Save £130 (!) by booking short-haul Aer Lingus Avios flights at aerlingus.com

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• S says:

  24 Jan24 January 05:16

  Something has changed.. I booked LHR-ORK return for 2 in November for 16k+£80.34.

• r* says:

  24 Jan24 January 05:22

  Whats the easiest way to keep an aer lingus account active other than crediting flights to it? Does the same black hole effect happen with them as with IB if you transfer points to it after its passed the inactivity period?

  • JAXBA says:

    24 Jan24 January 13:28

    I absently-minded transferred a chunk to an inactive EI account last year so I could play with aerlingus.com availability, but fortunately they didn’t evaporate, and I transferred them back to BA again. Hopefully that’s still the case.

• Barrowboy says:

  24 Jan24 January 07:51

  Slightly off topic but within the same lines. Is the cheapest option to book BA euro redemption flights on BA.COM or is there a way to reduce the amount of Avios needed by booking through another OW carrier website? Cheers

  • Rob says:

    24 Jan24 January 08:11

    No

• PGR says:

  24 Jan24 January 07:56

  Last time I checked seat availability wasn’t the same across both sites. The Aer Lingus policy appeared to be something like only 1 seat available until 90 days out. And BA had more seats further out but little close in.

  • memesweeper says:

    24 Jan24 January 08:38

    Also Aer Lingus partners can only be booked on BA.com, with BA’s fees and charges. Any Aer Lingus partners that are not also BA partners cannot be booked with Avios at all.

• Ian says:

  24 Jan24 January 08:14

  In my experience Combine my Avios never works. Instead, I always use the Aer Lingus chat function, where an agent completes the transfer in a couple of minutes. Important to note that you can only transfer Avios between BA and Aer Lingus if the account details on both accounts are identical – if there is even a minor difference, you can’t complete a transfer.

• Bobby says:

  24 Jan24 January 08:31

  From my experience Combine My Avios doesn’t work on any browser on Apple devices. However works perfectly fine using Chrome or Edge on non-Apple devices

• Matty says:

  24 Jan24 January 08:34

  On the EI theme – I have a new BA companion voucher . Looking in August to fly SNN JFK then MIA LHR . EI only let’s me book Economy with CV no bus class on any dates . If I email EI for BC availability ( email add for this on EI site ) will they half the avios fee for this upgrade due to having CV . Thanks

  • ADS says:

    24 Jan24 January 11:01

    if it’s a BA voucher surely you have to book through BA

    • JWCurtin says:

      24 Jan24 January 21:56

      This is correct, BA only booking. Worth phoning them as you can only do return online, multi-destination needs the call centre.

• Brian says:

  24 Jan24 January 08:45

  I think I redeemed 4 return economy flights from LHR to DUB since it’s launch as it’s a great use of my modest Avios pot.

  Unfortunately there is one real significant issue meaning I may only use it in certain circumstances going forward. I’ve touched upon this in various threads/article comments over the past few months but it appears like their IT is incapable of applying the correct hand baggage policy to your actual booking.

  The redemption terms clearly state that not only are you entitled to bring your 10KG bag onto the plane but you are obligated to do so and will be charged a penalty fee should you not. However, there is nowhere within your booking that acknowledges this and instead in explicitly states that you need to check it in or face getting penalised at the gate. There also doesn’t appear to be any means to pay the additional fee to bring it onboard like you would have with a cash flight (and why would you when it should be already included).

  I have basically had to go to the airport with either
  1) no hand luggage and just utilise the free checked in 20KG luggage
  2) 10KG hand luggage that may or may not have to be checked in depending on the whims of an agent at the airport
  3) 10KG hand luggage prepped to go into the hold, don’t say anything and assume that the issue isn’t fixed behind the scenes that would result in 3 x £20 penalties for the entire family

  I was planning on reaching out to Aer Lingus to put some pressure on them to resolve this as it’s a real mess but I just opt to go with either plan 1 or 3 above.

  • ADS says:

    24 Jan24 January 11:22

    this issue gets discussed on FT regularly. one solution suggested is to print your booking confirmation off the RJ website – where the detailed baggage allowance is shown on the printout.

    https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/36820069-post11.html

    • Brian says:

      24 Jan24 January 12:07

      Yeah, I’ve seen it mentioned a few times on flyer talk but unfortunately I’ve also seen how outcomes vary.

      That post says ‘I always carry this confirmation with me in case any EI personnel at the airport could have funny ideas about my allowances.’

      As detailed in the next page of comments, I’ve experience with EI personnel having funny ideas about my allowance and printed confirmation being dismissed instantly.

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