Aerlingus AerClub/Avios

The_Wanderer

Planning on redeeming avios for a TA flight to the USA later in the year flying EI. What's the best way to do it? Online or I seem to recall some people ringing up.

Any advice welcome.

AndyBoBandy

The_Wanderer wrote: »

Planning on redeeming avios for a TA flight to the USA later in the year flying EI. What's the best way to do it? Online or I seem to recall some people ringing up.

Any advice welcome.

You have to book it on Avios.com. Aer Lingus won’t entertain you if you call them looking to book.

Yamanoto

The_Wanderer wrote: »

Planning on redeeming avios for a TA flight to the USA later in the year flying EI. What's the best way to do it? Online or I seem to recall some people ringing up.

Any advice welcome.

Shift your Avios over to BA executive club, call BA & ask them to waive the telephone booking fee (tell 'em the dates aren't available to book online).

DUB-JFK or BOS return in Y on EI for 26k Avios + €100 taxes

Van.Bosch

Yamanoto wrote: »

Shift your Avios over to BA executive club, call BA & ask them to waive the telephone booking fee (tell 'em the dates aren't available to book online).

DUB-JFK or BOS return in Y on EI for 26k Avios + €100 taxes

Are those right, I paid 26k + 220 to IAD.

Is it cheaper to book via BA than Avios?

SB Morer

Van.Bosch wrote: »

Are those right, I paid 26k + 220 to IAD.

Is it cheaper to book via BA than Avios?

Taken from article on Head For Points:
"There are now TWO ways of booking a redemption on Aer Lingus:
Option 1 is to use avios.com. You can book online and you get the widest choice of dates. You will pay around £200 in taxes and charges for a long-haul business class flight from Dublin to North America.
or
Option 2 is to use ba.com. You cannot book online, only by telephone. Anecdotally, there is less availability than you see via avios.com, and you cannot check availability online before you ring. However, you will only pay around £75 in taxes and charges for a long-haul flight from Dublin to North America".

https://www.headforpoints.com/2018/02/06/how-to-redeem-avios-points-on-aer-lingus/

Yamanoto

Van.Bosch wrote: »

Are those right, I paid 26k + 220 to IAD.

Is it cheaper to book via BA than Avios?

Just checked my e-ticket / receipt.

My last redemption was DUB-JFK return for 2 pax in March 2018, booked by phone through BAexecutive club. 52k Avios + €202.20 taxes for the both of us.

Van.Bosch

SB Morer wrote: »

Taken from article on Head For Points:
"There are now TWO ways of booking a redemption on Aer Lingus:
Option 1 is to use avios.com. You can book online and you get the widest choice of dates. You will pay around £200 in taxes and charges for a long-haul business class flight from Dublin to North America.
or
Option 2 is to use ba.com. You cannot book online, only by telephone. Anecdotally, there is less availability than you see via avios.com, and you cannot check availability online before you ring. However, you will only pay around £75 in taxes and charges for a long-haul flight from Dublin to North America".

https://www.headforpoints.com/2018/02/06/how-to-redeem-avios-points-on-aer-lingus/

Very interesting - thanks.

Casati

I booked 5 seats in Y Dub to SFO return in October 2018. Tax for adults was circa 120 each but it was cheaper for the children. I moved all Aer Club avios to BA Exec club and booked over the phone and they had good availability.

L1011

BOI dropping SuperValu as a partner meaning that you have to change to the Aer card to get Avios from any BOI credit card.

AndyBoBandy

L1011 wrote: »

BOI dropping SuperValu as a partner meaning that you have to change to the Aer card to get Avios from any BOI credit card.

Saw the email this morning.

I did a transfer once, but didn't bother doing any more as I felt the SuperValu points were better spent on receiving SuperValu vouchers.

The_Wanderer

Thanks for the replies folks. Just a few more questions.

When booking via BA, do you quote the BA codeshare numbers or the EI number? I will be flying DUB-ORD and returning SEA-DUB. I note that the ORD flight has a BA codeshare against it but the SEA - DUB flight doesn't have a BA code. Does this mean I cannot book the return leg via BA if no codeshare on those flights?

Casati

The_Wanderer wrote: »

Thanks for the replies folks. Just a few more questions.

When booking via BA, do you quote the BA codeshare numbers or the EI number? I will be flying DUB-ORD and returning SEA-DUB. I note that the ORD flight has a BA codeshare against it but the SEA - DUB flight doesn't have a BA code. Does this mean I cannot book the return leg via BA if no codeshare on those flights?

I booked them as EI ticketed flights, but when you ring them you’ll just need the origin destination and dates. It’s all manual ringing them but I found them v helpful in finding a flight with 5 award seats still left etc. be prepared to spend time on the phone going through everything

L1011

Emails pushing double tier credits on DUB-LGW and LGW-DUB flights for March this morning. Bit late for a promotional push!

If there's any days of cheap availability this could be a viable tier run.

AndyBoBandy

L1011 wrote: »

Emails pushing double tier credits on DUB-LGW and LGW-DUB flights for March this morning. Bit late for a promotional push!

If there's any days of cheap availability this could be a viable tier run.

They must have a low load planned/booked for LGW in March! Anticipation for the big B? surely not!

Jamie2k9

AndyBoBandy wrote: »

They must have a low load planned/booked for LGW in March! Anticipation for the big B? surely not!

Its interesting, they slashed LHR-DUB by about 40% recently (might have been a glitch) and BA are doing a lot of promotion 60-80 return LHR/LCY.

pclive

Is there a Dublin number I can use to phone BA exec?

Chris_5339762

Every single Gatwick flight I ever bought from Dublin netted me 7.5 tier points anyway, so this "double tier" will only ever net 15, which is likely what you'd have expected to get anyway.

ctlsleh

Anyone know what the baggage allowances are for an avios plus cash flight to London? just booked some flights for the family

Van.Bosch

ctlsleh wrote: »

Anyone know what the baggage allowances are for an avios plus cash flight to London? just booked some flights for the family

Think all Avios bookings are 20kg

Tarabuses

ctlsleh wrote: »

Anyone know what the baggage allowances are for an avios plus cash flight to London? just booked some flights for the family

Isn't it a pity that they don't give this information on their booking engine?

The_Wanderer

pclive wrote: »

Is there a Dublin number I can use to phone BA exec?

I called +441914907901 today and got through. Attempts earlier in the week failed as the lines "were busy".

The_Wanderer

SB Morer wrote: »

Taken from article on Head For Points:
"There are now TWO ways of booking a redemption on Aer Lingus:
Option 1 is to use avios.com. You can book online and you get the widest choice of dates. You will pay around £200 in taxes and charges for a long-haul business class flight from Dublin to North America.
or
Option 2 is to use ba.com. You cannot book online, only by telephone. Anecdotally, there is less availability than you see via avios.com, and you cannot check availability online before you ring. However, you will only pay around £75 in taxes and charges for a long-haul flight from Dublin to North America".

https://www.headforpoints.com/2018/02/06/how-to-redeem-avios-points-on-aer-lingus/

So I finally raided my avios piggybank today and booked flights to North America for 2 people later in the year. Outward to ORD and returning from SEA to DUB with Aer Lingus.

Going onto avios.com as an aerclub member the requirement was for 58500 avios in total and €465 in taxes. Now I had just shy of 51000 avios so would have to pay in cash to make up the balance, which was an extra €100.

Handy tip if you need a large amount of avios (18000) check out the Irish Independent offer. Online edition for €160 a year gives you 18,000 if you live in the ROI. I had planned on getting this but eventually it didn't make sense to spend €160 to save €100 on the flight but it's an option I will consider in the future.

So following the advice from people here, I shifted my avios over to my BA executive account, which has seen little use and rang up British Airways.

For my itinerary I was quoted 46800 avios + €351.36 in part fare + taxes. A saving of €213.68 compared to the website (not bad!). With the Indo offer in the back of my head I asked what the price would be with 58500 avios and was quoted a price of €211.36 for taxes. Still made sense to go with the part cash + taxes offer.

Rather happy with that today!

banchang

The_Wanderer wrote: »

So I finally raided my avios piggybank today and booked flights to North America for 2 people later in the year. Outward to ORD and returning from SEA to DUB with Aer Lingus.

Going onto avios.com as an aerclub member the requirement was for 58500 avios in total and €465 in taxes. Now I had just shy of 51000 avios so would have to pay in cash to make up the balance, which was an extra €100.

Handy tip if you need a large amount of avios (18000) check out the Irish Independent offer. Online edition for €160 a year gives you 18,000 if you live in the ROI. I had planned on getting this but eventually it didn't make sense to spend €160 to save €100 on the flight but it's an option I will consider in the future.

So following the advice from people here, I shifted my avios over to my BA executive account, which has seen little use and rang up British Airways.

For my itinerary I was quoted 46800 avios + €351.36 in part fare + taxes. A saving of €213.68 compared to the website (not bad!). With the Indo offer in the back of my head I asked what the price would be with 58500 avios and was quoted a price of €211.36 for taxes. Still made sense to go with the part cash + taxes offer.

Rather happy with that today!

Sounds good !

Can you pls remind me what the trick/advantage is of moving avios points over to BA Exec Club account ??

The_Wanderer

banchang wrote: »

Sounds good !

Can you pls remind me what the trick/advantage is of moving avios points over to BA Exec Club account ??

It would appear the taxes / charges are way cheaper to book over the phone via BA compared to booking on the avios website for aerclub customers. I saved over €200 by doing this for 2 people. Booked on the same flights, same amount of avios required etc etc.

Van.Bosch

The_Wanderer wrote: »

It would appear the taxes / charges are way cheaper to book over the phone via BA compared to booking on the avios website for aerclub customers. I saved over €200 by doing this for 2 people. Booked on the same flights, same amount of avios required etc etc.

Great but completely idiotic!

billy few mates

Do Avios expire...?
I have about 40000 of them, I have no idea what they're worth or how I go about spending them.

PaulKK

billy few mates wrote: »

Do Avios expire...?
I have about 40000 of them, I have no idea what they're worth or how I go about spending them.

Just need one avios transaction every 18 months as far as I know and they don't expire.

mmclo

People who have posted about transferring to BA still seem to book Aer Lingus routes. Is it possible to book any BA flight after transferring?

SB Morer

mmclo wrote: »

People who have posted about transferring to BA still seem to book Aer Lingus routes. Is it possible to book any BA flight after transferring?

Of course. You can use Avios to book Aer Lingus, BA and Iberia flights via the Avios.com website, but if you transfer them to BA or Iberia you can also book reward flights with any One World Airline - plus the taxes are lower, as has been discussed above.

mmclo

SB Morer wrote: »

Of course. You can use Avios to book Aer Lingus, BA and Iberia flights via the Avios.com website, but if you transfer them to BA or Iberia you can also book reward flights with any One World Airline - plus the taxes are lower, as has been discussed above.

So the worlds your oyster :-) surely BA and Iberia have much more interesting destinations