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The avios.com website is closing – what happens to Aer Lingus reward bookings?

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It looks like changes are on the way for anyone looking to book Aer Lingus Avios redemptions from an Aer Lingus AerClub account.

The avios.com platform is being retired, it seems, with reward seat booking finally being available at aerlingus.com.

A quick bit of background

Due to IT limitations, members of Aer Lingus AerClub have had an over-complex time when booking Avios redemptions.

If you log in at aerlingus.com, you can use Avios for a discount on any Aer Lingus cash flight. Unlike the equivalent ba.com functionality, you can pay 100% of the cost with Avios – including the taxes and charges element.

If you want to book a ‘standard’ redemption – priced off the Aer Lingus redemption chart, which is very similar to the BA Avios chart – you needed to book at avios.com. This was also the only way to use Avios in AerClub to book British Airways or Iberia flights.

This seems to be changing

The following message now shows at avios.com (click to expand):

You cannot use Avios to book Aer Lingus reward flights at avios.com at present.

What you can do, of course, is move your Avios to a British Airways Executive Club account via ‘Combine My Avios’ and book Aer Lingus redemptions at ba.com. Since last year, there is no difference in taxes and charges between the two booking platforms.

What happens next?

avios.com says:

The way you book Reward Flights for AerClub is being improved, enabling you to book Reward Flights through AerLingus.com instead of Avios.com. These changes will happen shortly.

In theory, the Aer Lingus website will become more like the British Airways site, allowing you to book reward seats directly.

This should hopefully stop the current problem of Aer Lingus reward tickets being issued by British Airways (with ticket numbers starting 125-) which meant they could not be managed online.

You can see the holding message at avios.com here. We’ll let you know when the new Aer Lingus reward booking functionality is up and running.

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Category

Aer Lingus and AerClub

Comments (53)

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

  • Can2 says:
    10 Feb10 February 05:48

    Yeah, good luck with that

  • Ron says:
    10 Feb10 February 06:03

    I managed to book an Aer Lingus reward flight DUBLHR on avios.com yesterday. On BA.com the flight cost the same 4000 avios but taxes/charges were more than double the £11ish on avios.com

  • friendofbiffin says:
    10 Feb10 February 06:32

    My experience is that taxes can still cheaper on avios.com for Aer Lingus flights. Recently booked a Berlin – Dublin return redemption for December which was around £40 per person cheaper on avios the avios website compared to BA but the same number of avios. Anyway, here’s hoping the new Aer Lingus booking functionality will be an upgrade on the flaky avios website.

    • Lady London says:
      10 Feb10 February 10:24

      In the past, despite assurances that this wasn’t supposed to be able to happen, sometimes I would find avios seat availibility on avios.com that ba.com was not showing me – and successfully booked them on avios.com.

  • david says:
    10 Feb10 February 06:33

    Ive struggled to find LAX-DUB even in Y. is there a way to see a range of dates as aa.com doesnt work and they arent on seatspy?

    • Alex Sm says:
      10 Feb10 February 08:18

      Check Ethiopian, they used to have a good deal on this route. My partner and I flew DUB-LAX-DUB with them and the flight was generous with Star Alliance miles

  • Lynn says:
    10 Feb10 February 07:12

    Please can someone provide the link to move avios with aer lingus to BA?

    • Rob says:
      10 Feb10 February 07:26

      Avios.com – look for Combine My Avios

      • Ed says:
        10 Feb10 February 07:42

        I quite regularly move avios from Iberia to aer Lingus and then into Ba using avios.com. Thoughts on other work arounds if/when avios.com closes?

        • fasul says:
          10 Feb10 February 07:46

          You can move Avios directly from IB to BA via Combine my Avios

          • Ed says:
            10 Feb10 February 08:08

            Never managed to get that to work in the past (and I don’t think this is unique to me). So I have to use the aer club / avios.com workaround, as suggested on HFP & others.

          • Lady London says:
            10 Feb10 February 10:27

            hahahahaha the number of times moving avios directly particularly from Iberia to BA, not working, is legion.

            If avios.com disappears as a working bridge to solve this problem then we’re stvffed.

          • Track says:
            10 Feb10 February 18:22

            NOT WORKING online, most of the time and for an unknown reason.

            Sometimes IB –> BA does work (Combine My Avios) form loads up, so I know with confidence that when its not working, it’s not because of details mismatch.

            Calling BA Executive Club to transfer miles (same accs) works.

      • Lynn says:
        10 Feb10 February 08:04

        Thanks, also thank you for the post as I hadn’t realised I had 10,000 avios with aer lingus. This will come in handy with 241 voucher

    • Earthman says:
      10 Feb10 February 08:15

      It’s one of the options under the manage my account tab when you click on that
      If you call them they will also do it for you

  • NigelthePensioner says:
    10 Feb10 February 07:53

    If IAG own BA Iberia and Aer Lingus why dont they make all 3 Avios and be done with it?? Not that Qatar are most welcome having threatened to leave One World – more like one Big Mess!!

    • BA Flyer IHG Stayer says:
      10 Feb10 February 09:30

      You can add Vuelling into that mix as well.

      That is likely the ultimate plan but some way off.

      EI isn’t in One World so that may be a blocker on it until they (eventually) join. Some OW airlines may not want a non OW airline to have access to their reward inventory

      But the IAG ethos is to allow the subsidiaries to do their own thing on a day to day basis and not to micromanage

      Now that Al Bakar isn’t in charge of QR (or chairman of OW) I think it’s going to be more stable. Anyway his ‘were leaving one world’ rants were always countered by his and QRs actions – such as changing their programme to avios. You wouldn’t do that if you were going to leave OW.

  • fasul says:
    10 Feb10 February 07:54

    You can move Avios directly from IB to BA via Combine my Avios. Ne need for avios.com or to use EI as intermediary

    • Peter K says:
      10 Feb10 February 08:40

      Except when it doesn’t work directly but using avios.com as an intermediary does. There are many, many on here that have found this to be the case.

      • NorthernLass says:
        10 Feb10 February 10:00

        Worked perfectly for me yesterday, pleasantly surprised! I tried last week and couldn’t even log in to IB 🤦🏻‍♀️

        • RussellH says:
          10 Feb10 February 10:24

          I have only ever once tried to move avios from IB directly to BA; it was a horrible experience at 20 000 avios disappeared from my IB a/c into a black hole.

          Took about a month of e-mails and phone calls to IB to get it sorted properly.
          Always since used avios.com to move avios as it has always worked without any fuss.

    • Lady London says:
      10 Feb10 February 10:34

      Ah…sweet.
      Takes me back to the days when I was a new frequent flyer.

      Please stay around for a while longer and watch how this turns out. I’ve got the popcorn out 🙂

  • RWC says:
    10 Feb10 February 08:14

    Taxes and charges between ba.com and Avios.com are definitely not aligned.

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