Aer Lingus release flights later than BA

[Roddysul]

Hi all. Am hoping to use my companion voucher on one of the AL flights manchester to Bridgetown early in 25 but it seems ALl release their flights about 20 days later than BA do. Knowing how these popular destinations sell out their business seats fairly pronto do people think I should book the ba flight when they become available (via heathrow) and then try and change then to AL ones once they come on sale – is it an easy process getting the customer desk to do this?

[davefl]

I would have said read the Ts&Cs but the companion voucher email that I received this morning goes to a dead link. https://www.britishairways.com/en-us/executive-club/offers/terms-and-conditions/amex-companion

If you google you’ll find the answer here https://www.britishairways.com/en-gb/executive-club/offers/terms-and-conditions/amex-companion

36. If you wish to change your Reward Flight booking booked using your Companion Voucher to another Reward Flight, with a Selected Carrier that is different from your original booking, this amendment to your booking will require you to cancel the original Reward Flight and re-book onto the new carrier.

Aer Lingus don’t guarantee to release any specific number of seats per flight most often there are none. Sometimes they dump a load of availability randomly.

[BA Flyer IHG Stayer]

The airline code for Aer Lingus is EI.

If you booked using BA via LHR then it would actually be a cancel and rebooking (incurring the cancellation fees) situation and then booking the EI flight from scratch.

I have no idea how popular BGI flights are but they don’t seem to be on the “book the second they are released” list

[Anna]

@Roddysul, have you found any availability at all? I found that on other routes the surcharges seemed to go through the roof around the same time that BA announced that you could use the 241 on EI!

[Roddysul]

I can see some availability on AL this year in patches. With it being a seasonal route that only starts in November I can’t do a look ahead yet. Guess I’ll have to keep a close eye on them come Xmas time