Is Aer Lingus blocking Avios redemptions within 60 days of departure?

Strange things are happening with Aer Lingus Avios redemptions, and not in a good way.

It appears that Aer Lingus is now blocking Avios redemptions made within 60 days of the date of travel.

This isn’t good news, clearly.

EDIT: Our article sparked Aer Lingus to make a change – the cut-off is now 6 days. Click here to read more.

There had been some posting on the, admittedly fairly quiet, Aer Lingus board on Flyertalk about issues finding Avios reward seats.

One poster then received the following reply after raising the question directly:

Avios redemption seats booked through www.avios.com are available to purchase on routes with Aer Lingus outside of 60 days.

This appears to be correct. It also impacts Avios availability via British Airways, as well as via the avios.com platform.

Here’s what I found last night. On 7th January (this search was done last night, 8th November), there is a lot of Aer Lingus availability between Heathrow and Dublin:

However, jump back 24 hours to 6th January, inside the 60 day window, and there is nothing. Not a single seat on any of the many flights. There’s nothing for any other January day either. All you see is BA flights:

The key will be what happens today (Thursday to you reading this). If the 60 day rule is correct, all of those seats showing for 7th January should disappear during Thursday, but 8th January should still be there.

If this is a new Aer Lingus policy, it’s obviously not one I like.

It also makes little sense. We are now in the quiet winter season, and it is a logical time to dump MORE Avios seats onto the market. Overall cash demand is low, and the cash demand that is there is at low fares, so selling seats for Avios isn’t necessarily a bad alternative.

For clarity …. you can still redeem Avios for Aer Lingus flights using ‘Part Pay With Avios’. This is where you can get roughly 0.5p per Avios to reduce the cost of a cash flight booked on aerlingus.com. These redemptions are poor value for your Avios though, especially in premium cabins.

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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.