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FINALLY! Earn British Airways tier points with Aer Lingus flights

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Well, after a few false alarms, it appears that you can now earn British Airways Executive Club tier points with Aer Lingus flights.

There has been no announcement, but as German site travel-dealz.de spotted, it is now made very clear on ba.com that you WILL earn.

You have always been able to earn tier points on Aer Lingus codeshare flights, carrying a BA flight number, but not flights with an EI flight number – which are often cheaper.

Earn BA tier points with Aer Lingus flights

Take a look at the airline partner page of ba.com under Aer Lingus.

Aer Lingus earn tier points with British Airways

Aer Lingus flights have been added to the tier point calculator on ba.com.

Here’s what you earn from the Manchester to New York direct flight:

Tier points on Aer Lingus

From Dublin to Los Angeles:

Earn British Airways tier points on Aer Lingus

From Exeter to Dublin (not sure where the Business fare classes come in, unless you get this as part of a connection to a long haul flight):

Earn tier points on Aer Lingus

Here is a reminder of the Avios-earning chart, which is distance based. The reason this doesn’t match Exeter to Dublin above is that there is a 300 Avios minimum.

You will NOT earn a status bonus on Aer Lingus flights. The Avios below are the Avios you will get, irrespective of whether you are Blue or Gold in the Executive Club:

Given some of the excellent Aer Lingus fare deals we’ve seen recently, this looks like a great opportunity to pick up tier points at a decent rate on transatlantic travel.

Two obvious questions – and I’m sure more will follow:

  • can you now book Aer Lingus flights via BA Holidays and earn double tier points?
  • will Aer Lingus flights count as ‘qualifying flights’ towards the two qualifying cash flights you need for Bronze, or the four for Silver / Gold, status in BA Executive Club? At present only British Airways and Iberia flight numbered segments count.

We’ll clearly be returning to this in more detail later, but for now this is great news for anyone chasing British Airways Executive Club status.

PS. This is a reciprocal deal. You can now credit British Airways flights to an Aer Lingus AerClub account and have them count towards status.

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How to earn Avios from UK credit cards

How to earn Avios from UK credit cards (April 2025)

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

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Barclaycard Avios card

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There are two official British Airways American Express cards with attractive sign-up bonuses:

British Airways American Express Premium Plus

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British Airways American Express

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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 27th May 2025, the sign-up bonus on the ‘free for a year’ American Express Preferred Rewards Gold card is increased from 20,000 Membership Rewards points to 30,000 points. Points convert 1:1 into Avios (30,000 Avios!) and many other programmes. Some people may see even higher personalised offers. Click here to apply.

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 27th May 2025, the sign-up bonus on American Express Platinum is increased from 50,000 Membership Rewards points to a huge 80,000 points. Points convert 1:1 into Avios (80,000 Avios!) and many other programmes. Some people may see even higher personalised offers. Click here to apply.

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The Platinum Card from American Express

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There is also a British Airways American Express card for small businesses:

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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.

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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, British Airways and Avios

Comments (65)

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

  • daveinitalia says:
    2 Apr2 April 22:38

    You need to update your graphics. The new Avios logo has been out a few weeks now, even the BA Rewards app has been renamed to Avios (although not sure what Avios has to do with this article, is the earn rate changed?)

    • Rob says:
      2 Apr2 April 22:45

      As we said last week, we’re not doing it until everyone is familiar with it. Commercially it is important we are behind the curve here, not ahead. Credit cards won’t be updated for years. I doubt more than 2% of Avios account holders have the app.

      • Lou says:
        3 Apr3 April 05:27

        If you wait long enough, they might even go back to that old one

        • Phila says:
          3 Apr3 April 13:27

          I prefer the old logo but with the avios.com site launch / baec rebranding and tv adverts all with the new not sure they’ll go back

  • apbj says:
    2 Apr2 April 23:17

    Most of the economy fares and cheap business fares eg I class are excluded. I’ve been playing around on EI website but the lowest two date types (saver and plus) seem to book into non-earning buckets.

  • Emma says:
    3 Apr3 April 02:20

    What’s the view on existing bookings made before the change but not yet flown? I’m booked to fly JFK to DUB return in May. Booked it on 16th March. If I change my AerClub number to my BAEC number in the booking, that should result in the BAEC account receiving the tier points, I think?? And what about the Avios points if I do that – will they be credited to AerClub and based on the amount of spend? (still a newbie to this obsession with points!)

    • memesweeper says:
      3 Apr3 April 12:53

      TPs will credit to BA if you change the frequent flyer number, as will Avios

  • Kenneth Anderson says:
    3 Apr3 April 06:31

    Will this mean I can get access to Lounges including BAnLounges with my BA Gold status when flying Aer Lingus economy?

    For example I’m based in Aberdeen and could fly direct to and from Dublin with Aer Lingus but can I use BA’s lounge at Aberdeen airport?

  • Doc says:
    3 Apr3 April 06:40

    Any update on AerLingus lounge access for BA Gold and Silver yet?

  • ringingup says:
    3 Apr3 April 06:42

    How can one know which fare class you’d be booked in?

    Currently there are some fares available to buy on Aerlingus.com that I can’t price on ita matrix.

    • apbj says:
      3 Apr3 April 06:44

      You have to go almost all the way to the end of a dummy booking (after your personal details, seat selection, baggage etc) and there’s finally a highlighted text to show “fare rules”.

  • Mark Wilson says:
    3 Apr3 April 06:47

    Definitely looks like the lowest business class fare bucket is excluded. I’ve had previous experience of missing out on Avios by inadvertently booking into ‘I’ class. J,C and D fares are usually significantly higher.

    • Rob says:
      3 Apr3 April 08:31

      I think we need to wait and see here because the published chart does not match what is currently sold.

    • Tom says:
      3 Apr3 April 13:21

      But are the foregone Avios worth more than the several hundred quid you saved on the fare?

  • John says:
    3 Apr3 April 07:38

    Is any of this building towards EI’s return to OW, or the mutual recognition AerClub and BAEC statuses? I allowed my EI status to lapse as it was effectively useless within and outside the airline.

    • john says:
      3 Apr3 April 09:36

      More likely just a closer IT integration at IAG. IAG also have Vueling/Level who would not be joining OW so having EI out of it too isn’t a huge problem. It may be interesting to see what happens with AirEuropa on the OW front too as they are currently in SkyTeam and I think are expected to join OW..

    • BA Flyer IHG Stayer says:
      3 Apr3 April 10:18

      IAG bought EI 10 years ago and EI hasn’t activly done anything to join OW since then.

      IAG won’t direct them to join OW either.

      If the AirEuropa purchase ever happens it will form part of IB (IB is doing the buying not IAG) and not be a separate IAG company.

      • TGLoyalty says:
        3 Apr3 April 11:37

        EI was previously a OW member too but left

        • BA Flyer IHG Stayer says:
          3 Apr3 April 13:30

          Well yes but being a previous member (they left in 2006) doesn’t give them a fast track back in and IIRC they no longer use the same IT systems which means any membership and integration would start from scratch.

          And the cost of the IT integration that has been mentioned as one of the reasons EI isn’t activly considering OW.

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

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