I just checked the DUB-LHR route.

There are no flights available to redeem using Avios until Saturday 20 April; from this point onwards to the end of the 60-day period (ending Sat 8 June) there are flights available on most Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Saturdays - usually in the latter half of the day - with the odd smattering on the other occasional day.

Once you get out of the 60-day window, there is a drastic step-change in availability...on Sun 9 June 11 of the day's 12 flights are available

(For some reason, the sole flight on that date not available for Avios redemption is indicated as being "Off Peak", despite the Peak fare being charged for all other flights on that date...)

There are definitely oddities with EI reward availability, I'd like to think it's a case of a work-in-progress on EI's part in getting things set up, as opposed to a change in underlying policy on redemptions. It must be said though, as has already been mentioned, that one could expect a higher demand for reward seats now that that it's much user friendlier and accessible compared to avios.com. Awareness will be higher among casual fliers (even with 2-3k avios), who could find pretty good deals for the summer for a partially refundable avios+cash redemption - vs paying €150+ for a one-way non-refundable saver fare to Spain with no checked in luggage.

Hence it's definitely not outside the realms of the possible that EI will respond to the higher demand by reducing upgrade availability or limiting award flight windows to protect revenues, especially ahead of a summer season.

just looking at the LHR-DUB route ... nothing in the next 2 weeks - not a single flight on a single day!

> 14 days - the Tuesday / Wednesday / Saturday ONLY pattern as described
> 60 days - flights available every day

I think it's policy :D

EI is no longer that interesting for me* anyway since they dropped the AMS-ORK route, but it's a pretty good rule of thumb now that if you want to book an Avios redemption on the shorthaul network, you really should try and book your ticket before you find yourself in the 60-day window prior to your desired outbound travel date.

(*ironically, 2025 was going to be the year I pushed to get status back on EI. However, both of my TATLs in J on EI are now cancelled - the second being voluntarily cancelled only last week on the back of American changing the flight number on a US domestic flight included in the itinerary (it was a non-refundable AA ticket). Bizarrely, a change of flight number - with everything else remaining the same (same aircraft type, same operator, same departure time, same arrival time) is grounds for a no-quibble cancellation with full refund under the latest DOT regime announced last November)

There is definitely 7 day availability from T-14. Take a look at BHX-DUB, MAN-DUB etc.

I'm not sure what you mean by "7 day availability from T-14", but I just checked DUB-MAN, and the first flight available is the following:

https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...d2439e9896.jpg
only the first flight of the day is available, and the first day with availability is 22 days in the future.

Now, having paced through the booking tool one day at a time from tomorrow onwards until 4 June in a quest to find the first available seat, I am now going to calculate what is 60 days from now, using Google, rather than stepping forward day-by-day (the EI booking tool is not very convenient for finding availability, but my hunch is finding availability will become much easier if my search date is more than 60 days hence:

https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...000c960ea8.jpg
So I'll run my search for Friday 11 July:

https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...319efed385.jpg
No seats available for Friday July 11 :(

Now let's try Saturday July 12:

https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...382db8b1c3.jpg

Well, look at that! A full house of available flights for the date that is D+60.

I'm not saying that there isn't (sparse) availability when looking for dates departing within 60 days; it's quite possible that for departures from (some) outstations availability in this period is much better, but in my experience from AMS it was not at all different to what I see from DUB - but there clearly is a step-change in availability once you zoom forward into the future and get out of the D+60 window.

My advice holds - if you want to book a shorthaul redemption, it's better to do so more than 60 days before the outbound date, because you will have far more availability to you to book using Avios.

EDIT: having re-run the test, this time looking for a oneway MAN-DUB, there are 5 dates in the current month (May 2025) with availability. A single flight is available on each of 19, 28, 29 & 30 May, with 2 flights offered for 31 May.
But even here, we see evidence of the step-change in availability beyond D+60:

Search for Fri 11 July 2025, 59 days hence:
https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...7ac85b80c7.jpg
Search for Sat July 12, 2025 (D+60)

https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...a1f3d235b7.jpg

As if by magic (or maybe by design!), every flight that day is available for redemption....

What a difference a day makes...24 little hours...

Saturday July 12 is now within the 60-day horizon, and the availability that was there yesterday has all disappeared today

https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...558af3d4dd.jpg

They had complaints and HFP coverage . It focused minds !

But unfortunately it hasn't changed anything, still only availability 60+ days. Transferred all my Avios to BA to use with BA/QR, done with AerClub Avios redemptions until this policy changes

EI reward flights now available from 35 days
 

Aer Lingus now seem to be releasing a pair of seats on 3 or 4 lunchtime flights on the DUB-LHR route from 35 days out to 59 days out
Pretty much nothing available < 35 days out
Most flights available > 60 days out with 6 seats available

for DUB-LHR fees/taxes are £11.90 if booked through EI website or a whopping £94.40 if booked through BA website!

https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...62666d1760.png
LHR-DUB reward flights