Avios Ireland: You can no longer earn Avios from the free Bank of Ireland credit card

Aer Lingus recently launched its first Irish co-branded credit card with Bank of Ireland.  We covered it in detail here.   The general response from our Irish readers was underwhelming given the stonking €7.99 monthly fee for holding the card.

There was an alternative if you didn’t want to pay €7.99 per month.

If you had the standard Bank of Ireland personal credit card, you could also leverage this to earn a handful of Avios points on your day to day spending.  This is because the Bank of Ireland personal credit card let you earn SuperValu Real Rewards points.

You received:

1 Real Rewards point for every €1 you spent in SuperValu on your credit card

1 Real Rewards point for every €10 you spent elsewhere

With the 1:1 conversion of SuperValu points into Avios, this wasn’t a great return – 1 Avios point per €10 spent.  The card was free, apart from Irish stamp duty, so it was better than nothing.  For many people it was certainly better than paying €7.99 per month for the official AerClub credit card.

Unfortunately, Bank of Ireland and SuperValu are ending their relationship.

From 1st April, you will no longer earn Real Rewards points when you spend on a Bank of Ireland personal credit card.  This closes off the only alternative credit card route to earning Avios in Ireland.

If you have this card, you are going to have to decide whether to give up collecting Avios from credit card spend or bite the bullet and pay the €7.99 for the ‘official’ Aer Lingus card – although unless your spend is high I doubt it will be worth it.

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Want to earn more points from credit cards? – June 2021 update

If you are looking to apply for a new credit or charge card, here are our June 2021 recommendations based on the current sign-up bonus. 

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Earning miles and points from small business cards

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