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Aer Lingus applies to join the BA, AA, Iberia and Finnair transatlantic joint venture

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Aer Lingus submitted its legal application this week for anti-trust immunity to allow it to join the transatlantic joint venture led by IAG.

This would allow you to earn British Airways Executive Club tier points on Aer Lingus flights to the US.  You can already earn Avios, but not tier points.

At present, British Airways, American Airlines, Iberia and Finnair operate their flights to and from North America as one company.  All of the money, irrespective of which airline is flown, goes into a pot and is then distributed to the four airlines under a complex formula.

Aer Lingus applies to join the transatlantic joint venture

Aer Lingus has now applied to join this joint venture.  This does not automatically mean that Aer Lingus will also join the oneworld alliance.  Interestingly, the application states that Aer Lingus can continue its current codeshares with JetBlue and United and in theory can add further deals on top.

There will be some changes.  Whilst you currently earn Avios flying with Aer Lingus, British Airways does not currently offer tier points in the Executive Club unless it is on a BA codeshare.  This would change if the joint venture is approved.

The full legal submission is here (link removed as document removed).  Don’t expect this to be approved rapidly, however.


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:

Nectar American Express

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

American Express Platinum card Amex

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 card

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.)

Comments (77)

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

  • Degsy says:

    Thanks Leo and Rob mc I just thought I had read somewhere on this site about using Avios for flights in the Far East for short journeys with BA partner airlines so I must be mistaken.

    • Matt says:

      If you’re going from or to HKG or KUL or around Japan then they can be great value, but you’d be looking at indirect flights, so more expensive in Avios (and time).

    • Polly says:

      Def useful to use avios all around Asia on CX and MAS. But saying that, always price up air Asia and the like for internals throughout the region. If you can get J on CX or MAS and you don’t have status, then the lounges are certainly worth it. Go for It!

    • Lady London says:

      You can and it can be an excellent use of Avios either booking close in, or on domestic flights on Continents where cashbprice is outrageously inexpensive.

      For hops around Asia what people here are saying is that there are many airlines that do these short hops round Asia for very low cash prices. So if you’re not in a position to waste Avios unnecessarily mostly your Asia hops can be done with these. Even upgrades on these might not always cost that much.

  • Gin and Tonic Please says:

    I’ve been using the IHG OpenTable route for a while. It doesn’t always show the same availability as going on OpenTable direct, though I can’t always figure out why. Certainly seems to be he case for reservations that require a credit card to secure them.

  • Nick says:

    OT – E-rewards and Hilton – Points redemption from mid November has now credited in Hilton, know others were in the same boat of waiting so worth checking

    • David Dunphy says:

      Like the Marriott game points it may take a few days to process all of the points by Hilton. Currently waiting on a 7,000 point credit (third one this year, also done a Radisson credit for 4,500 to keep points alive). One thing from the e-rewards team was Hilton points may now take 8 weeks to credit rather than the 6 stated on the redemption page.

    • RussellH says:

      My 7000 still not arrived.
      Complained again to e-Rewards as they said to wait until yesterday.

      • Liz says:

        I got mine a couple of days ago from 23/11. Still waiting on MR pts transfer from about 10 days ok.

  • Graham Walsh says:

    Old clip but funny on boarding order. https://youtu.be/4LGe265pwvU

    • Mr Dee says:

      Yes reminds me when you book CE and they don’t bother with the priority line call…

  • Mr Dee says:

    ATTENTION: ROB
    Just been on your homepage and got redirected to some Flash install hacked page, perhaps your Wordpress has been hacked or there was a dodgy advert!

  • Jtz says:

    OT but I’ve got a way to meet an upcoming plat and also the referral gold spend for referring my parents, but not sure how to go about it.
    It’s HMRC payments and Thames water bills
    I understand curve are in beta stage to allow Amex, but is there a way I can do this in these 2 weeks?

    Thanks a lot

    • N says:

      TW at co-op via paypoint

      Can’t help with HMRC, soz!

    • Rob says:

      No, not in two weeks. If you get a Curve it will only allow Visa and MC for now for you.

    • Anna says:

      Does your council take PayPal? Otherwise vouchers for places where you’d shop anyway. My OH loves doing “Home Improvements” so I’ve taken to buying B & Q gift cards at Tesco (thanks Harry!) so that he’s got them to hand when he starts on a new project!

    • Mr Dee says:

      Buy some bargains and sell them online in January, maybe you will make a profit!

      If you have the Morrisons 10% go and buy £1000 in vouchers just ask at customer services.

      • Jtz says:

        Thanks all! Love the community here,
        I think I might just go with billhop and pay the fee. I think it’s worth it for the quick spend and MR points
        Is there a limit for how much you can ‘overpay TW at co op

        Will also do the vouchers

        Nope council don’t take PayPal unfortunately, but I noticed my parents have a paper pay point card?

        • Genghis says:

          Is there a limit for how much you can ‘overpay TW at co op?

          From experience, yes – it’s quite heavily monitored by the cash management team at TW.

        • Polly says:

          Yes, many of the utilities monitor overspend, and will refund to the direct debit account. Willingly, but not to push it. Gift cards for the supermarkets the best way, food petrol, plus BT prepay at co op too. BT love refunding overspends…just a thought!
          Def go for Morrison’s atm. Got all our gift cards in advance and Morrison’s own paper gift vouchers, which are VERY useful. Like Alan, we have probably got our plat fee back by now. And will use the 200 off 600 amex travel spend next month.

        • Mr Dee says:

          Don’t bother with Asda or Tesco if you want to use the vouchers for fuel.

        • ScienceTeacher says:

          You can use John Lewis / Waitrose Vouchers at Waitrose Petrol Stations (NOT Shells stations or Welcome Break stations with a Waitrose attached). Makes the £1.27/L for diesel slightly better…

        • Bazza says:

          I’ve used Tesco gift card for Tesco petrol. Are morrison gift cards good for morrison petrol?

        • Mr Dee says:

          Tesco banned gift cards months ago, yes to Morrisons, not sure about Sainsbury’s

          • Alan says:

            Did that include their own GCs bought in-store? Certainly earlier in the year it was only the corporate ones (often bought through the likes of Zeek) that didn’t work in petrol stations.

    • ScienceTeacher says:

      Buy something from Apple.

      I worked there, and the refund process is “to the same card type”. Type is bolded. When you pay via. Apple Pay you can refund to any card on Apple Pay. So, add the Amex Gold to Apple Pay, and your Visa Debit. Refund to the Visa Debit.

      • Jtz says:

        Don’t have an Apple phone, would it still work with curve?, downloaded curve yesterday (thanks Rob for the referral)

        • Mr Dee says:

          If using curve it shows as a debit card, so just use a different debit card for the refund

        • Genghis says:

          If you’re not on Curve Beta (and you won’t be if you just downloaded yesterday), then you can’t top up Curve with Amex.

  • Shoestring says:

    So I got dissed big time @Club Aspire T3 yesterday, they shamefully said they were full, nothing I said about ‘2 little ones, how about it?’ with a grizzly smile did any good, (though her glance seemed to go lower), my favourite girl from same place as our place in the sun I’ve chatted to before wasn’t on the front desk to it was obvs no go, thank you.

    I had to go for the poor man’s lounge yet again.

    3 pints of Guinness in the pub. £5.25 a pint now, but I got a very good bar stool.

    Should have taken a selfie. £15.75. What am I going to do with my 2 free Lounge Club passes?

    Compared to the 150,000 people who have been inconvenienced or worse (some were going to see expiring rellies) @Gatwick, it’s not too bad, I suppose.

    • Mr Dee says:

      Did you forget the xmas hamper bribe option?

    • Polly says:

      Harry,
      Do we not have comeback on this PP lark. No entry for ages in there. Sorry you,didn’t get in.
      I figure we should have our receipts refunded by amex, as it is one of the perks of the plat card. Ok we have grainstore on LGW Sth, which is fab, use it twice in one visit, once for food, other for wine etc. We don’t mind that, but we don’t have that option in LGW Nth, to T5. Supposed to be better with new lounges opening in N LGW.

    • David says:

      It’s stories like this that make me glad I spend £400 a year maintaining my Silver status instead of an Amex Plat…

      • Polly says:

        Sometimes, just have to fly Paddy Air, from LGW to Dub. when fares are so low, not worth using RFS, anyway, by the time we refer each other for Plat, we are getting plenty extra avios, for the 1 fee, with pro rata refunds etc. But thinking, it might be worth paying the £5 reservation fee for PP lounges, just to get in, but also to,use Grainstore for goodies before boarding. Just thinking of optimum use.

    • Anna says:

      I’ve given up with it at MAN. All smiles till you get out the Lounge Club or Priority Pass then all the empty tables are suddenly fully booked. Lucky enough to mostly be in CE or CW anyway these days so I’ve stopped factoring this in when calculating the worth of gold or platinum Amex.

  • lady london says:

    I’d put Plaza T5 exactly half way between the Cathay Lounge in T3 (at least, pre-Accor) and Galleries Club. Plaza T5 has a slightly Asian feel which makes me think of the CX Lounge. But obviously it’s not on the same scale as the CX one.

    I’m doing my first visit to Aspire T5 tomorrow, hope it’s better than comments have been on here!

    I think commercially there is room for even one more non-airline lounge in T5. There’s so much pent-up Priority Pass demand and so far it seems as though Aspire is too overcrowded to be as nice as it could be. We’ll see tomorrow!

    • Polly says:

      Agree, as it’s much more difficult now for folks to obtain Silver, they had to do something. Perhaps another lounge option will be considered. Space may be their restriction right now tho. Good luck, hope you got in!

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