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

Two weeks ago, we told you that the 60 day block on booking Aer Lingus redemptions with Avios was back.

It originally tried doing this in November 2023. Within two days of HfP writing about it, Aer Lingus had a change of heart and the cut-off was moved to six days.

The same thing has now happened again – but this time the mea culpa isn’t quite as strong.

During April, Aer Lingus put a 60 day block in place for Avios redemptions.

No seats, at all, were being made available for booking within 60 days of departure.

Given that a lot of Aer Lingus routes are short hops between the UK and Ireland, on trips which don’t require eight weeks advance notice, this was a blow.

Aer Lingus has now backtracked (a bit)

Aer Lingus has now loosened up.

Some Avios seats are now bookable from 15 days before departure.

I am typing this on Tuesday 13th May and the first date I can see with flights is Wednesday 28th May.

However, note the use of the word ‘some’. There is still a definite increase in availability at the 60 day mark but there is at least ‘something’ bookable now between 15 and 60 days before departure.

15 days is obviously a major improvement on 60 days. However, it is still unnecessary.

Are all Aer Lingus flights going out with virtually 100% load factors? No. Is Aer Lingus forced to keep Avios seats open until the last minute on very busy flights? No.

There is no reason why Aer Lingus can’t close down Avios availability on flights which may sell out, and leave seats open on those badly timed services or non-peak day services which never fill. A blanket ban is unnecessary.

However …. if there is to be a total ban, closing out 14 days of flights is better than 60 days, even if availability between days 15 and 60 still seems to be curtailed.

For clarity …. you can still redeem Avios for Aer Lingus flights using ‘Part Pay With Avios’ at any time. 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.