It’s now your last chance to book Aer Lingus award flights using Qantas points or Cathay Pacific Asia Miles. Both Qantas and Cathay Pacific will end their partnerships with the Irish airline on 1 July 2019, meaning your last day to book award flights will be next Sunday, 30 June.
It’s not all bad news, though. Aer Lingus has recently launched a new partnership with Alaska Airlines, meaning it is now possible to redeem Mileage Plan miles with Aer Lingus.
In addition to a large European short-haul network, Aer Lingus operates many trans-Atlantic flights between Ireland and North America. Economy award availability is generally easy to find. There are also some Business class award seats available on some trans-Atlantic routes such as Seattle-Dublin, Philadelphia-Dublin and Boston-Shannon.
If you’re looking to redeem Qantas points or Cathay Pacific Asia Miles, Aer Lingus can be a useful partner because the carrier charges are very low. On a flight from Seattle to Dublin in Economy, for example, you’d pay 30,200 Qantas points and just USD30.57 (~$43) taxes and charges. By comparison, you’d pay USD212.61 (~$304) in taxes and charges for a British Airways Economy reward flight on the same route.
Aer Lingus typically releases 1 Business class award seat on long-haul flights, however these cannot be booked on the Qantas website. You can check for Aer Lingus award availability on Expert Flyer, then call Qantas to book if the seat is not showing online.
Read more: How to Book Aer Lingus Awards using Qantas Points
Under the Asia Miles partner airline award chart, most Aer Lingus flights between North America and Ireland cost 25,000 miles one-way in Economy or 50,000 miles one-way in Business. Only flights from Dublin to Los Angeles and San Francisco cost more miles as these are longer than 5,000 miles in length. To book an Aer Lingus award flight with Asia Miles, you would need to call up.
You can still redeem Qantas points or Asia Miles to book Aer Lingus award flights for travel up to 11 months from now – as long as your booking is ticketed by Sunday 30 June 2019. After this date, new bookings will not be possible and you won’t be able to change existing Aer Lingus award bookings.
From 1 July 2019, the only remaining airline partners of Aer Lingus will be British Airways, United and Alaska Airlines.
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