Bank of Ireland has an Aer Lingus credit card called the Aer Credit Card that has been around for a while. The bank is currently offering 5,000 Avios as a bonus for people who sign up.
The card was originally launched in 2019 and it remains the only card in the Irish market offering Aer Lingus Avios. Therefore if you want to collect frequent flyer points on everyday spend, this is your only option.
Aer Lingus Credit Card Bonus
This is the third time that I’ve noticed Bank of Ireland offering 5,000 bonus Avios for new signups. I can’t work out whether the promotion is working so well that they’re running it again, or the take up is so bad that they’re desperate for business.
Overall Thoughts
At this stage, it would make sense for Bank of Ireland to just keep the 5,000 Avios bonus on the Aer Lingus credit card all the time. I think having the sign up bonus makes it much more attractive than it otherwise is. With an earning rate of 1 Avios per €4 spent, it is not particularly generous though it doesn’t have to be. It’s the only game in town, so you’re either in or you’re out. Of course, it is 1 Avios per €1 on Aer Lingus flights, which is nice.
Other benefits are worldwide travel insurance, two return flights to Europe each year if you spend over €5,000 on the card, two Fast-Track and priority boarding passes, and two airport lounge passes. It has been designed to be as attractive as possible. Alas, I baulk at the fact the card has a €6.50 monthly fee (€78) plus the standard €30 annual Government stamp duty. Remove that monthly fee and I would happily get the card, but as my current Click credit card with AIB is free, I’ll stick with that.
What do you think of the Aer Credit Card offered by Bank of Ireland? Do you have one? Thank you for reading and if you have any comments or questions, please leave them below.
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I have had the card for 18 months now and I was reluctant for the first 2 -3 years it was on the market, I would say it’s worth it 100%! The avois redemption is nominal on the day to day transaction with the 1 point for 4 euro spend but they do run 6 avois with 1 euro on booking.com a lot the past year on the aer store which you can rack up points especially with business trips. I redeemed the free flights with ease to mainland Europe which would have cost 400 euro. The best perk on the card is the travel insurance which the underwriter paid out with in 3 weeks when I got stuck in Mexico for 32 hrs due to hurricane missing a bunch of connections plus lots of additional expense (around 500 euro) on top of all the rebooked connections. Been messed around with other companies in the past. I gained around 50000 avois through the year as well which is around 500 euro worth of points can be a lot more valuable with redemption flights. I would love to see another Irish bank enter the travel credit card space to bring more competitive perks.
I’m really glad to hear some feedback on this, because I still don’t have the card and it crosses my mind occasionally that I should get it. I do use the Aer Lingus eStore for hotel bookings and what not, so that always helps to maximise the points. Great to hear it was easy to get the free flights and that it saved you a good chunk of change and that the Travel Insurance worked out well. That is a decent enough perk, I have to say. Be interesting if another bank joined in with it, fingers crossed. Thanks for taking the time to write this as it’s really helpful getting the perspective of someone with the card! Appreciate it.