Aer Lingus and American Airlines have announced reciprocity between the two loyalty programs, does this foreshadow a return to oneworld for the Irish carrier?
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American Airlines Announces Aer Lingus Reciprocity
American Airlines this week announced reciprocity with Aer Lingus and its version of Avios. The Irish flag carrier is owned by IAG, the parent company to British Airways, Iberia, Vueling, LEVEL, and of course the Avios loyalty program which is also co-opted by oneworld partners Finnair, and Qatar which is also an investor in IAG.
“For travel on or after November 19, 2024, you can earn Loyalty Points toward AAdvantage® status on your trip with Aer Lingus. Plus, enjoy additional benefits when traveling as an AAdvantage® status member.” – American Airlines
American showcased benefits by status level.
| Benefit | AAdvantage Gold® | AAdvantage Platinum® | AAdvantage Platinum Pro® | AAdvantage Executive Platinum® |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Priority check-in* | Available | Available | Available | Available |
| Fast Track security* | – | Available | Available | Available |
| Priority boarding* | Available | Available | Available | Available |
| Lounge access* (+1 guest) | – | Available | Available | Available |
| Free checked bags** | – | 1 (Economy Class only) | 1 | 1 |
| AAdvantage® status bonus | Available | Available | Available | Available |
While these mostly mirror oneworld allowances the notable exceptions are at the Gold and Platinum levels (Ruby and Sapphire in oneworld.) Fast track security, lounge access, and a free checked bag are the standard for oneworld elites; for Platinum flyers with American Airlines, the qualifier that one extra bag is permissible only in coach class (for which Aer Lingus would otherwise allow none.
For the avoidance of doubt, Aer Lingus is not currently a oneworld member airline nor has it submitted an application. It’s also not an affiliate despite the significant founder role British Airways has played in founding oneworld, owning Aer Lingus entirely, and the use of Avios as its loyalty currency.
The immediate effectiveness is uncommon for changes such as these, so that’s welcome news for flyers.
Will Aer Lingus Return To Oneworld?
Aer Lingus, oneworld have had an interesting arrangement over the years. While not a founding member, Aer Lingus joined in 1999, the same year the alliance launched in September. It left the alliance in a switch to a low-cost carrier model though it maintained some frequent flyer relationships with oneworld carriers and was offered as an option for oneworld round-the-world itineraries.
When IAG purchased Aer Lingus it seemed a foregone conclusion that it would join the alliance. Then Aer Lingus switched up some flying picking up routes like Manchester-Orlando, and Manchester-New York JFK that never touch Ireland at all. That seemed like another sign that British Airways would operate the carrier almost as an extension of its own England flying without using London Heathrow slots.
That hasn’t yet been the case, but it almost seems harder to operate the airline as they are without joining the alliance as well.
American’s alignment with Aer Lingus align with the adoption of Avios last year could foreshadow an announcement that Aer Lingus will apply to join oneworld alliance and pre-empt what can be a long process.
How Aer Lingus Joining Would Impact Partners
Some oneworld carriers already have codeshare agreements for Aer Lingus flights, but expanding to the rest of the alliance would provide additional options for flyers. For example, Cathay Pacific doesn’t currently partner with Aer Lingus, though of course it partners with British Airways within the alliance. Travelers from Hong Kong can add more than 10 frequencies into Dublin from its London flights alone, but also through Manchester, or atypical connection points like Paris where both carriers fly.
Many connections across the Atlantic between the United States and Europe go through London but fuel surcharges make those connections expensive especially for award flights. Where Aer Lingus could play a pivotal role for oneworld carriers as TAP does now for Star Alliance. It allows a secondary connection point besides Germany for award flights and TAP has been aggressive in offering space against a far larger network at Lufthansa. That’s good for the alliance as a whole and would be for oneworld as well.
Aer Lingus is uniquely positioned because of its geolocation. While only 300 miles from London, it’s not dramatically closer to North America, than British Airways but enough that it makes sense to fly routes with smaller aircraft. The A321-Neo, for example, has a range of 4,000 nautical miles but subtracting about 20% of that performance (as airlines often do) for contingency reduces the range to 3,200 miles. That makes adding a Boston-London frequency on an A321-Neo just out of range, but well within range for Dublin. New routes from Aer Lingus have included Cleveland, Nashville, and Indianapolis. Pittsburgh, Buffalo, and Montreal could be affordably added with 2-3x weekly service without adding an aircraft for each of them. Adding more oneworld frequencies from locations already in the network like Newark, New York JFK, Washington Dulles could help. American Airlines could also pull back Charlotte-Dublin and utilize that long haul aircraft for other growth opportunities ceding the nonstop to Aer Lingus on a smaller aircraft.
Pre-clearance facilities in Ireland make it a more attractive location with which to connect too. Travelers bound for the United States are able to clear US Customs and Border Protection in Ireland thus allowing Aer Lingus flights to land and process as domestic flights upon arrival in the US. That’s attractive especially for those with a desire to make shorter connections in the US for onward travel.
Conclusion
One might have thought that IAG’s acquisition of Aer Lingus might have been an obvious opportunity for the carrier to rejoin the alliance. Again, with the adoption of Avios as its loyalty program currency it seemed to further align itself with now four other carriers both inside and outside of IAG. It’s possible that this new alignment with American Airlines doesn’t mean anything but as closely as it follows oneworld benefits, I suspect it might finally be time to rejoin the alliance.
What do you think?
Aer Lingus adopted Avios in 2017… Not last year. If they join OW, it seems it wouldn’t be sooner than WY, which is closely integrated with QR, or HA which is owned by AS, or FJ which will use AAdvantage.
Look, we’d all love Aer Lingus to join the alliance, but they’re ultimately an LCC facing competition from Europe’s fiercest LCC. With reciprocal bennies, they can be relevant to the JV without people like me making them pay for bags and lounge access on €23 flights from DUB-CDG.
I think EI is already in the TATL JV
I flew Aer Lingus in the summer (DUB – MCO). The chief steward was actually one of their senior staff and told me the only thing preventing Aer Lingus returning to One World is IT integration, but behind the scenes that very much the intent, and you’ll continue to see these kind of teamings between AL, AA and BA.
“I’d also presume that American Airlines and IAG would work together to add Aer Lingus to its existing trans-Atlantic joint venture.”
Don’t mean to be rude, but this article just doesn’t seem well researched if you don’t even realize EI has been in the AA/BA JV For years now…
https://news.aa.com/news/news-details/2020/US-Department-of-Transportation-Approves-Aer-Lingus-to-Join-Trans-Atlantic-Joint-Business-Between-American-Airlines-British-Airways-Iberia-and-Finnair-NET-ALP-12/default.aspx
There’s very little reason for EI to join OneWorld when they already have the benefit of the Atlantic JV and have been for years. Dublin is too far west to do much connecting in Europe for a carrier coming from the East. But to not even google “is Aer Lingus in the TATL JV” before writing?
Have you ever precleared in Dublin? Third world facilities.
Better to come in to the US and use global entry on any day
Nonsense, arrival at any US airport as a non-US citizen is like arriving in the ante-room to hell. Dublin or Shannon are in comparison, palatial and the US immigration staff have to treat passengers with courtesy and respect unlike once they are on their own soil.
Aer Lingus plays in two fields, one across the Atlantic where it offers a standard business and economy offering comparable with European standards so rather better than a US carrier and has the great advantage of pre-clearance for entering the US at Dublin or Shannon. Their ability to do that and situation on the western edge of Europe is a big advantage to them on that score.
For all else, they have to compete out of Ireland with Ryanair who will do anything to undercut them and diminish them as often as they can and many people buy travel on price alone. Even on business heavy routes Aer Lingus offer little more than Ryanair other than the four AerSpace seats in the front row of the A320 fleet and should the route be one of the few operated by the A21N, then there is a better cabin but very little service, a drink and a biscuit is thrown in but nothing else as Aer Lingus focus only on price and nothing else regardless of how far you are flying, DUB-ATH – no service, no nothing without payment.
You might then wonder why heading east, so many other airlines manage to run reasonable frequencies out of DUB. Be it KLM, Air France, Lufthansa, Swiss, TAP, Aegean and Turkish among others, all operating with business class and a decent number of seats filled, strange if there’s no demand. Sure, on KLM or Lufthansa there will be some onwards connecting traffic but much less likely on Aegean where business numbers are high and economy is full. Perhaps people don’t want to endure Aer Lingus DUB-ATH when they could fly with a bit more service and comfort and don’t mind paying Aegean for it?
And if you want to travel further east, there’s no option but to make a connection because Aer Lingus offer nothing at all to anywhere.