A brand new addition for British Airways status holders is the fact that the perks now carry across to Aer Lingus. From 2 December 2024, your BA benefits are valid to one extent or another on the Irish airline.
I happened to have a flight with Aer Lingus only a few days later, so I thought I’d test it out. After swapping my frequent flyer number from AerClub to the Executive Club on my booking, I was all ready to go.
BA Benefits – The Boarding Pass
For some reason, they have decided to denote the British Airways status not with Gold, Silver or Bronze. Instead they are using FFP1, FFP2 and FFP3. I assume one is Gold and three is Bronze.
Fast-Track
Since I was travelling on an overnight trip, I only had my laptop bag with me. That had a change of clothes in it and a few toiletries, so I had no bag to check in and thus couldn’t try the business class check-in desks.
Lounge Access
The lady at the desk looked at the boarding pass on my phone. She didn’t bat an eyelid and I was welcomed in immediately. I was asked two questions though. One, “Are you AerClub or BA Executive Club?” and after reporting the latter, she wanted my account number. Luckily I know my Executive Club number off the top of my head as I remember patterns of numbers fairly easily.
Priority Boarding
At the gate, I waited a little while. After the usual passengers needing assistance or those with children under the age of two had been called, it was time for Group 1.
Overall Thoughts
Even with the introduction of BA benefits happening just a few days previously, everyone is trained up on what to expect. That made the airport experience seamless, which was good to see.
The only downside of the entire thing is that I received far fewer Avios (75) for my flight than I would have had if I had my AerClub number in the booking (around 280). That being said, the tangible benefits are worth more than the 200 Avios I missed out on.
What do you think of the fact the BA benefits now carry across to Aer Lingus? Thank you for reading and if you have any comments or questions, please leave them below.
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Featured image by EK056 on Flickr.
I’m American Airlines Ex. Platinum (One World Emerald) Recently AA and Aer Lingus issued new joint benefits. When I was in Dublin last week flying to Glasgow, I asked the Dublin staff about it, and they never had a clue or what FFP meant – I think 1 is Silver and 3 would be Gold, as mine said FFP3.
I asked if I could use Fast Track and they never knew, and at Fast Track they never knew what the new Tier Status meant.
As this is Aer Lingus’s HQ, you would have thought their team would have known?
I see a few issues for passengers in the early days, but hopefully it will get sorted out.
If yours said FFP3 as an AA Exec Platinum, then it would mean Emerald would be three, Sapphire two and Ruby one. Good to know! With regards to everything else, you could have just done what I did and waltzed on through as you do have the benefits. A lot of staff, at all airlines, rely quite a bit on the computer saying yes or no, rather than actually knowing the minutiae like us frequent flyers do 🙂
I thought that BAEC Silver members only had lounge access on transatlantic flights? Has that changed?
Good call – the existing benefit where BAEC Silver and Gold can use the Dublin lounge when flying to London, and where you can access the lounge at T2 in London when flying to Ireland has not changed. All the new benefits from 2 December were in addition to this. I edited the post to point this out, and also realised I forgot to add the Priority Boarding piece and my experience there. All edited – thanks for picking that up!
Thanks so much for clarifying! Don’t mean to pressure you but is there any chance you can do an Aer Lingus lounge in Dublin review? Also aside from your trip to Umea soon, do you have any more flight reviews in the pipeline?
Thanks
I did an EI lounge review back in 2022 I think. Nothing has changed except there is now a (quite delicious) hot option. I am tossing up whether to cancel Umea or not, as I’ll get half the flight money back. We will see – but otherwise, no. I’ve not been flying as much. That being said, I just checked and this year I still managed 35 flights, which makes it one of the top five years for me flying.
FWIW, Aer Lingus status prints/displays the actual level (Silver/Plat/Concierge) on their boarding passes – not the FFP1, 2, etc.
Thank you, I would have expected that to be the case, but I wasn’t sure. The fact nobody batted an eyelid at FFP2 surprised me, but I guess everyone was briefed properly, which is good.