FINALLY! Earn British Airways tier points with Aer Lingus flights

Well, after a few false alarms, it appears that you can now earn British Airways Executive Club tier points with Aer Lingus flights.

There has been no announcement, but as German site travel-dealz.de spotted, it is now made very clear on ba.com that you WILL earn.

You have always been able to earn tier points on Aer Lingus codeshare flights, carrying a BA flight number, but not flights with an EI flight number – which are often cheaper.

Take a look at the airline partner page of ba.com under Aer Lingus.

Aer Lingus flights have been added to the tier point calculator on ba.com.

Here’s what you earn from the Manchester to New York direct flight:

From Dublin to Los Angeles:

From Exeter to Dublin (not sure where the Business fare classes come in, unless you get this as part of a connection to a long haul flight):

Here is a reminder of the Avios-earning chart, which is distance based. The reason this doesn’t match Exeter to Dublin above is that there is a 300 Avios minimum.

You will NOT earn a status bonus on Aer Lingus flights. The Avios below are the Avios you will get, irrespective of whether you are Blue or Gold in the Executive Club:

Given some of the excellent Aer Lingus fare deals we’ve seen recently, this looks like a great opportunity to pick up tier points at a decent rate on transatlantic travel.

Two obvious questions – and I’m sure more will follow:

• can you now book Aer Lingus flights via BA Holidays and earn double tier points?

• will Aer Lingus flights count as ‘qualifying flights’ towards the two qualifying cash flights you need for Bronze, or the four for Silver / Gold, status in BA Executive Club? At present only British Airways and Iberia flight numbered segments count.

We’ll clearly be returning to this in more detail later, but for now this is great news for anyone chasing British Airways Executive Club status.

PS. This is a reciprocal deal. You can now credit British Airways flights to an Aer Lingus AerClub account and have them count towards status.

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How to earn Avios from UK credit cards (April 2025)

As a reminder, there are various ways of earning Avios points from UK credit cards.  Many cards also have generous sign-up bonuses!

In February 2022, Barclaycard launched two exciting new Barclaycard Avios Mastercard cards with a bonus of up to 25,000 Avios. You can apply here.

You qualify for the bonus on these cards even if you have a British Airways American Express card:

There are two official British Airways American Express cards with attractive sign-up bonuses:

You can also get generous sign-up bonuses by applying for American Express cards which earn Membership Rewards points. These points convert at 1:1 into Avios.

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 27th May 2025, the sign-up bonus on the ‘free for a year’ American Express Preferred Rewards Gold card is increased from 20,000 Membership Rewards points to 30,000 points. Points convert 1:1 into Avios (30,000 Avios!) and many other programmes. Some people may see even higher personalised offers. Click here to apply.

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 27th May 2025, the sign-up bonus on American Express Platinum is increased from 50,000 Membership Rewards points to a huge 80,000 points. Points convert 1:1 into Avios (80,000 Avios!) and many other programmes. Some people may see even higher personalised offers. Click here to apply.

Run your own business?

We recommend Capital on Tap for limited companies. You earn 1 Avios per £1 which is impressive for a Visa card, and the standard card is FREE. Capital on Tap cards also have no FX fees.

There is also a British Airways American Express card for small businesses:

There are also generous bonuses on the two American Express Business cards, with the points converting at 1:1 into Avios. These cards are open to sole traders as well as limited companies.

Click here to read our detailed summary of all UK credit cards which earn Avios. This includes both personal and small business cards.