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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. This was it:
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.
Thanks to Andrew for this.
About Head for Points
The earning rate at €10 = 1 Avios (although I usually waited for the conversion bonus of 1.5 Avios per €10) wasn’t that great to start with anyway, and the measly benefits offered with the new BOI-Aer Lingus credit card doesn’t justify the prohibitive monthly charge for me. Quite sad to see how underwhelming the credit cards miles earning options are in Ireland.
and then there was the regular double double bonus error “offers”
shame to see it go
If I recall correctly I even got a triple bonus many moons ago!
Apologies for the totally way off topic question but as there is no bits post today….
Does the IHG MasterCard rate earn elite nights and points?
Thanks
Yes
Thanks
I’ve had this AerClub Mail today:
March madness is taking off!
Earn Double Tier Credits on all flights to and from London Gatwick to Dublin this March. All you need to do is book your flight and travel between 1 March and 31 March 2019*.
Enjoy some St. Patrick’s Day festivities, stroll around Temple Bar and enjoy some shopping on Dublin’s Grafton Street.
There’s so much to see and do in Dublin this March – what are you waiting for?
OMG, this pathetic attempt in Ireland to produce avios has been the bane of my life for years. Starting off in Gold Circle, nightmare to use. As for aer club, don’t get me started. Only useful as a medium for transferring avios back and forth for Iberia etc.
Have been desperate to help my family get this avios thing up and running for years. So frustrating.
Thank goodness for good old uk avios gathering.
The whole Avios reward system is floored in Ireland, hardly anyone accepts AMEX, let alone heard of it. You did at one point get a great conversion rate periodically transferring SuperValue reward to Avios but that is a complete joke now too. Irish punters take big hits over here and yet a good scheme would bring in signicant customers imo