Aer Lingus are offering a 50% bonus on Avios purchases – should you buy?

Aer Lingus AerClub members are in for a treat, as you can currently get a 50% bonus on Avios. All purchases, no matter how small, will give you the extra points you might need for a reward flight.

I used to look down my nose at these offers until recently. Back in March, I purchased a bunch of Avios and booked first and business class tickets to Australia. The saving over the straight airline ticket price was pretty substantial.

A Bonus On Avios

It must be pointed out here that you can get a bonus on Avios relatively frequently. Back in March, Aer Lingus offered a 45% bonus for a few days. When it ended British Airways did the same, offering a 40% bonus.

These bonus periods pop up three or four times a year and 50% seems to be the best you’ll get. It should go without saying never to buy Avios during the periods when the extra points are not being offered.

Aer Lingus are offering the bonus through to 23:59 on Monday 3 July 2023. That means there are just a few days to take advantage of the offer and pony up the cash.

You can make your purchase on the website here. You will need to have an Aer Lingus AerClub account (obviously) to do this.

Remember You Can Transfer Avios

Some of the Irish airline’s frequent flyers lament the lack of award space being offered to them. You should remember that you can transfer Avios points from Aer Lingus to British Airways and Iberia, and from British Airways to Qatar Airways. All use Avios as the currency and all you need is to have an account in the other programmes.

Sending them over to a British Airways Executive Club account is handy, because they are in the oneworld alliance. It means there are frequent flyer seats available using Avios on all their partners, like Finnair, Qantas, Cathay Pacific, Qatar Airways, Iberia, American Airlines, Alaska Airlines and more. It all depends on where you want to go.

Overall Thoughts

Purchasing when there is a bonus on Avios is a good strategy, especially if you know what flights you want to book. My advice is to check award space for the dates you want first. When you find seats available, check how many Avios they require to book. Next, check the cash price for the same flights. Once you’ve done all that, check the cost to buy Avios and see if you make a saving by buying points and then booking a reward flight.

In case you’re wondering, when you make your purchase, the points land in your account pretty much instantly. Transferring the points – officially “Combine My Avios” – also works instantly, in my experience.

Earlier this year, I paid about €1,200 for return flights in business class on Qatar Airways from Dublin to Doha and back. How? I bought the points and redeemed them. That ticket was €4,600 return buying it the normal way with cash on the website… need I say more?

Will you be buying Avios in this sale? Have you ever bought them before and if so, did you make a big saving? Thank you for reading and if you have any comments or questions, please leave them below.

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Featured image via Aer Lingus.