Aer Lingus flat bed flights are now bookable between London and Dublin

Aer Lingus is soon to receive the first of its Airbus A321neo LR aircraft.  Whilst these are single-aisle planes which look identical to a standard short haul aircraft, they have the engine and fuel capacity to fly to the East Coast of Canada and the USA – and they will. 

In order to do this, Aer Lingus is installing flat bed Business Class seats – see the image below.

To allow passengers to have seamless connections from Dublin to and from key business cities in Europe, Aer Lingus is also timetabling these aircraft on selected short haul flights.  After arriving from North America, selected aircraft will do a return flight to Europe before heading back over the Atlantic.

The first Heathrow service is now timetabled.

From 1st November, you can book the A321neo LR on:

09.50 London Heathrow – 11.20 Dublin

07.30 Dublin – 09.05 London Heathrow

That’s the good news.  Here is the bad news.  Aer Lingus is not, at least for now, selling the flat beds seats as ‘Business Class’.  This means that there is no Avios reward availability in Business Class.

To book a flat bed, you need to pay cash for an Economy seat in AerSpace, the new Aer Lingus short-haul premium option.  This gets you a front row seat, an empty middle seat (not a problem here!) and a free snack.  You can’t book this with Avios, as Economy redemptions book you into the standard product.

Here is what I mean.  For £181 for a one-way ticket in AerSpace, you are allowed to select a flat bed (click to enlarge):

For £145 one-way in Advantage, you can only select a seat down the back:

Here is a summary of the difference between the fare types, although it makes no mention of AerSpace booking into flat bed seats on the A321LR fleet (click to enlarge):

I am keen to take a look at the new seating when it launches, although £181 for 45 minutes is not the biggest bargain in aviation today!

You can find out more about AerSpace on the Aer Lingus website here.

Want to know more about redeeming Avios on Aer Lingus?

This HFP article shows you everything you need to know about how to redeem Avios points on Aer Lingus which can lead to substantial tax savings when flying to North America.

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How to earn Avios from UK credit cards (December 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. These points convert at 1:1 into Avios.

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 9th January 2024, you will receive 30,000 Membership Rewards points (convertible to 30,000 Avios) with American Express Preferred Rewards Gold. You receive 25,000 points if you spend £3,000 in three months and a further 5,000 points if you hold the card for 15 months. You can apply here.

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 9th January 2024, you will receive a huge 100,000 Membership Rewards points (convertible to 100,000 Avios) with The Platinum Card. You receive 75,000 points if you spend £10,000 in six months and a further 25,000 points if you hold the card for 15 months. You can 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.

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.