The biggest criticism of the British Airways Executive Club loyalty program is the excessive surcharges on redemptions for long-haul flights from London.
A round-trip economy flight from London to Los Angeles for an Avios redemption would cost you 50,000 avios and £391 for taxes and surcharges.
This is not a good use of your Avios as you could buy a ticket for just over £500 for the same journey on BA.
However, there is a way to significantly reduce the cost of the surcharge by 80% for a avios redemption – and that is to book your avios redemption on Aer Lingus.
Aer Lingus is a British Airways partner that allows redemption of Avios for long-haul flights from Europe to North America without the excessive surcharges.
The number of Avios required for a redemption to North America through Aer Lingus is the same as BA. However there is a hot spot and that is to fly to Boston from Ireland. This journey on requires 25,000 avios for a return flight in Economy with Aer Lingus oppose to 40,000 avios on BA.
Below shows where Aer Lingus flies long-haul from Ireland. The total cost for these redemptions would be under £100 for both economy and business class redemptions.
- Dublin to New York – 40,000 Avios Economy/ 80,000 Avios Business (round trip)
- Shannon to New York - 40,000 Avios Economy/ 80,000 Avios Business (round trip)
- Dublin to Orlando - 50,000 Avios Economy/ 100,000 Avios Business (round trip)
- Dublin to Chicago - 40,000 Avios Economy/ 80,000 Avios Business (round trip)
- Dublin to Boston – 25,000 Avios Economy/ 50,000 Avios Business (round trip)
- Shannon to Boston - 25,000 Avios Economy/ 50,000 Avios Business (round trip)
- Dublin to San Francisco - 50,000 Avios Economy/ 100,000 Avios Business (round trip)
- Dublin to Toronto - 50,000 Avios Economy/ 100,000 Avios Business (round trip)
How to book ?
You can only book an Aer Lingus redemption via the British Airways Executive Club. If you have Avios points in your avios.com account or Iberia account you can transfer them to your BAEC. I wrote a post on how to transfer your avios between the three programs.
You should book by calling British Airways Executive Club to try and book. Do not rely on the BAEC website.
I also recommend checking the Aer Lingus online timetable before making a booking to see when they fly to which destination.
Pros & Cons of booking your Avios redemption with Aer Lingus
Pros – A massive surcharge saving on all routes to North America from Ireland. Boston requires significantly less Avios points on Aer Lingus than BAEC.
Cons – You have the inconvenience of having to book a separate flight to Ireland to start your flight. There’s no easy way to check flight availability for your redemption online.
Related posts:
[…] I previously wrote an article that explained how to get a return flight to North America from Dublin for only 25,000 avios (inc £70 tax). The post was called How To: Save 80% of the cost of surcharges for Avios redemption for flights to North America. […]