Aer Lingus relaxes its Avios redemption block – but still not ideal

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• Mario says:

  14 May14 May 06:23

  It’s quite interesting that these airlines are very happy to dish out millions of Avios through their partners and cash in on selling them but then seem upset when customers have the audacity to try and use them.

• PGR says:

  14 May14 May 06:54

  Very frustrating and a big red flag for Avios and Aer Lingus redemptions

• Lumma says:

  14 May14 May 07:04

  Is this really that different than trying to redeem on KLM or Air France with Virgin points. Seems to be nothing at short notice and even when you can find availability, it’s the 6am flights

  • Deek says:

    14 May14 May 11:35

    Except avios are the Aer Lingus currency, not partner miles where you would expect reduced availability

• Bagoly says:

  14 May14 May 09:05

  I wonder whether whoever is making the decisions is trapped in thinking that redemptions are “free”, and not realising that the airline receives value, made up of some cash, and a reduction its liability of the avios redeemed.

  Then they think that by blocking redemptions people will pay (more) cash, but while the Avios+Fees amount may not be huge, it’s likely to be within the EUR27-108 they are asking for E.g. DUB-MAN on 20th May.

  • Peter K says:

    14 May14 May 23:33

    Yeah. They see € signs and get greedy and ignore the realities of closing the circle.

• w says:

  14 May14 May 09:16

  Some badly timed flights do have availability next week – EI388 for example, other than a Sunday night load factors are usually low.

  EI111 is showing 6 seats tomorrow though all in economy

• mhughes says:

  14 May14 May 09:27

  Short hop or not, I think it looks like an EI policy that for the spring/summer period, where many will book a long weekend/mid week on a 2/3hr flight, they want to push people into paying cash.

  Likely a “lets block at 60 days”, lets block 50% at 15 days” is just much easier to implement in IT than a dynamic system based on loads or closeness to date of journey.

• davefl says:

  14 May14 May 10:03

  I didn’t see this 60 day block as being true at all. On 28/4 and in the days before it, I could see several flights for Avios both on BA.com and Aerlingus.com to the USA for flights departing by the end of May, so within 30 days.

• ADS says:

  14 May14 May 11:00

  most of the 15-60 day availability (at least on shorthaul) seems to only be Tuesdays / Wednesdays / Sundays – so don’t expect EI to be useful if you’re flying on the other 4 days of the week!

  also, the grudgingly released EI reward availability in the 15-60 day window is mostly NOT showing on the BA website. sometimes it can take a while for EI flights to show up on the BA site – so this may improve in a week or so.

  • davefl says:

    14 May14 May 11:05

    Again I saw the opposite to this. I booked on BA because the flight wasn’t showing on the EI site. Very odd that people are seeing different views.
    When I finally booked my outward flight on 2/5 I could see flights in all classes for the end of may/beginning of June and managed a business class ticket with no issue.
    Same when I booked my return on the 11/5, I could find availabity for 5 weeks away with no issues.
    What was infuriating is that I can’t book the connecting flight on EI as one ticket, so I had to book via BA.com which means I can’t select seats.

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