Early last year it was announced that IAG would be taking over Aer Lingus. For those of you not familiar, IAG is the parent company of British Airways, Iberia, and Vueling. As part of this, Aer Lingus also announced that they would rebrand their loyalty program, which would be joining the "Avios" scheme. The new…
Continue reading: Aer Lingus Doesn’t Understand How A Distance Based Award Chart Works
Share your questions, experiences, and thoughts below.
Woah these awards are expensive, under gold circle, my Gold Circle points were worth so much more
It's a disgrace. It's tiring when airlines penalise passengers for making small errors in a reservation or such yet when it suits them they just bend the rules for themselves and at the cost of the customer.
A distance based award chart is just that - distance based. Either change the distance bands or reinstate BOS back where it belongs.
I really hope you get a reply from Aer Lingus as to why they have taken this action. It stinks.
according to the gcmapper BOS-DUB is 2993 miles.
It does seem especially unfair for them to create this one particular exception though
Same deal for BA making "exception" to charge 7500 avios for <600 miles flights within north america.
What a joke.
This didn't need to be this difficult. Zone 4 should have ended at 2,800 and Zone 5 should have begun at 2,801.
MIA-SEA = 2,724
BOS-SNN = 2,889
In BA's defense, they do move some the other way - South Africa and Chile are just two examples
I agree. What is the point of a distance award chart if it isn't accurate. I will be giving them less business in the future.
FFS Aer Lingus. For everything it for great, and there's a lot, they do something shockingly boneheaded. It's so well positioned to be a JetBlue type sleeper/player and then they just snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.
For example... no real intra-Europe business class; doubling-down on Shannon and giving Cork (and Belfast if you're considering all-Ireland) short-shrift; this interminable Bataan Death March to adopting avios and rejoining Oneworld.
They're a legit player in Britain and Ireland, Europe and trans-Atlantic, but sometimes act like a little new country's vanity project. Learn from Iberia and BA's missteps and move the hell on. There's so much potential to be a powerhouse. Where BA and Iberia are going (and contrary to many I actually like both airlines), Aer Lingus could be IAG's and Oneworld's silver bullet in Europe if they're willing to be.
Sorry, rant over.
I have been a loyal EI FF'r for over 35 years. Starting with TAB, then Gold Circle. With t recent changes I see no point in remaining. They do not value loyalty and in my opinion, are being directed by greed.
When I saw the changes coming I burned some of my points for a DUB-MCO flight. My "free flight cost me €273.56 which by todays conversion is almost $300.00. When I queried the charges I eventually found out most was a fuel surcharge! & this at a time when fuel has never been cheaper
Compare that with a recent points trip I did using my AA miles. I routed Dublin-Helsinki-Tokyo in Economy, and returned Tokyo - Paris CDG-LHR-DUB in Business class, total cost €175 which is $160
With gold Circle, I was "Gold" which gave me lounge access with my wife when travelling, apparently this is now changed to "Silver" with no lounge access for anyone travelling with me. Although I could be wrong, as the company have not communicated with me in any shape or form re the changes
Aer Lingus have lost the ability to look after loyalty and sadly, after over 35 years I cannot see any reason to stay with the carrier
Hey Lucky! Is BOS to SNN still under 3k miles according to their new calculations?
Looks like their new BDL to DUB route is just over 3k miles..dang, was hoping to fly this route soon and should have pulled the trigger before the changes.
I've used 25k ba avios on bos/dub and snn a number of times. Connected to other cities using 4500 avios. This pretty much ends any incentive to use this during "peak" periods. At least I won't have to put up with their uncomfortable seats and especially their pig food they serve in coach.
Why would anyone have an issue with this? The rules and costs have clearly been defined up front. What if Aer Lingus had made Zone 4 "2000-2800 miles"? Same result, right? Would people still be complaining?
In a world where some programs devalue without notice and/or fail to post award charts, I find it really hard to get worked up about a program with clearly defined redemption values.
You may want to poke into this a bit more. Several friends have used the BOS-DUB Avios sweet spot as a gateway to Europe. As recently as three weeks ago, I had no problem getting business class seats for them for 75K Avios each r/t plus less than $100+ per. But this week, other friends tried it and were quoted more Avios (I can't recall how much more, but thinking it was around 90K) and over $400 per ticket - from the BA call center. I'm wondering if BA has adopted the off-chart treatment of this route that Aer Lingus has. It would make sense since the same currency, although I'm not understanding the rationale for the higher surcharge. Any thoughts?
So frustrating. My fam of 3 redeemed avios on EI last summer and was in early stages of planning a future trip around the sweet spot. What do you expect BA to do with their chart?
Glad you read the fine print! I went to find an award ticket from Boston and couldn't figure out why it kept telling me 100k miles!
Thanks!