tipp86II

Hi. Looks like I will be using Aer Lingus a bit in the next few months. I should hit Silver easy enough.

I am starting from scratch on Avios points and I am keen to try build them up for a business flight. I am generally happy to pay for business on anything 8 hours plus so the more I can get from Avios and the upcoming travel the better.

A few steps I think will help me are

1 - Book Hotels through Avios
2 - Car Hire through Avios
3 - Get the Aer Club Credit Card and spend as much as I can on that.

Is there anything obvious I am missing as an Irish citizen that can help me along the way.

Thanks in advance.

mccartje

For 1 and 2 above I assume you mean earn Avios through hotel bookings and car hire? As using avios to book hotels generally means getting poor value for your avios.
Personally I use the Aer Lingus estore to book hotels through primarily hotels.com (as you can earn avios while also earning within their own program) but also booking.com. This is a good little earner, however the avios do take a long time to appear in your account. The estore is also useful for avios earning on general shopping also.
For car hire I use Avis as they are an earning partner with avios group airlines.
Keep in mind that Aer Lingus is not the only airline to use Avios. BA, IB and QR also use avios and can have additional avios earning options. You can transfer avios freely (if a little awkwardly) between the programs as long as your personal details match in each of your FF accounts.
For redeeming avios, having a BA/IB account might be useful as this will open up more flight redemption options in the Oneworld network.

The Aer Lingus credit card is only ok. It makes sense if you spend a lot on Aer Lingus itself, I reckon you would want to be earning ~1000avios per month on the card for it to make sense.

FlightDetective

This!

I use the eStore for hotels and also things like buying new running shoes. It's really very good for the hotels, but you do need to check, as sometimes it can cost a little more (basically making you pay for the Avios). I have found that almost all the time the prices are the same though, so I always book through Booking.com or Hotels.com. I usually use Booking.com because most of the time you don't need to pay in advance whereas I find with Hotels.com you do. At 10 Avios or 8 Avios per Euro, it's a nice way to earn.

tipp86II

Thanks to both for th advice. I plan to earn through car hire and hotels. The spend will be on business flights I would hope.

I use Hotels.com a lot so I hope I can gain points that way. I am a Silver VIP on it so will use the 10% back and 5 avios as think it works out the most effective.

The 1,000 avios per month on the card might be hard although I might be able to manage it. Although surely I can cover the 126 cost with the free flights each year? I certainly can be missing something here.

I will have a read of your blog aswell Flight Detective.

tipp86II

Quick Question I did not trust Aer Lingus support on. I will mainly be booking Saver Flights to London. Aer Lingus Customer Service assured me I get 15 tier credits per flight unless promotional. The flights I booked to date did not appear to be promotional but am I potentially missing something. If I am getting 7.5 tier credits it will take me a lot longer to hit what I want to hit.

Pete_23567

You need to check the fare code to see if it’s a promotional saver fare it’s there on the final screen before making payment for the flight

Info here: https://www.aerlingus.com/localized/...are-rules.html

Up to October: Sale or promotional fares- fare classes A, Z, W, T within Europe would earn 7.5 credits

Check what the first letter of the fare basis code is before you purchase, if you want a different fare you’d need to call them. Another option is to upgrade your fare to plus or advantage or Aerspace which you can do by hitting the “change flight” option but obviously you’d need to pay the fare difference and also a €40 change fee.

alserire

I do wish they'd get the system sorted. Every fare after Oct 1st is set sky high for a lot of flights.

Wouldn't mind booking some stuff but I reckon at least some of these fares will come down. They need to get on it.

Pete_23567

Either that or increase the level of service or offering to match (but can’t see that happening…)

Agree, I like to have stuff booked in advance too. I do think that where Aerspace fares have increased, the Advantage fares are down a little bit, but overall still dearer on last October for sure

mccartje

If booking for work though I don't tend to mind small price differences as I'm not paying. I've not noticed the paying in advance thing too much but it can happen you are right.

mccartje

Be warned the rewards scheme for hotels.com is likely to change in the near future and for very much the worse! 2% back instead of 10% in essence. headforpoints article here explains it well enough. I noticed myself that my app has changed its skin recently. https://www.headforpoints.com/2023/0...utted-one-key/

The 'free' flights with the credit card are worth very little in my opinion and I value them at next to nothing. Very restricted use and as you have to pay taxes and fees they often end up being worth in real terms very little saving if not worthless altogether.

tipp86II

That will be the end of me with Hotels.com I guess. I have a big booking to make that I am holding off on so I guess the sooner the better. Any suggestions out there to make the most of regular bookings?

tipp86II

Forgive me on the tier points and I reviewed the link above aswell. Id have to assume a fare like this gets me 15 point each leg? Customer support have confirmed this in a generic type of manner. I was told if it was a special fare it would have red numbers. So I hope if I go back on this that I will have this to make my case.

Pete_23567

So I checked the flights in your snip (in the app) see below. The fare on the way out is “A” and the way back is “Z” meaning both are sale/promo and would only earn 7.5 TP each. The fare Basis is what you want to check and then the first letter of the fare basis.

You cannot rely on the price as an indicator.

P.S - on the flight out in this cause would be worth paying the €20 more for Aerspace and get 50TP straight away

tipp86II

This is my view? No Fare basis on Desktop. Also I can see no aer space option. I can see how £20 is a no brainer for 50 TP though. I would be all over that.

Pete_23567

on desktop click on “Terms and Conditions” first and then “fare basis”. Aerspace for €98 is available on outbound but sold out on inbound