I’m not sure why it took so long, but American Airlines and Aer Lingus will finally launch a partnership.
In this post:
New American & Aer Lingus codeshare agreement
It has today been announced that American Airlines and Aer Lingus will launch a codeshare agreement for flights between the United States and Ireland. With this agreement:
- American Airlines will place its code on Aer Lingus flights between London Heathrow (LHR) and Dublin (DUB), as well as flights to several other destinations in Europe, including Amsterdam (AMS), Birmingham, (BHX), London Gatwick (LGW), and Manchester, UK (MAN)
- Aer Lingus will place its code on American Airlines flights from Chicago (ORD) to Albuquerque (ABQ), Nashville (BNA), Dallas (DFW), Los Angeles (LAX), Seattle (SEA), San Francisco (SFO), San Jose (SJC), and Tucson (TUS)
This is intended to create a more seamless experience for passengers, so that they can easily book itineraries involving both airlines through either carrier’s website.
Further expansion of this codeshare agreement is planned in the future, so this is only the first step. Interestingly Aer Lingus’ new transatlantic flights out of Manchester aren’t part of this initial arrangement.
This development comes after Aer Lingus joined the oneworld transatlantic joint venture last year, which previously just included American, British Airways, Iberia, and Finnair. With Aer Lingus joining the joint venture, all the airlines can share revenue and coordinate fares, schedules, and routes, across the Atlantic.
What about frequent flyer reciprocity?
I’m really confused by the execution of Aer Lingus’ integration into the oneworld transatlantic joint venture. The whole point of these joint ventures is to create as much metal neutrality as possible, which means giving customers an incentive to also travel on partner airlines.
Typically when a joint venture launches (or an airline is added to an existing joint venture), we almost immediately see reciprocal perks between airlines. This includes the ability to earn and redeem miles, take advantage of elite perks, etc.
Oddly today’s announcement includes no mention of any sort of elite perks or reciprocal frequent flyer recognition. Even if it were planned down the road, typically that would be put into the press release. I wouldn’t have expected it to take this long to launch a codeshare agreement, let alone to introduce further perks.
Bottom line
American Airlines and Aer Lingus will finally codeshare. This means that American will market select Aer Lingus flights, and Aer Lingus will market select American flights. This was expected, given that Aer Lingus is now in the oneworld transatlantic joint venture.
Hopefully the next step is reciprocal frequent flyer perks between the two airlines, since that’s a major consideration for some passengers.
What do you make of the new American & Aer Lingus partnership?
Have wondered since 9/11 why the cockpits are open and pilots greeting travelers. Once I stopped and told a pilot that I had just taken a flying lesson.
I hope they can do better than the Alaska-Aer Lingus ff reciprocity. The redemption levels are absolutely ridiculous!
If you're British you have a BAEC acc'. If you're Irish and have an aerclub acc then most smart ff's also have one and credit there to gain status. In which case you'd use BA Silver ( OW Sapphire) or BA Gold ( OW Emerald) to entitle you to associated perks.
If you're in the US then I guess them not publicly stating any perk reciprocity is annoying and a distinct disadvantage. At which...
If you're British you have a BAEC acc'. If you're Irish and have an aerclub acc then most smart ff's also have one and credit there to gain status. In which case you'd use BA Silver ( OW Sapphire) or BA Gold ( OW Emerald) to entitle you to associated perks.
If you're in the US then I guess them not publicly stating any perk reciprocity is annoying and a distinct disadvantage. At which point if time allowed then you'd opt to fly BA eastbound to LHR and then either BA again to DUB or Aer Lingus and pick up the extra miles and sectors while your at it. If you're time sensitive or adverse to connecting off a LH then ok you'd just fly EI and suffer the loss of perks but personally I'd rather the LHR connection and have all my perks than fly direct.
It definitely seems a one-way beneficial partnership while it lacks reciprocity.
Hey Lucky, this isn't on topic for this post but I was wondering if you had any word on whether Chase was extending the enrollment period for the Doordash DashPass benefit. I've seen some reports of the deadline being pushed to March 2022 and was curious if you had any news on this.
They should follow the same model they did with the JetBlue partnership: announce reciprocity and then just...not actually implement it for several years.
Looking forward to redeeming my JetBlue miles on AA sometime in 2025.
Hopefully this means Aer Lingus will return to Miami sooner rather than later.
@Lucky Will this affect the UA partnership?
EI already partners with AA and lots of other airlines (https://www.aerlingus.com/plan-and-book/plan/our-airline-partners/) but only offers the ability to earn Avios on BA and United for some bizarre reason (https://www.aerlingus.com/aerclub/using-aerclub/collecting-avios/#/tab-0-in-the-air). All they every seem to want to do is offer more ways to sell fares and earn cash. They're really not interested in their own frequent flier programme, never mind the programmes of airline partners.
EI already partners with AA and lots of other airlines (https://www.aerlingus.com/plan-and-book/plan/our-airline-partners/) but only offers the ability to earn Avios on BA and United for some bizarre reason (https://www.aerlingus.com/aerclub/using-aerclub/collecting-avios/#/tab-0-in-the-air). All they every seem to want to do is offer more ways to sell fares and earn cash. They're really not interested in their own frequent flier programme, never mind the programmes of airline partners.
My guess is that EI simply isn't capable of delivering "reciprocity" for elites. IT compatibility, archaic systems are likely behind this delay. Anyone who's tried to select seats on a Business class award booking on Lingus can appreciate what I'm saying. One can't even book Lingus awards online from the BA website.
David, Yes you go through security again at DUB but that is routine when transiting through many airports en route to the US. It is even worse within Schengen where you have yet another check.
The bigger problem is that at busy times it can take a long time to get through the immigration and customs pre-clear at DUB. I have seen people miss flights because of that.
So allow plenty of time and then pre-clear is a breeze.
As I understand it, DUB-USA flights require all passengers to re-clear security and there is no Pre-check treatment. So shoes off, liquids out, laptops out. Sounds horrible to me.
I've not had to do this in DUB. There is Pre-Clearance in DUB which is usually pretty good and nice to do before you get on a long haul flight. I have had to do re-clearing from LHR through CDG and that's a nightmare. But mostly long lines and not needing to take off shoes or take electronics out.
It's no different than the standard, "going to the US" extra check anywhere else in Europe.
My problem with DUB is the customs/immigration pre-clearance. While you can normally cruise through with Global Entry, after the check there's no lounge, no real food and I'm reluctant to try and zip in at the last second.
With Global Entry, normal US immigration takes seconds, I'd rather do it at home.
There is a lounge post pre-clearance in DUB, called 51&Green - operated by the airport, but open to eligible FFs of EI, AA, DL and UA
I can see though that people with GE may prefer to clear immigration back in the US
What a random list of AA cities. Albuquerque?
Aer Lingus still have a linkage with United they have to sort out. That’s most likely holding stuff up.
I suspect you are right. I think the UA partnership has to terminate before they are allowed to partner deeply with AA. It’s frustrating!