Other BA codeshares on Aer Lingus
There are other codeshares on Aer Lingus - not on the Stobart / Aer Lingus Regional routes however. So Manchester, Liverpool and Birmingham all have mainline flights and with them BA codeshares. These can be bought standalone (probably not cost effective) or in conjunction with other flights (possibly cost effective).

Tier Points and Avios
If booked under BA flight numbers (so "Marketed by BA", or "codeshare" or "sold as BAnnnn") then you will get TPs and Avios in line with the usual BA policies. For longhaul tickets this will typically give 20 TPs in Economy and a generous amount of Avios, relatively speaking. For shorthaul tickets - well there are some odd earnings out there. My NCL-LHR/LGW-NOC was £113 and offered 25 TPs and 1625 Avios for Emerald. Whilst not in TP run land by any means, this is nevertheless a relatively generous allocation for the fare. This was because the NCL-LHR sector was booked into H class - a simple standalone NCL-LHR in H is usually £144 approx, and that would be HBO, so £154 non HBO fare is the better comparison. Which rather suggests these fares can be used for Hidden City pricing in some situations.

If booked under Aer Lingus flight numbers (so typically via aerlingus.com) then you will still earn some Avios, but not many, and no TPs would be awarded.

BA and Aer Lingus PNRs
If you book a BA flight through to Ireland, the Aer Lingus section can be see on Aerlingus.com but you can't do much with it there, other than see a limited amount of information. If you try to check-in, after a promising series of screens it comes back with a message to indicate that check-in is not available on the booking.

Seat Reservation
This is not one of Aer Lingus' strengths. If booked on a BA ticket, I have not yet managed to find an online way to get seats allocated, even though the fare basis will almost certainly allow it free of charge. That includes at online check in (OLCI) - the BA metal will allow seat selection in the usual way but the Aer Lingus seat will just be automatically booked for you without any online way of changing it. So best to call up if you have a preference here. Alternatively you can accept the seat offered in OLCI, and change it at the airport, or perhaps more conveniently at the LHR T2 Gold Circle lounge if you have access. That lounge agent will also be able to change the return leg if back to back or staying one night. You can see the available seats using ExpertFlyer, with either the BA or EI code, and assume that any seat marked "blocked" is available for seat selection.

Online Checkin via BA.com
You can check in online and extract a boarding pass from BA.com but proceed carefully! You can't get a boarding pass for the Aer Lingus sector via the App, but you can by printing a copy via the full BA.com site. For some reason you only get one shot at it, so my advice is to choose the Save or Email option, just in case you have printer problems. If you check in via the App you can't then print the Irish sector on the main site. However it should not be difficult to get both boarding passes before your initial BA flight at check in or the lounge (not LBA or IOM however). The BA metal sectors should check in and issue boarding passes in the usual way.

Lounge Access
The lounges in Shannon and Cork are open to BA Silver members and above, when flying Aer Lingus, with the exception of the Regional flights on Stobart. It makes no difference if you are flying on a BA or EI marketed ticket. No guests are allowed. To quote the official guidance issued to the lounges (and apologies for the incorrect terminology):
I presume the reference to Qantas and AA (etc) relates to their FF schemes and codeshares.

There is no lounge access for BAEC members at Knock or London Gatwick No. 1 Lounge South. There was previously lounge access in LGW South when Aer Lingus used the Aspire lounge, but when that was closed the new arrangement - at No. 1 Lounge South - was not extended to BAEC members. Priority Pass cardholder can use both Knock and No. 1 LGW South as well as pay at the gate.

Priority Boarding
You won't get Priority Boarding via your BAEC membership direcly, but it may show on your Aer Lingus issued boarding pass if you select a front or emergency exit seat.

Baggage Allowance
One feature of codeshares generally is that you don't get the marketing airline's baggage allowance, instead you get that of the operating airline (or metal). It isn't at all unknown for people to turn up for flights completely unaware that (a) they are not flying on the airline they thought they were using and (b) when it comes to baggage, the rules belong to the possibly unknown airline.

Aer Lingus is not as generous as BA. Moreover baggage income seems to be a key priority for EI such that if a bag comes through on a flight connection which needs to be paid for, they have been known to hunt you down at the gate to extract payment! Furthermore your BAEC privileges for extra baggage do not (yet) extend to EI, on BA codeshared flights, you get one checked bag of 20 kgs. Just to make it even more irksome, though can pre-pay for extra baggage in advance to reduce the cost, the online facility does not work on BA bookings, you have to ring the call centre (same cost as online, but for the "extra piece" allowance you need to explain the online block). If you want 2 bags totaling 40 kgs that is 35€. The "extra piece" allowance of 2 bags but still totaling 20 kgs is 10€, alternatively one bag of 25 kgs is also 10€. As indicated in Note 2, this issue is less likely to arise on your longhaul trip ticket, it's more on shorthaul tickets.

NOTE 1: if paying at the airport they charge 40€ for an "extra piece" for the second bag, but it doesn't increase your allowance beyond the original 20 kgs, there is an extra charge of 15€ per kg for that. So taking 2 bags, one of 20 kgs, the other bag at 15 kgs, will set you back an astonishing 265€! So ring up, it would only be 35€ if booked in advance.

NOTE 2: for a trip such as ORK-LHR-BOS, then BA's allowance on the longhaul will apply throughout, under the Most Significant Carrier rule, if it is the marketing airline (in other words, ORK-LHR is a BA codeshare).

Cabin baggage:
Aer Lingus' cabin size restriction is: 55cm x 40cm x 24cm at 10kgs, compared to BA's 56cm x 45cm x 25cm and 23 kgs. Aer Lingus also allow "one small personal item: Small handbag, laptop, duty free or baby changing bag", no precise sizes specified, for BA it is: 40cm x 30cm x 15cm. Like BA, the enforcement is fairly relaxed unless you really take the mick. Note that if your flight has a Stobart / Aer Lingus Regional segment, the baggage allowance for that section of the trip is lower: 48cm x 33cm x 20cm / 7kgs and enforcement there can be tougher, simply because the overhead bins are very small. There is generally a facility to gate check larger wheelies on Stobart.

A320 seating on Aer Lingus
Most shorthaul on Aer Lingus mainline is the A320, of which the company has 33 - they also have 3 x A321 and 2 x A319s. As the photos below indicate, the seating on Aer Lingus is different to what you may be used to on BA shorthaul. There are more seats fitted on the Aer Lingus A320s - 174 compared to 168 to 171 seats on BA. There isn't a wardrobe in front, merely a thin bulkhead. Row 1 does not give the same knee room as BA: it's 42 cm compared to BA's 58cm on A320 (63 cm on the G-GATx series). The rest of the seating is fairly similar to the BA set-up in terms of knee and leg room, but Aer Lingus' seats are slightly wider, by about 1cm, and the aisle somewhat narrower. The seat itself is thicker than BA. Emergency exit rows are more comfortable, you want row 13 preferably, if not row 12 (in photo). Seat maps are to be found at the end of this page:
http://corporate.aerlingus.com/companyprofile/fleet/




Inflight service
Compared to BA, this isn't Aer Lingus' strongest card. If you want water or tea, you'll have to pay, no matter how much you spent on the ticket. Soft drinks, tea, coffee are in the £2 region, lager £3.50 330ml, wine £4.50 200ml, Bottega Gold Prosecco £5.30. Cheese toastie: £3.80, Irish hot breakfast £7.50. Aer Lingus' website has full information in the Experience Aer Lingus section. For our exBMI refugees, the cheese toastie continues on Aer Lingus, for a price of £3.80. Both Sterling and Euros are accepted, exact change greatly appreciated since the staff carry no float. Gratuitous £3.80 cheese toastie photo for anyone with BMI withdrawal symptoms:



My Flightpath
BA codeshares on Aer Lingus will show up as a blob on the map, and get added to Cities Visited total, but won't show in the detailed flight listing on the front page. LCY-SNN-JFK flights do not show the SNN stop.