Last week I wrote about how Aer Lingus is launching two new transatlantic routes next summer, to Montreal and Minneapolis.
Continue reading: An Incredible New Transatlantic Award Sweet Spot
Share your questions, experiences, and thoughts below.
I think that might be Christmas sorted for me next year. 🙂
Related, is that Amex transfer worth doing? I have a bunch of points there but no real obvious use for them.
If you're not already based in Montreal, any positioning flight adds 7.5k miles minimum on each direction (if paying with miles) for economy and will make this less attractive. Might not be worthwhile for economy if you have other non-stop options in the next band.
Business class is decent and can make sense depending on what you value.
Is there any risk of cabotage? Such as taking Air Canada from the US to position in Montreal to get to Europe?
@ah - Cabotage means flying within a country. What country are you referring to? Aer Lingus is not operating selling any flights wholly within the US or wholly within Canada. Buying / redeeming a ticket to fly from the US to Canada to catch a connecting flight has nothing to do with what cabotage is.
*when Aer Lingus sees this blog post*
Shoot they got us again we’re going to move this up a zone like what we did with BOS BwaHahahahaaaa
Issue is positioning to Montreal. Cash rates are always exorbitant from US to montreal it seems.. more so than even other parts of Canada
@Aaron V. - cash fares LGA-YUL are routinely dirt cheap. Ive done 140 round trip before on AC. Itd have to be a REALLY obscenely priced RT to not make this redemption worth it.
@ah is a classic example of an American trying to use fancy words he/she has no way of knowing what means.
Honey, google cabotage before you try using it, okay? Maybe there's a fat vadge march coming up you can take part in instead of polluting the comments here. Muh recyste.
@William Y. Yes because I remember saying to myself the other day Ah is such an American sounding name.
@William, fat vadge march? Thanks for confirming how easy it is for you to completely misunderstand what's going on.
@GuruJanitor: It costs 6k more in the next band to fly direct from JFK in off-peak. Would you pay $140 (if that's already dirt cheap) to save 6k Avios and add a connection in Montreal (if availability is there for both)? Unless you already have plans to visit Montreal, I suspect, this is absolutely not worthwhile to the vast majority of people.
In peak times, it may make slightly better sense to subject yourself to one additional stop to save 15k round-trip. But then cash prices will likely be higher even for a rather short flight NYC-YUL. So to pay 15k more in miles to fly direct versus to pay a sum def more than $140, might not be as clear cut as you think it.
And I am not even talking about many like me, who need a visa to even TRANSIT AIRSIDE in Canada.
Of course the math will be different with Business class 🙂 But in my view, economy class may not be worthwhile most of the times.
Any idea when EI will be releasing flights past August 27?
Just picked up 2 business and 4 economy for my family of 6 YUL to DUB. Now I just need to get back!
Weird. Not seeing seats past Aug27 on Lingus' website, but they ARE showing in ExpertFlyer
How do you book this once the Amex points are transfered over to the BA Avois account? I know you said you have to call, but where do you search for award space? Thanks