250 free Avios still available if you pre-register for Aer Lingus AerClub

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Aer Lingus is still offering 250 free Avios points if you pre-register for its new, much delayed, loyalty scheme AerClub. If you didn’t jump in when I mentioned this back in April, you can still do it.

First a bit of history. Following the acquisition of Aer Lingus by IAG, the existing Gold Circle loyalty programme was closed. The plan was to relaunch it on 1st April 2016 as AerClub with Avios as its currency.

(If you have any Gold Circle points, they will convert to Avios at 1:2).

I wrote a long piece in November explaining what was known about AerClub. The 1st April launch clearly did not happen and further dates have come and gone since then. The website still talks about ‘2016’ but I wouldn’t put any money on that.

Earn 250 free Avios for pre-registering

According to this page of the avios.com website, you will earn 250 Avios in AerClub if you pre-register your interest before the launch.

The page to pre-register your details is here. The 250 Avios are not mentioned here but it is mentioned clearly on the avios.com link above.

Pre-registering takes all of 10 seconds. All they want is your first name and your email address.

Given that:

It is already certain that AerClub will be part of ‘Combine My Avios’ and that you will be able to move these 250 Avios to BA, and

AerClub is likely to have interesting promotions and partners which will make having an account a necessity for serious UK-based Avios collectors

….. I would pre-register your interest today if you haven’t already done so.

Once AerClub launches, I imagine that it will start getting substantial coverage on Head for Points as a lot of the promotions will be of interest to UK readers too. We may, or may not, even launch a tailored version of HFP for the Irish market …… let’s see.

I also want to review the new Aer Lingus business class product before it is openly bookable online by British Airways Executive Club members. At the moment you need to ring to book Aer Lingus redemptions and there is no way of checking availability in advance. The upside of this method is that it does keep down demand for the seats to those of us ‘in the know’.

How to earn Avios points from UK credit cards

How to earn Avios from UK credit cards (December 2021)

As a reminder, there are various ways of earning Avios points from UK credit cards. Many cards also have generous sign-up bonuses!

There are two official British Airways American Express cards with attractive sign-up bonuses:

British Airways BA Amex American Express card

British Airways American Express

5,000 Avios for signing up, no annual fee and an Economy 2-4-1 voucher for spending ….. Read our full review

British Airways BA Premium Plus American Express Amex credit card

British Airways American Express Premium Plus

25,000 Avios and the UK’s most valuable credit card perk – the 2-4-1 companion voucher Read our full review

You can also get generous sign-up bonuses by applying for American Express cards which earn Membership Rewards points, such as:

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold

Your best beginner’s card – 20,000 points, FREE for a year & two airport lounge passes Read our full review

The Platinum Card from American Express

30,000 points and an unbeatable set of travel benefits – for a fee Read our full review

Run your own business?

We recommend Capital On Tap for limited companies. You earn 1 Avios per £1 which is impressive for a Visa card, along with a sign-up bonus worth 10,500 Avios:

Capital On Tap Business Rewards Visa

The most generous Avios Visa or Mastercard for a limited company Read our full review

You should also consider the British Airways Accelerating Business credit card. This is open to sole traders as well as limited companies and has a 30,000 Avios sign-up bonus:

British Airways Accelerating Business American Express

30,000 Avios sign-up bonus – plus annual bonuses of up to 30,000 Avios Read our full review

Click here to read our detailed summary of all UK credit cards which earn Avios. This includes both personal and small business cards.

(Want to earn more Avios? Click here to visit our home page for our latest articles on earning and spending your Avios points and click here to see how to earn more Avios this month from offers and promotions.)

Category

Aer Lingus and AerClub

This article is closed to new posts. Discussion continues in the HfP Forums.

harry says:

26 Sep26 September 06:32

Got a feeling that there will be some unique points-earning opps here – same as IB
- Raffles says:
  
  26 Sep26 September 08:19
  
  See AerClub will be revenue based redemption, at least for Aer Lingus, but BA will presumably remain distance based redemption, I foresee lots of fun and games. It will keep me busy anyway!
  - Dublin says:
    
    26 Sep26 September 08:56
    
    All redemptions will be distance based and will be managed through Avios.com, Aer Lingus won’t have its own platform like BA do for Redemptions.
    - Alex W says:
      
      26 Sep26 September 09:08
      
      Interesting… I hope that doesn’t mean Avios.com will add lots of fuel surcharges etc.
      - Dublin says:
        
        26 Sep26 September 12:18
        
        It’s won’t Aer Lingus Taxes and Surcharges will apply when selecting an Aer Lingus redemption.
    - Rob says:
      
      26 Sep26 September 16:31
      
      The site clearly says redemptions will be revenue based (unless the wording has changed). I wrote a whole article on this earlier in the year.
      - Rob says:
        
        27 Sep27 September 17:40
        
        The relevant lines, which may have been deleted, are quoted here:
        
        https://headforpoints.com/2016/04/04/aerclub-aer-lingus-avios-launch/
Adrian says:

26 Sep26 September 10:10

Rob, any ideas when they will eventually join? This may well be a good resource to the USA esp. now there is a direct flight to LA.
- Rob says:
  
  26 Sep26 September 16:27
  
  Looks like end of the year now – but you can book those LA flights now simply by ringing BA and wasting an hour of your life going through a day at a time asking if they can see any seats ….
Russell says:

26 Sep26 September 11:35

OT (very)

Is there any way to take up with IHG the fact that a stay booked through the special HFP page has not yielded the double points promised?

The stay was on 21 August, and standard points were credited on 25 August.

My partner and I have both been booking further IHG stays through the HFP page, but no stays due until October.
- Ed says:
  
  26 Sep26 September 12:31
  
  I’m in a similar boat. Though my stay was more recent. Email raffles, contact details will be on the site, with details of stay.
- Sarah says:
  
  26 Sep26 September 15:52
  
  I got mine in a block after a few weeks. They were all grouped together for several stays and credited at the same time.
- Rob says:
  
  26 Sep26 September 16:26
  
  Send me: confirmation number, hotel name, stay dates, name of guest and I will chase with IHG. raffles at headforpoints.co.uk
John says:

26 Sep26 September 13:14

I wish to join Aer Club
Alan says:

26 Sep26 September 13:23

Hmm – have an EI flight next week. You can add BAEC number of existing Gold Circle number – wonder which is a better deal?
Stan says:

26 Sep26 September 14:53

100% bonus on purchase of IHG points.
James67 says:

26 Sep26 September 16:38

The likely reason for the delay is because all FF schemes across IAG carriers plus avios itself are to be consolidated in a single avios portal (presumably avios.com? I don’t know) so it’s bye bye to BAEC, IB+ etc as IAG takes a step closer to spinning off avios. I don’t know how soon this is coming but I have already come acroos the issue twice so I’m fairly confident the informtion is reliable. I doubt AerClub will ever see the light of day or it will be short-lived at most.
- @mkcol says:
  
  27 Sep27 September 00:17
  
  That explains why Avios.com sent me a survey a week ago or so asking whether I’d like to see all my Avios balances no matter which portal I used, and other questions that align with this.
Philip says:

26 Sep26 September 17:41

Interesting, they were still claiming a 1st October start date last month. I just re-earned status last week and they confirmed it would be valid from 1st October, I assumed it would be an Aerclub one but maybe not?
- James67 says:
  
  26 Sep26 September 18:22
  
  A single portal would be a huge change so I imagine we will get lots of notice if it’s going to happen. Interesting we have heard much about aerclub if it is indeed going live this week.