Aer Lingus scraps flights from Manchester to Boston – before they even launch

Aer Lingus published its transatlantic plans for Summer 2022 yesterday.

The biggest news for UK readers is that the planned service from Manchester to Boston will not now launch next Summer.

There is no change to the existing services from Manchester to Barbados (operates October to March), New York and Orlando.

The reason for this is that the airline is restarting transatlantic flights from Shannon. This is a surprising move, given that the airline generated a lot of bad publicity for itself when it pulled out of the airport last year.

Shannon will see daily flights to both Boston and New York.

A very full Dublin schedule has also been announced. Most of the pre-pandemic routes return, including Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, New York (JFK and Newark), Orlando, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Seattle, Toronto and Washington.

The routes which are not returning are Hartford, Miami and Minneapolis. There is also no sign of the Montreal route which was ready to launch before covid hit.

Remember that you can clear US immigration in Dublin and Shannon, which means that you land as a domestic passenger and walk straight out of the airport. This could be very attractive if US immigration grinds to a halt at major airports as agents try to verify covid documentation.

Our guide to redeeming Avios on Aer Lingus is here.

It is a good choice – taxes are far lower than redeeming on British Airways and the business class seat is better than Club World, if not Club Suite. Redeeming is messy, however, as our guide explains. You can either redeem online at avios.com and pay higher taxes, or telephone British Airways and pay less tax. The snag is that if you book via BA you have access to different availability and you cannot check it in advance of calling.

The full Aer Lingus announcement on its Summer 2022 plans is here.

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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:

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.

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.

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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.