Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

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

Links on Head for Points may support the site by paying a commission.  See here for all partner links.

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.

Aer Lingus A321LR business class with Avios

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.

Aer Lingus A321LR business class with Avios

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):

Aer Lingus A321LR business class with Avios

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

Aer Lingus A321LR business class with Avios

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):

Aer Lingus A321LR business class with Avios

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.

How to earn Avios from UK credit cards

How to earn Avios from UK credit cards (April 2024)

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 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 card

Barclaycard Avios Mastercard

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

25,000 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.

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold

Your best beginner’s card – 20,000 points, FREE for a year & four airport lounge passes Read our full review

The Platinum Card from American Express

40,000 bonus points and a huge range of valuable benefits – for a 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, along with a sign-up bonus worth 10,500 Avios.

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 12th May 2024, the Capital on Tap Business Rewards Visa card is offering a bonus of 30,000 points, convertible into 30,000 Avios. You must have a Limited Company to apply. Click here to learn more and click here to apply.

Capital on Tap Business Rewards Visa

Huge 30,000 points bonus until 12th May 2024 Read our full review

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.

British Airways Accelerating Business American Express

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

40,000 points sign-up bonus 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.

Category

Aer Lingus and AerClub

Comments (22)

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

  • William PH says:
    13 Jun13 June 04:56

    And how many TPs and Avios will you get for your €181?

  • Nick G says:
    13 Jun13 June 06:17

    Rob

    The article refers to euros, yet your insert showing prices is in pounds. Therefore it’s £181 or about €203…. Worse value than you thought!

  • Nick_C says:
    13 Jun13 June 07:19

    How is this going to work flying back from the US to London on Aer Lingus? Will there be flights where you can just stay on the plane in Dublin on the eastbound journey? That could be attractive. Especially if they offer a proper breakfast on the Dublin to London sector.

    • Rob says:
      13 Jun13 June 08:34

      No, you would always need to clear immigration in Dublin.

      • Nick_C says:
        13 Jun13 June 08:49

        In transit? Flying East? Blimey.

      • Nick_C says:
        13 Jun13 June 08:50

        I was forgetting the Common Travel Area and thinking of Ireland as a “foreign” country

    • ChrisC says:
      13 Jun13 June 11:03

      It wouldn’t be attractive to EI as they wouldn’t be able to sell it as a separate DUB- LHR flight due to not being able to mix passengers.

      And EI will be scheduling these planes to other short European routes so there is no guarantee that the plans you are one is going to London when it could be Paris or Amsterdam.!

      • riku2 says:
        13 Jun13 June 17:54

        I thought they were scheduling these planes on European routes because they would otherwise be idle (in the same way that AY are using A350’s from HEL-LHR since they arrive from HKG early morning in HEL and don’t return to HKG until late at night).
        This story instead says it’s for “seamless connections” but I don’t think that is the case. Perhaps LHR-SIN-SYD on BA can be considered “seamless” since it’s the same plane the whole way through, but I don’t think that’s the case here.

        • Nick_C says:
          13 Jun13 June 18:12

          That was my thought. If you have to get off, clear Irish customs, and then reboard, then its hardly a seamless connection. Who really cares what sort of seat you get on the short hop from Dublin to London.

          And of course Aer Lingus have no desire to complete with BA.

          Perhaps there is a missed opportunity here though. They could perhaps have a direct flight linking the US East Coast with a British provincial airport via Dublin, picking up business from British airports not served by AA.

  • Memesweeper says:
    13 Jun13 June 08:10

    My goodness aerflex is terrible value on a short flight!

  • Aa says:
    13 Jun13 June 08:58

    Does it earn 40TP in line with BA or has it not reached that stage yet?

  • Chrisasaurus says:
    13 Jun13 June 09:01

    To be fair the price for the lie flat seat is £35 if you were otherwise going to be booking aerwhatever one tier down for the other components…

  • Howard says:
    13 Jun13 June 14:09

    Looks like the seating is identical to the BA 321 mid-haul aircraft.

  • @mkcol says:
    13 Jun13 June 16:02

    Think I’ll wait until they’re rostered on other routes to see if better value can be gained.

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

New to Head for Points?

Welcome!  We’re the UK’s most-read source of business travel, Avios, frequent flyer and hotel loyalty news. Let us improve how you travel. Got any questions? Ask them in our forums.

Latest Forum Posts

Get 40,000 bonus points (worth 40,000 Avios) and £300 dining credit with The Platinum Card

Check reward flight availability instantly for free!

See a whole year of reward seat availability on one page at SeatSpy.com

Get £10 when you spend £150 on your free Currensea card

Booking a luxury hotel?

Our luxury hotel booking service offers you GUARANTEED extra benefits over booking direct. Works with Four Seasons, Mandarin Oriental, The Ritz Carlton, St Regis and more. We've booked £1.7 million of rooms to date. Click for details.

SME? EARN POINTS WORTH 10,500 AVIOS WITH CAPITAL ON TAP

Get 20,000 bonus points, four airport lounge passes and your first year free with American Express Gold

The UK's biggest frequent flyer website uses cookies, which you can block via your browser settings. Continuing implies your consent to this policy. Our privacy policy is here.

Got it!