Aer Lingus ends United Airlines codeshare – and presumably ends Avios earning too

With separate Avios loyalty schemes across the IAG airlines – British Airways Executive Club, Iberia Plus, Aer Lingus AerClub and Vueling Club – plus Qatar Airways and soon Finnair too, each of which have their own partners, you would expect some oddities to turn up.

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.

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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:

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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