Aerlingus AerClub/Avios

faceman

So get this. I rang Aer Club a couple of weeks ago to complain about not getting Credit for last year's flights which they said I wasn't entitled to because they allowed my GC to expire.

So for the divilment I submitted all my flights through the missing flights for last year. Logged on yesterday to discover they awarded me tier points for some of those flights....

alancostello

As much as I love the new luggage tags(they are really nice), my last name is only partially printed on one of them(as if it was running out of ink), I wonder is it even worth trying to get it replaced? Not a huge issue given what others are going through with AC, but somewhat defeats the purpose of a luggage tag if you can't read the name...

AndyBoBandy

alancostello wrote: »

As much as I love the new luggage tags(they are really nice), my last name is only partially printed on one of them(as if it was running out of ink), I wonder is it even worth trying to get it replaced? Not a huge issue given what others are going through with AC, but somewhat defeats the purpose of a luggage tag if you can't read the name...

Mine are the same, tags are great except when the name wS printed on it, looks worn already and my tag is only 3 weeks old!!

jesus_thats_gre

faceman wrote: »

So get this. I rang Aer Club a couple of weeks ago to complain about not getting Credit for last year's flights which they said I wasn't entitled to because they allowed my GC to expire.

So for the divilment I submitted all my flights through the missing flights for last year. Logged on yesterday to discover they awarded me tier points for some of those flights....

Proud to say that I still haven't flown with them

Well on my way to make Gold again with BA. Have to admit that it has been completely painless - minor exception being there are more delays flying into T5 than with T2. But from a loyalty and entitlement perspective, it has been an absolute pleasure.

MayoSalmon

jesus_thats_gre wrote: »

Proud to say that I still haven't flown with them

Well on my way to make Gold again with BA. Have to admit that it has been completely painless - minor exception being there are more delays flying into T5 than with T2. But from a loyalty and entitlement perspective, it has been an absolute pleasure.

Well on average BA aren't cheaper than Aer Lingus so for the most part you will have paid a premium.

On top of this DUB - LHR BA tier credits awards are in the majority worse and from a reward (Avios points) point of view you won't be better off again unless your flying in very high fares classes.

AndyBoBandy

But Avios are worth f**k all anyway so I wouldn't be losing sleep if I was missing out on Avios by flying BA.

All I ever wanted from GC/AerClub was priority check in, fast track & lounge access.

In GC it was a bonus to get the transatlantic upgrades or Brown Thomas vouchers.

You can do f**k all with avios. I've about 17,000 of them and would happily give them all away tomorrow.

MayoSalmon

AndyBoBandy wrote: »

But Avios are worth f**k all anyway so I wouldn't be losing sleep if I was missing out on Avios by flying BA.

All I ever wanted from GC/AerClub was priority check in, fast track & lounge access.

In GC it was a bonus to get the transatlantic upgrades or Brown Thomas vouchers.

You can do f**k all with Avios. I've about 17,000 of them and would happily give them all away tomorrow.

You can do plenty with Avios points granted they have lost considerable value compared to Gold Circle.

You can fly to virtually anywhere in Europe for 17,000 Avios

faceman

MayoSalmon wrote:

You can do plenty with Avios points granted they have lost considerable value compared to Gold Circle.

MayoSalmon wrote:

You can fly to virtually anywhere in Europe for 17,000 Avios

That's only if you find eligible flights. With BA I was never able able to find a flight with Avios.

AndyBoBandy

MayoSalmon wrote: »

You can do plenty with Avios points granted they have lost considerable value compared to Gold Circle.

You can fly to virtually anywhere in Europe for 17,000 Avios

Ok I'll bite

Dublin - Amsterdam - 13th (Tuesday) June - 15th (Thursday) June (random midweek dates selected)

8,000 Avios + €125.16

Same flights direct on Aer lingus.com

€123.98

As I said in my previous post, Avios are worth F**K ALL (they are actually costing me an extra €1.18 above to use 8,000 of them)

mx5ire

Ok - so following on from my confused post yesterday about Tier Credits, i.e. how do you earn half a point, i see today that both of our accounts have some flights added from the missing flights form. Not all but some. However, this, allied with last weeks NYC trip (outward leg credited) is confusing me even more in terms of Avios earned. 

So - my wife,  a green member, pays 710 eur  to Boston (excluding all taxes etc), so should earn 710 * 3 avios = 2130 Avios /2 = 1065 Avios 1 way. Is that right ? She actually received 651 for 1 way. 
So for a cheaper Dub -NYC ticket at 346 Eur fare (excluding all taxes etc) she should earn 346 * 3 = 1038 /2 =519 1 way. She received 716. What am i missing here ??

In my own case its more confusing as the Platinum multiplier of 50% kicks in, so an identical NYC ticket at 346 eur is 346 * 3=1038 / 2 =519 1 way  + 50% = 778.5. I got 1075. This make no sense. A business ticket in an out of NYC in Feb adds up correctly using the same method as shown above. 

Am i going to have to ring up about every single flight to query the numbers ?

MayoSalmon

Cuts both ways I suppose.

Dublin - Athens

09/05 - 16/05 17,000 Avios plus €132

Currently selling on EI for €218.

Not exactly sure why the taxes and charges are so much higher on Avios than EI.com though. Wouldn't even be a debate if they were more in line with BA and Iberia.

AndyBoBandy

So 17,000 Avios are worth around €90

If they were GC points (8,500), that would have got me business upgrades to/from the U.S. with 500 to spare.


Again, I'll reiterate, Avios are worth F**k All

Has anyone found an EI flight whereby they actually get half decent value from their Avios?

Fred Swanson

This post has been deleted.

nsa0bupkd3948x

Are these using Avios with EI

Can't you transfer to BA so it's 4,500 & €21.00 to London which can be a bargain if you're planning heading over at busy times. I might be wrong haven't redeemed Avios in a few months.

AndyBoBandy

Which is exactly why I couldn't give a shîté how many Avios I have,

Might as well have 17 million! Their as good as worthless and Aer Lingus know full well.

As many have said BA offer better value for Avios so might as well open an account with them and transfer them all across.

Fred Swanson

This post has been deleted.

nsa0bupkd3948x

AndyBoBandy wrote: »

Which is exactly why I couldn't give a shîté how many Avios I have,

Might as well have 17 million! Their as good as worthless and Aer Lingus know full well.

But they aren't worthless because you can swap them for BA or Iberia (when they're having a sale) Avios and get value from them.

jesus_thats_gre

MayoSalmon wrote: »

Well on average BA aren't cheaper than Aer Lingus so for the most part you will have paid a premium.

From my experience, i.e. having a choice between the flights, the difference is negligible, i.e. a few euro for the times that I tend to fly. BA is regularly cheaper to be honest.

MayoSalmon wrote: »

On top of this DUB - LHR BA tier credits awards are in the majority worse and from a reward (Avios points) point of view you won't be better off again unless your flying in very high fares classes.

I assume that this implies that you too see value in actually getting the rewards that you are entitled to?

The real plus point on this front is that you actually get them with BA. Not a single occurrence of them not posting.

Infuriating having to contact the airline on every 3rd or 4th trip to request missing points.

jesus_thats_gre

AndyBoBandy wrote: »

But Avios are worth f**k all anyway so I wouldn't be losing sleep if I was missing out on Avios by flying BA.

All I ever wanted from GC/AerClub was priority check in, fast track & lounge access.

In GC it was a bonus to get the transatlantic upgrades or Brown Thomas vouchers.

You can do f**k all with avios. I've about 17,000 of them and would happily give them all away tomorrow.

You can transfer them to me if you want

Circa 18k plus 50 euro or so will get me a return business class flight to Heathrow for the missus

billy few mates

MayoSalmon wrote: »

Well on average BA aren't cheaper than Aer Lingus so for the most part you will have paid a premium.

Top tier travellers clocking up the miles like this will usually have the company picking up the tab for their flights. I don't really care how much my work related flights cost but I do care when I'm paying for it myself. As the vast bulk of my travel is work related I care more about the loyalty reward scheme than the cost of the ticket and I don't think I'm the only one that feels this way...

AndyBoBandy

Tier Credits from Tuesdays flight have just shown up,

the system appears to be (finally) working as it should be.

davef999

Has anyone else managed to get any sort of good deal using Aerclub points? I signed up late last year and currently have over 12,000 point but any flight I try to book using them costs MORE than the cash far on the Aer Lingus site would be. In some cases well more. Typical Aer Lingus rip off.

For example - a flight to Berlin paying cash on AL site would cost me €173.98 but paying with my points it would cost me 13,000 points and then still €123.92 in "fees" on top of that. Another example proved to be even worse. A flight to London would cost me just over €103.98 paying by cash but the same flight was going to cost me 8,000 Avios points and €160.17 in "charges". In the first example, it's arguable you save a little bit on the cash price but not when you consider the expense of building up that amount of points in the first place. I won't even mention the ridiculous prices on transatlantic deals.

Has anyone anything positive to say about this scheme?

Noxegon

davef999 wrote: »

Has anyone anything positive to say about this scheme?

The "Smart flies Aer Lingus" voice on the radio says positive things about it from time to time. He may not be entirely neutral though.

Van.Bosch

Swap them to BA and use them for flights to London or hotels on breaks away, that's the only use I have found for them.

ted1

They are best used on long haul flights. Return flights fit two to JFK cost 400 euro+points

mx5ire

Ok - so to a discussion from a few weeks ago when people said their tier points were disappearing, i posted a comment about a discussion that i had with the Aerclub office re Tier points disappearing. I was assured that as my membership expires in April 18 so my tier points were valid until then. So after getting back to 300 odd by the end of last week, i check today and i'm at 0. 

Also, the 2 legs back and forth to NYC in the last 2 weeks for myself and my wife have all earned different avois per leg, massively inconsistent. And while we have received some avios from missing flights, other are still missing. 

The system is far from working as it should be.....

wobblemouth

I have over 23,000 in avios points - seems like it'll cost me more to use these than than book a flight separately.

Does anyone know if theres any plans for other ways to spend points, e.g. vouchers?

Fred Swanson

This post has been deleted.

mx5ire

It does depend on when you use them - i cannot comment on BA taxes and fees etc with Avios as i dont know what they are. But i have used Avios with EI to book a trip to Italy in July, and the face value on the flight is just over 400 euro, so its 15000 avios + 122 euro. So thats still a reasonable Eur saving on my wallet, no matter how irritating the 122 taxes figure is. 

I seem to recall still having the same issue back in the GC days - a 'free' flight still cost lots of taxes and fees.

AndyBoBandy

mx5ire wrote: »

I seem to recall still having the same issue back in the GC days - a 'free' flight still cost lots of taxes and fees.

It just never seemed worth it for me, the fares were reasonably low as it was, the taxes & fee's were always the killer, so you'd never feel you were getting a 'free' flight with them.

for me the best value for them was always the upgrade to business on TA, or to premium seating on the Malaga/Faro routes on the A330