Aer Lingus and Etihad

[IrishPete]

Looking at flights from Sydney to Dublin in July, Aer Lingus is about three quarters the price for Business Class as Etihad, at around 6k. is there a catch? Is there anything I would get by buying direct from Etihad instead of Aer Lingus? I know I will probably miss out on an upgrade auction, but Business Class is luxurious to me (I am not Bob Carr).

Mind you, for about 9k the First Class Saver ticket is looking very tempting as a one-off treat to myself. If I can find way of making it tax deductible, even better!

Pete

 

[The Rok]

Looking at flights from Sydney to Dublin in July, Aer Lingus is about three quarters the price for Business Class as Etihad, at around 6k. is there a catch? Is there anything I would get by buying direct from Etihad instead of Aer Lingus? I know I will probably miss out on an upgrade auction, but Business Class is luxurious to me (I am not Bob Carr).

Mind you, for about 9k the First Class Saver ticket is looking very tempting as a one-off treat to myself. If I can find way of making it tax deductible, even better!

Pete

You will be on EY the whole way anyway!

 

[IrishPete]

You will be on EY the whole way anyway!

Didn't I say that? Even if i didn't it was bloody obvious. Aer Lingus ceased their flights between Abu Dhabi to Dublin quite some time ago.

 

[The Rok]

Didn't I say that? Even if i didn't it was bloody obvious. Aer Lingus ceased their flights between Abu Dhabi to Dublin quite some time ago.

Righto, keep your knickers on.

I can't see there being any difference at all, unless you plan to claim points and status credits. Then there might be a difference, but you would need to confirm that.

$6,000 is a pretty good price!

 

[spudseamus]

No chauffeur I think ! And check the lounge you are allowed into ?

 

[Sprucegoose]

Righto, keep your knickers on.

I can't see there being any difference at all, unless you plan to claim points and status credits. Then there might be a difference, but you would need to confirm that.

$6,000 is a pretty good price!

It's about what you should pay for given the destination and carrier

 

[Jack_OC]

It's about what you should pay for given the destination and carrier

What do you mean by that? EY's business class is excellent and it's also the most convenient routing to get from Aus to DUB. The normal price IME is at least $8k rtn, so this seems like a great deal to me.

Irishpete - if you book with do you get EI code shares all the way? Or is it EY from SYD-AUH? Because if you're on an EY code, there will be no difference even with respect to lounge access, points, SCs etc. On an EI code though, I'm not so sure.

 

[Jack_OC]

Just did a dummy booking - EI codes all the way, which I believe means you would not earn points/SCs with Etihad, Velocity etc. You'd have to credit to EI's FF program, or one of their partners. QF is one of them though.

Also, when you click on fare benefits, there is no mention whatsoever of lounge access! Surely you must get lounge access though??!

By the way, on the random dates in my dummy booking, the fare wasn't cheap - it was about $8.5k, which is generally consistent with the EY fare.

 

[IrishPete]

• SYD
  
• 
  
• AUH
  
• 
  
• DUB

Sun, Jul 06, 2014

• EI8051 14:50 - 23:40
  Operated By ETIHAD AIRWAYS
  
• EI8045 02:25 - 07:30 (+1 day)
  Operated By ETIHAD AIRWAYS

• DUB
  
• 
  
• AUH
  
• 
  
• SYD

Mon, Aug 04, 2014

• EI8042 09:20 - 19:40
  Operated By ETIHAD AIRWAYS
  
• EI8054 22:00 - 17:50 (+1 day)
  Operated By ETIHAD AIRWAYS

 

[IrishPete]

http://www.etihad.com/en-us/about-us/our-partners/aer-lingus/

But there is limited information on the Etihad Guest website.

 

[Jack_OC]

http://www.etihad.com/en-us/about-us/our-partners/aer-lingus/

But there is limited information on the Etihad Guest website.

I think that info is aimed at people flying on EY codeshares operated by Aer Lingus, rather than the other way around. Might be worth e-mailing Aer Lingus to find out exactly what you get re lounge access and chauffeur. One negative that I'm pretty sure about is the FF options - looks to me like you can't credit to the EY or VA FF programs if it's an EI code.

For me, if you got no chauffeur, no lounge access and much less desirable FF crediting options, I'd think twice about booking with EI. I'm not sure if you're interested in status, but this trip on its own if booked with EY or VA would get you 560 Velocity SCs - more than enough to get to Gold and more than half way to Platinum in one trip (excluding the eligible sector requirements of course).

 

[IrishPete]

I live too far away from Sydney, and am going too far away from Dubin to benefit from chauffeur (I need to rent a car in Dublin anyway). I'm a member of Etihad Guest, not Velocity, and at one flight a year I doubt Ill ever get to Gold. I do want to keep my Silver, and I also want the points (for upgrades!).

 

[Jack_OC]

I live too far away from Sydney, and am going too far away from Dubin to benefit from chauffeur (I need to rent a car in Dublin anyway). I'm a member of Etihad Guest, not Velocity, and at one flight a year I doubt Ill ever get to Gold. I do want to keep my Silver, and I also want the points (for upgrades!).

As I said though, I don't think you'll earn any EY Guest miles if you book with EI (even though the flights are operated by EY).

By the way, have you not considered switching to Velocity? Do you fly domestically at all - if so, Velocity Gold is definitely worth having (much more so than EY Silver). Even if you never fly with VA, Velocity Gold is of more benefit when flying with EY than Etihad Silver. You do need to collect 4 eligible sectors with VA to get Gold status, but if you never fly with VA itself, you can do that by booking Etihad flights through VA (i.e if you choose the VA codeshares). Having said that, sometimes the fares with VA are more expensive than with EY, although sometimes it can be the other way around.

And do you have a family? If so, bear in mind that Velocity allows you to pool Status Credits as well as points, which makes it much easier to get status. E.g. when I travel with my wife and 2 kids from MEL-ADL-MEL in discount Y I get 80 Velocity SCs - and you only need 400 SCs per year to retain Gold.

EDIT - by the way, I was crediting to EY until a few months ago - just about clung on to Gold for a few years despite at least 2 J rtn trips to EU per year. Didn't quite make it last year so fell back to Silver - and that was the impetus to switch to Velocity. After only 3 months I've accrued 960 Velocity SCs, and given another 300 SCs to my wife. The same travel would not have been enough to regain Gold with EY. We're both still on Silver for now, as I haven't flown enough eligible sectors, but that will soon be fixed - I'll hit Gold in a couple of weeks and Platinum by September at the latest. I should also be able to get my wife to Gold by then.

 

[Formal Hall]

You should be able to credit EI coded EY operated flight to Etihad guest, it will just more likely to be at the EI earning rate. You will get lounge access with any business of first ticket, chauffeur you would have to check with the airline.

 

[Jack_OC]

You should be able to credit EI coded EY operated flight to Etihad guest, it will just more likely to be at the EI earning rate.

What EI earning rate are you referring to? There is no reciprocal FF agreement between EI and EY - they are not full partners a la EY and VA. As far as I can tell, you can't credit EI flights to Etihad Guest.

You will get lounge access with any business of first ticket, chauffeur you would have to check with the airline.

I would have thought the same about lounge access, but it's very curious that the EI website doesn't list it as a benefit when flying on EY operated flights.

 

[Formal Hall]

You are right, there is no earning table for EI coded flights, probably because most EI fares do not even earn points in EI's own programme. That said, I am confident you can credit any EY metal flight to EY, no matter what the code; I think I've had AZ coded, EY metal flights credited to EY. Alas I cannot find anything on the website to prove it, and the call centre is unlikely to be better. This is one of the problems with airlines outside alliances, the rules are often less clear.

 

[Jack_OC]

You are right, there is no earning table for EI coded flights, probably because most EI fares do not even earn points in EI's own programme. That said, I am confident you can credit any EY metal flight to EY, no matter what the code; I think I've had AZ coded, EY metal flights credited to EY. Alas I cannot find anything on the website to prove it, and the call centre is unlikely to be better. This is one of the problems with airlines outside alliances, the rules are often less clear.

Just because you can credit an AZ coded flight to EY, it doesn't mean the same is true for all codeshares. EY has basically 3 categories of partnership: "Preferred Partners", "Partners" and "Codeshare Partners". All of the "Preferred Partners" and "Partners" have some form of reciprocal FF arrangement with EY, and AZ is one of those. You can earn EY Guest Miles on any AZ flight, not just AZ codeshares operated by EY. See: Alitalia

EI is another matter. They are a "Codeshare Partner", and as far as I can tell, the only thing that type of partnership invovles is that they operate codeshares for eachother - there appears to be no reciprocal FF arrangement. I don't think this is a case of the website having incomplete info. If you refer to the link shared by IrishPete above, in the FAQ it states "Members of the Etihad Guest loyalty programme can earn miles on Aer Lingus codeshare flights, the benefits of which are detailed more extensively on our Etihad Guest website. In addition, we are discussing further integration of our loyalty programme with Aer Lingus". I take that to mean that for now, the only "integration" of the FF scheme is that you can earn EY Guest Miles when travelling on an EY code operated by EI, and I presume the same in reverse (i.e. you can earn EI miles when travelling on an EI code operated by EY). If you could earn EY miles when travelling on an EI code, I'm pretty sure the website would say that, as it does for the numerous partners with whom they do have such an arrangement.

At a minimum, I would seek clarification on this from EY prior to booking, assuming the EY Guest Miles are important to you.

 

[spudseamus]

Wow! No wonder you are looking at Aer Lingus for that price ! I'm looking at late 2014 and the price has just hit $8970 ! Ouch

 

[IrishPete]

Interestingly edreams.com is selling Etihad at about the same price - suspicious, I looked deeper and found it's mixed class - Business between Sydney and Abu Dhabi, Economy between Abu Dhabi and Dublin. Obviously a different product, but an interesting one nonetheless, as Etihad doesn't sell mixed class through its website, and it is the Sydney - Abu Dhabi leg that is difficult to tolerate sitting upright in Economy...

By the way, fo the 9k someone has quoted for Business with Etihad, you can currently get a Frist Class Saver fare any time for the rest of the year.

I just asked Aer Lingus on Facebook about the points-earning but they said to ask Etihad!

 

[IrishPete]

I asked Aer Lingus through Facebook and they referred me to Etiahd. I asked Etihad through Facebook and they referred me to their website. This time I managed to find this page http://www.etihad.com/en/about-us/our-partners/aer-lingus/ which seems to suggest you do earn Miles. Looks like a done deal to me... Might have to ask AmEx for a credit limit increase so I can get pay for it and get some extra Miles through them!