Aer Lingus Credit card - pros and cons?

We have 2 of these cards. Pay everything ,including 2 X college fees,with them and clear bill at months end. No problem racking up the 5k each in no time. So we end up with 2 sets of 2 x free flights, minus taxes, and fees etc.[ typically 10 to 50 euro for 2 return flights. We've been to Madrid, Lisbon, and Rome. Currently sizing up this years destinations. Lounge passes are not much use , so sometimes I gift them to friends/family. Fast track has been useful on busy Dub airport days. You can also gift the flights if you can't use them in the allotted time frame. It helps a lot if your travel destinations and timeframes are VERY flexible to plan. The application process for the free flights is convoluted and slow. There are a lot of black-out days, so just because there's a flight scheduled that day, doesn't mean you'll be allowed to use it. Avios are an additional benefit but you won't be booking any longhaul flights with the meagre benefits. We use them up on any flight we can , giving a small financial discount depending on how many avios you have. This has been in the 10 to 35 euro neighbourhood for us......better than nothing. I've previous experience of a frequent flyer benefit program getting discontinued and my points going to 0, so I don't try to accumulate in vain. Haven't had occasion to claim on the travel insurance.....and hope that always remains the case.
All in all it has worked well for us so far.
 
NotMyRealName said:
We have 2 of these cards. Pay everything ,including 2 X college fees,with them and clear bill at months end. No problem racking up the 5k each in no time. So we end up with 2 sets of 2 x free flights, minus taxes, and fees etc.[ typically 10 to 50 euro for 2 return flights. We've been to Madrid, Lisbon, and Rome. Currently sizing up this years destinations. Lounge passes are not much use , so sometimes I gift them to friends/family. Fast track has been useful on busy Dub airport days. You can also gift the flights if you can't use them in the allotted time frame. It helps a lot if your travel destinations and timeframes are VERY flexible to plan. The application process for the free flights is convoluted and slow. There are a lot of black-out days, so just because there's a flight scheduled that day, doesn't mean you'll be allowed to use it. Avios are an additional benefit but you won't be booking any longhaul flights with the meagre benefits. We use them up on any flight we can , giving a small financial discount depending on how many avios you have. This has been in the 10 to 35 euro neighbourhood for us......better than nothing. I've previous experience of a frequent flyer benefit program getting discontinued and my points going to 0, so I don't try to accumulate in vain. Haven't had occasion to claim on the travel insurance.....and hope that always remains the case.
All in all it has worked well for us so far.
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Why do you say lounge passes are not much use? Free food, drinks and a relaxing spot to wait in away from the masses before flight departure - what's not to like!
 
LLB123 said:
Why do you say lounge passes are not much use? Free food, drinks and a relaxing spot to wait in away from the masses before flight departure - what's not to like!
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Yeah....when you put it like that...
I don't travel for business so I kinda like the buzz of the general-pop terminal areas, rather than hanging out in the library quiet of a waiting room full of laptop-gazing busy-ness people on seating that has less yield than plywood. I'll have had my granola before I leave home and my 5am beer drinking days are happily behind me, and then, I've still gotta get to the gate....(tongue firmly in cheek)
I'm gonna give it another go, though , in case I've missed something.
 
Worth checking out the T&Cs for the "free" flights. Appears you have to book 30 days in advance so that rules out any last minute booking!

ii. Booking requests for Free Fares must be made no less than 30 days in advance of departure date and may be made up to 11 months prior to departure (depending on scheduling). You can check the current schedules on the Aer Lingus website. If you send a booking request early you may be more likely to get your preferred destination and/or travel dates .iv. Once you make Free Fare reservations, you cannot amend them. If you cancel a Free Fare reservation a replacement flight or voucher will not be provided.
Restricted periods:
- 24 June – 31 August (Fridays/Saturdays/Sundays)- 20 December – 06 January- February/October midterm breaks(Saturday/Sunday)- Easter (Good Friday – Easter Monday)- Six Nations Rugby matches (flights to the destination of the matches may not be available on the day of the match and 2days either side of it)- Other Irish bank holiday weekends(Friday/Saturday/Monday)-
 
Saw today that new T&Cs coming into effect for this card in October- no more free flights, lounge passes or priority boarding; instead you get the worldwide travel insurance and, if you spend more than 10k euro a year, 40,000 Avios. No mention of the 6.50 euro a month fee changing.

Doesn't seem like a great deal to me, particularly as the 'cost' of flights using Avios continues to go up, plus taxes still have to be paid.

 
If the monthly fee has gone, would the 40,000 points and the free travel insurance not be worth the 30 stamp duty and channelling 10k through it a year? I'm not sure what 40k avois gets you but surely a chunk off of a flight. I don't have this card but might consider it if there is no monthly charge. I understand it is probably not as beneficial as the old terms.
 
OrangeLavender said:
If the monthly fee has gone, would the 40,000 points and the free travel insurance not be worth the 30 stamp duty and channelling 10k through it a year? I'm not sure what 40k avois gets you but surely a chunk off of a flight. I don't have this card but might consider it if there is no monthly charge. I understand it is probably not as beneficial as the old terms.
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The monthly fee hasn't gone- its still 6.50 a month along with the stamp duty. So the question is whether 40k Avios and a travel insurance policy is worth 78 quid a year. I'm not as informed on frequent flyer stuff as I used to be, but even pre covid there was consistent complaining on the likes of flyertalk forums that the 'cost' of flights and upgrades using airmiles was always rising, and airlines were constantly devaluing their frequent flyer 'currency'.
The link I posted says that you can get 2 flights to Lanzarote or 1 to New York for 40k Avios (note: plus fees and charges). That might be true in theory, but the cynic in me says that the experience would be different if you tried to book it...

The travel policy itself isnt bad, at a cursory glance. I havent done a full comparison against a vhi or blue insurance or other policy though.
 
miser said:
The monthly fee hasn't gone- its still 6.50 a month along with the stamp duty. So the question is whether 40k Avios and a travel insurance policy is worth 78 quid a year. I'm not as informed on frequent flyer stuff as I used to be, but even pre covid there was consistent complaining on the likes of flyertalk forums that the 'cost' of flights and upgrades using airmiles was always rising, and airlines were constantly devaluing their frequent flyer 'currency'.
The link I posted says that you can get 2 flights to Lanzarote or 1 to New York for 40k Avios (note: plus fees and charges). That might be true in theory, but the cynic in me says that the experience would be different if you tried to book it...

The travel policy itself isnt bad, at a cursory glance. I havent done a full comparison against a vhi or blue insurance or other policy though.
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Oh wow, I misread and thought that the monthly fee had gone. Definitely a big drop in attractiveness to swap free flights for a points value that isn't set in stone.
 
Nearly went for this card a couple of times. No real use now for what is realistically just Avios points. €78 would get most of the way to annual travel insurance with some providers in any event.
 
OrangeLavender said:
Oh wow, I misread and thought that the monthly fee had gone. Definitely a big drop in attractiveness to swap free flights for a points value that isn't set in stone.
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I was seeing this as potentially a better deal than 2 free flights but perhaps a spend of 10,000 is a little high to get the Avios points. Aer Lingus recently revamped their Avios booking system, they put it into their core website. Not sure if the supply of Avios flights would cater to the demand though. People were complaining that they were being refused for the free flights each time they requested through the email address for the credit card so getting rid of that and rolling the offer into Avios is a positive. I was thinking of going back to the basic card but not sure now. 40,000 Avios would be 5 return flights to Paris/London/Amsterdam off-peak (although huge tax out of Amsterdam) or 2 return flights to Athens etc further destinations on-peak. https://www.aerlingus.com/media/pdfs/EI_routes_avios_amounts.pdf
 
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You could build up the points potentially with the online shopping portal although I've noticed lately that there are fewer options on there. I built up over 50,000 Avios over the last year using that mainly.

Edit: about 12/13,000 came from doing surveys, the survey platform seems to be dead now.
 
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I have this card too, and did enough to just earn the flights over the last couple of years. Overall I’m very happy with it - the cost of a decent travel insurance policy is more than the annual card cost from what I found. Everything else is just gravy.

Having this Avios change seems a pity, but could also be much more flexible and useful.
Would have to make an effort to put almost all expenses through the card though - will need a change in my behaviour.
 
Think this is great, enhanced flexibility on flights booked with 40k Avios in your pocket & ability to book any dates.
Lounge access, priority boarding and fast track nice to have but only real use them for business , so no benefit when bringing family along. Lounge access very nice to have when travelling for business , but other ways of getting lounge access at reasonable rates if travelling a lot
 
Brian McD said:
Think this is great, enhanced flexibility on flights booked with 40k Avios in your pocket & ability to book any dates.
Lounge access, priority boarding and fast track nice to have but only real use them for business , so no benefit when bringing family along. Lounge access very nice to have when travelling for business , but other ways of getting lounge access at reasonable rates if travelling a lot
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Yeah and you could build up the Avios points for a business class transatlantic if you're so inclined.
 
miser said:
Saw today that new T&Cs coming into effect for this card in October- no more free flights, lounge passes or priority boarding; instead you get the worldwide travel insurance and, if you spend more than 10k euro a year, 40,000 Avios. No mention of the 6.50 euro a month fee changing.

Doesn't seem like a great deal to me, particularly as the 'cost' of flights using Avios continues to go up, plus taxes still have to be paid.

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I also see ,on the bottom of the new terms and conditions, that a 5,000 avios bonus will be issued to existing customers in Jan 2025 for their loyalty.
 
I knew a change was inevitable but that is ridiculous. Making you spend double to get the same flight benefits (assuming avios points to get a flight wont got up, which they will). We get completely screwed with rewards in this country.

Any possible avenue to screw over the consumer.
 
Max321 said:
I knew a change was inevitable but that is ridiculous. Making you spend double to get the same flight benefits (assuming avios points to get a flight wont got up, which they will). We get completely screwed with rewards in this country.

Any possible avenue to screw over the consumer.
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Im most annoyed by the removal of lounge and fast pass. It worked really well for me, I have a silver card anyway but when travelling with my wife she could get into lounge and through fast lane with me and it was a genuinely nice perk that cost them very little.
 
money_man said:
Im most annoyed by the removal of lounge and fast pass. It worked really well for me, I have a silver card anyway but when travelling with my wife she could get into lounge and through fast lane with me and it was a genuinely nice perk that cost them very little.
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TBH they probably looked at the stats of lounge usage by Aer Credit Card holders and decided it was higher than they expected/budgeted for, hence its removal.
 
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