You just need to pay for any taxes, fees and charges. How to transfer avios between aer lingus, ba, and iberia. Suddenly everyone was redeeming their avios for flights from boston to dublin on aer lingus, be it in economy or business class. The good news is, you dont have to fly on british airways aircraft with your avios. It may be worth having an aer club account if you plan to redeem on aer lingus so that you can see the availability even if you plan to book by phone with ba. I had always known aer lingus was a british airways partner, though never. Partners and alliances information british airways.
Our transatlantic fleet of aircraft airbus a330 a321neo lr and boeing 757 all contain lieflat business class seats and are 22 inches wide. How to book inexpensive aer lingus award flights to ireland. Regardless of whether you use aer lingus avios, british airways avios, or iberia avios to book aer lingus flights, these peak dates always apply to aer lingus flights. How to pick your aer lingus seats on an avios booking. However, whether intentionally planned or not, there is no ability for executive club members to book an avios aer lingus redemption flight directly through the website. The avios and tier points that you earn depends on both the airline flight number that is on your ticket and the partnership agreement in place with that partner. British airways avios is the program with which canadians would be bestpositioned to redeem miles for aer lingus, since avios are relatively easy to come by here in canada. How to book aer lingus award tickets with british airways. Aer lingus, british airways, and iberia share a common rewards currency. But if you can book before the april 28, 2015, points increase, youll get a better value booking aer lingus with british airways avios points. And lo and behold, aer lingus business class is showing up at the saver award level.
The avios you spend on reward flights with aer lingus depend on. If youre new to british airways avios, the mileage currency of the british airways executive club frequent flyer program, you may be looking for tips on how to maximize your miles for free flights, or even how to search and book avios award flights. And it turns out, british airways is indeed using the new aer lingus award chart prices for flights operated by aer lingus, even when using british airways not aer lingus. How to use british airways avios points for travel on aer lingus and. Next rep at aer lingus specifically said their management had instructed them not to book. A beginners guide to using british airways avios the. British airways gives executive club members plenty of ways to collect avios aside from booking flights.
You can use british airways avios for flights on one world alliance airlines and british airways partners. My experience redeeming avios for aer lingus business class. Aer lingus is a partner of united, but recently stopped showing award availability. I wrote a report about my experience flying from boston to dublin and back it has been several years since this redemption value was widely talked about, so i figured it would be fun to revisit this, a couple of british airways executive club devaluations later.
Collecting avios and tier points on flights british airways. Search for flights with aer lingus or our aerclub airline partners british airways and iberia book your reward flight using your avios, plus taxes, fees and charges payable in cash feel like adding a seat, bag or priority boarding to your reward flight booking. We work closely with our partners to ensure you receive a level of service that closely matches our own. However, each program may charge different amounts of avios and fees, so always compare. Updateafter yesterdays post maximizing british airways aviosfly aer lingus to europe and avoid fuel surcharges, one of my relatives wanted to know more about using british airways avios to fly aer lingus from boston to dublin, i did another search on united. How to use avios to book aer lingus flights for low fees. May 29, 2018 by dominik zmuda 10 comments travel miles 101 has partnered with cardratings for our coverage of credit card products. Aer lingus booking w avios how to upgradeseat select. I called united to see if they had the same availability as british airways or if it matched up with expertflyer and it took the agent a while to figure it out, but united had much more availability and i was able to book up to 9 seats on a given flight. It appears now that i cannot choose seat or use avioscash to upgrade. Maximizing british airways aviosfly aer lingus to europe. I picked up 2 seats myself last week as part of our planned fall trip to europe more on that shortly. Travel miles 101 and cardratings may receive a commission from card issuers.
Now they have fully flat seats, with a majority of seating featuring direct aisle access. Avios is the shared currency of the iag, and aer lingus almost certainly will adopt this for its own flyer programme with transfers possible between. Aer lingus flights do not show up on british airways flights, so what i did was search for my flight using uniteds website, and then call british airways to book my seats. Is new aer lingus business class to europe a good deal. Our economy class seats on all airbus aircraft have a pitch range of of 32 inches and a width of 1718 inches. Using avios points on aer lingus british airways avios. Aer lingus seat pitch measurements will vary depending on aircraft type.
Aer lingus is a sister company to british airways since it was bought by iag, bas parent company, a few years ago. You have to call in to use avios to book on aer lingus you cant book it online, and when youre given a confirmation number, thats the british airways confirmation number, so its no good when trying to pick seats on aer lingus. Is redeeming british airways avios on aer lingus still a good deal. This doesnt preclude a loyal british airways avios collector from benefiting from aer lingus, as the irish flag carrier also uses avios as its frequent flyer mileage currency whats more, you can freely transfer avios between your british airways. There currently isnt a published british airways avios award chart, but they do have peak and offpeak redemptions for british airways award flights. To actually book you will have to call british airways, which can be a bit of a nightmare due to insanely long hold times. British airways is one of the few airlines in the world where i hope to get their outsourced call center. British airways has an distancebased award chart and since boston to ireland snuck in just under the 3,000 mile mark it was a great redemption. You can also book through aer club by moving avios from into an aer club account. How many avios are required for aer lingus award redemptions. It is owned by the same parent company as british airways iag but yet is not a oneworld member. So i found the flight i wanted, and then phoned up british airways executive club. It isnt like bmi who were bought and absorbed by ba.
And thats where an incredible sweet spot for the new route can be found. I was immediately intrigued when i did a dummy booking, and noticed the fuel. You can only collect avios once per flight, regardless of the number of seats purchased. Yet, europe seems to be the most common destination that americans would like to visit. British airways executive club doesnt display aer lingus availability online, for reasons one may never understand. When you book or manage your flights with aer lingus, you can add your british airways executive club number. Booking aer lingus business class awards with british airways avios.
The biggest downside of using british airways avios points are the fuel surcharges that get passed on when redeeming avios for flights. I tried to select seats online through the british airways website, but that. You can use british airways avios to book travel on aer lingus, though youll need to call them to actually book the ticket. Aer lingus offers a very nice business class with direct aisle access, so this is a win. Theyre quite new, have seat back on demand ife and pretty comfy. British airways executive club to book aer lingus flights. How to book aer lingus award tickets with british airways avios. Avios are awarded based on what you paid for the aer lingus flight, excluding government taxes and any ancillaries like bags or seats. Upon completion of your flights you will automatically be credited the correct avios. Is redeeming british airways avios on aer lingus still a.
I called british airways to use ba avios to book an aer lingus award. So for folks in chicago and new york, its a question of flying 1way on united airlines business class for 57,500 points or 1. British airways uses a distancebased award chart and some sweet spots include boston bos to dublin dub in offpeak business class for 31,250 avios one way. My entire phone call to british airways to book this seat took six minutes. You can also spend your avios on reward flights on. My experience redeeming avios for aer lingus business. Aer lingus is a sister company to british airways since it was bought by iag, bas parent. British airways avios offpeak pricing is a pleasant surprise. I booked with aerclub avios for flights in february and when i called aer lingus they said to contact avios to book the seats. Avoid fuel surcharges when using british airways avios. This varies by location, and in dc they share the presumably better british airways lounge. Aer lingus aerclub aer lingus booking w avios how to upgradeseat select. Definitive guide to aer lingus direct routes from the u.
My experience booking aer lingus business class with. Any other currencies will be rewarded based on the euro value 1 3 avios. New aer lingus routes create british airways avios points. Ife screens are small, but there are plenty of choices. Aer lingus launches montreal route new avios sweet spot. Seats are 242, with no more than 36 seats in the cabin.
Aer lingus will fly to miami from 2017 good for avios. Ironically, redeeming avios to fly british airways instead of a partner can accrue some of the highest fuel surcharges. Booking aer lingus flights with british airways avios. Although aer lingus is now owned by iag the parent company of british airways and iberia the airline is not as yet part of the oneworld alliancebut you can redeem avios on aer lingus nonetheless. How to book aer lingus flights using british airways miles. For details of the entertainment on offer and the latest onboard features check out this aer lingus webpage. Aer lingus aerclub picking seats when booked with avios is.
The best place to search for the aer lingus saver level must be saver or you cannot use ba avios economy award seats between boston and dublin is actually oddly on. Booking aer lingus with british airways avios travel. I assume the solution to select ei seats booked via ba on avios is still to. How to pick your aer lingus seats on an avios booking points with. Booking aer lingus with british airways avios travel miles 101. The food is comparable to most other airlines, average but its included in the cost, as are soft drinks.
Following substantial investment, it has an impressive longhaul operation focused exclusively on the united states and canada. I personally have had the best luck calling earlier in the day the call center opens at 7. Strangely, despite sharing a currency, each program has its own loyalty program with different award charts and rules. Points earned in any of those three programs or transferred from transferable points programs can be moved to the other programs. Picking seats when booked with avios flyertalk forums. The more avios you have, the further you can fly, with return reward flights starting from 8,000 avios offpeak. Aer lingus operates flights to many north american cities, all of which can be booked using british airways avios if there is award availability. Aer lingus is currently only available on until it closes or by phoning ba. As i mentioned in last weeks article about aer lingus, you almost certainly want to book your aer. It used to be the case that aer lingus seats could only be booked with avios via a telephone call to british airways executive club, with no way. Best points and miles for aer lingus business class in 2018. Even better, british airways is known to charge less taxesfees for aer lingus award tickets than aer lingus will charge for their own award tickets. Pay with avios to get money off the cost of any aer lingus flight when you book through. Avios is the name of the point currency shared by multiple foreign airline frequent flyer programs.
Its best to book british airways avios flights on british and iberia avios flights on. Since aer lingus is a british airways partner, you can use british airways avios to book award flights. Flying aerlingus using british airways avios rick steves. Maximizing british airways aviosaer lingus business class. I called avios who said they were never able to book seats. Aerclub members can get 3 avios for every 1 spent on flights booked with aer lingus. As aer lingus are a partner of ba, does anyone know if avios points can be used to book aer lingus flights to other european countries. Their offpeak redemptions can deliver great value on your ba avios points, especially given you can find offpeak pricing for nearly 8 months of the year on flights operated by ba. Aer lingus business class availability still available. For example, the british airways flight ba219 also operates under the american airlines code aa6170.
Alongside british airways flights, we list many codeshare services on operated by our oneworld partners as well as aer lingus, airbaltic, bangkok airways, china eastern, fiji airways, loganair, vistara and vueling airlines. Fly from the usa to ireland, britain and europe with us as well as find hotels and more. Aer lingus would remain a separate airline under the iag holding structure in the same way as british airways, iberia and vueling are. How to redeem avios points on aer lingus head for points. With the possibility of obtaining significantly reduced taxes, the lure of using avios points on aer lingus is a popular redemption option for many british airways executive club members. As i mentioned in last weeks article about aer lingus, you almost certainly want to book your aer lingus flight using.
British airways only offers offpeak avios award for flights on british airways or iberia. Because british airways and aer lingus both belong to the same group of companies, international airlines. I used the number 18002479297 and the hold times were not bad. This is a very reasonable complaint seeing as there are full fare tickets that earn miles for that price in off peak times.
Best ways to redeem british airways avios comparecards. Tickets between these cities and dublin used to cost 20,000 british airways avios points oneway in coach except for boston throughout the year. Quick noteafter yesterdays post maximizing british airways aviosfly aer lingus to europe and avoid fuel surcharges, one of my relatives wanted to know more about using british airways avios to fly aer lingus from boston to dublin, i did another search on united. Since they are partners, its often possible to book the same flights with any one of these programs, but your cost will vary both in. Almost every flight i searched had at least nine coach award seats available. Figured id got a rep who got it wrong and called aer lingus back. Avios will only be awarded to the member who has travelled on the flight in the relevant sector and not to any third party.
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