Aerlingus AerClub/Avios

Noxegon · 20-05-2022 8:59am

It has been like this for years.

Back in the day I fell out of Gold Circle because I wasn't credited properly for a flight I'd taken. I never did manage to solve that.

I also have memories of being refused entry to the lounge in NY at the end of an extended trip because my card had expired a few days before and the new one was at home in Dublin – apparently they had no way of checking my membership at the door.

I'm honestly surprised EI have a loyalty programme at all. It has always been a bit crap.

AndyBoBandy · 20-05-2022 10:00am

Ever since they were bought by IAG I got the impression they really didn't want a loyalty scheme anymore at one of their 'low cost' carriers.... As from that point onwards, zero fcuks were given as clearly evidenced by the shambolic changeover from Gold Circle to AerClub. The customer care went to pot, as well as the lounges etc...

It was almost like the AerClub implementation was designed to cull a huge amount of members by either demoting them out of the club alltogether, or simply driving them away due to the utter shambles that the roll out was...

I was 10 years Gold Circle, always ensured I flew enough to stay in the club, but because my rolling 12 month period fell outside the new AerClub timeframe for membership, I got demoted down to Green or 'Applicant' which royally pi$$ed me off at the time. 3 return Advanced Fares's booked in quick succession got me back in fairly quickly, but it always left a sour taste the way it was handled. Probably 80% of all my flights could have been with other airlines, and a lot cheaper too, but I always valued the few benefits afforded by being a member like fast track & lounge...

frequent lurker · 20-05-2022 11:26am

I have been sitting on 165 tier credits since the start of March and some of those credits are only on 1 leg of a journey.

I have 2 Aer Club return flights not credited, 5 return saver fares not credited and a transatlantic return not credited. More than enough to move up a tier and be close to the next one.

Its an awful service, when checking in it doesn’t recognise my membership number so I am always having to use the claim missing miles form and also not being able to avail of fast track and the lounge is annoying.

Board Walker · 23-05-2022 8:40pm

Got abused in the Aer club Que at check in today in Palma. Apparently the que is back there ya scumbag.

I politely informed him it was the que for Aer Club members - Frequent flyers and he just didnt care.

He was looking around for someone to back him up but no one did. I started to doubt myself then!

NSAman · 23-05-2022 9:07pm

AerClub for me has no benefit at all.

Currently have 90K avios points am Platinum after falling out of concierge thanks to COVID.

renewal date is end November, with three flights books home and a few across Europe, it means that I will remain in Platinum.

Have started exploring United and Delta as I also have point with United some 400K currently.

Seems as if 80K points and $20, is a business class ticket. (sometimes as low as 56K).

Have tried to log-in to Avios on a number of occasions and no joy.

AndyBoBandy · 24-05-2022 12:03pm

Any time I ever tried to log into Avios, It ALWAYS insisted I set a new password as my current one was not recognised.

Then when I did set a new password on Avios, I could no longer log into Aer Lingus..... unless I went through the whole password reset rigmarole again....

Have never bothered attempting to log into Avios again...

Qprmeath · 24-05-2022 1:02pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119106445#Comment_119106445

The whole process is like something from a bygone age.

L1011 · 24-05-2022 1:03pm

The EI and Avios sites seem to only sync their passwords occasionally. Overnight was at one stage given as a sort of warning but it's longer than that

LiamaDelta · 24-05-2022 2:51pm

It's strange because I always found the BA Exec Club quite good for functionality. I cannot understand why they let EI go down the AerClub route when they clearly have a platform that works. Even if they wanted to keep different brand identities they have a successful platform to base it from in BAEC.

MICKEYG · 24-05-2022 4:06pm

It is weird that they cannot get this right. It is driving away their most loyal and most profitable customers. I would have thought it would get high level attention and priority in the IT department.

goingnowhere · 24-05-2022 6:06pm

The basis of the system is the DCS system, you got to check in and log the FQTV there (I'll stick with EI Astral jargon here for the EI heads). Letting the agent do this in person at an outstation is never a good idea. Do it during booking or online check in.

DCS sends the manifest back to HQ as the remote station (except IE/US/CA/UK/NL airports) is not 'online' so nothing breaks if they don't send it back. In the case of BA 99% of flights are under FLY only a handful use other systems.

HQ back office then run a validation flow the name on the ticket MUST match that associated with the FQTV. Only tickets sold and plated by EI i.e. 053xxxxxxxxx will be considered for credit.

Then it gets credited. I have zero issues, going back to 2018. Only catch was once they didn't scan my boarding card correctly, it scanned, bleeped, they did some voodoo on the computer and waved me on, I "wasn't on the aircraft" even through I later proved I was, was even offered a refund at the time as they were so sure...

LiamaDelta · 25-05-2022 12:30pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119108451#Comment_119108451

Really interesting thanks. It's funny how much of a hold Astral has over so much in EI!

MICKEYG · 25-05-2022 1:22pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119083653#Comment_119083653

London flights popped up over the last two days, tier points on day 1 and Avios points on day 2. Still chasing earlier flights and estore points but a start.

Board Walker · 26-05-2022 9:32am

I saw Aerclub store were offering up to 12 avios on hotels.com.

I didnt realise it was "up to" and i only got 3 avios rather my usual 8 from booking.com

be warned!

L1011 · 26-05-2022 10:43pm

Forgot to do a final Supervalu transfer before the deadline (last week), bah.

I'd say about a third of my Avios balance is from Supervalu - extensively from when you used to get points from BOI cards and when I used Electric Ireland; and they used to do up to 3x deals on converting. But I also started shopping there a lot during lockdown as it rarely had queues unlike the bigger supermarkets, so that added up quite a bit.

Regular consumer purchase loyalty schemes seem to be contracting everywhere - Supervalu aren't doing any points anymore, Electric Ireland to SV scheme closing, Bord Gais to Tesco scheme closing.

SB Morer · 27-05-2022 8:30am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119115694#Comment_119115694

If you choose to receive hotels.com reward stamps you’ll earn fewer Avios. If you don’t want the hotels.com rewards don’t login to hotels.com when making the purchase as you’ll get the full 12 Avios on the room rate (excluding taxes).

Board Walker · 27-05-2022 8:36am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119120405#Comment_119120405

Thanks for that!

kevinandrew · 27-05-2022 4:26pm

It seems their IT systems are really beginning to hold them back. I understand Astral is very cost effective and does the basics well but as the industry moves towards further integration it feels like Aer Lingus is an increasingly difficult airline to work with for passengers, frequent flyers, airlines and other partners.

Integration like the transatlantic joint business, AA code share and relationships with BA and IB has moved at a snails pace. What little has been achieved is only ever half baked, with other carriers doing the heavy lifting and benefits for passengers seemingly non existent.

Aer Lingus’ attitude in this area appears stuck in 2005 while everyone else is waiting for the to catch up.

Ryanair has a more responsive digital presence than Aer Lingus at the moment.

usera01 · 28-05-2022 8:21am

Anyone else having an issue signing in to combine my Avios? I used to be able to sign in to it with aerclub and my BA account, but now when I finally have Avios to transfer from BA, it doesn’t let me sign in to that as my “details don’t match”. But they do! And it used to let me sign in to both. Glitchiest website ever…. It says to contact them, are they good at responding? Aerclub and BA executive club seem to take months to respond

MICKEYG · 28-05-2022 12:15pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119125062#Comment_119125062

One of the few things that always worked for me but have not done it in a few months.

Anyone else keep getting prompted by the Aer Lingus website for language and home airport choice? It may be a browser setting i have but is the only sure that constantly asks me for this, even when i am logged in to my Aer Lingus account.

I also seem to have to do captcha every 2nd login.

Board Walker · 29-05-2022 6:09pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119120405#Comment_119120405

Thanks for that!

tropple · 03-06-2022 12:59pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119125062#Comment_119125062

I had the same issue a few weeks ago and used the Live Chat feature on the Avios site. Got it sorted in less than 5 minutes

Board Walker · 07-06-2022 8:02am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119167454#Comment_119167454

Thats the thing, there was a separate Line!! I wouldn't bother doing it if there wasn't.

LiamaDelta · 07-06-2022 4:52pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119169674#Comment_119169674

I'd imagine they didn't know they were in the wrong though. I've often suffered the hissing from others when I scoot down the priority queue halfway through boarding after other with priority have already boarded and it's general boarding. Some people seem to think that your 'priority' expires once general boarding is called.

Rowley Birkin QC · 17-06-2022 12:57pm

Do people know if Platinum status gives access to FastTrack and Lounge at Edinburgh?

I've found this thread more reliable than the Aer Lingus website! Cheers!

Rowley Birkin QC · 17-06-2022 2:30pm

So it's a Yes on both of the above, Platinum gave me Fasttrack access and Aspire Lounge (Gate 4) access. Neither of which are on the AL website or on any of the signage at the airport itself. Definitely worth asking as I had a similar experience at Birmingham recently which ended up saving me from a 2hr security q.

(Of course the flight is now delayed but small wins eh!)

VG31 · 17-06-2022 6:15pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119215886#Comment_119215886

~~EI state that fast track is for Dublin Airport only. However I believe you can also use it at LHR. There's no harm in trying at other airports also as you've done.~~

EDIT: Actually that applies to AerClub bookings. If you have status it may be different.

L1011 · 21-06-2022 8:45pm

Aercard redemptions don't come with cabin bags and can't be upgraded at online checkin either.

Well that's a massive pain in the nuts.

You'd think with the bag drop queues that they'd just let everyone (attempt) to bring on board and gate/door check, leave bag drop for larger bags.

Pete123456 · 21-06-2022 11:04pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119232488#Comment_119232488

Can you upgrade the fare even? Jaysus they really make the card very hard to justify…

L1011 · 21-06-2022 11:11pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119232971#Comment_119232971

Only thing I can do at checkin is buy better seats or buy 20kg hold bags. It is possible they have sold all the potential cabin bags already but I checked in about as far out as the checkin window opened. Says that its phone to change the booking otherwise.

They took way longer than promised to come back with the actual seats when I asked for them, but they were much much cheaper than the equivalent cheapest fare at the time. Could have lost money had they come back and said no availability though - particularly as the return is in the window where they cut redemption seats back

Going to head at the 3.5h recommended bag drop time and use the included lounge passes (which I've never bothered with before, so wouldn't be wasting) if its quick.

Aerlingus AerClub/Avios

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