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Aer Lingus redemptions are now bookable via avios.com – but it’s not that simple

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I ran an extra article on HfP yesterday – which you won’t have seen if you are an email subscriber – to highlight the fact that the Aer Lingus Aer Club programme had launched.  This article is an expanded version of that piece.

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

Some redemptions are cheaper

Some rewards are down in price.   Previously, 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.  The list of peak dates does NOT match the British Airways list of peak dates.  You will find dates when a BA Avios redemption to North America is ‘peak’ but an Aer Lingus redemption is ‘off peak’.

Aer Lingus peak dates for 2017 are:

  • 1st – 4th January
  • 7th – 23rd April
  • 17th June – 10th September
  • 16th – 31st December

Here is the Aer Lingus reward chart showing zones, mileage and Avios cost:

Aer Lingus Avios reward flight prices (plus taxes, fees and carrier charges)
Zone Distance Economy Business Class
Offpeak Peak Offpeak Peak
1 1—650 miles 4,000 4,500 7,750 9,000
2 651—1,150 miles 6,500 7,500 12,750 15,000
3 1,150—2,000 miles 8,500 10,000 17,000 20,000
4 2001—3000 miles 10,000 12,500 31,250 37,500
5 3,001—4,000 miles 13,000 20,000 50,000 60,000
6 4,001—5,500 miles 16,250 25,000 62,500 75,000

However, Aer Lingus has been rather sneaky.

Dublin / Shannon to Boston SHOULD be in Zone 4.  Last week, 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 which is how long the Dublin flight is.

Aer Lingus has now moved Boston 14 miles to the west.  Dublin to Boston (and Shannon to Boston) have 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.

The cost of Dublin to Boston was just 50,000 Avios return before the April 2015 changes.  It now costs 100,000 to 120,000 Avios return.

But taxes have gone up ….

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!

One way redemptions TO Dublin offer value …..

One way long haul flights to Dublin look very good value.  A one-way business class flight from North America has taxes of around £90 whilst a one-way economy flight has taxes of around £70.

And no Reward Flight Saver on short haul …..

You pay full taxes on short haul Aer Lingus redemptions.  There is no Reward Flight Saver cap.

An economy flight on Aer Lingus between London and Dublin comes with taxes of £116.85 return.  This compares to £35 for a British Airways flight on the same route.  It is also more than you pay, on most days, for a cash ticket on that route.   I doubt those Aer Lingus redemptions are going to be very popular unless there is no BA availability and you need to ability to cancel for a full refund which comes with a redemption.

Note that short haul redemptions booked with Avios include 1 x 20kg checked bag.

Some oddities have appeared at ba.com …..

Historically long haul business class Avios redemptions made via the British Airways Executive Club call centre attracted taxes of around £75 return.

Based on HfP comments yesterday from readers, British Airways is STILL charging around £75 in taxes.  This means that it makes no sense to book long-haul Aer Lingus redemptions on avios.com.  You might as well look up availability on avios.com but then call BAEC to book and take advantage of the lower taxes.

More on AerClub

This article doesn’t touch on AerClub itself.  I will return to that next week, but for now I wanted to highlight the more important changes – for UK based readers – and the opportunity to finally book Aer Lingus redemptions online.

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Category

Aer Lingus and AerClub

Comments (28)

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

  • Paul says:
    2 Dec2 December 06:23

    I do wish that people would stop referring to IAG / BA fees as taxes. Tax is something paid to a countries exchequer. The bulk of this money paid to IAG/BA is not.
    BA charge £500 plus for a redemption premium seat but less than half of that goes to either the U.K. Government or other governmental agencies.
    They charge even when the operating carrier has no such fee and where such fees are banned.
    please call these charges what they are IAG/BA fees, not taxes.

    • Colin MacKinnon says:
      2 Dec2 December 08:08

      Paul,
      Lots of things are called what they aren’t!
      “Taxes” is a lot shorter than government taxes, local fees, airport charges, agricultural inspections, security costs, fuel surcharges, other carrier charges etc.
      Have you ever looked at the list of taxes, fees and other charges on a ticket to the US: there must be about 10 different things listed!
      If we just said “IAG.BA fees” then that would be incorrect too!
      I think of it like MoT is in common usage, even though the Ministry of Transport is long gone!

      • nerd. says:
        2 Dec2 December 09:09

        REALLY common usage. Possibly because that’s its actual name (regardless of the replacement of the Ministry of Transport)
        https://www.gov.uk/getting-an-mot

        • the real harry says:
          2 Dec2 December 19:11

          essentially, ‘tax’ means ‘imposition’ – as does ‘fee’

          can’t really see the OP’s point because whereas he just seems to want to place an accusation of rottenness/ duplicity against BA, most of us just want to know what we will have to pay

          • the real harry says:
            2 Dec2 December 19:24

            Word Origin and History for im-po-si-tion Expand

            n.

            late 14c., “the levying of taxes, a tax, duty, tribute,” from Old French imposicion “tax, duty; a fixing” (early 14c.), from Latin impositionem (nominative impositio) “a laying on,” from imponere “to place upon,” from assimilated form of in- “into, in” (see in- (2)) + ponere “to put, place” (see position ). Sense of “the act of putting (something) on (something else)” is from 1590s. Meaning “an act or instance of imposing” (on someone) first recorded 1630s (see impose ).

    • ADS says:
      2 Dec2 December 12:46

      @Paul – i agree !

      at one stage it seemed like the government was so sick of being blamed for these fees that they were going to legislate to force airlines to stop implying that they were taxes. but sadly the government hasn’t got around to it yet !

      it would be helpful if HfP labelled them as fees – and thereby pressurised BA to stop loading them on.

      • James says:
        2 Dec2 December 18:54

        Its frustrating that a company like BA feels the need to throw all these ‘fees’ ontop of their reward seats.. yet an Airline like Cathay can charge 18 quid ‘fees and taxes’ and still be profitable AND provide a much better product.

        • Callum says:
          3 Dec3 December 20:39

          Because Cathy aren’t allowed to charge them by law… They definitely did have fuel surcharges in the past (though I don’t think they charged it on redemptions?). Same reason why you can fly back from HKG and pay no extra charges (from memory, business class is about £20).

  • Rob says:
    2 Dec2 December 06:36

    Do they have business and economy availability on every flight? Trying to get a business redemption and none available on any day. Possibly just too late but just wanted to check.

  • Hidehi says:
    2 Dec2 December 06:51

    Any idea about using the Lloyd’s voucher with them?

  • Andy S says:
    2 Dec2 December 08:13

    Sorry, I am totally confused. It seems from reading other articles that Aer Lingus has been taken over by IAG, but it’s not part of oneworld. Is that correct? So it doesn’t count as a oneworld partner for earning BA avios and TP. How about as a codeshare – I’m sure at BRS I once saw an EI flight flash up with a BA number.
    Regarding AerClub, I registered interest ages ago but haven’t received anything from them, I wasn’t aware it had launched until this article. might be a problem with my isp I guess, I joined avios.com the other day but have had no email from them with member number etc..

    • Rob says:
      2 Dec2 December 08:42

      Correct. However BA codeshares will earn Avios and tier points.

    • Daftboy says:
      2 Dec2 December 09:59

      To clarify:
      – they are owned by IAG, but not yet in Oneworld (technically they woudl be rejoining, as they used to be a member)
      – they plan to do so, latest estimate is “2017” (nothign more specific)
      – if you book an AerLingus flight as a BA codeshare (e.g. booking LHR-DUB on the BA site on an Aer Lingus operated flight) you get TPs and Avios, but it will be more expensive than booking directly with Aer Lingus

      Clear as mud!

  • The_real_a says:
    2 Dec2 December 08:17

    Only a matter of time before BA raise the fees. If you are planning a trip get it booked now.

  • Concerto says:
    2 Dec2 December 08:48

    What with everything that has been going on, they are literally ruining EVERY aspect of the programme. I tend to use airberlin as my main FFP these days (being based in Germany) and I’m crediting a lot of these non flying species Avios offers (e.g. Groupon, Avis) to Iberia (100,00 in 8 months). Only thing that keeps me crediting flights (except AB) to BAEC is the Tier Point system. Always thought having as many of those as possible might come in handy in the future. Or is my way of thinking all wrong? Should I just forget about BAEC?

    • Concerto says:
      2 Dec2 December 08:59

      “Non flying Avios special offers”… I wish it was possible to correct the posts. I hate it when I make stupid typos like this

  • marco says:
    2 Dec2 December 09:26

    OT- Trying to book my missus a glass of fizz to guarantee (or at least improve chances of) entrance at T5 Aspire. Where does one do that? The exec lounge website only allows bookings of full entrance and not lounge club. Is this done through lounge club? or am i doing something wrong

  • Adrian says:
    2 Dec2 December 11:27

    Will rfs flights come in the future when they rejoin oneworld?

    • Rob says:
      2 Dec2 December 11:52

      No. You don’t get RFS on Finnair from London to Helsinki, or Iberia London to Madrid.

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

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