As flagged by JonNYC, American Airlines now offers status benefits for AAdvantage elites traveling on Aer Lingus.
Aer Lingus is an oddball airline. Geographically Ireland is well-placed for connections between the U.S. and Europe, in addition to serving a major tourist destination. They’re owned by the same company as British Airways and Iberia. However,
- They are not a member of the oneworld alliance
- They are, however, a codeshare partner of American Airlines and part of an anti-trust immunized, revenue-sharing joint venture across the Atlantic
- Until recently, you could earn miles with United when traveling on Aer Lingus but not American
- And you could redeem United miles for travel on Aer Lingus, but not American AAdvantage miles.
That’s all changing. AAdvantage miles-earning was added. Mileage redemption is being added,
Coming soon: You’ll be able to use AAdvantage® miles to book award travel on Aer Lingus.
And now there’s status-earning and status-benefits for Aer Lingus travel.
Aer Lingus elites and business class passengers were given access to American Airlines lounges (including Flagship lounges) at the beginning fo the year. The Aer Lingus-United codeshare was terminated. So the carrier is finally, after many years, transitioning to the more sane partnership considering the airline’s ownership and participation in a revenue-sharing joint venture.
The other quirk about Aer Lingus is that they’re a full service carrier across the Atlantic, but intra-Europe they are a low cost carrier. This sets you up for a pretty nice long haul flight followed by a budget short haul. They don’t even offer business class on intra-Europe flights, but that does prevent crowding at their lounge in Dublin.
Interesting and glad to see any additional benefits. Couple of questions on the chart if you have any answers. First of all I’m retired now and lifetime Platinum (highest AA will go on million miler even though I’m about to hit 3 million “million miler” miles). Now for the questions:
1. So if I fly Aer Lingus from the US to Ireland I can go to the Admirals club, even on a coach ticket (hopefully won’t be in coach but to use the most extreme example) since I’m Platinum but if flying AA I couldn’t get in without buying a day pass? If so I like that but not sure most Admirals Club members would like the fact it is easier getting in flying an AA partner than on AA.
2. What does the 1 free bag (economy class only) mean? At first I assumed it was because free bags would be included for anyone in business class but there is no restriction for Platinum Pro or EP. Maybe they mean not applicable for a class below economy (like basic economy) but it is confusing (at least to me).
I’m going to Ireland next summer. I know there’s no way to know for sure but do you guys think AAdvantage redemptions will be up and running by then?
I also love CPB pre clearance at DUB. my (very limited) experiences there were remarkably fast and efficient unlike some other preclear facilities globally…
Nice AI thumbnails, Gary; the pot of gold really did it for me. As an AA EP, I’m pleased with these new codeshare benefits. While these developments are not great for UA elites, they added codeshares with Emirates, so you win some, you lose some.