My Experience Redeeming Avios For Aer Lingus Business Class

@Lucky, is the award chart for AerClub the same as Executive Club? Can you transfer points to AerClub like you can to IB Plus? Would there be any advantages?

@Ben - are you not able to transfer BA Avios to Aer Lingus Avios on avios.com and book online?

Yes you can transfer Avios between Aerclub and BAEC like you can with Iberia+, Andrew. The advantage is lower taxes with both of them. Aerclub also has a different On and Off calendar to both BA and Iberia.

Given that you're travelling with your mom, did you get her one of the throne seats as well? Or is she travelling on a different flight?

I do prefer the single windowside seats, though the throne seats sure are great too.

"I thought that only applied when booking through their own program, and not when booking through British Airways."

Remember the Aer Club is entirely on BA's technology, the Aer Lingus folks literally had nothing to do with it. And it seems where any extra programming would have been necessary to support a difference, they didn't bother.

Yep not a coincidence. BA and aer lingus both use EI's peak/off-peak calendar and price the Irish awards accordingly. Well documented as such on Head for Points

Did you run into any phantom availability for Aer Lingus on United.com? I've had that problem in the past and If I recall you've had similar experience as well...

FDW

Silly question, but why didn't you just book with AerClub at avios.com? It's a much better system than BA's archaic IT infrastructure and pricing is much more obvious there. You can move miles back and forth between all 3 avios program with no fees or limits (BA, Iberia, Aer Lingus)

Hi ejg239. Last month, when i priced out a AE on avios.com for MCO-DUB, the tax and charges were twice what i got quoted when calling BA customer service...so there could be a bug in avios.com that will cost you needlessly. Not sure if anyone else ran into that issue when pricing out the award tix on avios.com, which is the same as AerClub as noted.

Head for Points says find the flight on Avios.com then phone in to BA to get the cheapest price dollar amount.

ejg239 - if you book on Avios.com the taxes would be around $300 vs $86. Anecdotally availability is better though.

@Raffles
Potentially silly question: how are the taxes different when booking on avios.com versus phoning BA? Surely being 'taxes', they should be the same regardless of how you book?

To those asking why not join avios.com, I don't believe those based in the US can get an account directly with avios.com.

Luke - 'taxes' are not taxes, in general, they are just random additions. Why, after all, does BA charge fuel surcharges on AA transatlantic redemptions when AA has no fuel surcharges?!

BA (for once) is playing fair and charging the actual taxes figure. Avios.com is charging random figures based on what it can get away with - we have already seen Aer Lingus short hall fees fall because in some cases they were higher than cash tickets.

I do this trip five or six times a month and to be honest, my experience has been great value for money. I prefer the throne seat to the window single on the port side, because (a) the singles are on the port side mean your windows face south on the westbound flight and (b) the ceiling height on an A330 is pretty tight on the true window seats in A. Stick to the throne lucky.

And my understanding is they do peak and off peak. I brought my daughter along last week on Avios and it cost me 60k plus ~$50.

Another thing that bugs the heck out of me about tax and charges on avios.com was that it just gives you one number, with no possibility of breaking it down. I got suspicious in my case and went to ITA Matrix for the same flight and got the breakdown that way, which is confirms what others have been saying. In my mind, they're playing with fire if this was not a bug, as it surely would expose them to some lawsuit not fixed.

I've talked up Aer Lingus on your blog, and I should mention that they have a DUB lounge after US pre-clearance. In terms of standard, think AC lounges; it's better than the one before pre-clearance. Nice Tarmac views, decent amount of power outlets, good service, decent showers.

Why not book on Avios.com? You can see award availability there too. I booked a one way business class ticket from JFK-Dublin back in July and it cost the same in Avios and taxes as when I checked by calling BA, so I just booked it online.

Wow at 40% MR conversion bonus, plus your per USD earnings rate! A measly 1 MR per GBP here, never a conversion bonus, so 1 Avios per GBP!

You are not just lucky. A month ago, I booked ORD to DUB round trip. Surprisingly, it cost me only 20800 avios plus $189. There is nowhere I can find such a deal in BA, UA or avios.com

@Lucky~you should try your best to reply your reader comments, this is not a good behavior in my opinion to ask your readers leave comments but not reply to them, this is just my warm suggestions

@ Pacificohk – Who are you to define "behavior" for a blogger on how to run his blog?

@Alvin~you better go back home to ask your parents sponsor you another business class travel holiday, this is not your business either, thank you for your response

@Alvin~I knew you are a big fan of OMAAT, but please don't copy the whole style of the blogging from Lucky, you only make me sick, teenager always travel business class with the pocket money, pity on your parents

Is it unusual that Aer Lingus no longer allows changes on its reward flights?
I recently booked an Economy ticket and used points to upgrade to business class on a return flight Dublin to Orlando. I needed to date change but they told me I would lose my upgrades if I changed.
This never happened when it was Gold Circle.
Has anyone else encountered this problem?

Lucky,
Is it unusual to be unable to make changes to reward tickets, as in above comment on Aer Lingus?
Thanks