Flash Sale: Aer Lingus is selling Avios with a 50% bonus (a good deal for some)

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Aer Lingus is running a flash Avios sale in which it’s offering bonuses of up to 50% for Avios purchases made through 14 November (Monday). The price you’ll pay per Avios will vary depending on how many Avios you buy and where your Aer Lingus Aer Club account is based but that doesn’t take away from the fact that for some people, there could be a good deal here.

Key Terms & Conditions

• The promotion is running through 23:59 (GMT) Monday 14 November 2022
• 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 Promotion

This is the very basic promotion 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 Math

My Aer Club membership is registered to my UK address because the sales open to UK-based accounts are usually better than those open to accounts based in the US. Because of this, the prices you’ll see below are in British Pounds and will be different from what you see if you have an account based elsewhere.

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 3,000 Avios will pay considerably more per Avios (£0.0157/Avios) than someone who buys the full 300,000 Avios available (~£0.011/Avios)

Fortunately, you don’t have to buy a huge number of Avios to get a good price. Buying as few as 15,000 Avios (including bonus) would see you paying ~£0.012/Avios.

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).

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 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 do the maths to see if the costs work out in your favor.

Bottom Line

At £0.012 per Avios, this isn’t a fantastic deal but it’s also not a bad deal either. Personally, I have a relatively low valuation of Avios (£0.0075) but I still often get over £0.015/Avios in value when booking 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 that you run the numbers to check that you’re coming out ahead.