Booking Aer Lingus With Avios

Posted by Reward Flight Finder on May 18th, 2021

Booking Aer Lingus with Avios is a great way to redeem airline points for reward flights.  Reward flights are airline tickets you book with loyalty points instead of cash, you only have to pay the taxes and any service fees or surcharges. The great news is that the taxes payable on flights from Ireland with Aer Lingus are typically far lower than for BA flights from the United Kingdom. Aer Lingus has a strong route network, particularly to North America and whilst it doesn’t offer the fanciest cabin service in the skies, the long-haul product is pretty good for the price. For example, you can fly Dublin to Philadelphia in business class for just £122 in taxes and 50,000 Avios points.

Another benefit of flying Aer Lingus to the USA is that, when flying from Dublin or Shannon airports, you can clear US immigration and customs in Ireland, arriving in the States as a domestic passenger. Which is a compelling proposition, since few people claim to enjoy the experience of arriving at a US airport as an international passenger!

Aer Lingus Avios are no different to Avios earned with other airlines or participating partners. In fact, strictly speaking, there is no such thing as “Aer Lingus Avios”. Avios is a points based loyalty rewards scheme operated by International Airlines Group (IAG) which owns Aer Lingus, along with British Airways, Iberia, Vueling and Level. So there is nothing preventing a loyal Avios collector, who holds their points within a British Airways Executive Club, or Iberia Plus, account benefitting from Aer Lingus reward flights, since the Irish flag carrier also uses Avios as its loyalty reward currency for frequent flyers.

So, how do you use Avios to book Aer Lingus reward flights?

Well, the first thing to know is that you can’t book a reward flight directly on the Aer Lingus website or by logging directly into an account with the airline’s loyalty programme, Aer Club. Nor can you book via BA.com.

If you are a BA Executive Club member, you can phone British Airways to book a reward flight on Aer Lingus, but this can be a hassle, particularly since call waiting times have increased since the coronavirus pandemic. 

So the easiest thing to do, for anyone who isn’t already an Aer Lingus AerClub member, is to open a free AerClub account.  Then, you can use your AerClub credentials to sign in on Avios.com. 

Avios.com isn’t the easiest website to use, so you might prefer to use a reward flight tracker website to discover availability and confirm how many Avios you will need to redeem, then sign-in to Avios.com once you already know the flights you’d like to book.

Once you’re signed into your AerClub account via Avios.com, you can find the Aer Lingus flights you want and check book them, redeeming the number of Avios required for your route and cabin class.

If the Avios you need are in a British Airways Executive Club or Iberia Plus account, you can transfer Avios across into Aer Club on Avios.com, using the Combine my Avios feature. To do this, you’ll have to sign into your other loyalty account(s) and then transfer the points over.

So in short, redeeming Avios for reward flights on Aer Lingus can seem a bit fiddly, compared to BA, but in truth is quite simple. The tax savings and simpler US immigration process make Aer Lingus an attractive option for anyone looking to save money on a trip to North America using Avios points.