Irish site TRAVELExtra have reported that Aer Lingus and British Airways have extended their codeshare agreement. The airlines are already codeshare partners on routes between Ireland and the United Kingdom and this new agreement covers routes between Ireland and Europe. Both airlines are owned by International Airlines Group (IAG) which means this extension is no surprise. It is expected that Aer Lingus will join the transatlantic joint venture in due course.
Codeshare Beware
On the face of it this is great news! It means you can book Aer Lingus flights on the British Airways web site and earn all your normal Avios miles without having to worry about fare class. I was kicking myself for not checking the British Airways web site for a recent booking from Dublin to Glasgow. Upon investigation though, I made the right choice.
Aer Lingus flights between Dublin and Glasgow out on 8 November and back on 9 November price up as follows.
This is a total of €54.98 in the lowest fare class or €106.96 on a Plus Fare which gives you seat selection and a 20kg hold bag. British Airways on the other hand price the exact same flights as follows.
€181.00 for exactly the same flights! They do include a bag and seat selection but even so it is almost €75.00 more for absolutely no reason whatsoever.
Overall Thoughts
The integration of Aer Lingus into IAG joining Iberia, British Airways and Vueling is a good thing. It will provide many more options for frequent flyers to earn points on more flights and that is excellent. Anyone who finds a suitable Aer Lingus flight on the British Airways web site should check with Aer Lingus directly. There could be a substantial cost saving on the ticket. I understand the price difference is due to which fare classes are available for the codeshare however it certainly pays to be informed. Thanks for reading and if you have any comments or questions, please let me know.
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For me it was the opposite, I found a flight from Gatwick to LA via Dublin (both legs with Aer Lingus) for £300 something on BA website but £700 something on the Aerlingus website for the same flights!
Well that’s definitely interesting, I’d never come across that. I’ll have to have a look and see if that’s a thing or not, because the short haul routes are usually very pricey on BA compared to Aer Lingus. Thanks for the heads up!
This is often the case. One carrier for the same flights will have a much cheaper fare.
You may search the same flights marketed by Delta, Air France, and KLM. Each with the same operating airline.
But each has a different fare (in some cases it can be hundreds of dollars, I booked a traveler from Chicago on Lufthansa and he wanted premium economy and he wanted it ticketed by United.) I booked him what he demanded and then looked and found the same flight in Business class both directions for $400 more and fully refundable if he needed to change his plans, the United flight was Premium Economy one way and Economy back for $400 less and a $200 penalty to make changes) I called him back since we were within the void window for the purchase and he was very excited to be able to travel business for $400 round trip just because it was Lufthansa ticketed, but same flights dates and times. Then I dropped the bombshell which was why he wanted UA in the first place. His status would be recognized by Lufthansa so he would get priority boarding and special clearance at both airports.
Much of finding a good fare is more about digging through the search engine to find the best fare and thinking outside of the box. (IE: It may be more than one fare you have to put together to get the best price, just plan for delayed flights with connections.) In the case of my traveler the Lufthansa had a much better exchange rate on the flights than United did resulting in a huge discrepancy between the two.
In my experience the BEST tool to research flight costs and look at them objectively is to use the ITA Matrix site. It will allow you to see details and price an itinerary as you want. They don’t sell the flights they just investigate the analytics. However, it does have the “fare calc line” which is the travel agent way of describing how a fare was priced and arrived at and which airlines fare is used for which flights. I have found more than one deal by just digging around in ITA Matrix or in Sabre. Both can allow the skilled consultant to find fares and rules that are in your favor but the airline avoids confirming.
What an excellent reply – thanks so much for that! I know through trial and error that sometimes you can come up with a great fare on unexpected airlines if you price in connections. I once went from Dublin to Sydney via Budapest, Amman and Bangkok in order to use a combination of redemption flights and cash tickets to get an overall decent deal.
Frequent flyers tend to swear by the ITA Matrix site, but I don’t use it too much. I really need to get into it – I think Google Flights uses this as well? You do need time to dig around in these things and also have a bit of knowledge about who is flying where and what not but it is certainly worth it when you find a fare that has availability and can be ticketed. Thanks again for the comment, really appreciate it!
Thanks for the insight/info, Trent. I’ll be sure to do my homework.
Never doubted you for a minute 🙂