Maximizing British Airways Avios-Fly Aer Lingus to Europe and Avoid Fuel Surcharges

Now, you could also fly airberlin to Germany, but there are substantial fees on those award tickets too. Which brings us to non-oneworld Irish airline partner Aer Lingus. As we mentioned in our prior post, Aer Lingus has its main hubs in Dublin (DUB) and Shannon (SNN), and flies from US gateway cities Boston (BOS), Chicago (ORD), and New York (JFK).

While NYC and Chicago award flights to Dublin or Shannon require the same number of Avios as British Airways flights to London (40,000 Avios rt for coach, 80,000 rt for business), what's interesting is that Boston to Dublin or Shannon is 25,000 Avios. That's because British Airways now has a distance-based award chart:

A flight of 2001-3000 miles is 12,500 Avios one-way, or 25,000 Avios roundtrip, whereas a flight 3001-4000 miles is 20,000 Avios one-way, 40,000 Avios roundtrip. Guess what Boston-Dublin is? That's right, 2993 miles, so it just squeaks in under the 3000 threshold.

But what do fuel surcharges and taxes amount to for Aer Lingus? Unfortunately you can't view Air Lingus availability or fees using the British Airways Web site (because it's not a oneworld partner), so you have to call. It turns out fees for a Boston-Dublin economy roundtrip award ticket are just $146–that's over $500 in fees less than flying British Airways Boston-London, plus, as we noted, BOS-DUB is only 25,000 Avios, so you save 15,000 Avios! That means you could take your spouse, partner or friend to Europe if you get the British Airways Visa and just use it once (e.g. an apple from the grocery store) because you'll receive 50,000 Avios, enough for 2 roundtrip coach tickets from Boston to Dublin! If you have a family of 4, and both you and your spouse or partner get the British Airways Visa, that's 100,000 Avios, enough for 4 roundtrip coach tickets to Dublin from Boston.

Example 5: Aer Lingus Boston-Dublin, Economy Class: 25,000 Avios + $146 in fees

If your trip to Ireland is during the summer peak season, you would be paying about $800-1000 or more roundtrip for an economy ticket. That means that, after subtracting fees from the revenue fare, you'd be getting 2.7 to 3.6 cents per Avios point. That's by no means the highest redemption possible, but it's still quite good, especially for an economy award to Europe. Naturally, NYC-Dublin awards aren't as good value, given the 40,000 Avios points required–Boston to Dublin is comparatively a sweet deal. 

Here's what summer revenue fares on Aer Lingus are running:

Now for the bad news: unfortunately, Aer Lingus does NOT seem to release any business class award seats to partners. Since United also has Aer Lingus as a partner and has an easy to check calendar, we checked every single month from now through next year, and not a single day had any business class availability.  

Also, if you're trying to get over to continental Europe, even though Air Lingus does have a number of direct flights to European destinations, Aer Lingus seems to release very few award seats for intra-Europe flights. You may just need to buy cheap revenue tickets on Aer Lingus or a low cost carrier such as Ryanair to hop over to the continent.

Takeaways:

• If you want to use British Airways Avios to go to Ireland or the UK as cheaply as possible, fly Aer Lingus

• If you only want to go to continental Europe, compare the cost of flying Iberia or airberlin plus any additional cost to get to your destination to the cost of going via Ireland via Aer Lingus. Given how hard it seems to be to get Aer Lingus intra-Europe awards, you may well need to factor in the cost of a flight from Ireland to your European destination.

• To search for Aer Lingus availability you can use the United Web site or ExpertFlyer (paid service, free trial). Here's a search on United.com. You want to ensure there is “Saver Award” availability.

• To book Aer Lingus, you'll need to call the US British Airways Executive Club call center at 800-452-1201 between 7:30am-8pm EST daily. A $25 fee per ticket will apply, even though you can't book Air Lingus online.

• Update: Business Class now seems to be available on Aer Lingus! If you only want to fly business class or first class to Europe, forget Aer Lingus–swallow the high fees and fly British Airways (and hopefully get a free companion ticket by spending $30,000 on the British Airways Visa) since they have the best oneworld product to Europe.