How to earn Avios when you fly United Airlines – at higher rates than BA for Economy

As there are four separate Avios loyalty schemes – British Airways Executive Club, Iberia Plus, Aer Lingus AerClub and Vueling Club – which each have their own partners, you would expect some oddities to turn up.

This is one of the biggest ones.  Bizarrely, Aer Lingus AerClub lets you earn Avios when flying United Airlines, which is a member of the competing Star Alliance.

With United Airlines soon to be the biggest airline between Scotland and the US as we covered this week – and with 22 daily US flights timetabled from Heathrow for Summer 2022 – I thought it was worth taking a look at how this works.

United Airlines of the US is a long-standing Aer Lingus partner.   Under the old Gold Circle loyalty programme – before Aer Lingus was bought by IAG – it was possible to credit United Airlines flights to Aer Lingus.

To be honest, I was expecting this feature to go away when IAG bought Aer Lingus, closed the Gold Circle scheme, launched AerClub and adopted Avios.  I was wrong.

United Airlines remains an Avios earning partner

As you can see from this page of the Aer Lingus website, United Airlines remains a partner.  

You can earn Avios points in AerClub when you credit United Airlines flights at the following rates (click to enlarge):

The % figures are based on the number of miles flown.

What is interesting about this chart is that it is very generous for discounted economy tickets:

• If you fly British Airways to the US in a cheap economy seat, you will earn either 25% or 50% of miles flown, irrespective of whether you credit the flight to British Airways Executive Club or AerClub

• If you fly United Airlines to the US in a cheap economy seat, you will earn either 50% or 75% of miles flown when you credit to AerClub

If you have British Airways status then these numbers will change.  However, if you have no BA status and are flying to North America on a non-refundable economy ticket, you will earn more Avios (but no tier points) by flying on United and earning Avios in AerClub.

You cannot use a British Airways Executive Club number.  You need to join AerClub and move the Avios across to BA via ‘Combine My Avios’.

Where will United fly in 2022?

United is slowly building back its London Heathrow schedule. From late Spring 2022 it will be flying:

• one daily flight to Boston
• two daily flights to Denver
• seven daily flights to Newark
• three daily flights to San Francisco
• one daily flight to Los Angeles
• three daily flights to Washington DC
• three daily flights to Chicago
• two daily flights to Houston

These are, of course, routes where British Airways and its partner American Airlines operate too. If United is substantially cheaper, however, it is an option if you still want Avios and are willing to sacrifice tier points.

Daily services from Edinburgh to New York will resume in March with seasonal flights to Chicago and Washington DC resuming in May.

PS.  It is no longer possible to redeem Aer Lingus miles for United flights.  This would have been very interesting indeed.