Aer Lingus & Avios Part 1 – Why you should redeem your Avios on Aer Lingus

In one of her tougher Head for Points assignments, Anika spent a few days in Boston recently as the guest of Aer Lingus.  With the bankruptcy of airberlin, Aer Lingus is now the clear choice if you want to redeem Avios points for long-haul business class tickets to North America without paying a fortune in taxes.

The even better news is that Aer Lingus has an excellent business class seat which is now available on all of its aircraft.  It offers, in probably every respect, a better experience than British Airways Club World.  It is ironic that IAG, which owns BA and Aer Lingus, is actually trying to position Aer Lingus as a lower cost option from Europe to North America when it actually has the superior product.

We will be running a series of articles over the next couple of weeks covering:

• the Aer Lingus lounge at Heathrow Terminal 2
• the immigration pre-clearance experience, and the new pre-clearance airport lounge, in Dublin
• the Aer Lingus long-haul business class experience

Aer Lingus gave us a return business class ticket free of charge.  As per usual HfP policy, we paid all of our other expenses, except for the hotel in Boston which Hilton gave us in return for a review.

Where does Aer Lingus fly long haul?

The Aer Lingus long haul network has expanded sharply in the last couple of years as new aircraft have been delivered.

They fly almost exclusively to the US – Toronto is the exception – to benefit from the US customs and immigration facilities in Dublin and Shannon.  What this means is that Aer Lingus services land in the US on domestic gates.  If you have no checked baggage, you will be in a taxi within minutes of touching down.

If you live outside London, changing planes in Dublin on the way to the US is no more difficult – and probably smoother – than changing in Heathrow.  Even if you live in the South East, the trade off between changing planes in Dublin but avoiding the queue for US immigration on arrival means that Aer Lingus is still a serious option.  For Avios redemptions, the incentive of a huge taxes and charges saving is also a big incentive!

Aer Lingus will be running the following long-haul services next Summer (ie from March 2018) from Dublin:

• Miami (3 per week)
• New York (21 per week)
• Boston (14 per week)
• Chicago (14 per week)
• San Francisco (7 per week)
• Orlando (4 per week)
• Philadelphia (4 per week)
• Toronto (7 per week)
• Washington (7 per week)
• Los Angeles (7 per week)
• Hartford (7 per week)

How to redeem Avios for Aer Lingus

As a bit of background before we start the reviews, I wanted to briefly run though how you can redeem Avios for Aer Lingus services.

It used to be the case that Aer Lingus seats could only be booked with Avios via a telephone call to British Airways Executive Club, with no way of checking availability online.

This changed in December 2016, when Aer Lingus reward availability was loaded into avios.com.

At the same time, Aer Lingus introduced peak and off-peak pricing.  The list of peak dates does NOT match the British Airways list of peak dates.  You can see the Aer Lingus 2018 peak and off-peak calendar here (the BA and Iberia calendars are here).

Taxes are very low when redeeming Avios for Aer Lingus long-haul flights.   Avios has still found a way to make it confusing, however.

There are now TWO ways of booking a redemption on Aer Lingus:

Option 1 is to use avios.com.  You can book online and you get the widest choice of dates.  You will pay around £200 in taxes and charges for a long-haul flight from Dublin to North America.

or

Option 2 is to use ba.com.  You cannot book online, only by telephone.  Anecdotally, there is less availability than you see via avios.com, and you cannot check availability online before you ring.  However, you will only pay around £75 in taxes and charges for a long-haul flight from Dublin to North America.

Remember that these taxes figures assume you start your trip from Dublin.  If you add in a connection from the UK on the same ticket then you will be hit for long-haul Air Passenger Duty of over £100.  You will probably want to buy or redeem for 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.

But what is it like flying Aer Lingus?

Glad you asked.  Keep an eye on HfP over the next few days!

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How to earn Avios from UK credit cards (April 2025)

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 Mastercard

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

Barclaycard Avios Mastercard

Get 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

30,000 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.

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 27th May 2025, the sign-up bonus on the ‘free for a year’ American Express Preferred Rewards Gold card is increased from 20,000 Membership Rewards points to 30,000 points. Points convert 1:1 into Avios (30,000 Avios!) and many other programmes. Some people may see even higher personalised offers. Click here to apply.

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 27th May 2025, the sign-up bonus on American Express Platinum is increased from 50,000 Membership Rewards points to a huge 80,000 points. Points convert 1:1 into Avios (80,000 Avios!) and many other programmes. Some people may see even higher personalised offers. Click here to apply.

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold

Your best beginner’s card – 30,000 points, FREE for a year & four airport lounge passes Read our full review

The Platinum Card from American Express

80,000 bonus points and great travel benefits – for a large 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, and the standard card is FREE. Capital on Tap cards also have no FX fees.

Capital on Tap Visa

NO annual fee, NO FX fees and points worth 1 Avios per £1 Read our full review

Capital on Tap Pro Visa

10,500 points (=10,500 Avios) plus good benefits Read our full review

There is also a British Airways American Express card for small businesses:

British Airways American Express Accelerating Business

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

50,000 points when you sign-up 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.