Do you know the BA Executive Club shows more Aer Lingus award availability than AerClub?

When it comes to award availability, some airlines keep certain seats for their own frequent flyers. Members of an alliance, for example, might not release certain seats to the other carriers, keeping inventory for the people in their own loyalty programme.

Both Aer Lingus and British Airways use Avios as their club currency and you can book award flights on both airlines on either airline’s website. What is interesting is that frequent flyers in the Executive Club have access to more seats than those in the AerClub in certain situations.

Interesting Award Availability

The Irish airline starts flying non-stop to Cleveland in 2023, so I was looking to get on a flight. Having a look at the Avios site, which is where you redeem Avios from your AerClub account, shows economy class award availability only.

I was all ready to go ahead and book some flights, when it occurred to me to check the British Airways website. People enrolled in the Executive Club see some additional seats in their search I discovered. That’s right, you can use frequent flyer points for business class when using the BA website. I was quite frankly surprised, as usually you would expect it to be the opposite way around, with the big seats perhaps saved for AerClub members first. Not so, it seems!

Overall Thoughts

Naturally I made a booking via the BA website as I wanted a sector in business class. Since it’s the overnight return, that is perfect for me as I’ll be able to lay down in the very nice Aer Lingus flat bed seats instead of being bolt upright in economy for over seven hours.

I wonder if this is some IT bug or something, because it makes no sense to me. One would expect the same availability to be visible in both frequent flyer programmes, or to have Aer Lingus show the business class seats to their AerClub members over those in another scheme. Regardless, you’d be wise to check both, keeping in mind you can transfer your points from one airline to another.

Have you ever found more award availability on Aer Lingus in the BA programme? Thank you for reading and if you have any comments or questions, please leave them below.

Like planes? See my “Does anyone remember” series.
Flight reviews your thing? Mine are all indexed here.
Follow me on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.