

          • Chris says:
            17 Nov17 November 14:54

            Thanks again.
            This planning holidays a year in advance is a whole new experience for me.
            If I book 2 J seats and 2Y seats at T355 on companion vouchers, would I be able to upgrade the Y seats if additional seats become available later.

          • Rob says:
            17 Nov17 November 17:25

            Yes, £35 per person change fee though.

    • John says:
      16 Nov16 November 14:46

      Supposedly this is fine as long as you don’t keep swapping around. Doing it once would probably be fine but you’d probably need to communicate to them so they don’t wonder why a man has changed into a woman!

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