Aer Lingus Gets Closer To American Airlines With New Lounge Access Agreement

by Gary Leff

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
  • Yet they still also codeshare with United Airlines and partner with United’s MileagePlus

A British Airways Executive Club member can fly United Airlines, credit the miles to Aer Lingus, and then transfer them to BA. They can earn miles on United or American if they wish.

And United’s MileagePlus members have been able to redeem miles for travel on Aer Lingus, while American AAdvantage members cannot – even though American and Aer Lingus share revenue across the Atlantic. Bizarre!

Meanwhile American AAdvantage members could not redeem for travel on Aer Lingus and couldn’t even earn miles unless booking as a codeshare.

Aer Lingus, though, has terminated its codeshare with United. And in another major move, Aer Lingus customers can now use American Airlines lounges.

  • Business class passengers can use American Airlines Admirals Clubs and Flagship lounges
  • And so can AerClub Concierge and Platinum members


American Airlines Flagship Lounge Los Angeles

Here’s the internal American Airlines memo:

This sure seems like progress towards a partnership where Aer Lingus flights become eligible for AAdvantage mileage redemption, and where AAdvantage status members receive recognition when flying Aer Lingus.

About Gary Leff

Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel - a topic he has covered since 2002. Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »

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Comments

  4. Air Lingus is a green flying trash can. The lounge access sounds one sided. Do they even have lounges to offer to AA folks in return? The in-flight food is notoriously awful, can’t imagine what their ground experience would be like. Poached leprechaun over dry toast? 😉

  5. We are still waiting on philadelphia/ Shannon. Newark / Shannon .I believe there is a big market for that route. Shannon airport faster in and out of. Also more convenient location to anywhere in ireland.

  6. It was a sad day when EI left OW (pre IAG.) But being able to use Avios on EI recently is a bit of a step in the right direction. This may be another.

  7. I received an e-mail from Aer Lingus last week letting me know that their flights will now operate out of ORD Terminal 3, instead of Terminal 5. This will make things much easier upon arrival, as there is Pre-Clearance at DUB, so people will not have to take the airport train and re-clear security to connect, or take the airport train to get to public transit or the Uber/Lyft pickup area. Unfortunately, Aer Lingus does not participate in Precheck. I prefer departing out of T5 for non-Precheck airlines.

    I was hoping that Admirals Club members who have membership through the credit card would now be able to use Admirals Clubs when flying on Aer Lingus, but the memo you posted does not indicate that this will be the case.

  9. @Travel Thot Leader – read what I actually wrote, that for a long time you couldn’t earn miles on Aer Lingus, soon hopefully we’ll get redemption and elite status recognition.

  10. The pictures used in this article show the old Aer Lingus livery. The new one is a mostly white body with the tail displaying the traditional shamrock logo and green color scheme.

  11. Good news for passengers at ORD to leave and arrive in T3. T5 is newly enlarged and stunning, but AA has 3 Admirals Clubs and a Flagship First lounge all in T3.
    Another commenter noted that AA miles are earned on Aer Lingus. If true, that is recent as our 2019 flight in business from ORD to DUB and back did not earn miles.

  12. @guflyer Aer Lingus is in the process of updating their IT to facilitate participation in TSAPre. Expect it to be available later this year.

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