Flash sale: Now Aer Lingus is selling Avios with a 50% bonus (best current deal for smaller purchases)

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With the British Airways flash sale on Avios ending yesterday, Aer Lingus has now joined in the fun and launched its own sale in which it’s offering a 50% bonus on most purchases. This is better than the British Airways sale which just ended and in some ways it’s better than the Finnair Avios sale which is still in progress (it ends on 18 September), so this sale may be worth considering.

Key terms

At the time of writing, the terms and conditions page doesn’t appear to be working so there are what we *think* the terms and conditions say (based on previous sales).

• The promotion is running through 23:59 (GMT) Tuesday 14 November 2024
• A maximum of 200,000 Avios may be purchased (not including bonus Avios)
• The Purchaser must have at least one Avios in their AerClub account in order to buy Avios. If the Purchaser has a balance of zero Avios, they will need to have collected or redeemed Avios in the past 36 months in order to buy Avios.
• The transaction currency will be pre-determined based on the registered country of the AerClub account.
• Bought Avios are non-refundable and non-transferable
• Avios Points are issued subject to AerClub Terms & Conditions

Full terms and conditions can be found on the sale page

The sale

This is the sale that I’m seeing in my account and as it doesn’t appear to be targeted, this should be the promotion that you see too.

• Buy 2,000 Avios or more and get a 50% bonus

With 200,000 Avios on offer (pre-bonus), a maximum of 300,000 Avios are available in this sale.

The numbers

My Aer Club membership is registered to my UK address because the sales open to UK-based accounts were, historically, better than those open to accounts based in the US. This is no longer the case, but my account remains registered in the UK.

Because of this, the prices you’ll see below are in GBP and will be different from what you see if you have an account based elsewhere, but the principles behind the discussion below are the same regardless of the currency you’re buying in.

The way the promotion has been structured, the price per Avios can vary significantly depending on the number of Avios you buy so, for example, someone buying just 2,000 Avios will pay considerably more per Avios (£0.0163/Avios) than someone who buys the full 300,000 Avios available (~£0.0118/Avios).

Fortunately, you don’t have to buy a huge number of Avios to get a good price. Buying as few as 30,000 Avios (before bonus) would see you paying ~£0.0121/Avios.

Comparing this to the Finnair Avios sale

As mentioned a little earlier, Finnair is also running an Avios sale right now (here) and it too is offering a headline bonus of 50%, but that 50% only kicks in if you buy 50,000 or more Avios.

This is the Finnair sale structure:

• Buy 1,000 – 5,000 Avios and get zero bonus
• Buy 5,000 – 49,000 Avios and get a 30% bonus
• Buy 50,000 – 200,000 Avios and get a 50% bonus

What this means is that with Aer Lingus offering a 50% bonus for purchases of just 2,000 Avios (or more), the Aer Lingus sale will be better for anyone not looking to buy a huge number of Avios.

So, how does this work in practice?

Well … Finnair sells its Avios in Euros, so to make things comparable, I’ve converted Euros to GBP at a rate of 1.18 Euro to the pound (that’s a little conservative based on today’s rate, but it should work ok).

Here’s how the cost per Avios changes depending on how many Avios you buy in the Finnair Avios sale:

And here’s a similar table showing what happens in the Aer Lingus flash sale:

As you should be able to see, for purchases of fewer than 100,000 Avios (pre bonus), the Aer Lingus sale offers the better pricing and so that’s the sale to go for if you need to top up with fewer than 150,000 Avios in total.

If you’re happy to buy more, there’s no real difference between the two sales although keep in mind that if you only have credit cards that charge foreign transaction fees, those fees will need to be factored into your calculations if you plan on purchasing Avios in a foreign currency.

Is this a good deal?

As always, this comes down to what the Avios will be used for and when they’ll be used.

Let’s get this important point out of the way before I go any further – If you have no immediate use for any Avios that you buy, you shouldn’t be taking part in this sale. It’s never a good idea to stockpile miles and you never know when a program will decide to implement a sudden and painful devaluation (my golden rule applies).

The best use of Avios is often to be found on short-haul flights within Europe (where taxes and fees are capped) or within regions elsewhere in the world where taxes are naturally low.

They can, however, also be put to good use on Aer Lingus Business Class flights to/from the US and on Iberia Business Class transatlantic flights, as both Aer Lingus and Iberia charge considerably lower fees for Avios bookings than British Airways.

Don’t forget that Avios held in an Aer Club account can be transferred to the British Airways Executive Club or to Iberia Plus (and they can be transferred back again too). And that Avios held in a Finnair Plus account can be transferred to British Airways as well (How to link Finnair Plus & British Airways Executive Club accounts)

If you’re thinking of buying Avios in this sale, the sensible thing to do is to is this:

1. Check that awards are available on the route(s) you’d like to book.
2. Price up the reward flights you’d like to book (based on the cost of the Avios you plan to buy) and compare that to the actual cash fare and to whatever price you would normally be prepared to pay for that booking.

If the cost of booking the reward flight is cheaper than the cash fare and is at least as low as the price you’d normally be willing to pay, then buying Avios in this sale should work out well. Otherwise, move on.

Anyone with a British Airways 2-4-1 voucher/companion voucher may do well in this sale too.

Don’t forget that you’ll still have to pay any taxes and fees due on the second ticket but with two people flying for the Avios cost of one, buying Avios in this sale and then moving them across to BA (so you can use a 2-4-1 voucher) may be an economical way to book a very nice trip – you just have to run the numbers to see if the costs work out in your favor.

Bottom Line

At £0.0118 per Avios, this isn’t an amazing deal but it’s also not a bad deal either (you can do better with the British Airways Avios subscription service).

Personally, I have a relatively low valuation of Avios (£0.0075) but I still often get over £0.015/Avios in value when booking some short-haul reward flights, so there’s definitely scope for this sale to be of use – you just have to make sure that you do your due diligence and to make sure that you’re coming out ahead.