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Earlier this year, Alaska and Aer Lingus announced a new partnership that allows members of both loyalty programs to enjoy benefits when flying with the other airline. Two months later, Alaska began allowing members to credit miles from paid tickets on Aer Lingus to their MileagePlan accounts. The final big step for the partnership rolled out shortly thereafter, allowing Alaska frequent flyers to redeem their miles for award travel on Aer Lingus.
We didn’t cover the initial announcement because it was fuzzy on details, and the key benefits of earning and redeeming miles didn’t have a firm timeline, but now that Alaska MileagePlan has fully implemented mileage earning and redeeming for Aer Lingus flights, it’s time to take a look at how to best utilize this new option.
It has long been possible to redeem British Airways Avios to fly with Alaska, so we’ll be focusing on using Alaska miles to fly with Aer Lingus.
Alaska Airlines Program Basics
Alaska is a great program because it offers highly competitive prices on awards and lets you book a stopover to visit an additional destination on one-way award tickets. While Alaska Airlines is not a member of any single alliance, they are partnered up with over a dozen airlines around the world. Read our article on Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan Sweet Spots to learn more about other great redemptions with Alaska miles.
Redeeming Alaska Miles with Aer Lingus
Currently, you can redeem your Alaska Miles on Aer Lingus flights at the following saver rates:
Flights to U.S. (Lower 48), Canada, and Alaska
- 22,500–30,000 miles in economy class
- 60,000 miles in business class
Flights within Europe
- 8,000 miles in economy class
- Aer Lingus doesn't offer a business-class product within Europe
Getting the Best of the Deal
It's worth noting that non-stop, economy flights from North American hubs currently price at 22,500 miles, although this isn't included in Alaska's Aer Lingus award chart. It looks like any connection on an Alaska-operated flight will increase the cost to 30,000 miles. We aren't sure if you can add a connection from Dublin to another European destination at the 22,500 level, but either price is a solid value compared to other programs. You'll also notice that the award chart gives a price range for each point requirement. Alaska seems to be offering non-saver award seats on Aer Lingus flights, but this is usually a terrible use of miles, especially at the high end of the price range.
The Alaska and Aer Lingus partnership also offers layovers in Dublin for as long as you want (but don't overstay your 90-day visa in the Schengen Zone). It will still be considered as a single booking with your reward miles, but you can spend a week or a month in Dublin before moving on to mainland Europe or the U.K. This is a great way to get more value out of Alaska and one of the primary reasons to use MileagePlan miles instead of another program for one way travel.
Aer Lingus flies directly to Dublin from 14 locations in North America (7 of which are not served by any other airlines). If a direct route isn't convenient, you can still book an itinerary from any airport served by Alaska or Aer Lingus with this partnership.
For example, someone who lives in Montana can get round trip flights from Missoula to Barcelona for 30,000 miles, plus $109 in taxes and fees. Not all the economy flights are available for 30,000 miles; most seemed to be going for 60,000 and a few at the full 80,000. Saver business class availability is even more scarce, but it is possible to find seats if you have a little flexibility in your dates.
Additionally, the surcharges vary wildly. One return flight I found from Edinburgh to Seattle had over $400 in taxes and fees, despite being a low 30,000 miles for each direction.
Our Take
It's great to see this partnership in action. Although there are many excellent uses of Alaska miles, the addition of Aer Lingus redemptions is a win for everyone. As far as we can tell, the option to book on Alaska with Aer Club points isn't yet available. If you're looking to use Avios points for Alaska travel, you can do that with British Airways Executive Club. You can't search online for Alaska space with British Airways, so you'll need to find saver level space using AlaskaAir.com or AA.com and call British Airways to book.
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This sounds hopeful – trying to book from STL to Dublin!!!!
I hope Alaska join One World now that LATAM is leaving.
Really useful to know this as a regular traveller to Ireland. Thanks
On initial review some good redemption options but the surcharges are of concern.
And now that Alaska flies to Hawaii (it didn’t always) I’ve been flying them often & this partner affiliation will come in handy for me. GREAT news!
Alaska Airlines just keeps getting better!
I agree, Alaska is the best of the big airlines these days.
Glad to see them adding partners. Best for west coast redemptions. East coast does not make as much value.
This is not the greatest option but another great way to redeem Alaska miles. This makes Alaska Miles so valuable.
Unexpected, but new options are welcome.
Always nice to have an extra option.
What I like about Alaska mileage plan,is that It has a lot of airline partners that span in every airline alliances.Free stopover in one way award is amazing too.
Another option with Alaska is great. I agree that it’s sad that the taxes are passed on. If Alaska is where you have your miles and your going biz maybe it might be worth it? I have never seen a point where I would redeem with Aer Lingus but I like that I have the option. Options are good, even if it might be something to pass on.
Alaska Airline keeps getting better, wish the value could be better.
How do the award levels compare to those using Aer Lingus Avios as i could transfer British Air Avios to Aer Lingus Avios if it was cheaper? Thanks.
Hey Pat, it depends on your route. Aer Lingus and BA Exec Club use distance-based pricing. If your itinerary is direct, you’ll probably do better booking with Avios. If you have multiple connections (say small US airport to N. American hub > Dublin and connect to another European city), you’ll probably do better with Alaska miles.
Hey! I just noticed on the “Tip of the Day” that Award Wallet also tracks travel vouchers. Cool!
I think I would rather save my Alaska points and book through BA.
Ouch. Just tried some test bookings BOS-DUB in business for October and November. 560K round trip in Business and 60-120K in economy. Tax was only $77.00 but Business isn’t even worth considering. There seemed to be availability on most days I checked. I did a test booking BOS -MUC and the same rate came up for economy but absolutely no availability in Business. The taxes were just a little higher. The Aer Lingus partnership is still a plus and another option to use for getting over to Europe.
Going a little further with the dates I have found almost always 60K miles return in economy.
For business anyway it keeps asking 560K miles return.
So maybe there is an error for business or there are very few seats available at a reasonable price in business.
I think one of the best thing about this partnership is that it allows for flights WITHIN Europe. Although Alaska also partners with British Airways, you can’t redeem for flights within Europe with that partnership, and I believe it is the same with Condor, and it was the same with KLM and Air France when Alaska partnered with them.
That’s a good point!
I very much like the option of an extended Dublin layover. Did this in Iceland (IcelandAir has a similar policy) and it was a delightful respite.
I wish Aer Lingus flew to more destinations.
Their network is quite limited so I’m having a hard time flying with them.
This is good news. Alaska needs to do more partnerships like this with other airlines. Now that Southwest is flying to Hawaii and providing more competition to Hawaii Airlines and Alaska Airlines, Alaska has to venture out more and get more creative.
unquestionably the worst possible use of Alaska miles…
I wonder why Alaska is so generous with the terms and conditions of their award tickets.
I like the aspect of the British Airways Executive Club.I’ve been contemplating travel to Ireland, so this might make that feasible or more attractive.
That is certainly an unexpected partnership. Too bad the taxes are so high.
I agree this is a quite unexpected partnership, although I haven’t followed either Alaska or Aer Lingus much as neither of them are in one of the three alliances. I wish they would join Oneworld, but unfortunately neither of them seem to have an interest.
Wow, somehow I missed this announcement altogether, thanks for the heads-up, and analysis. I’ll definitely keep this in mind going forward!
another scam offer from alaska airlines, lowest awards are never available.
A good news having now more possibilities of redeeming Alaska miles with an European airlines with a not too high fuel surcharge like British Airways!
So welcome Aer Lingus!
Finally, this may actually be worth something of value. I’ve been disappointed in how slowly Alaska has rolled this out. It wasn’t as long as the Finnair thing, but still. Now we will see if there are any avails. The ones for Finnair are bad.
Wow. What an unexpected partnership. I would never expect Alaska and Aer Lingus to form a partnership, but it is quite welcome. i could see a stopover in dublin in the future.
Thank you for the post. It’s always nice to learn about new options to redeem points for travel.
Tax and charges levied by Aer Lingus with their AerClub scheme are generally very high (apart from for a few exceptions). If the tax and charges using Alaska Miles are the same, there unlikely to be too much worth redeming for.
I wonder what the taxes and surcharges actually are.
I wish it was much easier to find out taxes and charges with all of these mileage programs. The actual number of points on their own don’t really give much of a clue if it is a good redemption.
R, now that would be a very helpful investigation and AW blog post. If necessary, we could even crowdsource data.
Now if only they’d allow you to use the companion pass on Airlingus flights 🙂