A Niche Cheap Way to Get to Europe on Miles

Airlines Miles Travel Travel Tools & Tips

As part of my job, I get to fly to London a few times a year. For these trips, I fly economy. I don’t mind that, as I’m low on the totem pole, and they generally give me the day I land to go and do what I want to recover, as well as tack on a few extra days so that I can travel throughout Europe.

I typically book my own travel, because, to be frank, I know how to find the flights that I want that stick within company policy and usually save the company some money. The trouble with these flights is that, when going into London, it’s often difficult to upgrade these flights with miles or paying cheap cash upgrades, given that British Airways and Virgin Atlantic’s outrageous taxes and fees are tacked on when upgrading with miles (and often only to Premium Economy, not into a lie-flat seat).

I think I found a great upgrade option.

Upgrade with Aer Lingus Avios

For this flight, the cheapest option that got me to London when I needed to was through Dublin on Aer Lingus. While researching fares, I noticed that business class was basically empty, and I also noticed that upgrading the over Atlantic flight was actually incredibly cheap when using Avios, the currency of the IAG family of airlines (British Airways, Iberia) and Qatar Airways.

For off-peak times, you only have to pay 37k miles from the US to Dublin from the East Coast, and you pay ~45k in peak periods. Costs are about 10k miles higher from the West Coast and Florida.

The cost for my route and time of year was only 37k Avios. I only needed a lie-flat for the overnight section, given the short times of the flights between the East Coast and Dublin of about 7 hours. To pay for this upgrade, I transferred over some miles from my British Airways account to my Aer Lingus account. I had accumulated pretty much all of these miles in the great American Express fire sale of 2021.

I then emailed Aer Lingus at aerclubupgrade@aerlingus.com with my AerClub Avios number, my reference number for my trip, and my full name (I also through in my email address and physical address for good measure). About 48 hours later, I got a confirmation email with my new ticket for my upgrade!

Why This is a Pretty Clever Upgrade

I actually think this is a pretty clever use of miles, for a few reasons.

First, Avios are super easy to get your hands on. You can transfer these from pretty much every major transferable currency somehow (i.e., American Express, Chase, Citi, Capital One) and then transfer Avios between the different programs with the IAG network (Aer Lingus, British Airways, Iberia, and Qatar Airways). If you are opening credit cards every few months and maximizing your everyday spending, you can get these points easily.

Second, Aer Lingus is known for cheap trans-Atlantic fares. They break down their flights by segment, similar to how Southwest creates fares, by you choosing how much you want to pay for each direction. My flight from Washington, D.C., to London was something crazy like 300 bucks, given that I bought it at during one of their sales that they run several times a year. In contrast, Aer Lingus was wanting ~$1800 one way for a business class seat. You can get a business class seat on the long-haul segment for 37k Avios and $300 bucks. I think that’s a fantastic use of miles that you won’t be able to get with any other program!

I will note that my return flight was about $650, but the upgrade price in miles would have been the same. I don’t need a business class seat for that short of a flight, but I wonder if that was partly because of the fact that I was flying out of the UK, which has notoriously high government taxes for flights leaving the UK.

In terms of if they limit the number of seats they will allow an upgrade for, I don’t know if they have capacity controls. I don’t think so, but they may. If the cabin is empty, it should be easy to upgrade.

Was the Experience Any Good?

At that price and it’s just me, absolutely. The flight attendants were very kind, the seat was comfortable, there were air nozzles, the food was better than you’d get on an American business class meal, and I arrived rested and generally able to work when I got into London. Aer Lingus also makes economy customers weigh their bags and check overweight bags (basically can take nothing!), while they did not make business class customers weigh their bags.

Do note that this is a narrowbody for flights to the East Coast (don’t know about the longer flights), so there is only a single aisle and the ceilings feel lower than a widebody. Take that into consideration.

If I was flying with my wife, I would take advantage of this deal if they had multiple seats, and the fares were cheap, but I would try to find something a bit more luxurious before I booked this. I haven’t tried booking an upgrade for someone else, so I can’t speak to that.

Conclusion

Overall, I highly recommend booking through Aer Lingus for a cheap business class award ticket by actually purchasing a revenue ticket and then upgrading to business class using Avios. I haven’t really seen anyone write about it before, so it’s a neat little way to get a nicer experience on an overnight flight. I would recommend this for anyone wanting to fly in a life-flat seat to use this.

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Comments (4)

    1. Thank you! Glad it could help. It was a great flight, and I’d recommend anyone wanting to maximize their Avios.

  • Great idea. I have done cheap-ish BA J to F before. This was back when J and F had the same surcharges so the only cost was points. But alas there are now additional surcharges for F at least ex-US and the cheapish J fares are a thing of the past.

    To the narrowbody thing I have flow narrowbodies on TAP Portugal in J and honestly I like it. Smaller cabin that reminds me of the upper deck of a 747 and nothing like the “dorm effect” you get on some of the BA widebodies in J.

    1. Thank you! Yes, it was quite a pleasant experience. I would have loved to flown BA directly, but, alas, I just don’t want to shell out that money for the surcharges!

      I flew TAP Portugal to London earlier this summer with my wife for a wedding in J, and we enjoyed it. I liked Aer Lingus a bit more, as I felt that the layover was not as chaotic, and I found the soft product to be a bit more polished. Plus, with Aer Lingus, they give you a voucher for free Wifi. I kept mine and used it in economy on my way home from Dublin to Dulles, so it saved me an extra 20 Euros.

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