Aer Lingus Will Fly To Miami From 2017 – Good For Avios Redemptions

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Aer Lingus is continuing its network expansion to the US with the scheduling of a new service between Dublin and Miami for fall 2017. This new route comes at a time where Aer Lingus is clearly ramping up its offering across the Atlantic after recommencing service to Los Angeles back in May and starting up service to Hartford and Newark in September.

Aer Lingus New Route To Miami

Aer Lingus’ new route between Dublin and Miami is scheduled to start from 1 September 2017 and will be operated by the airline’s A330-200 aircraft 3x/week.

Here’s the currently planned schedule:

EI141 DUB 15:00 – 19:15 MIA (Wed, Fri, Sun)
EI140 MIA 21:10 – 10:35+1 day DUB (Wed, Fri, Sun)

The Aer Lingus A330-200

Aer Lingus has a couple of different cabin configurations for its A330-200 aircraft and the Miami route will see am aircraft with 23 Business Class seats and 243 Economy Class seats.

Image courtesy of SeatGuru.com

The airline installed a brand new Business Class cabin across its A330 fleet in 2015 so customers are offered true lie-flat seating and direct aisle access for 20 of the 23 seats in the cain.

The seats on the port side of the aircraft are best for solo travelers…..

Aer Lingus A330 Business Class – Image Courtesy of Aer Lingus

While the seats in the centre of the cabin or in rows 2,4 & 6 on the starboard side may be best for couples traveling together:

Aer Lingus A330 Business Class – Image Courtesy of Aer Lingus

All in all its a pretty nice Business Cabin and a great option for transatlantic travel.

Aer Lingus A330 Business Class – Image Courtesy of Aer Lingus

As an added bonus Aer Lingus offers WiFi on all its A330 aircraft and this is offered free of charge to Business Class passengers. Economy Class passengers have a choice of a 1hr pass for €7.95/$9.95 or a full-flight pass for €14.95/$18.95.

Here’s a video Aer Lingus made to showcase their Business Class cabin.

There isn’t too much good news, from a comfort point of view, in the Economy Class cabin.

Unless you manage to book one of the exit row seats you’ll find yourself limited to just 31″ of seat pitch and all economy class seats are just 17 wide – essentially the same dimensions as the seats American Airlines offers on its widebody aircraft. Ugh!

Aer Lingus allows passengers to pay to pre-book “choice seats” (closer to the front) and “exit seats” (self explanatory). Choice seats cost €25/$36 while exit seats cost €40/$52 in each direction.

For details of the entertainment on offer and the latest onboard features check out this Aer Lingus webpage.

Avios Redemptions

Although Aer Lingus is now owned by IAG (the parent company of British Airways and Iberia) the airline is not as yet part of the oneworld alliance…but you can redeem Avios on Aer Lingus nonetheless.

The best news of all is that Aer Lingus doesn’t charge ridiculous surcharges on Avios awards (unlike British Airways) so this makes the airline a great option for those looking to use up their Avios balances….at least in Economy Class.

While long haul Economy Class Avios redemptions are usually poor value thanks to the taxes and fees that are normally associated with them, Aer Lingus makes them a lot more viable.

Here are some example costs:

Miami – Dublin:

• Economy Class – 50,000 roundtrip
• Business Class – 150,000 roundtrip

Boston – Dublin:

• Economy Class – 25,000 roundtrip
• Business Class – 75,000 roundtrip

New York – Dublin:

• Economy Class – 40,000 roundtrip
  Business Class – 120,000 roundtrip

The April Avios devaluation made Business Class awards decidedly poor value but, without huge surcharges, there is definitely value to be had out of the Economy Class redemptions.

Boston is clearly the sweet spot but, during peak season when cash fares are high, I can see flyers getting value out of Economy Class redemptions on the longer routes too.

Bottom Line

Thanks to its low taxes Dublin is a very good entry and departure point for flyers looking to visit Europe or for flyers looking to cross the Atlantic and Aer Lingus is clearly looking to take advantage of that.

A combination of a competitive Business Class product and competitive pricing make Aer Lingus an airline that can be very useful for transatlantic travel and, as long as the airline stays away from horrendous surcharges on award redemptions, Economy Class awards can offer a good way to save cash.