Our full review of the Aer Lingus Aer Credit Card, issued by Bank of Ireland, is here. It’s not very attractive – a terrible earning rate of 1 Avios per €4 spent and a €108 annual fee when you include the Government Stamp Duty.

On the upside, there are some decent soft benefits:

• 2 free Aer Lingus tickets EVERY YEAR for spending €5,000 on the card (taxes apply)
• 2 Fast Track & Priority Boarding passes every year
• 2 lounge passes
• Worldwide multi-trip travel insurance including winter sports

I’m not going to analyse the value of these soft benefits in detail because our review does it well enough.

For only the fourth time ever, I think, Bank of Ireland is offering a sign-up bonus on this card.

Until 16th February 2024, new cardholders who spend €1,000 by 16th May 2024 will receive a bonus of 5,000 Avios.

When you factor in the lounge passes and the two free short-haul flights, I think the card now becomes reasonable value for the first year. Whilst UK residents may find the earning rate very weak, there isn’t a lot of competition in the Irish market. I’d be reconsidering my options after the first year, however.

You can find out more, and apply, on the Bank of Ireland website here.

Aer Lingus drops London Gatwick flights

Aer Lingus appears to be ending services to Dublin from London Gatwick.

Flights have been pulled from the booking system for the summer 2024 season, with the last flight scheduled for 30th March.

This was an attractive flight for British Airways Gold card holders, since they could use the British Airways lounge at Gatwick. You can’t bring any guests and you can’t get in with a Silver card – it is purely a Gold perk.

Hat-tip to @SeanM1997 on X.

Turkish Airlines launches flights to Australia

As teased in my round-table interview with Turkish Airlines Chairman Dr. Ahmet Bolat, Turkish Airlines is finally launching flights to Australia.

Melbourne will be the airline’s 364th destination and Australia the 130th country served, increasing Turkish Airline’s lead as the airline with the most global cities served.

The flights will launch from 15th March and will initially operate thrice weekly. It will be a one-stop service from Istanbul with a layover in Singapore, as Turkish Airline’s current fleet does not have the legs to do the route direct. There are plans for this to change with the arrival of new aircraft.

Istanbul – Singapore – Melbourne will be operated with a Boeing 787-9 aircraft, which I previously reviewed here. The business class cabin is very comfortable and Turkish Airlines has invested significantly in its food on board. If you start in London, you are likely to get either the 787-9 or a single-aisle A321neo, which has an impressive European business class.

The launch is a kick in the teeth for Qatar Airways, which initially sought to increase its Australia services last year. It was rebuffed by the Australian Government following intense lobbying by (ironically) oneworld partner Qantas.

Instead the Government loosened bilateral ties with Turkey, allowing the country to immediately launch 21 weekly flights to the country, rising to 35 by 2025 (5 per day). Turkish Airlines is taking up some of these traffic rights.

From the UK the journey involves two stops, once in Istanbul and once in Singapore. That makes it less competitive than one-stop options, but with reduced Australia – Europe capacity from Qantas it can probably hoover up enough passengers to make it work until it goes non-stop.

Flights are now bookable on the Turkish Airlines website.

South Place Hotel joins Preferred Hotels

This is a little niche but will be of interest to some of our City readers.

South Place Hotel, the smart hotel between Liverpool Street and Moorgate which was once part of the D&D Restaurants group, has joined Preferred Hotels & Resorts.

As well as having 80 rooms, the hotel includes Michelin-starred restaurant Angler, above, and five bars (it knows its local market well …..)

It will be part of the Preferred Hotels & Resorts ‘L.V.X. Collection’ which represents ‘renowned properties that feature the finest accommodations coupled with attentive, engaging, and exclusive personal service.’

Preferred Hotels is an independent marketing group, similar to Leading Hotels of the World, with properties in 80 countries. Most relevant for HfP readers, it runs the ‘I Prefer’ loyalty scheme which allows you to earn cash credit towards future stays based on your spending.

You can learn more about the ‘I Prefer’ programme on its website here.

Two major changes have recently kicked in, which have a negative impact for any British Airways Gold or Silver member.

You need to remember that Aer Lingus is NOT a member of the oneworld airline alliance and so a BA elite member has no automatic right to use Aer Lingus lounges.

What has changed with Aer Lingus lounge access?

As we understand it ….

• British Airways Executive Club Silver and Gold members no longer have access to the Aer Lingus lounge in Shannon when flying with Aer Lingus

• British Airways Executive Club Silver and Gold members no longer have access to the Aspire lounge in Cork when flying with Aer Lingus

British Airways Executive Club elite members were previously allowed to use these lounges when flying on Aer Lingus, but ONLY if flying to London. You have never been able to get access if flying elsewhere from Shannon or Cork.

We have no idea why this has been done. An email I saw from an Aer Lingus employee said that the decision had been made by British Airways, who were presumably being billed by Aer Lingus and Aspire.

Where does this leave British Airways elite members flying Aer Lingus?

Here is a summary of the rules following these changes:

In Heathrow:

Aer Lingus has a pleasant lounge in Heathrow Terminal 2.  We reviewed it here.

The rule here is that British Airways Silver or Gold cardholders can use the Aer Lingus lounge at Heathrow.

Your ticket does NOT need to be issued by BA and it does NOT need to be a BA codeshare.  If you have BA status, even a super-cheap ticket booked on aerlingus.com will do the job. No guests are allowed.

In Dublin:

British Airways Executive Club Silver or Gold cardholders can use the Aer Lingus lounge in Dublin.  It doesn’t matter if your ticket has an Aer Lingus or British Airways flight number.

However, this only works if you are flying to Heathrow or Gatwick.

If you fly from Dublin to, say, Manchester you will not get Aer Lingus lounge access in Ireland with a British Airways status card.

In Shannon or Cork:

Following the recent changes, a British Airways Executive Club Silver or Gold cardholder CANNOT use the Aer Lingus lounge in Shannon or the Aspire lounge in Cork.

It makes no difference whether you are flying to London or elsewhere – you are no longer given access.

In Gatwick or Belfast:

And to confuse matters further …. Aer Lingus has no lounges in Gatwick and Belfast, although qualifying passengers (via Aer Lingus status or ticket class) can access the No1 Lounge and Aspire lounge respectively.

If you have a British Airways Gold card, you can use the British Airways lounges when flying on Aer Lingus. In Belfast, this means the Aspire contract lounge used by BA.

No guests are allowed.  More importantly, your ticket must have a British Airways flight number AND have been issued by BA (the ticket number will start 125-).  An Aer Lingus ticket with an EI flight number will not get you in.

British Airways Silver cardholders do not get into the Gatwick or Belfast lounges in any scenario, irrespective of who issued their Aer Lingus ticket.

How to earn Avios from UK credit cards (January 2024)

As a reminder, there are various ways of earning Avios points from UK credit cards.  Many cards also have generous sign-up bonuses!

In February 2022, Barclaycard launched two exciting new Barclaycard Avios Mastercard cards with a bonus of up to 25,000 Avios. You can apply here.

You qualify for the bonus on these cards even if you have a British Airways American Express card:

Barclaycard Avios Plus Mastercard

Get 25,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher at £10,000 Read our full review

Barclaycard Avios Mastercard

5,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher at £20,000 Read our full review

There are two official British Airways American Express cards with attractive sign-up bonuses:

British Airways American Express Premium Plus

25,000 Avios and the famous annual 2-4-1 voucher Read our full review

British Airways American Express

5,000 Avios for signing up and an Economy 2-4-1 voucher for spending £12,000 Read our full review

You can also get generous sign-up bonuses by applying for American Express cards which earn Membership Rewards points. These points convert at 1:1 into Avios.

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold

Your best beginner’s card – 20,000 points, FREE for a year & four airport lounge passes Read our full review

The Platinum Card from American Express

40,000 bonus points and a huge range of valuable benefits – for a fee Read our full review

Run your own business?

We recommend Capital On Tap for limited companies. You earn 1 Avios per £1 which is impressive for a Visa card, along with a sign-up bonus worth 10,500 Avios.

Capital On Tap Business Rewards Visa

Get a 10,000 points bonus plus an extra 500 points for our readers Read our full review

You should also consider the British Airways Accelerating Business credit card. This is open to sole traders as well as limited companies and has a 30,000 Avios sign-up bonus.

British Airways Accelerating Business American Express

30,000 Avios sign-up bonus – plus annual bonuses of up to 30,000 Avios Read our full review

There are also generous bonuses on the two American Express Business cards, with the points converting at 1:1 into Avios. These cards are open to sole traders as well as limited companies.

American Express Business Platinum

40,000 points bonus and an annual £200 Amex Travel credit Read our full review

American Express Business Gold

20,000 points sign-up bonus and free for a year Read our full review

Click here to read our detailed summary of all UK credit cards which earn Avios. This includes both personal and small business cards.

The contact centre had confirmed in writing what Avios collectors had been noticing for a couple of weeks – that all availability, on all routes, seemed to have dried up near to the point of departure.

After we published our article yesterday, it all came back! Well, nearly all. It seems that a six day rule is now in place instead.

Here is the screenshot I published yesterday showing zero Avios availability on 6th January (60 days away) – or indeed any day earlier than 6th January – between London Heathrow and Dublin:

On 7th January – 61 days in advance, at the time I took the screenshots – you were rolling in reward seats:

Aer Lingus now seems to have changed its mind

Things have changed following our article.

Take a look at what is now available on 6th January, compared to the top screenshot above:

Lots and lots of Aer Lingus seats are now bookable.

However, you still can’t book for immediate travel. I am typing this on Thursday 9th, and the first day that is bookable is Wednesday 15th:

It’s not perfect, but it’s definitely an improvement.

How to earn Avios from UK credit cards (January 2024)

As a reminder, there are various ways of earning Avios points from UK credit cards.  Many cards also have generous sign-up bonuses!

In February 2022, Barclaycard launched two exciting new Barclaycard Avios Mastercard cards with a bonus of up to 25,000 Avios. You can apply here.

You qualify for the bonus on these cards even if you have a British Airways American Express card:

Barclaycard Avios Plus Mastercard

Get 25,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher at £10,000 Read our full review

Barclaycard Avios Mastercard

5,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher at £20,000 Read our full review

There are two official British Airways American Express cards with attractive sign-up bonuses:

British Airways American Express Premium Plus

25,000 Avios and the famous annual 2-4-1 voucher Read our full review

British Airways American Express

5,000 Avios for signing up and an Economy 2-4-1 voucher for spending £12,000 Read our full review

You can also get generous sign-up bonuses by applying for American Express cards which earn Membership Rewards points. These points convert at 1:1 into Avios.

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold

Your best beginner’s card – 20,000 points, FREE for a year & four airport lounge passes Read our full review

The Platinum Card from American Express

40,000 bonus points and a huge range of valuable benefits – for a fee Read our full review

Run your own business?

We recommend Capital On Tap for limited companies. You earn 1 Avios per £1 which is impressive for a Visa card, along with a sign-up bonus worth 10,500 Avios.

Capital On Tap Business Rewards Visa

Get a 10,000 points bonus plus an extra 500 points for our readers Read our full review

You should also consider the British Airways Accelerating Business credit card. This is open to sole traders as well as limited companies and has a 30,000 Avios sign-up bonus.

British Airways Accelerating Business American Express

30,000 Avios sign-up bonus – plus annual bonuses of up to 30,000 Avios Read our full review

There are also generous bonuses on the two American Express Business cards, with the points converting at 1:1 into Avios. These cards are open to sole traders as well as limited companies.

American Express Business Platinum

40,000 points bonus and an annual £200 Amex Travel credit Read our full review

American Express Business Gold

20,000 points sign-up bonus and free for a year Read our full review

Click here to read our detailed summary of all UK credit cards which earn Avios. This includes both personal and small business cards.

It appears that Aer Lingus is now blocking Avios redemptions made within 60 days of the date of travel.

This isn’t good news, clearly.

EDIT: Our article sparked Aer Lingus to make a change – the cut-off is now 6 days. Click here to read more.

There had been some posting on the, admittedly fairly quiet, Aer Lingus board on Flyertalk about issues finding Avios reward seats.

One poster then received the following reply after raising the question directly:

Avios redemption seats booked through www.avios.com are available to purchase on routes with Aer Lingus outside of 60 days.

This appears to be correct. It also impacts Avios availability via British Airways, as well as via the avios.com platform.

Here’s what I found last night. On 7th January (this search was done last night, 8th November), there is a lot of Aer Lingus availability between Heathrow and Dublin:

However, jump back 24 hours to 6th January, inside the 60 day window, and there is nothing. Not a single seat on any of the many flights. There’s nothing for any other January day either. All you see is BA flights:

The key will be what happens today (Thursday to you reading this). If the 60 day rule is correct, all of those seats showing for 7th January should disappear during Thursday, but 8th January should still be there.

If this is a new Aer Lingus policy, it’s obviously not one I like.

It also makes little sense. We are now in the quiet winter season, and it is a logical time to dump MORE Avios seats onto the market. Overall cash demand is low, and the cash demand that is there is at low fares, so selling seats for Avios isn’t necessarily a bad alternative.

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

How to earn Avios from UK credit cards (January 2024)

As a reminder, there are various ways of earning Avios points from UK credit cards.  Many cards also have generous sign-up bonuses!

In February 2022, Barclaycard launched two exciting new Barclaycard Avios Mastercard cards with a bonus of up to 25,000 Avios. You can apply here.

You qualify for the bonus on these cards even if you have a British Airways American Express card:

Barclaycard Avios Plus Mastercard

Get 25,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher at £10,000 Read our full review

Barclaycard Avios Mastercard

5,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher at £20,000 Read our full review

There are two official British Airways American Express cards with attractive sign-up bonuses:

British Airways American Express Premium Plus

25,000 Avios and the famous annual 2-4-1 voucher Read our full review

British Airways American Express

5,000 Avios for signing up and an Economy 2-4-1 voucher for spending £12,000 Read our full review

You can also get generous sign-up bonuses by applying for American Express cards which earn Membership Rewards points. These points convert at 1:1 into Avios.

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold

Your best beginner’s card – 20,000 points, FREE for a year & four airport lounge passes Read our full review

The Platinum Card from American Express

40,000 bonus points and a huge range of valuable benefits – for a fee Read our full review

Run your own business?

We recommend Capital On Tap for limited companies. You earn 1 Avios per £1 which is impressive for a Visa card, along with a sign-up bonus worth 10,500 Avios.

Capital On Tap Business Rewards Visa

Get a 10,000 points bonus plus an extra 500 points for our readers Read our full review

You should also consider the British Airways Accelerating Business credit card. This is open to sole traders as well as limited companies and has a 30,000 Avios sign-up bonus.

British Airways Accelerating Business American Express

30,000 Avios sign-up bonus – plus annual bonuses of up to 30,000 Avios Read our full review

There are also generous bonuses on the two American Express Business cards, with the points converting at 1:1 into Avios. These cards are open to sole traders as well as limited companies.

American Express Business Platinum

40,000 points bonus and an annual £200 Amex Travel credit Read our full review

American Express Business Gold

20,000 points sign-up bonus and free for a year Read our full review

Click here to read our detailed summary of all UK credit cards which earn Avios. This includes both personal and small business cards.

British Airways seems to have dropped eight short haul routes

It seems that British Airways will be dropping eight short haul routes for the summer 2024 season.

The following flights no longer seem to be on sale from April 2024:

• London Heathrow to Nuremberg
• London Heathrow to Bastia (flights now connect in Marseille to Air Corsica)
• London City to Jersey (image below)
• London City to Quimper
• Southampton to Alicante
• Southampton to Dublin (Aer Lingus Regional now flies this route)
• Southampton to Edinburgh (Loganair now flies this route as a BA codeshare)
• Southampton to Limoges

If you are booked on any of these services, double-check if BA is still selling tickets for your dates.

Hat-tip to @tofly_totravel on X.

Aer Lingus extends Manchester to Barbados

Aer Lingus appears to be happy with the performance of its direct Manchester to Barbados route, which is currently in its second year.

The airline has just announced that the season has been extended from April 2024 until 31st May. The route will then hibernate until the autumn.

You can read our review of the Manchester to Barbados Aer Lingus flight, which uses an A330, here.

The service operates three times per week. You can check timings and book on the Aer Lingus website here.

In other Aer Lingus news ….

The service from Dublin to Hartford in Connecticut has also been extended. The current season will now run until 5th January 2024 (it was due to end last week) and the summer 2024 season will now begin two weeks early. The first flight will be on 13th March 2024 instead of the planned 30th March, albeit there will only be three flights per week instead of seven during this fortnight.

Air Canada has restarted flights to Mumbai

We originally mentioned this back in June, but as flights started this week it is worth a reminder that Air Canada is now flying from London Heathrow to Mumbai.

For the past few decades, Air Canada has been operating direct flights between Toronto and Mumbai using the Boeing 777-200LR. This will no longer be the case. Air Canada has now reverted to the indirect service via London that it operated until 1991.

Instead of the Boeing 777-200LR it will fly a Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner:

• AC856 will depart Toronto at 8:30pm and arrive in London at 8:30am the following day, before continuing its journey to Mumbai at 11:10am and landing in Mumbai at 1:35am the following day – two days after departing Canada

• AC855 will depart Mumbai at 4:25am before arriving in London at 9:20am the same day and continuing its journey at midday to land in Toronto at 2:55pm, the same day as departing Mumbai

The change has probably been driven by the closure of Russian airspace, which will have forced the direct Toronto to Mumbai service to operate with a major diversion.

Flights will only operate for the winter season, until the end of March 2024.

You can check prices on the Air Canada website here.

If you want to learn how to earn Air Canada Aeroplan miles from UK credit cards, take a look at our guide here, although you can redeem miles from any Star Alliance frequent flyer scheme for this service.

The Aer Lingus option is especially interesting for anyone living outside London who is planning a trip to the US, since you may be able to use your 2-4-1 voucher and still depart from your local airport.

Full details of how it works are here. Note that Aer Lingus does not guarantee to open up a specific number of Avios seats per flight and availability, especially in Business Class to their core US destinations, can be thin.

We did two two in-depth Aer Lingus Business Class reviews last year, covering their two core long-haul aircraft types. These are:

• the single-aisle A321LR (here is my Dublin – New York Aer Lingus A321LR review)

• the twic-aisle, larger, A330 (here is Rhys’s Manchester – Barbados Aer Lingus A330 review)

The reviews talk you through the best business class seats, although the top pick is the ‘throne’ seat where you only get one seat to a row with a console on either side of you.

Even if you travelling with someone, as I was on my A321LR review trip, you may prefer two ‘throne’ seats if you can get them rather than sitting side by side.

If you are flying from Dublin or Shannon, you complete US Customs and Immigration in Ireland. My A321LR review looks at this here. It means that you land in the US as a domestic passenger and can be out of the terminal in minutes, with no risk of a lengthy queue at immigration.

Where does Aer Lingus fly long-haul?

I want to use this article to look at the Aer Lingus route network. It is NOT an article discussing the costs, in Avios and taxes, of Aer Lingus redemptions – we will do that another day.

Here is the current route network:

From Manchester:

• Manchester – New York JFK
• Manchester – Orlando
• Manchester – Barbados (seasonally from November to April)

From Dublin:

• Dublin – Boston
• Dublin – Chicago
• Dublin – Cleveland
• Dublin – Denver (launches May 2024)
• Dublin – Hartford
• Dublin – Los Angeles
• Dublin – Miami (seasonally from November to April)
• Dublin – Minneapolis St Paul (launches April 2024)
• Dublin – New York JFK
• Dublin – Newark
• Dublin – Orlando
• Dublin – Philadelphia
• Dublin – San Francisco
• Dublin – Seattle
• Dublin – Toronto
• Dublin – Washington DC

From Shannon:

• Shannon – Boston
• Shannon – New York JFK

Flights tend to operate between 4-7 days per week on most routes, with the core US routes having multiple daily flights.

How do you connect to Aer Lingus flights from the UK?

Aer Lingus has an excellent range of connections to Dublin from across the UK.

If you are looking for Avios seats I would initially search for the long-haul flight on its own and then see what connections can be added later. You don’t want to risk not seeing long-haul availability simply because the most convenient short-haul connecting flight isn’t available.

You will make a substantial saving by booking your UK-Ireland flight on a separate ticket, as this avoids long haul Air Passenger Duty. The downside is that your baggage may not be checked through and Aer Lingus is not obliged to help you if you miss your connection.

Here is the Aer Lingus UK network to Dublin:

Operated by Aer Lingus mainline:

• London Heathrow
• London Gatwick

Operated by a mix of Aer Lingus mainline and Aer Lingus Regional:

• Manchester
• Birmingham

Operated by Aer Lingus Regional:

• Aberdeen
• Bristol
• Edinburgh
• Exeter
• Glasgow
• Isle of Man
• Leeds Bradford
• Liverpool
• Newcastle
• Newquay
• Southampton

Aer Lingus Regional flights are operated under franchise by Emerald Airlines and use small turbo-prop aircraft. You can still earn and redeem Avios on these services.

‘Mainline’ short haul flights use BA-style Airbus jet aircraft. If you’re lucky you will get an A321LR with flat beds in Business Class, as these do short haul during the morning before heading back to the US in the afternoon.

How to earn Avios from UK credit cards (January 2024)

As a reminder, there are various ways of earning Avios points from UK credit cards.  Many cards also have generous sign-up bonuses!

In February 2022, Barclaycard launched two exciting new Barclaycard Avios Mastercard cards with a bonus of up to 25,000 Avios. You can apply here.

You qualify for the bonus on these cards even if you have a British Airways American Express card:

Barclaycard Avios Plus Mastercard

Get 25,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher at £10,000 Read our full review

Barclaycard Avios Mastercard

5,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher at £20,000 Read our full review

There are two official British Airways American Express cards with attractive sign-up bonuses:

British Airways American Express Premium Plus

25,000 Avios and the famous annual 2-4-1 voucher Read our full review

British Airways American Express

5,000 Avios for signing up and an Economy 2-4-1 voucher for spending £12,000 Read our full review

You can also get generous sign-up bonuses by applying for American Express cards which earn Membership Rewards points. These points convert at 1:1 into Avios.

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold

Your best beginner’s card – 20,000 points, FREE for a year & four airport lounge passes Read our full review

The Platinum Card from American Express

40,000 bonus points and a huge range of valuable benefits – for a fee Read our full review

Run your own business?

We recommend Capital On Tap for limited companies. You earn 1 Avios per £1 which is impressive for a Visa card, along with a sign-up bonus worth 10,500 Avios.

Capital On Tap Business Rewards Visa

Get a 10,000 points bonus plus an extra 500 points for our readers Read our full review

You should also consider the British Airways Accelerating Business credit card. This is open to sole traders as well as limited companies and has a 30,000 Avios sign-up bonus.

British Airways Accelerating Business American Express

30,000 Avios sign-up bonus – plus annual bonuses of up to 30,000 Avios Read our full review

There are also generous bonuses on the two American Express Business cards, with the points converting at 1:1 into Avios. These cards are open to sole traders as well as limited companies.

American Express Business Platinum

40,000 points bonus and an annual £200 Amex Travel credit Read our full review

American Express Business Gold

20,000 points sign-up bonus and free for a year Read our full review

Click here to read our detailed summary of all UK credit cards which earn Avios. This includes both personal and small business cards.

This is one of the biggest ones.  Bizarrely, Aer Lingus AerClub lets you earn Avios when flying United Airlines, which is a member of the competing Star Alliance.

United Airlines of the US is a long-standing Aer Lingus partner.   Under the old Gold Circle loyalty programme – before Aer Lingus was bought by IAG – it was possible to credit United Airlines flights to Aer Lingus.

To be honest, I was expecting this feature to go away when IAG bought Aer Lingus, closed the Gold Circle scheme, launched AerClub and adopted Avios.  I was wrong.

As you can see from this page of the Aer Lingus website, you can earn Avios points in AerClub when you credit United Airlines flights at the following rates (click to enlarge):

The % figures are based on the number of miles flown.

You cannot use a British Airways Executive Club number.  You need to join AerClub and move the Avios across to BA via ‘Combine My Avios’. We explain how ‘Combine My Avios’ works here.

This arrangement is likely to end very soon

According to this US regulatory filing, Aer Lingus and United Airlines are terminating their codeshare partnership this coming Friday, 27th October.

The document makes no reference to reciprocal Avios earning, and indeed there was no requirement to be flying on an Aer Lingus codeshare to earn Avios from United.

However, it would be very surprising if the Avios partnership survived the ending of the codeshare. The only question, I suspect, is whether there is a separate notice period beyond the notice required to end the codeshare.

One possible upside is that scrapping the codeshare removes a further barrier to Aer Lingus flights awarding Avios and British Airways tier points as part of the transatlantic joint venture between Aer Lingus, BA, AA, Iberia and Finnair.

How to earn Avios from UK credit cards (January 2024)

As a reminder, there are various ways of earning Avios points from UK credit cards.  Many cards also have generous sign-up bonuses!

In February 2022, Barclaycard launched two exciting new Barclaycard Avios Mastercard cards with a bonus of up to 25,000 Avios. You can apply here.

You qualify for the bonus on these cards even if you have a British Airways American Express card:

Barclaycard Avios Plus Mastercard

Get 25,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher at £10,000 Read our full review

Barclaycard Avios Mastercard

5,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher at £20,000 Read our full review

There are two official British Airways American Express cards with attractive sign-up bonuses:

British Airways American Express Premium Plus

25,000 Avios and the famous annual 2-4-1 voucher Read our full review

British Airways American Express

5,000 Avios for signing up and an Economy 2-4-1 voucher for spending £12,000 Read our full review

You can also get generous sign-up bonuses by applying for American Express cards which earn Membership Rewards points. These points convert at 1:1 into Avios.

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold

Your best beginner’s card – 20,000 points, FREE for a year & four airport lounge passes Read our full review

The Platinum Card from American Express

40,000 bonus points and a huge range of valuable benefits – for a fee Read our full review

Run your own business?

We recommend Capital On Tap for limited companies. You earn 1 Avios per £1 which is impressive for a Visa card, along with a sign-up bonus worth 10,500 Avios.

Capital On Tap Business Rewards Visa

Get a 10,000 points bonus plus an extra 500 points for our readers Read our full review

You should also consider the British Airways Accelerating Business credit card. This is open to sole traders as well as limited companies and has a 30,000 Avios sign-up bonus.

British Airways Accelerating Business American Express

30,000 Avios sign-up bonus – plus annual bonuses of up to 30,000 Avios Read our full review

There are also generous bonuses on the two American Express Business cards, with the points converting at 1:1 into Avios. These cards are open to sole traders as well as limited companies.

American Express Business Platinum

40,000 points bonus and an annual £200 Amex Travel credit Read our full review

American Express Business Gold

20,000 points sign-up bonus and free for a year Read our full review

Click here to read our detailed summary of all UK credit cards which earn Avios. This includes both personal and small business cards.

You are getting 1p+ per Avios point you spend – and I consider that a decent deal.

You must book by Sunday to travel by 13th March 2024.

You can find out more on this special page of the Aer Lingus website here.

This deal is for cash tickets and not standard reward flights – every flight is available

This offer has run before and tends to confuse people who don’t understand how the Aer Lingus redemption system works when you book via aerlingus.com.

The discount is only available when you book a cash flight and do ‘Part Pay With Avios’. It is NOT available if you try to do a standard Avios redemption booking, either via ba.com or avios.com.

Part of the reason BA flyers are confused is that the site says ‘50% off Avios on all flights’. Because British Airways does not let you fully pay for a flight using ‘Part Pay With Avios’, people assume that the offer is referring to standard redemptions. It isn’t.

When you do ‘Part Pay With Avios’ with Aer Lingus or Vueling, you can pay EVERYTHING with Avios. This includes seat selection fees and baggage charges. If you want to pay literally nothing for your trip, you can.

(You can’t pay for car hire or travel insurance, added during the booking process, with Avios as these are third party services.)

Because you are booking a cash ticket and reducing the cost with Avios, potentially to zero, it cannot be changed or cancelled.

What value per Avios do you get with this offer?

Since this offer ran last year, Aer Lingus seems to have introduced tapering.

Put another way ….. the more Avios you use, the slightly worse deal you get – but only slightly. This wasn’t the case in the past, where you got a flat pence per point offer.

Here’s a short haul example:

I can redeem 1,695 Avios for €22 (£19.65) off this example short haul flight, worth 1.12p per Avios.

At the top end – where I am paying for 100% of the flight cost, including taxes and charges – by redeeming 7,765 Avios for €89.82 (£77.65) I am getting exactly 1.0p.

I would still be perfectly happy redeeming for 1p per Avios though.

The Manchester flights are included

For clarity, the Aer Lingus direct flights from Manchester to New York, Orlando and Barbados are included in this offer.

You’ll earn Avios back too ….

Because you are booking a cash ticket, reducing the cost by using Avios, you earn Avios and Aer Lingus status credits when you fly.

Despite Aer Lingus joining the transatlantic joint venture with British Airways, Iberia, Finnair and American Airlines, there is no sign of British Airways Executive Club tier points being offered yet.

You can earn status credits in Aer Lingus AerClub, but this is unlikely to be much use for a one off trip.

You CAN earn Avios. There are two options:

• credit to an Aer Lingus AerClub account and then move your Avios into British Airways Executive Club via ‘Combine My Avios’ or
• credit directly to a British Airways Executive Club account

The amount of Avios you earn will differ between the two options.

• AerClub – click here – awards Avios based on the amount you spend. For flights from Dublin it is 3 Avios per €1, with Government taxes excluded from the calculation.
• British Airways Executive Club, as you can see here, awards 150% of miles flown for discounted Business Class tickets

However, be careful.

Heavily discounted business class flights do not qualify for Avios in British Airways Executive Club.

The lowest fare class for business tickets is ‘P’, and ‘P’ earns nothing with BA. Your e-ticket receipt will show the booking class as ‘P/Business’. Unless your ticket is issued in ‘D’ and shows ‘D/Business’. you must credit your flight to AerClub otherwise you will receive nothing.

How do you transfer Avios to Aer Lingus?

I left this to last, even though it is clearly key to being able to book these fares.

Here are the steps you need to follow:

• Go to this page of the Aer Lingus website and open an AerClub account

• Go to avios.com and log in with your new Aer Lingus AerClub details

• Under ‘Manage My Account’, select ‘Combine My Avios’. As long as you used the same email address and home address on your Aer Lingus account as you use on your British Airways account, you’ll be able to move Avios across. You can move them back to British Airways via the same route. The transfer is free and instant.

• Go back to the Aer Lingus website, log in and your Avios balance in your Aer Club account will be available to use when you reach the payment page for your flight

Further reading

If you are thinking about booking a long haul flight with Aer Lingus under this offer, you might want to look at some of our reviews from last year:

• Rhys tried out Aer Lingus Business Class on the Manchester to Barbados route (A330)

• I tried out Aer Lingus Business Class on the Dublin to New York route, which uses a single-aisle A321LR aircraft

• Here is my review of the Aer Lingus lounge at Heathrow Terminal 2

• Here is my review of the US pre-clearance process in Dublin, allowing you to clear immigration in Ireland and land in the US as a domestic passenger, and the ’51st & Green’ lounge at Dublin Airport, used for US departures

Conclusion

1p per Avios is a decent deal, especially as you will earn a handful of points back.

You won’t get any bargains but you can book any flight, any day and of course there is nothing to pay for taxes and charges. You can also use more Avios to cover seat selection and luggage fees if you wish.

I want to flag one thing. Because these are cash fares at the end of the day, they cannot be cancelled or refunded. Just because you can reduce the fare to £0 by using Avios does not change that. The underlying fare rules of the original cash ticket still apply.

You can find out more on the Aer Lingus website here.

Remember that you must travel by 13th March 2024.

How to earn Avios from UK credit cards (January 2024)

As a reminder, there are various ways of earning Avios points from UK credit cards.  Many cards also have generous sign-up bonuses!

In February 2022, Barclaycard launched two exciting new Barclaycard Avios Mastercard cards with a bonus of up to 25,000 Avios. You can apply here.

You qualify for the bonus on these cards even if you have a British Airways American Express card:

Barclaycard Avios Plus Mastercard

Get 25,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher at £10,000 Read our full review

Barclaycard Avios Mastercard

5,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher at £20,000 Read our full review

There are two official British Airways American Express cards with attractive sign-up bonuses:

British Airways American Express Premium Plus

25,000 Avios and the famous annual 2-4-1 voucher Read our full review

British Airways American Express

5,000 Avios for signing up and an Economy 2-4-1 voucher for spending £12,000 Read our full review

You can also get generous sign-up bonuses by applying for American Express cards which earn Membership Rewards points. These points convert at 1:1 into Avios.

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold

Your best beginner’s card – 20,000 points, FREE for a year & four airport lounge passes Read our full review

The Platinum Card from American Express

40,000 bonus points and a huge range of valuable benefits – for a fee Read our full review

Run your own business?

We recommend Capital On Tap for limited companies. You earn 1 Avios per £1 which is impressive for a Visa card, along with a sign-up bonus worth 10,500 Avios.

Capital On Tap Business Rewards Visa

Get a 10,000 points bonus plus an extra 500 points for our readers Read our full review

You should also consider the British Airways Accelerating Business credit card. This is open to sole traders as well as limited companies and has a 30,000 Avios sign-up bonus.

British Airways Accelerating Business American Express

30,000 Avios sign-up bonus – plus annual bonuses of up to 30,000 Avios Read our full review

There are also generous bonuses on the two American Express Business cards, with the points converting at 1:1 into Avios. These cards are open to sole traders as well as limited companies.

American Express Business Platinum

40,000 points bonus and an annual £200 Amex Travel credit Read our full review

American Express Business Gold

20,000 points sign-up bonus and free for a year Read our full review

Click here to read our detailed summary of all UK credit cards which earn Avios. This includes both personal and small business cards.

That’s the good news. The bad news is that you need to go to Paris or Rome to get these deals, and then fly via Dublin.

Why would you bother? The key reason is that these fares do NOT require a Saturday night stay, or any minimum stay at all. This is a big difference to most discounted fares we write about.

If your lifestyle means that midweek breaks work best for you, this may work.

Another upside is that you will clear US immigration in Dublin, allowing you to walk off the aircraft and straight out of the airport after landing.

Remember that Aer Lingus flights do NOT yet earn British Airways Executive Club tier points. You do earn Avios – as long as you credit them to Aer Lingus AerClub – but not tier points. This will change at some point but the date keeps slipping back.

Here’s the deal:

• fly from Paris or Rome to New York
• travel between January and August 2024
• no minimum stay required
• no Saturday night stay required
• connecting flight to Dublin will be on a one class aircraft unless you get one of the flights which is served with an A321LR or a long haul aircraft

Fares are roughly €1,400 (£1,200) return from Paris and €1,275 (£1,100) from Rome. I didn’t struggle to find availability last night although the fares could be pulled at any time.

Here are our latest Aer Lingus business class reviews:

• Review of Aer Lingus business class on the A330
• Review of Aer Lingus business class on the A321LR

You can search fares and book on the Aer Lingus website here.

How to earn Avios from UK credit cards (January 2024)

As a reminder, there are various ways of earning Avios points from UK credit cards.  Many cards also have generous sign-up bonuses!

In February 2022, Barclaycard launched two exciting new Barclaycard Avios Mastercard cards with a bonus of up to 25,000 Avios. You can apply here.

You qualify for the bonus on these cards even if you have a British Airways American Express card:

Barclaycard Avios Plus Mastercard

Get 25,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher at £10,000 Read our full review

Barclaycard Avios Mastercard

5,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher at £20,000 Read our full review

There are two official British Airways American Express cards with attractive sign-up bonuses:

British Airways American Express Premium Plus

25,000 Avios and the famous annual 2-4-1 voucher Read our full review

British Airways American Express

5,000 Avios for signing up and an Economy 2-4-1 voucher for spending £12,000 Read our full review

You can also get generous sign-up bonuses by applying for American Express cards which earn Membership Rewards points. These points convert at 1:1 into Avios.

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold

Your best beginner’s card – 20,000 points, FREE for a year & four airport lounge passes Read our full review

The Platinum Card from American Express

40,000 bonus points and a huge range of valuable benefits – for a fee Read our full review

Run your own business?

We recommend Capital On Tap for limited companies. You earn 1 Avios per £1 which is impressive for a Visa card, along with a sign-up bonus worth 10,500 Avios.

Capital On Tap Business Rewards Visa

Get a 10,000 points bonus plus an extra 500 points for our readers Read our full review

You should also consider the British Airways Accelerating Business credit card. This is open to sole traders as well as limited companies and has a 30,000 Avios sign-up bonus.

British Airways Accelerating Business American Express

30,000 Avios sign-up bonus – plus annual bonuses of up to 30,000 Avios Read our full review

There are also generous bonuses on the two American Express Business cards, with the points converting at 1:1 into Avios. These cards are open to sole traders as well as limited companies.

American Express Business Platinum

40,000 points bonus and an annual £200 Amex Travel credit Read our full review

American Express Business Gold

20,000 points sign-up bonus and free for a year Read our full review

Click here to read our detailed summary of all UK credit cards which earn Avios. This includes both personal and small business cards.

There is only one snag – the offer is from Aer Lingus and not British Airways. This means that:

• you will need to have an Aer Lingus AerClub account to receive the Avios

• once you have them, you will need to use ‘Combine My Avios’ (this is how it works) to move them from AerClub to British Airways Executive Club

You will a 40% Avios bonus with your rental. You will receive 7 Avios per €1 instead of the usual Aer Lingus rate of 5 Avios per €1 (or the BA rate of 5 Avios per £1).

The rules are:

• you must rent a Group C car or above
• you must rent for 3+ days
• you must book by 5th November
• you must pick up your rental by 15th December
• you must either book at cars.aerlingus.com or add the relevant Aer Lingus CWD discount codes to your booking if made at avis.com

The offer is valid at ‘participating’ locations in Europe, the Middle East, Africa and North America. Some franchised outlets will not participate – this is likely to be the case in locations such as Jersey. Any booking from a mainstream international airport or city centre location should be fine.

The deal is not valid on Prestige, Van or Chauffeur Drive rentals.

You find out more at the Aer Lingus car rental website here.

PS. Did you know that you can now earn Avios when you rent cars with Hertz, SIXT, Europcar and Rentalcars.com? You need to credit your rental to a Qatar Privilege Club account and transfer the Avios to British Airways. This article tells you more.

How to earn Avios from UK credit cards (January 2024)

As a reminder, there are various ways of earning Avios points from UK credit cards.  Many cards also have generous sign-up bonuses!

In February 2022, Barclaycard launched two exciting new Barclaycard Avios Mastercard cards with a bonus of up to 25,000 Avios. You can apply here.

You qualify for the bonus on these cards even if you have a British Airways American Express card:

Barclaycard Avios Plus Mastercard

Get 25,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher at £10,000 Read our full review

Barclaycard Avios Mastercard

5,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher at £20,000 Read our full review

There are two official British Airways American Express cards with attractive sign-up bonuses:

British Airways American Express Premium Plus

25,000 Avios and the famous annual 2-4-1 voucher Read our full review

British Airways American Express

5,000 Avios for signing up and an Economy 2-4-1 voucher for spending £12,000 Read our full review

You can also get generous sign-up bonuses by applying for American Express cards which earn Membership Rewards points. These points convert at 1:1 into Avios.

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold

Your best beginner’s card – 20,000 points, FREE for a year & four airport lounge passes Read our full review

The Platinum Card from American Express

40,000 bonus points and a huge range of valuable benefits – for a fee Read our full review

Run your own business?

We recommend Capital On Tap for limited companies. You earn 1 Avios per £1 which is impressive for a Visa card, along with a sign-up bonus worth 10,500 Avios.

Capital On Tap Business Rewards Visa

Get a 10,000 points bonus plus an extra 500 points for our readers Read our full review

You should also consider the British Airways Accelerating Business credit card. This is open to sole traders as well as limited companies and has a 30,000 Avios sign-up bonus.

British Airways Accelerating Business American Express

30,000 Avios sign-up bonus – plus annual bonuses of up to 30,000 Avios Read our full review

There are also generous bonuses on the two American Express Business cards, with the points converting at 1:1 into Avios. These cards are open to sole traders as well as limited companies.

American Express Business Platinum

40,000 points bonus and an annual £200 Amex Travel credit Read our full review

American Express Business Gold

20,000 points sign-up bonus and free for a year Read our full review

Click here to read our detailed summary of all UK credit cards which earn Avios. This includes both personal and small business cards.

What we showed was that – assuming you didn’t want to use a British Airways American Express 2-4-1 voucher which requires booking at ba.com – you would save a substantial amount of money by booking at avios.com.

This is no longer the case, and the gap between BA and partner airline surcharges on Aer Lingus has now become crazy. But we’ll come to that later ….

A quick reminder of how to book flights via avios.com

avios.com is the platform where members of Aer Lingus AerClub and Vueling Club go to book redemptions on other IAG airlines.

You can’t just go to avios.com and log in with your British Airways Executive Club account details. You need to open an Aer Lingus AerClub or Vueling Club account (free, on their respective websites) and then use ‘Combine My Avios’ on avios.com to move your points across from British Airways Executive Club.

Moving Avios is free, instant and can be reversed if needed.

A full HfP article on using ‘Combine My Avios’ is here.

Comparing ba.com vs avios.com pricing for Aer Lingus

Here was the pricing we showed you in August for business class flights using Avios between Dublin and Philadelphia.

Using ba.com:

• Dublin to Philadelphia, return in Business: 100,000 Avios + £419

• Dublin to Philadelphia, one way in Business: 50,000 Avios + £221

• Philadelphia to Dublin, one way in Business: 50,000 Avios + £691, screenshot below

When we swapped over to the avios.com website to book exactly the same flights:

Using avios.com:

• Dublin to Philadelphia, return in Business: 100,000 Avios + £241 (save £178)

• Dublin to Philadelphia, one way in Business: 50,000 Avios + £132 (save £89)

• Philadelphia to Dublin, one way in Business: 50,000 Avios + £108 (screenshot below, save £583!)

The savings in taxes and charges were huge. The really scary saving was the one you got if booking a one way flight from Philadelphia to Dublin. The £691 taxes and charges bill dropped to £108 if you used the avios.com website.

This loophole has now been closed

The days of making big savings at avios.com seem to be over.

Pricing now matches the pricing you see at ba.com. A fat pile of surcharges have been added.

Here is the same one way Philadelphia to Dublin flight I screenshotted last month, but repriced last night:

The ticket which used to have £108 of taxes and charges now shows £791.

Yes, taxes and charges on this one way flight have risen by almost £700 in six weeks!

You’ll note that, back in early August, the taxes were £691. I actually expected to see it jump from £108 to £691 but, no, someone has decided to throw in an extra £100 of charges on top! The same applies if you book via ba.com.

The good news for UK readers is that charges for trips starting in Ireland have not increased. Dublin to Philadelphia had £419 return of charges last month via ba.com and £241 via avios.com. Both sites now show £419.

£791 …. or £4?

Here’s a little joke to end with. Remember the one way flight above from Philadelphia to Dublin with £791 of taxes and charges?

Here’s the EXACT same Aer Lingus flight booked via the United Airlines website using United Airlines miles:

Taxes and charges? £4 one way.

Where does the extra (£791 – £4) £787 go? Almost entirely into BA’s pocket. Here’s the proof:

To be totally fair, we should note that the Avios ticket only requires 50,000 Avios whilst the United booking requires 88,000 United MileagePlus miles. Not that a different of 38,000 miles justifies a £787 difference in taxes and charges ….

Conclusion

There is no longer any justification for booking Aer Lingus redemptions via avios.com, as the taxes and charges now match those shown at ba.com.

The only ‘good’ news is that anyone using a British Airways American Express 2-4-1 voucher to book an Aer Lingus flight via ba.com will no longer feel they are overpaying on taxes and charges vs avios.com ….

How IAG can, with a straight face, justify the level of taxes and charges on Aer Lingus flights vs what United Airlines charges is another question.

How to earn Avios from UK credit cards (January 2024)

As a reminder, there are various ways of earning Avios points from UK credit cards.  Many cards also have generous sign-up bonuses!

In February 2022, Barclaycard launched two exciting new Barclaycard Avios Mastercard cards with a bonus of up to 25,000 Avios. You can apply here.

You qualify for the bonus on these cards even if you have a British Airways American Express card:

Barclaycard Avios Plus Mastercard

Get 25,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher at £10,000 Read our full review

Barclaycard Avios Mastercard

5,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher at £20,000 Read our full review

There are two official British Airways American Express cards with attractive sign-up bonuses:

British Airways American Express Premium Plus

25,000 Avios and the famous annual 2-4-1 voucher Read our full review

British Airways American Express

5,000 Avios for signing up and an Economy 2-4-1 voucher for spending £12,000 Read our full review

You can also get generous sign-up bonuses by applying for American Express cards which earn Membership Rewards points. These points convert at 1:1 into Avios.

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold

Your best beginner’s card – 20,000 points, FREE for a year & four airport lounge passes Read our full review

The Platinum Card from American Express

40,000 bonus points and a huge range of valuable benefits – for a fee Read our full review

Run your own business?

We recommend Capital On Tap for limited companies. You earn 1 Avios per £1 which is impressive for a Visa card, along with a sign-up bonus worth 10,500 Avios.

Capital On Tap Business Rewards Visa

Get a 10,000 points bonus plus an extra 500 points for our readers Read our full review

You should also consider the British Airways Accelerating Business credit card. This is open to sole traders as well as limited companies and has a 30,000 Avios sign-up bonus.

British Airways Accelerating Business American Express

30,000 Avios sign-up bonus – plus annual bonuses of up to 30,000 Avios Read our full review

There are also generous bonuses on the two American Express Business cards, with the points converting at 1:1 into Avios. These cards are open to sole traders as well as limited companies.

American Express Business Platinum

40,000 points bonus and an annual £200 Amex Travel credit Read our full review

American Express Business Gold

20,000 points sign-up bonus and free for a year Read our full review

Click here to read our detailed summary of all UK credit cards which earn Avios. This includes both personal and small business cards.

Aer Lingus has operated its smaller regional routes under a franchise model for many years. The contract was held by Stobart Air until Aer Lingus awarded it to Emerald Airlines, a start-up carrier, in 2021 under a 10-year deal.

It has taken a while for services to build up, and of course the tail end of the pandemic didn’t help, but Emerald Airlines now has an established route network.

As you can see from the image above, aircraft and crew are Aer Lingus-branded. Tickets are sold at aerlingus.com and you can book Avios seats as you would with any standard Aer Lingus service.

Emerald Airlines will operate from 15 UK airports this winter. It primarily serves Dublin and Belfast City, apart from a one-off route between Bristol and Cork. There is one intra-Ireland route which is not listed below, from Donegal to Dublin.

It uses a modern fleet of ATR72-600 aircraft. These can seat up to 72 passengers and have a range of 1,500km.

This is the schedule for winter 2023, running from late October to late March 2024. Flights from the UK to Ireland and Northern Ireland operated by Aer Lingus itself are not included.

The frequency number is for the peak week or day during the winter timetable and is not necessarily available every week or every day.

Aberdeen

• 6x weekly to Dublin

Birmingham

• 2x daily to Dublin
• 5x daily to Belfast City

Bristol

• 3x daily to Dublin
• 6x weekly to Cork

Cardiff

• Daily to Belfast City

East Midlands

• 2x daily to Belfast City

Edinburgh

• 5x daily to Dublin
• 4x daily to Belfast City

Exeter

• 5x weekly to Dublin
• 5x weekly to Belfast City

Glasgow

• 4x daily to Dublin
• 2x daily to Belfast City

Isle of Man

• Daily to Dublin
• 3x weekly to Belfast City

Leeds Bradford

• 3x daily to Dublin
• 3x daily to Belfast City

Liverpool

• 2x daily to Dublin

Manchester

• 3x daily to Dublin
• 4x daily to Belfast City

Newcastle

• Daily to Dublin
• Daily to Belfast City

Newquay

• 4x weekly to Dublin
• 4x weekly to Belfast City

Southampton

• 3x daily to Dublin
• 3x daily to Belfast City

You can book for cash or Avios on aerlingus.com here.

You can find out more about the airline (but not book) on the Emerald Airlines site here.

How to earn Avios from UK credit cards (January 2024)

As a reminder, there are various ways of earning Avios points from UK credit cards.  Many cards also have generous sign-up bonuses!

In February 2022, Barclaycard launched two exciting new Barclaycard Avios Mastercard cards with a bonus of up to 25,000 Avios. You can apply here.

You qualify for the bonus on these cards even if you have a British Airways American Express card:

Barclaycard Avios Plus Mastercard

Get 25,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher at £10,000 Read our full review

Barclaycard Avios Mastercard

5,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher at £20,000 Read our full review

There are two official British Airways American Express cards with attractive sign-up bonuses:

British Airways American Express Premium Plus

25,000 Avios and the famous annual 2-4-1 voucher Read our full review

British Airways American Express

5,000 Avios for signing up and an Economy 2-4-1 voucher for spending £12,000 Read our full review

You can also get generous sign-up bonuses by applying for American Express cards which earn Membership Rewards points. These points convert at 1:1 into Avios.

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold

Your best beginner’s card – 20,000 points, FREE for a year & four airport lounge passes Read our full review

The Platinum Card from American Express

40,000 bonus points and a huge range of valuable benefits – for a fee Read our full review

Run your own business?

We recommend Capital On Tap for limited companies. You earn 1 Avios per £1 which is impressive for a Visa card, along with a sign-up bonus worth 10,500 Avios.

Capital On Tap Business Rewards Visa

Get a 10,000 points bonus plus an extra 500 points for our readers Read our full review

You should also consider the British Airways Accelerating Business credit card. This is open to sole traders as well as limited companies and has a 30,000 Avios sign-up bonus.

British Airways Accelerating Business American Express

30,000 Avios sign-up bonus – plus annual bonuses of up to 30,000 Avios Read our full review

There are also generous bonuses on the two American Express Business cards, with the points converting at 1:1 into Avios. These cards are open to sole traders as well as limited companies.

American Express Business Platinum

40,000 points bonus and an annual £200 Amex Travel credit Read our full review

American Express Business Gold

20,000 points sign-up bonus and free for a year Read our full review

Click here to read our detailed summary of all UK credit cards which earn Avios. This includes both personal and small business cards.

In case you are heading off to Ireland for the Bank Holiday, I thought we’d run through it for you as we understand it.  And it isn’t simple.

In Heathrow:

Aer Lingus has a pleasant lounge in Heathrow Terminal 2.  We reviewed it here.

The rule here is that British Airways Silver or Gold cardholders can use the Aer Lingus lounge at Heathrow.

Your ticket does NOT need to be issued by BA and it does NOT need to be a BA codeshare.  If you have BA status, even a super-cheap ticket booked on aerlingus.com will do the job. No guests are allowed.

In Dublin, Shannon or Cork:

Again, British Airways Executive Club Silver or Gold cardholders can use the Aer Lingus lounge in Dublin or Shannon.  It doesn’t matter if your ticket has an Aer Lingus or British Airways flight number.

But ….

…. this only works if you are flying to Heathrow or Gatwick.  If you fly from Dublin to, say, Manchester you will not get Aer Lingus lounge access in Ireland with a British Airways status card.

The comments below suggest that you can also use the Aspire lounge (the Aer Lingus contract lounge) in Cork with a British Airways Silver or Gold card if flying to London.

In Gatwick or Belfast:

And to confuse matters further …. Aer Lingus has no lounges in Gatwick or Belfast.  However, if you have a British Airways Gold card, you can use the British Airways lounges. In Belfast, this means the Aspire contract lounge used by BA.

No guests are allowed.  More importantly, your ticket must have a British Airways flight number AND have been issued by BA (the ticket number will start 125-).  An Aer Lingus ticket with an EI flight number will not get you in.

British Airways Silver cardholders do not get into the Gatwick or Belfast lounges in any scenario, irrespective of who issued their Aer Lingus ticket.

Glad we got that cleared up …..

How to earn Avios from UK credit cards (January 2024)

As a reminder, there are various ways of earning Avios points from UK credit cards.  Many cards also have generous sign-up bonuses!

In February 2022, Barclaycard launched two exciting new Barclaycard Avios Mastercard cards with a bonus of up to 25,000 Avios. You can apply here.

You qualify for the bonus on these cards even if you have a British Airways American Express card:

Barclaycard Avios Plus Mastercard

Get 25,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher at £10,000 Read our full review

Barclaycard Avios Mastercard

5,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher at £20,000 Read our full review

There are two official British Airways American Express cards with attractive sign-up bonuses:

British Airways American Express Premium Plus

25,000 Avios and the famous annual 2-4-1 voucher Read our full review

British Airways American Express

5,000 Avios for signing up and an Economy 2-4-1 voucher for spending £12,000 Read our full review

You can also get generous sign-up bonuses by applying for American Express cards which earn Membership Rewards points. These points convert at 1:1 into Avios.

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold

Your best beginner’s card – 20,000 points, FREE for a year & four airport lounge passes Read our full review

The Platinum Card from American Express

40,000 bonus points and a huge range of valuable benefits – for a fee Read our full review

Run your own business?

We recommend Capital On Tap for limited companies. You earn 1 Avios per £1 which is impressive for a Visa card, along with a sign-up bonus worth 10,500 Avios.

Capital On Tap Business Rewards Visa

Get a 10,000 points bonus plus an extra 500 points for our readers Read our full review

You should also consider the British Airways Accelerating Business credit card. This is open to sole traders as well as limited companies and has a 30,000 Avios sign-up bonus.

British Airways Accelerating Business American Express

30,000 Avios sign-up bonus – plus annual bonuses of up to 30,000 Avios Read our full review

There are also generous bonuses on the two American Express Business cards, with the points converting at 1:1 into Avios. These cards are open to sole traders as well as limited companies.

American Express Business Platinum

40,000 points bonus and an annual £200 Amex Travel credit Read our full review

American Express Business Gold

20,000 points sign-up bonus and free for a year Read our full review

Click here to read our detailed summary of all UK credit cards which earn Avios. This includes both personal and small business cards.

Both routes will commence operations next summer and are from Dublin.

Flights to Denver, Colorado will begin on 17th May 2024. This is a new route for Aer Lingus and will operate four times a week – Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Sunday – under the following schedule:

• EI59 departs Dublin at 4:15pm and arrives in Denver at 7pm
• EI60 departs Denver at 8:45pm and arrives in Dublin at 12:30pm the following day

Aer Lingus will also resume flights to Minneapolis – St Paul. The route will resume on 29th April 2024 starting as a four-weekly service before increasing to daily from October 2024. Initially flights will be operated on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays:

• EI89 departs Dublin at 2:20pm and arrives in Minneapolis at 4:55pm
• EI88 departs Minneapolis at 6:45pm and arrives in Dublin at 8:25am the following morning.

Both routes will initially be served with wide-body Airbus A330s, although Minneapolis will be down-gauged to a single-aisle Airbus A321XLR once additional aircraft arrive in Winter 2024. Rob and I have reviewed both aircraft:

• Review of Aer Lingus business class on the A330
• Review of Aer Lingus business class on the A321LR

Whilst Aer Lingus doesn’t give any guarantees over Avios availability, and it is often very hard to find premium seats on prime US routes such as New York, there is often more availability to secondary cities.

You can check times and pricing on the Aer Lingus website here.

Spoiler alert!

Amusingly, just a few hours after the Aer Lingus announcement, Delta Air Lines announced that it was also starting Dublin to Minneapolis-Saint Paul flights.

It will start on 9th May – eight days after Aer Lingus – and will operate five flights per week. This flight will be bookable with Virgin Points although Delta is well known for making virtually no Business Class availability to partners.

How to earn Avios from UK credit cards (January 2024)

As a reminder, there are various ways of earning Avios points from UK credit cards.  Many cards also have generous sign-up bonuses!

In February 2022, Barclaycard launched two exciting new Barclaycard Avios Mastercard cards with a bonus of up to 25,000 Avios. You can apply here.

You qualify for the bonus on these cards even if you have a British Airways American Express card:

Barclaycard Avios Plus Mastercard

Get 25,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher at £10,000 Read our full review

Barclaycard Avios Mastercard

5,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher at £20,000 Read our full review

There are two official British Airways American Express cards with attractive sign-up bonuses:

British Airways American Express Premium Plus

25,000 Avios and the famous annual 2-4-1 voucher Read our full review

British Airways American Express

5,000 Avios for signing up and an Economy 2-4-1 voucher for spending £12,000 Read our full review

You can also get generous sign-up bonuses by applying for American Express cards which earn Membership Rewards points. These points convert at 1:1 into Avios.

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold

Your best beginner’s card – 20,000 points, FREE for a year & four airport lounge passes Read our full review

The Platinum Card from American Express

40,000 bonus points and a huge range of valuable benefits – for a fee Read our full review

Run your own business?

We recommend Capital On Tap for limited companies. You earn 1 Avios per £1 which is impressive for a Visa card, along with a sign-up bonus worth 10,500 Avios.

Capital On Tap Business Rewards Visa

Get a 10,000 points bonus plus an extra 500 points for our readers Read our full review

You should also consider the British Airways Accelerating Business credit card. This is open to sole traders as well as limited companies and has a 30,000 Avios sign-up bonus.

British Airways Accelerating Business American Express

30,000 Avios sign-up bonus – plus annual bonuses of up to 30,000 Avios Read our full review

There are also generous bonuses on the two American Express Business cards, with the points converting at 1:1 into Avios. These cards are open to sole traders as well as limited companies.

American Express Business Platinum

40,000 points bonus and an annual £200 Amex Travel credit Read our full review

American Express Business Gold

20,000 points sign-up bonus and free for a year Read our full review

Click here to read our detailed summary of all UK credit cards which earn Avios. This includes both personal and small business cards.

If you were thinking of visiting Philadelphia next spring, there are two business class seats per flight available virtually every day between January and March on Aer Lingus from Dublin.

I’m not here to recommend Philadelphia in January or not – I’m guessing it could be chilly – but late March / potentially April if the seats are there should be better. I simply want to use it as an example.

If you were planning on booking Aer Lingus in business class, here is my review of Aer Lingus A321LR business class. Here is Rhys reviewing one of the A330 Aer Lingus business class routes from Manchester.

There are two ways of booking Aer Lingus redemption flights

Aer Lingus flights are now bookable on ba.com so this is where you would logically decide to start.

If you want to use a British Airways American Express 2-4-1 voucher on Aer Lingus (which you now can, plus Iberia), you MUST book on ba.com.

You’ll get a bad deal, but you’ve got no choice!

This isn’t where Aer Lingus frequent flyers book their redemptions though. They use the avios.com website, which is also used by Vueling Club members.

You can’t just go to avios.com and log in with your British Airways Executive Club account details. You need to open an Aer Lingus Aer Club or Vueling Club account (free, on their respective websites) and then use ‘Combine My Avios’ on avios.com to move your points across from British Airways Executive Club.

Moving Avios is free, instant and can be reversed if needed.

A full HfP article on using ‘Combine My Avios’ is here.

Look at how ba.com rips you off when booking Aer Lingus flights

I did dummy bookings for business class flights using Avios between Dublin and Philadelphia. By starting in Dublin and not London you can avoid long haul UK Air Passenger Duty, albeit that you need to buy a ticket to Dublin.

Using ba.com:

• Dublin to Philadelphia, return in Business: 100,000 Avios + £419

• Dublin to Philadelphia, one way in Business: 50,000 Avios + £221

• Philadelphia to Dublin, one way in Business: 50,000 Avios + £691, screenshot below

If we swap over to the avios.com website to book exactly the same flights:

Using avios.com:

• Dublin to Philadelphia, return in Business: 100,000 Avios + £241 (save £178)

• Dublin to Philadelphia, one way in Business: 50,000 Avios + £132 (save £89)

• Philadelphia to Dublin, one way in Business: 50,000 Avios + £108 (screenshot below, save £583!)

The savings in taxes and charges are huge. A couple flying from Dublin to Philadelphia and back in business class would save £356 in charges by booking at avios.com.

The really scary saving is the one you get if booking a one way flight from Philadelphia to Dublin. The £691 taxes and charges bill drops to £108 if you use the avios.com website.

Even avios.com is a bit of a swizz though ….

United Airlines is, intriguingly, an Aer Lingus partner. This is despite the fact that United Airlines is in Star Alliance and Aer Lingus, whilst not in an alliance, has a parent aligned with oneworld.

Let’s look at what it would cost to book using United Airlines miles. Here is a screenshot showing Philadelphia to Dublin, one way, in Business:

The same flight which costs 50,000 Avios + £691 via ba.com, and 50,000 Avios + £108 via avios.com, costs just 88,000 United MileagePlus miles + $5. Avios.com is still pocketing over £100 of random charges.

How to earn Avios from UK credit cards (January 2024)

As a reminder, there are various ways of earning Avios points from UK credit cards.  Many cards also have generous sign-up bonuses!

In February 2022, Barclaycard launched two exciting new Barclaycard Avios Mastercard cards with a bonus of up to 25,000 Avios. You can apply here.

You qualify for the bonus on these cards even if you have a British Airways American Express card:

Barclaycard Avios Plus Mastercard

Get 25,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher at £10,000 Read our full review

Barclaycard Avios Mastercard

5,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher at £20,000 Read our full review

There are two official British Airways American Express cards with attractive sign-up bonuses:

British Airways American Express Premium Plus

25,000 Avios and the famous annual 2-4-1 voucher Read our full review

British Airways American Express

5,000 Avios for signing up and an Economy 2-4-1 voucher for spending £12,000 Read our full review

You can also get generous sign-up bonuses by applying for American Express cards which earn Membership Rewards points. These points convert at 1:1 into Avios.

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold

Your best beginner’s card – 20,000 points, FREE for a year & four airport lounge passes Read our full review

The Platinum Card from American Express

40,000 bonus points and a huge range of valuable benefits – for a fee Read our full review

Run your own business?

We recommend Capital On Tap for limited companies. You earn 1 Avios per £1 which is impressive for a Visa card, along with a sign-up bonus worth 10,500 Avios.

Capital On Tap Business Rewards Visa

Get a 10,000 points bonus plus an extra 500 points for our readers Read our full review

You should also consider the British Airways Accelerating Business credit card. This is open to sole traders as well as limited companies and has a 30,000 Avios sign-up bonus.

British Airways Accelerating Business American Express

30,000 Avios sign-up bonus – plus annual bonuses of up to 30,000 Avios Read our full review

There are also generous bonuses on the two American Express Business cards, with the points converting at 1:1 into Avios. These cards are open to sole traders as well as limited companies.

American Express Business Platinum

40,000 points bonus and an annual £200 Amex Travel credit Read our full review

American Express Business Gold

20,000 points sign-up bonus and free for a year Read our full review

Click here to read our detailed summary of all UK credit cards which earn Avios. This includes both personal and small business cards.

The route was pulled during the pandemic and did not return – until now.

Online reports, first spotted by @Enilria6 on X I think, state that Aer Lingus has filed the route, although it is not yet bookable.

Flights would begin on 29th April and operate four days per week. It was operated on a Boeing 757 before the pandemic.

As this is Aer Lingus, seats would be bookable on Avios when available.

How to earn Avios from UK credit cards (January 2024)

As a reminder, there are various ways of earning Avios points from UK credit cards.  Many cards also have generous sign-up bonuses!

In February 2022, Barclaycard launched two exciting new Barclaycard Avios Mastercard cards with a bonus of up to 25,000 Avios. You can apply here.

You qualify for the bonus on these cards even if you have a British Airways American Express card:

Barclaycard Avios Plus Mastercard

Get 25,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher at £10,000 Read our full review

Barclaycard Avios Mastercard

5,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher at £20,000 Read our full review

There are two official British Airways American Express cards with attractive sign-up bonuses:

British Airways American Express Premium Plus

25,000 Avios and the famous annual 2-4-1 voucher Read our full review

British Airways American Express

5,000 Avios for signing up and an Economy 2-4-1 voucher for spending £12,000 Read our full review

You can also get generous sign-up bonuses by applying for American Express cards which earn Membership Rewards points. These points convert at 1:1 into Avios.

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold

Your best beginner’s card – 20,000 points, FREE for a year & four airport lounge passes Read our full review

The Platinum Card from American Express

40,000 bonus points and a huge range of valuable benefits – for a fee Read our full review

Run your own business?

We recommend Capital On Tap for limited companies. You earn 1 Avios per £1 which is impressive for a Visa card, along with a sign-up bonus worth 10,500 Avios.

Capital On Tap Business Rewards Visa

Get a 10,000 points bonus plus an extra 500 points for our readers Read our full review

You should also consider the British Airways Accelerating Business credit card. This is open to sole traders as well as limited companies and has a 30,000 Avios sign-up bonus.

British Airways Accelerating Business American Express

30,000 Avios sign-up bonus – plus annual bonuses of up to 30,000 Avios Read our full review

There are also generous bonuses on the two American Express Business cards, with the points converting at 1:1 into Avios. These cards are open to sole traders as well as limited companies.

American Express Business Platinum

40,000 points bonus and an annual £200 Amex Travel credit Read our full review

American Express Business Gold

20,000 points sign-up bonus and free for a year Read our full review

Click here to read our detailed summary of all UK credit cards which earn Avios. This includes both personal and small business cards.

Virgin Atlantic closes its lounge at Newark

As part of its pandemic restructuring, Virgin Atlantic stopped all flights to Newark to focus on New York JFK. In London, of course, it did something similar with the cessation of all London Gatwick services.

Despite this, the Clubhouse lounge at Newark remained open. Under the management of Plaza Premium, it was made available to Priority Pass customers and those willing to buy entry.

According to a US blog, the lounge closed last week. Whilst the message pinned to the door isn’t fully clear, it does give the strong impression that it will not be reopening. It is unlikely that Plaza Premium has closed it with a view to refurbishment, since by all accounts the lounge was in decent condition.

Surprisingly, there are now no Priority Pass lounges in any terminal at Newark Liberty.

Pittsburgh wooing Aer Lingus to add to existing British Airways service

According to a report in the Irish Independent, Pittsburgh International Airport officials have been meeting with Aer Lingus to discuss ‘terms’ (ie a financial incentive) to persuade the airline to launch services to the city.

Whilst British Airways already serves Pittsburgh with six flights per week, the airport believes that demand exists for another service to Europe. Aer Lingus has ordered a number of A321XLR aircraft which will allow it to expand its current single aisle services from the US East Coast to more cities which could not fill a standard twin aisle aircraft.

The first Aer Lingus A321XLR aircraft is due to arrive next year, although this could be impacted by new design changes imposed by the EU which will reduce the flying range.

How to earn Avios from UK credit cards (January 2024)

As a reminder, there are various ways of earning Avios points from UK credit cards.  Many cards also have generous sign-up bonuses!

In February 2022, Barclaycard launched two exciting new Barclaycard Avios Mastercard cards with a bonus of up to 25,000 Avios. You can apply here.

You qualify for the bonus on these cards even if you have a British Airways American Express card:

Barclaycard Avios Plus Mastercard

Get 25,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher at £10,000 Read our full review

Barclaycard Avios Mastercard

5,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher at £20,000 Read our full review

There are two official British Airways American Express cards with attractive sign-up bonuses:

British Airways American Express Premium Plus

25,000 Avios and the famous annual 2-4-1 voucher Read our full review

British Airways American Express

5,000 Avios for signing up and an Economy 2-4-1 voucher for spending £12,000 Read our full review

You can also get generous sign-up bonuses by applying for American Express cards which earn Membership Rewards points. These points convert at 1:1 into Avios.

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold

Your best beginner’s card – 20,000 points, FREE for a year & four airport lounge passes Read our full review

The Platinum Card from American Express

40,000 bonus points and a huge range of valuable benefits – for a fee Read our full review

Run your own business?

We recommend Capital On Tap for limited companies. You earn 1 Avios per £1 which is impressive for a Visa card, along with a sign-up bonus worth 10,500 Avios.

Capital On Tap Business Rewards Visa

Get a 10,000 points bonus plus an extra 500 points for our readers Read our full review

You should also consider the British Airways Accelerating Business credit card. This is open to sole traders as well as limited companies and has a 30,000 Avios sign-up bonus.

British Airways Accelerating Business American Express

30,000 Avios sign-up bonus – plus annual bonuses of up to 30,000 Avios Read our full review

There are also generous bonuses on the two American Express Business cards, with the points converting at 1:1 into Avios. These cards are open to sole traders as well as limited companies.

American Express Business Platinum

40,000 points bonus and an annual £200 Amex Travel credit Read our full review

American Express Business Gold

20,000 points sign-up bonus and free for a year Read our full review

Click here to read our detailed summary of all UK credit cards which earn Avios. This includes both personal and small business cards.

Keep up to date with the latest UK credit card bonuses by signing up for our free daily or weekly newsletters.

Whilst we don’t write about it much, Aer Lingus has its own Avios-earning credit card.

Our full review of the Aer Lingus Aer Credit Card, issued by Bank of Ireland, is here. It’s not very attractive – a terrible earning rate of 1 Avios per €4 spent and a €108 annual fee when you include the Government Stamp Duty.

On the upside, there are some decent soft benefits:

• 2 free Aer Lingus tickets EVERY YEAR for spending €5,000 on the card (taxes apply)
• 2 Fast Track & Priority Boarding passes every year
• 2 lounge passes
• Worldwide multi-trip travel insurance including winter sports

I’m not going to analyse the value of these soft benefits in detail because our review does it well enough.

For only the third time ever, I think, Bank of Ireland is offering a sign-up bonus on this card.

Until 18th August 2023, new cardholders who spend €1,000 by 18th October 2023 will receive a bonus of 5,000 Avios.

When you factor in the lounge passes and the two free short-haul flights, I think the card now becomes reasonable value for the first year. Whilst UK residents may find the earning rate very weak, there isn’t a lot of competition in the Irish market. I’d be reconsidering my options after the first year, however.

You can find out more, and apply, on the Bank of Ireland website here.

Want to earn more points from credit cards? – January 2024 update

If you are looking to apply for a new credit card, here are our top recommendations based on the current sign-up bonuses.

In February 2022, Barclaycard launched two exciting new Barclaycard Avios Mastercard cards with a bonus of up to 25,000 Avios. You can apply here.

You qualify for the bonus on these cards even if you have a British Airways American Express card:

Barclaycard Avios Plus Mastercard

Get 25,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher at £10,000 Read our full review

Barclaycard Avios Mastercard

5,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher at £20,000 Read our full review

You can see our full directory of all UK cards which earn airline or hotel points here. Here are the best of the other deals currently available.

British Airways American Express Premium Plus

25,000 Avios and the famous annual 2-4-1 voucher Read our full review

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold

Your best beginner’s card – 20,000 points, FREE for a year & four airport lounge passes Read our full review

The Platinum Card from American Express

40,000 bonus points and a huge range of valuable benefits – for a fee Read our full review

Virgin Atlantic Reward+ Mastercard

15,000 bonus points and 1.5 points for every £1 you spend Read our full review

Earning miles and points from small business cards

If you are a sole trader or run a small company, you may also want to check out these offers:

British Airways Accelerating Business American Express

30,000 Avios sign-up bonus – plus annual bonuses of up to 30,000 Avios Read our full review

American Express Business Platinum

40,000 points bonus and an annual £200 Amex Travel credit Read our full review

American Express Business Gold

20,000 points sign-up bonus and free for a year Read our full review

Capital On Tap Business Rewards Visa

Get a 10,000 points bonus plus an extra 500 points for our readers Read our full review

For a non-American Express option, we also recommend the Barclaycard Select Cashback card for sole traders and small businesses. It is FREE and you receive 1% cashback on your spending.

Barclaycard Select Cashback credit card

2% cashback on all your business spend for 3 months (1% thereafter) and no annual fee Read our full review

• New York (daily, year round)
• Orlando (daily, year round)

You can get £200 off business class transatlantic fares departing from Manchester.

You can also get £100 off economy transatlantic flights from Manchester.

There is also a seasonal service to Barbados which is excluded from this offer.

See here for Rhys’ positive review of the Aer Lingus Barbados flight in Business Class.

If your US flight shows it operating on an Airbus A321LR aircraft – a single aisle plane – you need my recent review of an Aer Lingus flight from Dublin to New York. The seat works well and the layout is good for solo travellers – especially if you can get a ‘throne’ seat – as well as couples and family groups.

The sale rules are:

• book by 23rd June
• travel between 1st July and 31st October

Business class sample prices were not highlighted online but I found Manchester to New York for £1,567 return (the £200 discount is included in this price) which is good for the current market.

As a reminder, Aer Lingus flights earn Avios in AerClub (Aer Lingus’ loyalty programme) at the rate of 3 per €1 or 4 per £1 spent.  This is based on the cash price of your flight, excluding Government taxes. You can see a detailed guide on earning Avios with Aer Lingus in this article here.

Go to this page on the Aer Lingus website to find out more.

How to earn Avios from UK credit cards (January 2024)

As a reminder, there are various ways of earning Avios points from UK credit cards.  Many cards also have generous sign-up bonuses!

In February 2022, Barclaycard launched two exciting new Barclaycard Avios Mastercard cards with a bonus of up to 25,000 Avios. You can apply here.

You qualify for the bonus on these cards even if you have a British Airways American Express card:

Barclaycard Avios Plus Mastercard

Get 25,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher at £10,000 Read our full review

Barclaycard Avios Mastercard

5,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher at £20,000 Read our full review

There are two official British Airways American Express cards with attractive sign-up bonuses:

British Airways American Express Premium Plus

25,000 Avios and the famous annual 2-4-1 voucher Read our full review

British Airways American Express

5,000 Avios for signing up and an Economy 2-4-1 voucher for spending £12,000 Read our full review

You can also get generous sign-up bonuses by applying for American Express cards which earn Membership Rewards points. These points convert at 1:1 into Avios.

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold

Your best beginner’s card – 20,000 points, FREE for a year & four airport lounge passes Read our full review

The Platinum Card from American Express

40,000 bonus points and a huge range of valuable benefits – for a fee Read our full review

Run your own business?

We recommend Capital On Tap for limited companies. You earn 1 Avios per £1 which is impressive for a Visa card, along with a sign-up bonus worth 10,500 Avios.

Capital On Tap Business Rewards Visa

Get a 10,000 points bonus plus an extra 500 points for our readers Read our full review

You should also consider the British Airways Accelerating Business credit card. This is open to sole traders as well as limited companies and has a 30,000 Avios sign-up bonus.

British Airways Accelerating Business American Express

30,000 Avios sign-up bonus – plus annual bonuses of up to 30,000 Avios Read our full review

There are also generous bonuses on the two American Express Business cards, with the points converting at 1:1 into Avios. These cards are open to sole traders as well as limited companies.

American Express Business Platinum

40,000 points bonus and an annual £200 Amex Travel credit Read our full review

American Express Business Gold

20,000 points sign-up bonus and free for a year Read our full review

Click here to read our detailed summary of all UK credit cards which earn Avios. This includes both personal and small business cards.

There is only one snag – the offer is from Aer Lingus and not British Airways. This means that:

• you will need to have an Aer Lingus AerClub account to receive the Avios

• once you have them, you will need to use ‘Combine My Avios’ (this is how it works) to move them from AerClub to British Airways Executive Club

You will receive 1,000 bonus Avios with your rental. This is in addition to the usual Aer Lingus rate of 5 Avios per €1.

The rules are:

• you must rent a Group C car or above
• you must rent for 3+ days
• you must book by 31st May
• you must pick up your rental by 30th June
• you must either book at cars.aerlingus.com or add the relevant Aer Lingus CWD discount codes to your booking if made at avis.com

The offer is valid at ‘participating’ locations in Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Asia and North America. Some franchised outlets will not participate – this is likely to be the case in locations such as Jersey. Any booking from a mainstream international airport or city centre location should be fine.

The deal is not valid on Prestige, Van or Chauffeur Drive rentals.

You find out more at the Aer Lingus car rental website here.

PS. Did you know that you can now earn Avios when you rent cars with Hertz, SIXT, Europcar and Rentalcars.com? You need to credit your rental to a Qatar Privilege Club account and transfer the Avios to British Airways. This article tells you more.

How to earn Avios from UK credit cards (January 2024)

As a reminder, there are various ways of earning Avios points from UK credit cards.  Many cards also have generous sign-up bonuses!

In February 2022, Barclaycard launched two exciting new Barclaycard Avios Mastercard cards with a bonus of up to 25,000 Avios. You can apply here.

You qualify for the bonus on these cards even if you have a British Airways American Express card:

Barclaycard Avios Plus Mastercard

Get 25,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher at £10,000 Read our full review

Barclaycard Avios Mastercard

5,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher at £20,000 Read our full review

There are two official British Airways American Express cards with attractive sign-up bonuses:

British Airways American Express Premium Plus

25,000 Avios and the famous annual 2-4-1 voucher Read our full review

British Airways American Express

5,000 Avios for signing up and an Economy 2-4-1 voucher for spending £12,000 Read our full review

You can also get generous sign-up bonuses by applying for American Express cards which earn Membership Rewards points. These points convert at 1:1 into Avios.

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold

Your best beginner’s card – 20,000 points, FREE for a year & four airport lounge passes Read our full review

The Platinum Card from American Express

40,000 bonus points and a huge range of valuable benefits – for a fee Read our full review

Run your own business?

We recommend Capital On Tap for limited companies. You earn 1 Avios per £1 which is impressive for a Visa card, along with a sign-up bonus worth 10,500 Avios.

Capital On Tap Business Rewards Visa

Get a 10,000 points bonus plus an extra 500 points for our readers Read our full review

You should also consider the British Airways Accelerating Business credit card. This is open to sole traders as well as limited companies and has a 30,000 Avios sign-up bonus.

British Airways Accelerating Business American Express

30,000 Avios sign-up bonus – plus annual bonuses of up to 30,000 Avios Read our full review

There are also generous bonuses on the two American Express Business cards, with the points converting at 1:1 into Avios. These cards are open to sole traders as well as limited companies.

American Express Business Platinum

40,000 points bonus and an annual £200 Amex Travel credit Read our full review

American Express Business Gold

20,000 points sign-up bonus and free for a year Read our full review

Click here to read our detailed summary of all UK credit cards which earn Avios. This includes both personal and small business cards.

After British Airways moved from Terminal 7 to Terminal 8 at the end of last year, Aer Lingus is moving the other way.

From 27th April, Aer Lingus flights to Ireland and Manchester will move from Terminal 5 to Terminal 7.

The change is already partly underway. As of yesterday, Aer Lingus flights from Manchester to New York JFK are landing at Terminal 7. The return flights are still departing from Terminal 5 until 27th April.

This is bad news for anyone with an onward connection on JetBlue since the two airlines are no longer together in Terminal 5. It doesn’t make a lot of difference for anyone connecting to or from American Airlines, since the transfer will now be between Terminal 7 and Terminal 8 rather than Terminal 5 and Terminal 8.

Aer Lingus is moving into The Concorde Room lounge

Aer Lingus needs a lounge in Terminal 7 and it has decided to take over the old British Airways Concorde Room, the most premium lounge in the terminal. This has been empty since British Airways moved out late last year.

Here is our last review of The Concorde Room from 2016.

I very much doubt that Aer Lingus will be running a table service restaurant here, but let’s see!

The lounge is open to Business Class passengers as well as AerClub Silver, Platinum and Concierge members. You will not get in using British Airways Executive Club status, even though they are sister airlines. No other oneworld status card will work either, as Aer Lingus is not part of the alliance.

You can find the lounge by Gate 1. Opening hours and further details are on the Aer Lingus website here.

It will be interesting to see if JetBlue takes over the old Aer Lingus lounge in Terminal 5. You may be surprised to hear that people spending four figures for business class ‘Mint’ seats between the US and Heathrow, Gatwick, Paris and – soon – Amsterdam get no lounge access.

How to earn Avios from UK credit cards (January 2024)

As a reminder, there are various ways of earning Avios points from UK credit cards.  Many cards also have generous sign-up bonuses!

In February 2022, Barclaycard launched two exciting new Barclaycard Avios Mastercard cards with a bonus of up to 25,000 Avios. You can apply here.

You qualify for the bonus on these cards even if you have a British Airways American Express card:

Barclaycard Avios Plus Mastercard

Get 25,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher at £10,000 Read our full review

Barclaycard Avios Mastercard

5,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher at £20,000 Read our full review

There are two official British Airways American Express cards with attractive sign-up bonuses:

British Airways American Express Premium Plus

25,000 Avios and the famous annual 2-4-1 voucher Read our full review

British Airways American Express

5,000 Avios for signing up and an Economy 2-4-1 voucher for spending £12,000 Read our full review

You can also get generous sign-up bonuses by applying for American Express cards which earn Membership Rewards points. These points convert at 1:1 into Avios.

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold

Your best beginner’s card – 20,000 points, FREE for a year & four airport lounge passes Read our full review

The Platinum Card from American Express

40,000 bonus points and a huge range of valuable benefits – for a fee Read our full review

Run your own business?

We recommend Capital On Tap for limited companies. You earn 1 Avios per £1 which is impressive for a Visa card, along with a sign-up bonus worth 10,500 Avios.

Capital On Tap Business Rewards Visa

Get a 10,000 points bonus plus an extra 500 points for our readers Read our full review

You should also consider the British Airways Accelerating Business credit card. This is open to sole traders as well as limited companies and has a 30,000 Avios sign-up bonus.

British Airways Accelerating Business American Express

30,000 Avios sign-up bonus – plus annual bonuses of up to 30,000 Avios Read our full review

There are also generous bonuses on the two American Express Business cards, with the points converting at 1:1 into Avios. These cards are open to sole traders as well as limited companies.

American Express Business Platinum

40,000 points bonus and an annual £200 Amex Travel credit Read our full review

American Express Business Gold

20,000 points sign-up bonus and free for a year Read our full review

Click here to read our detailed summary of all UK credit cards which earn Avios. This includes both personal and small business cards.

Aer Lingus currently flies direct from Manchester to New York, Orlando and Barbados. We reviewed the Aer Lingus Manchester to Barbados flight here, photo above.

To quote:

“We’ve made huge in-roads into the Manchester-North American market,” according to Embleton.

In 2019, Aer Lingus had a 3pc share of the transatlantic market from Manchester, with all that traffic at the time transferring to US destinations via Dublin. The collapse of Thomas Cook that year provided the catalyst for Aer Lingus’ entry to the Manchester direct transatlantic market.

This year, Aer Lingus expects its transatlantic market share in Manchester to be about 20pc, with the vast majority of passengers travelling directly to destinations such as New York, Orlando and Barbados. IAG revealed earlier this month that Manchester accounted for 13pc of all Aer Lingus transatlantic capacity in 2022 and 8pc of Aer Lingus capacity across its entire network.

“If customers can fly direct, they will want to fly direct,” says the Aer Lingus boss. “To be able to provide that direct service to them is good for us, for them, but it also builds the Aer Lingus brand awareness.”

She says there are “plenty of other places” in the US that customers in the northern UK want to fly to.

“It makes Aer Lingus more front of mind when they think about flights,” she believes. “I think it’s a win-win for us. I can see Manchester growing many-fold for us.”

The airline has six more A321XLR aircraft on order, for delivery from late 2024, which will add to the current long-haul fleet of 23 planes and allow further growth.

How to earn Avios from UK credit cards (January 2024)

As a reminder, there are various ways of earning Avios points from UK credit cards.  Many cards also have generous sign-up bonuses!

In February 2022, Barclaycard launched two exciting new Barclaycard Avios Mastercard cards with a bonus of up to 25,000 Avios. You can apply here.

You qualify for the bonus on these cards even if you have a British Airways American Express card:

Barclaycard Avios Plus Mastercard

Get 25,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher at £10,000 Read our full review

Barclaycard Avios Mastercard

5,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher at £20,000 Read our full review

There are two official British Airways American Express cards with attractive sign-up bonuses:

British Airways American Express Premium Plus

25,000 Avios and the famous annual 2-4-1 voucher Read our full review

British Airways American Express

5,000 Avios for signing up and an Economy 2-4-1 voucher for spending £12,000 Read our full review

You can also get generous sign-up bonuses by applying for American Express cards which earn Membership Rewards points. These points convert at 1:1 into Avios.

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold

Your best beginner’s card – 20,000 points, FREE for a year & four airport lounge passes Read our full review

The Platinum Card from American Express

40,000 bonus points and a huge range of valuable benefits – for a fee Read our full review

Run your own business?

We recommend Capital On Tap for limited companies. You earn 1 Avios per £1 which is impressive for a Visa card, along with a sign-up bonus worth 10,500 Avios.

Capital On Tap Business Rewards Visa

Get a 10,000 points bonus plus an extra 500 points for our readers Read our full review

You should also consider the British Airways Accelerating Business credit card. This is open to sole traders as well as limited companies and has a 30,000 Avios sign-up bonus.

British Airways Accelerating Business American Express

30,000 Avios sign-up bonus – plus annual bonuses of up to 30,000 Avios Read our full review

There are also generous bonuses on the two American Express Business cards, with the points converting at 1:1 into Avios. These cards are open to sole traders as well as limited companies.

American Express Business Platinum

40,000 points bonus and an annual £200 Amex Travel credit Read our full review

American Express Business Gold

20,000 points sign-up bonus and free for a year Read our full review

Click here to read our detailed summary of all UK credit cards which earn Avios. This includes both personal and small business cards.

PLAY adds Glasgow to Reykjavik flights

Icelandic budget airline PLAY is adding a new service from Glasgow to Reykjavik.

Flights will start on 26th May. There will be four flights per week for most of the season, with a dip to three in some weeks in September and October.

PLAY flies from Reykjavik to Boston, Washington, Baltimore, New York (Stewart) and Toronto and the flights will be timed to connect to these services. The airline has a decent reputation although it is definitely one for the price sensitive and not time sensitive.

Flights, including long haul, are ‘economy only’ although you can pay for rows with extra legroom.

You can find out more on the PLAY website here where there is a special introductory offer.

Aer Lingus adds Liverpool to Dublin flights

Emerald Airlines, the Aer Lingus Regional franchise operator, seems to be adding new routes virtually every week at the moment.

This is good news for anyone with Avios to redeem, as these flights are bookable on points via ba.com. You can also book via aerlingus.com and – instead of booking a straight redemption – use Avios for a cash discount off any flight (this is tricky to set up – instructions here).

The latest route to launch is Liverpool to Dublin.

There will be 11 flights per week with services starting on 27th April.

You can book on aerlingus.com here.

How to earn Avios from UK credit cards (January 2024)

As a reminder, there are various ways of earning Avios points from UK credit cards.  Many cards also have generous sign-up bonuses!

In February 2022, Barclaycard launched two exciting new Barclaycard Avios Mastercard cards with a bonus of up to 25,000 Avios. You can apply here.

You qualify for the bonus on these cards even if you have a British Airways American Express card:

Barclaycard Avios Plus Mastercard

Get 25,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher at £10,000 Read our full review

Barclaycard Avios Mastercard

5,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher at £20,000 Read our full review

There are two official British Airways American Express cards with attractive sign-up bonuses:

British Airways American Express Premium Plus

25,000 Avios and the famous annual 2-4-1 voucher Read our full review

British Airways American Express

5,000 Avios for signing up and an Economy 2-4-1 voucher for spending £12,000 Read our full review

You can also get generous sign-up bonuses by applying for American Express cards which earn Membership Rewards points. These points convert at 1:1 into Avios.

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold

Your best beginner’s card – 20,000 points, FREE for a year & four airport lounge passes Read our full review

The Platinum Card from American Express

40,000 bonus points and a huge range of valuable benefits – for a fee Read our full review

Run your own business?

We recommend Capital On Tap for limited companies. You earn 1 Avios per £1 which is impressive for a Visa card, along with a sign-up bonus worth 10,500 Avios.

Capital On Tap Business Rewards Visa

Get a 10,000 points bonus plus an extra 500 points for our readers Read our full review

You should also consider the British Airways Accelerating Business credit card. This is open to sole traders as well as limited companies and has a 30,000 Avios sign-up bonus.

British Airways Accelerating Business American Express

30,000 Avios sign-up bonus – plus annual bonuses of up to 30,000 Avios Read our full review

There are also generous bonuses on the two American Express Business cards, with the points converting at 1:1 into Avios. These cards are open to sole traders as well as limited companies.

American Express Business Platinum

40,000 points bonus and an annual £200 Amex Travel credit Read our full review

American Express Business Gold

20,000 points sign-up bonus and free for a year Read our full review

Click here to read our detailed summary of all UK credit cards which earn Avios. This includes both personal and small business cards.

Emerald is launching its first flights from Cork with a new 6x weekly service to Bristol. Flights will start on 28th April, with no services on Saturday.

It is also launching flights from Belfast City to the Isle of Man. Flights will start on 24th April, initially with five per week but increasing to six per week for the Summer peak.

Tickets are now available on the Aer Lingus website. Instructions on how to use Avios to book Aer Lingus flights are in this article.

Emerald Airlines now has over 2.5 million seats on sale for 2023, with 28 routes planned to 17 destinations across the UK, Ireland and Channel Islands.

How to earn Avios from UK credit cards (January 2024)

As a reminder, there are various ways of earning Avios points from UK credit cards.  Many cards also have generous sign-up bonuses!

In February 2022, Barclaycard launched two exciting new Barclaycard Avios Mastercard cards with a bonus of up to 25,000 Avios. You can apply here.

You qualify for the bonus on these cards even if you have a British Airways American Express card:

Barclaycard Avios Plus Mastercard

Get 25,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher at £10,000 Read our full review

Barclaycard Avios Mastercard

5,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher at £20,000 Read our full review

There are two official British Airways American Express cards with attractive sign-up bonuses:

British Airways American Express Premium Plus

25,000 Avios and the famous annual 2-4-1 voucher Read our full review

British Airways American Express

5,000 Avios for signing up and an Economy 2-4-1 voucher for spending £12,000 Read our full review

You can also get generous sign-up bonuses by applying for American Express cards which earn Membership Rewards points. These points convert at 1:1 into Avios.

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold

Your best beginner’s card – 20,000 points, FREE for a year & four airport lounge passes Read our full review

The Platinum Card from American Express

40,000 bonus points and a huge range of valuable benefits – for a fee Read our full review

Run your own business?

We recommend Capital On Tap for limited companies. You earn 1 Avios per £1 which is impressive for a Visa card, along with a sign-up bonus worth 10,500 Avios.

Capital On Tap Business Rewards Visa

Get a 10,000 points bonus plus an extra 500 points for our readers Read our full review

You should also consider the British Airways Accelerating Business credit card. This is open to sole traders as well as limited companies and has a 30,000 Avios sign-up bonus.

British Airways Accelerating Business American Express

30,000 Avios sign-up bonus – plus annual bonuses of up to 30,000 Avios Read our full review

There are also generous bonuses on the two American Express Business cards, with the points converting at 1:1 into Avios. These cards are open to sole traders as well as limited companies.

American Express Business Platinum

40,000 points bonus and an annual £200 Amex Travel credit Read our full review

American Express Business Gold

20,000 points sign-up bonus and free for a year Read our full review

Click here to read our detailed summary of all UK credit cards which earn Avios. This includes both personal and small business cards.

Somewhat confusingly, the five different loyalty programmes don’t share an Avios ‘bank’. Instead, each individual account you have acts as a unique points bank. In theory, you could have a separate stash of Avios sitting with British Airways, Iberia, Qatar Airways and Aer Lingus / Vueling.

Moving Avios between the various programmes can be complicated because there isn’t one single way of doing it. Moving Avios from the Executive Club to Qatar Privilege Club is entirely different to moving Avios to AerClub. This guide should help.

Why should you want to move Avios between five different frequent flyer schemes?

As a Head for Points reader, you have a 90%+ chance of using British Airways Executive Club as your main Avios frequent flyer scheme. Why would you bother with the others?

The answers relate to both ‘earn’ and ‘burn’.

Each programme has its own unique partners. This is especially true with Qatar Airways, which has a huge list of partners (airline, hotel and car hire) for earning and spending Avios which are unique. The full list of ‘new’ partners Qatar Airways brings is here.

If you want to earn or spend Avios on Virgin Australia, for example, you need to do it via a Qatar Privilege Club account.

If you want to earn (but not spend) Avios from United Airlines flights, you can only do it via an Aer Lingus AerClub account.

There are plenty of other examples like this – here is an article showing all 30 airlines which you can book with Avios, and which frequent flyer scheme you need to use to do so.

By connecting your Avios accounts, you are able to transfer Avios back and forth as many times as you like between the different programmes. Each transfer is free and instantaneous.

Note that you will only be able to transfer Avios to other accounts in your name using this method. This article looks at how you can transfer Avios to another person.

How to transfer your Avios to/from Qatar Privilege Club

Before you can transfer your Avios to Qatar Airways or vice versa, you first need to link up your British Airways Executive Club and Qatar Privilege Club accounts. If you don’t already have a Qatar Privilege Club account, click here to open one.

(Make sure your personal details match on both accounts so you can link them smoothly. I am told by Qatar Airways that there must be a match of first name, surname and date of birth and I would suggest using the same email address too.)

Once you’ve opened a Privilege Club account, head to this page on the Qatar Airways website where you should see a prompt to connect your BA Executive Club account like this:

Once you’ve gone through the linking process you should be able to see your total Avios balance across both Privilege Club and Executive Club:

To initiate the transfer of Avios from Qatar Privilege Club to British Airways Executive Club or vice versa, click the ‘Combine Avios’ button under ‘More to explore’. It will take you to this page:

You can move as many or as few Avios as you like. You don’t have to transfer Avios in round numbers as the amount you transfer is a text field rather than a drop-down of options.

To transfer Avios from Qatar Airways to British Airways, just click on the reversible arrows.

Avios transfers between British Airways Executive Club and Qatar Privilege Club are instantaneous. Of course, you can always transfer them back if you change your mind.

Before you transfer Avios to Qatar Privilege Club ….

There’s one thing to note. In theory, you can book Qatar Airways redemptions on ba.com for the same number of Avios and the same taxes as you’ll find on the Qatar Airways website. You don’t need to move your Avios to Qatar Privilege Club, and there are some benefits (easier cancellation, easier changes) to booking via ba.com.

Due to IT quirks, however, you may find different availability between the two sites so it is worth checking both. Qatar Airways also releases ‘double Avios’ redemptions where those who are willing to pay 2x the standard Avios rate get access to a wider pool of reward seats.

Want to transfer Avios from Iberia, Aer Lingus or Vueling to Qatar Privilege Club?

At present, you can only link a British Airways Executive Club account to Qatar Privilege Club.

If your Avios are with Iberia, Aer Lingus or Vueling, you would need to move them into a British Airways Executive Club account via the routes explained below and then transfer them from BA to Qatar Privilege Club.

How to transfer Avios to/from Iberia Plus

The process for transferring Avios to Iberia Plus is similar, although there are a few more rules you need to be mindful of.

You can cannot move Avios into or out of an Iberia Plus account unless:

• the Iberia Plus account is 90 days old and
• the Iberia Plus has ‘earned’ at least 1 Avios

The easiest way to have the account ‘earn’ an Avios is to transfer 1,000 American Express Membership Rewards points.  You could also credit a British Airways or oneworld flight to the account, credit an Avis or Budget car rental or transfer some hotel points.

If this applies to you, you need to wait until your Iberia Plus account meets both of the criteria above before carrying on with the transfer process. For this reason, we recommend opening an Iberia Plus account now, even if you don’t need it yet. You’ll thank us later.

Once you’ve got an Iberia Plus account that is over 90 days old and has earned at least one Avios you head head to the Iberia Combine My Avios page here.

Click on the button at the bottom and you’ll be taken to this page:

Simply select which programme you’d like to transfer Avios to and log in with the details from that programme. (‘Avios Partners’ is for transfers to Aer Lingus and Vueling.)

You can select how many Avios to transfer, and in which direction (ie BA to Iberia or Iberia to BA):

That’s it. The Avios should transfer immediately.

If this process doesn’t work, it may be that there is a mismatch with your personal details on both accounts. Make sure that your date of birth, first name, second name and email address are identical.

If you want to transfer Avios to/from Qatar Privilege Club to Iberia Plus, you need to transfer them to a British Airways Executive Club account as an intermediary step. It cannot be done in a single transfer.

How to transfer Avios to Aer Lingus AerClub or Vueling Club

Due to the size of the airlines and their redemption opportunities you’re less likely to need to transfer Avios to Aer Lingus AerClub or Vueling Club, but we’ve included them for completeness.

Here are a few reasons why you may need an Aer Lingus or Vueling account:

• you are booking a cash flight on Aer Lingus or Vueling and want to part-pay the flight using Avios (you can pay 100% of the cost using Avios, including taxes and charges – your flight can be genuinely ‘free’)

• you are flying a heavily discounted Aer Lingus flight, which is likely to earn zero Avios if credited to British Airways Executive Club but will earn in Aer Lingus AerClub

• you are flying on Vueling, which only earns Avios when credited to Vueling Club

Here’s an important point to note: Aer Lingus AerClub accounts are the same as Vueling Club accounts. Only the branding is different – both have account numbers starting 3081xxxxxxxxxxx. You can log in with either at aerlingus.com or vueling.com and it will pull up your Avios balance. There is no reason why you would need a separate AerClub and Vueling Club account.

Unlike British Airways, Iberia or Qatar Airways, neither Aer Lingus nor Vueling manage their own Avios redemption infrastructure. Instead, it is centralised on avios.com.

If you don’t already have an Aer Lingus AerClub account, open one here. Alternatively, you can open a Vueling Club account here. Make sure to use the same date of birth, name, address and email address as your other Avios accounts.

Once that’s set up you can head to avios.com and log in using the same credentials.

After logging in, click on ‘Manage my account’ to bring up the following menu:

Once again, you’ll want to click on ‘Combine my Avios’. You’ll then get the option to transfer Avios from either your BA Executive Club account or Iberia Plus:

The process is the same as for Iberia Plus: you simply log into your Iberia or British Airways account, select how many Avios you want to transfer and in which direction and click through to the confirmation page. The transfer is free and instant.

Conclusion

Moving your Avios between the five different frequent flyer schemes which use it is – by far – not as simple as it could be.

On the upside, because each programme has a high degree of independence, it is able to cut its own partnership deals and have its own flight redemption structure. This allows the switched-on flyer to benefit from the sweet spots that each programme offers.

How to earn Avios from UK credit cards (January 2024)

As a reminder, there are various ways of earning Avios points from UK credit cards.  Many cards also have generous sign-up bonuses!

In February 2022, Barclaycard launched two exciting new Barclaycard Avios Mastercard cards with a bonus of up to 25,000 Avios. You can apply here.

You qualify for the bonus on these cards even if you have a British Airways American Express card:

Barclaycard Avios Plus Mastercard

Get 25,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher at £10,000 Read our full review

Barclaycard Avios Mastercard

5,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher at £20,000 Read our full review

There are two official British Airways American Express cards with attractive sign-up bonuses:

British Airways American Express Premium Plus

25,000 Avios and the famous annual 2-4-1 voucher Read our full review

British Airways American Express

5,000 Avios for signing up and an Economy 2-4-1 voucher for spending £12,000 Read our full review

You can also get generous sign-up bonuses by applying for American Express cards which earn Membership Rewards points. These points convert at 1:1 into Avios.

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold

Your best beginner’s card – 20,000 points, FREE for a year & four airport lounge passes Read our full review

The Platinum Card from American Express

40,000 bonus points and a huge range of valuable benefits – for a fee Read our full review

Run your own business?

We recommend Capital On Tap for limited companies. You earn 1 Avios per £1 which is impressive for a Visa card, along with a sign-up bonus worth 10,500 Avios.

Capital On Tap Business Rewards Visa

Get a 10,000 points bonus plus an extra 500 points for our readers Read our full review

You should also consider the British Airways Accelerating Business credit card. This is open to sole traders as well as limited companies and has a 30,000 Avios sign-up bonus.

British Airways Accelerating Business American Express

30,000 Avios sign-up bonus – plus annual bonuses of up to 30,000 Avios Read our full review

There are also generous bonuses on the two American Express Business cards, with the points converting at 1:1 into Avios. These cards are open to sole traders as well as limited companies.

American Express Business Platinum

40,000 points bonus and an annual £200 Amex Travel credit Read our full review

American Express Business Gold

20,000 points sign-up bonus and free for a year Read our full review

Click here to read our detailed summary of all UK credit cards which earn Avios. This includes both personal and small business cards.

Ryanair adds flights to Venice from five UK regional airports

Whilst we don’t usually cover Ryanair, we do like to cover Venice. Getting there will be easier and/or cheaper this Summer with Ryanair announcing five new routes from UK regional airports.

For Summer 2023 (we didn’t get the exact start and end dates) you can fly to Venice from:

• Birmingham (two flights per week)
• Bournemouth (two flights per week)
• Bristol (four flights per week)
• Edinburgh (three flights per week)
• Manchester (three flights per week)

Fares start at £29.99 each way.

Aer Lingus moves Knock flights to Heathrow

Aer Lingus has announced that its flights between Knock and London Gatwick will move to Heathrow from the start of the Summer flying season at the end of March.

There will be one flight per day, leaving Heathrow around 11am and leaving Knock around 1pm.

Passengers with booked tickets will be transferred over to the new route. Refunds are also available, as are transfers to Dublin to London Gatwick flights.

These are ‘mainline’ Aer Lingus flights, operated with standard Airbus short haul aircraft, and are not part of the Emerald Airways franchised operation.

…. and adds Belfast City to East Midlands and Newcastle

Talking of Emerald Airways and its Aer Lingus Regional franchise, it is adding flights from Belfast City to East Midlands Airport and Newcastle Airport.

This fills the gap left by the collapse of Flybe last weekend, and means that all of the ex-Flybe routes from Belfast City are now being served again.

Belfast City to East Midlands starts on 26th March with 1-2 daily flights.

Belfast City to Newcastle starts on 28th April with one daily flight.

You can earn and spend Avios on Aer Lingus and Aer Lingus Regional flights.

How to earn Avios from UK credit cards (January 2024)

As a reminder, there are various ways of earning Avios points from UK credit cards.  Many cards also have generous sign-up bonuses!

In February 2022, Barclaycard launched two exciting new Barclaycard Avios Mastercard cards with a bonus of up to 25,000 Avios. You can apply here.

You qualify for the bonus on these cards even if you have a British Airways American Express card:

Barclaycard Avios Plus Mastercard

Get 25,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher at £10,000 Read our full review

Barclaycard Avios Mastercard

5,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher at £20,000 Read our full review

There are two official British Airways American Express cards with attractive sign-up bonuses:

British Airways American Express Premium Plus

25,000 Avios and the famous annual 2-4-1 voucher Read our full review

British Airways American Express

5,000 Avios for signing up and an Economy 2-4-1 voucher for spending £12,000 Read our full review

You can also get generous sign-up bonuses by applying for American Express cards which earn Membership Rewards points. These points convert at 1:1 into Avios.

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold

Your best beginner’s card – 20,000 points, FREE for a year & four airport lounge passes Read our full review

The Platinum Card from American Express

40,000 bonus points and a huge range of valuable benefits – for a fee Read our full review

Run your own business?

We recommend Capital On Tap for limited companies. You earn 1 Avios per £1 which is impressive for a Visa card, along with a sign-up bonus worth 10,500 Avios.

Capital On Tap Business Rewards Visa

Get a 10,000 points bonus plus an extra 500 points for our readers Read our full review

You should also consider the British Airways Accelerating Business credit card. This is open to sole traders as well as limited companies and has a 30,000 Avios sign-up bonus.

British Airways Accelerating Business American Express

30,000 Avios sign-up bonus – plus annual bonuses of up to 30,000 Avios Read our full review

There are also generous bonuses on the two American Express Business cards, with the points converting at 1:1 into Avios. These cards are open to sole traders as well as limited companies.

American Express Business Platinum

40,000 points bonus and an annual £200 Amex Travel credit Read our full review

American Express Business Gold

20,000 points sign-up bonus and free for a year Read our full review

Click here to read our detailed summary of all UK credit cards which earn Avios. This includes both personal and small business cards.

Our full review of the Aer Lingus Aer Credit Card, issued by Bank of Ireland, is here. It’s not very attractive – a terrible earning rate of 1 Avios per €4 spent and a €125 annual fee when you include the Government Stamp Duty.

On the upside, there are some decent soft benefits:

• 2 free Aer Lingus tickets EVERY YEAR for spending €5,000 on the card (taxes apply)
• 2 Fast Track & Priority Boarding passes every year
• 2 lounge passes
• Worldwide multi-trip travel insurance including winter sports

I’m not going to analyse the value of these soft benefits in detail because our review does it well enough.

For only the second time ever, I think, Bank of Ireland is offering a sign-up bonus on this card.

Until 16th February 2023, new cardholders who spend €1,000 by 16th May 2023 will receive a bonus of 5,000 Avios.

When you factor in the lounge passes and the two free short-haul flights, I think the card now becomes reasonable value for the first year. Whilst UK residents may find the earning rate very weak, there isn’t a lot of competition in the Irish market. I’d be reconsidering my options after the first year, however.

You can find out more, and apply, on the Bank of Ireland website here.

As you can now use ‘new style’ American Express 2-4-1 companion vouchers on Aer Lingus, and you can use those vouchers for a flight departing outside the UK, this is a good low tax redemption option.

I will eat humble pie for being rude about the lack of Aer Lingus business class reward availability in recent articles!

As there is no easy way of showing availability across the weeks (you can use United Airlines but this isn’t always a perfect match with what ba.com offers) I randomly took the 10th of the month between Dublin and Boston:

10th March – yes, there are seats in Business Class:

10th April – yes, there are seats in Business Class:

10th May – yes, there are seats in Business Class:

You get the idea! There appear to be up to two business class seats available per flight.

Availability is also meant to be better than usual to New York JFK and Toronto. You may get lucky on other routes too.

What are the taxes and charges from Dublin?

Here you go:

It’s 100,0000 Avios + £298.30 for one person from Dublin. Using a 2-4-1 companion voucher would make it 100,000 Avios + just under £600 for a couple. You need to add the cost of getting to and from Dublin of course.

IMPORTANT: If you are NOT using a 2-4-1 voucher then do not book on ba.com. Use the avios.com portal instead, where taxes will be £50 per person lower. This article explains how to move your Avios to avios.com.

Remember that you clear US customs and immigration in Dublin, as I explained in this article. You land at a domestic gate in the US and walk straight out of the airport.

We desperately need SeatSpy to add coverage for Aer Lingus and Iberia to allow us to maximise the value of our American Express 2-4-1 companion vouchers by easily showing when Aer Lingus has reward seats.

Our latest review of Aer Lingus A330 business class is here. Our latest review of Aer Lingus ‘single aisle’ A321LR business class is here. The seats are the same on both aircraft – it is just the layout which differs.

You can see a full list of Aer Lingus routes to the United States in this article.

How to earn Avios from UK credit cards (January 2024)

As a reminder, there are various ways of earning Avios points from UK credit cards.  Many cards also have generous sign-up bonuses!

In February 2022, Barclaycard launched two exciting new Barclaycard Avios Mastercard cards with a bonus of up to 25,000 Avios. You can apply here.

You qualify for the bonus on these cards even if you have a British Airways American Express card:

Barclaycard Avios Plus Mastercard

Get 25,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher at £10,000 Read our full review

Barclaycard Avios Mastercard

5,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher at £20,000 Read our full review

There are two official British Airways American Express cards with attractive sign-up bonuses:

British Airways American Express Premium Plus

25,000 Avios and the famous annual 2-4-1 voucher Read our full review

British Airways American Express

5,000 Avios for signing up and an Economy 2-4-1 voucher for spending £12,000 Read our full review

You can also get generous sign-up bonuses by applying for American Express cards which earn Membership Rewards points. These points convert at 1:1 into Avios.

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold

Your best beginner’s card – 20,000 points, FREE for a year & four airport lounge passes Read our full review

The Platinum Card from American Express

40,000 bonus points and a huge range of valuable benefits – for a fee Read our full review

Run your own business?

We recommend Capital On Tap for limited companies. You earn 1 Avios per £1 which is impressive for a Visa card, along with a sign-up bonus worth 10,500 Avios.

Capital On Tap Business Rewards Visa

Get a 10,000 points bonus plus an extra 500 points for our readers Read our full review

You should also consider the British Airways Accelerating Business credit card. This is open to sole traders as well as limited companies and has a 30,000 Avios sign-up bonus.

British Airways Accelerating Business American Express

30,000 Avios sign-up bonus – plus annual bonuses of up to 30,000 Avios Read our full review

There are also generous bonuses on the two American Express Business cards, with the points converting at 1:1 into Avios. These cards are open to sole traders as well as limited companies.

American Express Business Platinum

40,000 points bonus and an annual £200 Amex Travel credit Read our full review

American Express Business Gold

20,000 points sign-up bonus and free for a year Read our full review

Click here to read our detailed summary of all UK credit cards which earn Avios. This includes both personal and small business cards.

Remember that these calendars apply to the operating airline and not to where you book your flight.  An Iberia flight uses the Iberia calendar even if you book it via ba.com instead of iberia.com. (You shouldn’t do this, by the way, because taxes are higher if you book Iberia long-haul flights on ba.com instead of iberia.com.)

You can refer to this table at any time by clicking on the ‘Avios’ menu in the menu bar.

What if I am booking a partner airline such as Qatar Airways?

You need to remember that partner airlines are charged at peak rates at all times.  This applies to American Airlines, Qantas, Cathay Pacific, Finnair etc.

You can see the British Airways partner chart here if you want to know how many Avios are needed for flights on oneworld airlines.

Qatar Airways operates off a totally different chart which is not made public.

Where do the Avios peak and off-peak calendars differ?

I have reproduced the calendars below.  You will note that there are substantial differences between them. Especially when travelling during school holidays on a route served by both by BA and Iberia or Aer Lingus, it may well be cheaper to book away from British Airways.

Aer Lingus is always peak over Christmas, New Year, Easter and the Summer. It is always off-peak at other dates.

British Airways is far more granular with most months seeing a mix of peak and off-peak dates.

There are different peak periods around school holidays. UK bank holidays and half terms tend not to be peak on the Iberia and Aer Lingus calendars.

Of course …. you can only benefit from this if Iberia or Aer Lingus flies to your chosen destination, and you are happy transiting via Madrid or Dublin. Aer Lingus has launched its direct flights from Manchester to New York, Orlando and Barbados (Boston was dropped) and this will provide some good opportunities to save Avios on flights to the US.

It IS now possible to use a British Airways American Express 2-4-1 companion voucher if you fly with Iberia or Aer Lingus.

The 2023 British Airways peak and off-peak Avios calendar

For 2023:

Click here to subscribe to the calendar on your device.

You can see the British Airways Avios redemption pricing chart here although this doesn’t reflect the recent changes to long haul pricing which give you an option of ‘more Avios, less cash’.

The 2023 Iberia peak and off-peak Avios calendar

For 2023:

Click here to subscribe to the calendar on your device.

You can see the Iberia reward flight pricing chart here.

The article looks at where you can fly long-haul on Iberia.

The 2023 Aer Lingus peak and off-peak Avios calendar

For 2023:

and for 2024:

Click here to subscribe to the calendars on your device.

You can see the Aer Lingus reward flight pricing chart here.

The article looks at where you can fly long-haul on Aer Lingus.

One caveat …. these tables were put together at different times as the data became available. There is a chance that there have been some changes since.

How to earn Avios from UK credit cards (January 2024)

As a reminder, there are various ways of earning Avios points from UK credit cards.  Many cards also have generous sign-up bonuses!

In February 2022, Barclaycard launched two exciting new Barclaycard Avios Mastercard cards with a bonus of up to 25,000 Avios. You can apply here.

You qualify for the bonus on these cards even if you have a British Airways American Express card:

Barclaycard Avios Plus Mastercard

Get 25,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher at £10,000 Read our full review

Barclaycard Avios Mastercard

5,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher at £20,000 Read our full review

There are two official British Airways American Express cards with attractive sign-up bonuses:

British Airways American Express Premium Plus

25,000 Avios and the famous annual 2-4-1 voucher Read our full review

British Airways American Express

5,000 Avios for signing up and an Economy 2-4-1 voucher for spending £12,000 Read our full review

You can also get generous sign-up bonuses by applying for American Express cards which earn Membership Rewards points. These points convert at 1:1 into Avios.

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold

Your best beginner’s card – 20,000 points, FREE for a year & four airport lounge passes Read our full review

The Platinum Card from American Express

40,000 bonus points and a huge range of valuable benefits – for a fee Read our full review

Run your own business?

We recommend Capital On Tap for limited companies. You earn 1 Avios per £1 which is impressive for a Visa card, along with a sign-up bonus worth 10,500 Avios.

Capital On Tap Business Rewards Visa

Get a 10,000 points bonus plus an extra 500 points for our readers Read our full review

You should also consider the British Airways Accelerating Business credit card. This is open to sole traders as well as limited companies and has a 30,000 Avios sign-up bonus.

British Airways Accelerating Business American Express

30,000 Avios sign-up bonus – plus annual bonuses of up to 30,000 Avios Read our full review

There are also generous bonuses on the two American Express Business cards, with the points converting at 1:1 into Avios. These cards are open to sole traders as well as limited companies.

American Express Business Platinum

40,000 points bonus and an annual £200 Amex Travel credit Read our full review

American Express Business Gold

20,000 points sign-up bonus and free for a year Read our full review

Click here to read our detailed summary of all UK credit cards which earn Avios. This includes both personal and small business cards.