…. and here’s the Aer Lingus peak and off peak Avios calendar for 2018

Yesterday we published the Iberia and British Airways peak and off peak calendars for 2018 which are very useful when booking reward flights, especially during school holidays.

Yesterday, to our surprise, we learnt that Aer Lingus now has its own peak and off peak calendar as well.

Three periods are noticeably different from the BA calendar.  Aer Lingus doesn’t have an October and February peak season during the UK half terms, the April peak season is one week shorter and there’s also no peak season towards the end of May / early June.

February is also off peak on Iberia, but if you are travelling in October Aer Lingus is the only IAG airline with Avios off peak redemptions.

On short haul the cost differences are modest.  If you want to fly from London to Dublin in Economy on 12th February 2018 you would pay 4,000 Avios with Aer Lingus (off peak) and 4,500 Avios (peak) with BA, one way.

On a long haul flight the saving would be way more, of course, and makes the Aer Lingus long haul services from Dublin to North America particularly attractive during these periods.

Aer Lingus long haul in Business Class is also very attractive, versus British Airways Club World, with the new 1-2-1 fully flat seats.  We are planning to review this in September.

Just to be clear the Aer Lingus peak and off-peak dates apply to Aer Lingus flights wherever you book them.   If you book an Aer Lingus flight on ba.com then it goes by the Aer Lingus calendar and not the BA calendar.  The same goes for Iberia and, if booked on the Iberia site, BA.

In a day or so we will merge this with the BA / Iberia tables and you will be able to find a link to the combined article under the ‘Key BA links’ section of the HFP sidebar.

Remember the odd rules now in place for booking Aer Lingus flights with Avios:

online booking is now available via avios.com and taxes are higher (stupidly high on short haul) – long-haul business class is just over £200 return

telephone booking is available via British Airways Executive Club and taxes are lower – long-haul business class should be under £100 return

you should check availability on avios.com and then call BAEC to book – so your Avios points need to be sitting at ba.com

Aer Lingus 2017  (green = off-peak)

Aer Lingus 2018

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How to earn Avios from UK credit cards (June 2023)

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.

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 13th June, the sign-up bonus on The Platinum Card is doubled to 60,000 Membership Rewards points – and you get £200 to spend at Amex Travel too! Apply here.

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.

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.

EDIT: Applications for this card are temporarily suspended due to IT issues with the British Airways On Business SME loyalty scheme.

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.