I finally received some Avios from my Aer Lingus flight to New York

Back in July I flew from Dublin to New York to review the Aer Lingus A321LR business class seat – you can read the review here.

I bought my flight for cash, for the very reasonable price of £1,300 return.

I originally credited my flight to British Airways Executive Club and not Aer Lingus AerClub. This was logical given the very low fare I paid, because:

• AerClub – click here – awards Avios based on the amount you spend. For flights from Dublin it is 3 Avios per €1, with Government taxes excluded from the calculation.

• British Airways Executive Club, as you can see here, awards 150% of miles flown for discounted Business Class tickets on Aer Lingus

After my review was published, readers pointed out that I had made a mistake. Low cost Aer Lingus business class tickets are issued in ‘P’ class and ‘P’ class earns nothing in Executive Club.

Why didn’t I know this? Because Aer Lingus doesn’t show you the sub-class ticket of your ticket during the booking process.

More in hope than anything else, since my boarding pass had my BA Executive Club number on it, I made an online claim to Aer Lingus AerClub for retrospective Avios credit. I had nothing to lose as BA wasn’t going to give me anything.

It took over two months, but I have now received 4,366 Avios from the flight. Given how little I paid (£1,300) this is a good result. These Avios turned up in my AerClub account at avios.com and I used ‘Combine My Avios’ to move them across to my British Airways account.

The only downside is that children are not allowed to have an AerClub account. My daughter – who travelled with me – earns nothing. Had I been able to credit her flight to her British Airways account (children are allowed BA accounts as long as they are part of a household account) she would have earned.

4,366 Avios is better than nothing though and it was good of Aer Lingus to process my claim. In general, once another airline’s frequent flyer number is on your boarding pass, you can’t claim the miles elsewhere.

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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.

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.

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.