Aer Lingus Credit card - pros and cons?

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Newbie!

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I need to purchase travel insurance and I'm tempted to take out an aer lingus credit card as it includes insurance as one of it's benefits and I don't think there is a minimum spend required in order to redeem benefits. We currently don't have or need a credit card so I would really be taking it out with the intention of not using it. The monthly charges would still be less than travel insurance. Are there any cons to this?


Aer Credit Card Travel Rewards:

  • 2 Return Flights to Europe on reaching €5,000 spend on Aer Credit Card. Excluding taxes, fees and charges. *
  • 2 Fast Track and Priority Boarding passes
  • 2 Lounge passes
  • Worldwide multi trip travel insurance ✝
  • Collect Avios with Aer Credit Card
Annual charge of €78 (this is made up of 12 monthly charges of €6.50).


Estimated value: *Cost of purchasing Fast Passes (€7.99 per pass x 2), Lounge Pass (€30 per pass x 2 ) and Travel Insurance (€385.34 per policy) equates to €461.32 (€38pm).

Free Fares and Avios are not included in price comparison.
 
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not a cons but we have it. Love it for collecting extra avois points and we had to used the insurance last year after our son had an accident and couldn't travel, no issue with claim.
 
Newbie! said:
I need to purchase travel insurance and I'm tempted to take out an aer lingus credit card as it includes insurance as one of it's benefits and I don't think there is a minimum spend required in order to redeem benefits. We currently don't have or need a credit card so I would really be taking it out with the intention of not using it. The monthly charges would still be less than travel insurance. Are there any cons to this?
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2 Fast track passes, 2 lounge passes and 2 European flights are great perks. The monthly cost is same as what i would pay for travel insurance so pays for itself.
 
Benefits sound good, but, as it is a Bank Of Ireland credit card, how does one pay the card balance, if you don’t have a bank of Ireland current account.

If one has to have a bank of Ireland current account, then there are fees of around €6 per month +, to have the current account, which would offset a lot of the Aer Lingus credit card Benefits.
 
You don't need a Bank of Ireland current account to view transactions or make payments, you can pay by electronic transfer from any current account. You can also set up a direct debit.
 
arbitron said:
You don't need a Bank of Ireland current account to view transactions or make payments, you can pay by electronic transfer from any current account. You can also set up a direct debit.
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Good to know, i didn’t think a stand alone credit card, has an IBAN, so where/how, does one send the payment to ?
 
I don't use my AIB credit card at all.

But it would be easy enough to rack up €5,000 in spending.
Does it work on a calendar year basis?
So if I rack up €5,000 by end of June, I get two flights.
If I don't use those flights in 2024, I presume I can use them in 2025?

I often find that Ryanair goes to where I want to go at more convenient times. So I wouldn't book Aer Lingus just because they were free. But if I earned the flights in 2024, I might use them in 2025.



Brendan
 
fayf said:
Good to know, i didn’t think a stand alone credit card, has an IBAN, so where/how, does one send the payment to ?
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Yes, you will get an IBAN to transfer to.

@Brendan Burgess , the year runs from the date of issue or approval so not calendar year. You can book the flights anytime up to expiry of the offer, i.e. 12 months from date of issue but fly anytime in the subsequent 10 months.
The fast track and lounge passes also expire on the anniversary but can be used after that date.
I find it brilliant. I put the health, car and house insurance and heating oil on it to get the flights approved as early as possible. Limited number of qualifying seats on any flight.
 
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Brendan Burgess said:
So if I wanted to fly to London tomorrow at short notice, there might not be any qualifying seat available?
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I'm cynical of all 3rd party credit cards (linked to major banks). I travel a fair bit due to work, this year more so than ever. I'm just chasing down tier points before April to move up to Aer Lingus's silver tier. You need to amass a serious amount of Avios for flights.

Anyway I digress, attached are the Ts+Cs, for the free EU flights there are quite a few restrictions. School/Public hols, 6 nations etc.

Fast pass is circa €7 per flight, I don't really purchase priority boarding might be useful on a full flight to get space in overhead lockers.

Never even thought of Lounge access personally, I try to get to the airport through security and onto the plane. I accept its a nice perk though.
 

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Brendan Burgess said:
Ah, I missed that.

So if I wanted to fly to London tomorrow at short notice, there might not be any qualifying seat available?

Brendan
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Yes, and the process takes up to 5 working days to get approved. Busier routes may be more difficult to snag a qualifying seat on.
 
I recently applied for, and now have, the BOI Aer Lingus credit card, but haven't used it yet.

On Saturday night I was on a late Aer Lingus flight and the announcement was made that purchases were card only, but they could not accept American Express or Bank of Ireland cards! I wasn't buying anything and was too tired to ask the stewardess the reason. Has anyone else heard this or know the reason?
 
Gervan said:
I recently applied for, and now have, the BOI Aer Lingus credit card, but haven't used it yet.

On Saturday night I was on a late Aer Lingus flight and the announcement was made that purchases were card only, but they could not accept American Express or Bank of Ireland cards! I wasn't buying anything and was too tired to ask the stewardess the reason. Has anyone else heard this or know the reason?
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Given the terminals aren’t connected to the internet, some part of the security “feature” in the BOI card automatically declines the payment. Happened to me recently and this was the explanation by the cabin crew. Might be accurate or might not.
 
Great credit card.

It has travel insurance included. Annual fee is approx the cost of travel insurance from another provider so all the other benefits I see as a bonus.

Made a claim on the travel insurance this year and paid out without any hassle.
 
Does the travel insurance cover everyone in the household, or just the card holder?
 
"Multi-trip Travel Insurance including winter sports covers you and your family for all your travel, regardless of the number of trips you make every year. Peace of mind, wherever you go. The value of this to you is €385.34 per policy*."
From BoI website.
 
I just requested to switch my current BOI credit card to this one. Looks like a decent deal. My VHI travel insurance is €99 anyway. The x2 fast track passes and lounge access is nice. I did a comparison between the vhi multi trip and the travel insurance with this card and for anyone interested, a high level summary is:


​
Aer Lingus​
VHI​
Cancellation & curtailment€2500 each (up to €10k per party)€10000
Travel Delay€50 first 8 hours, €20 per hour after up to €120€40 every 12 hours up to €200
Abandonment€2500€10000
Missed Connection€1000€500
Medical ExpensesUnlimited€10m
Additional Travel expenses€7000€3000
Hospital Benefit€130 per 24 hours€25 per 24 hours
Personal property (baggage)€2500 max, €250 max per valuable/set€2000, €400 max per single item & electronics
Baggage Delay€150 (12 hour delay)€75 (48 hour delay)
Money€400€255
Travel Document/Passport€1000€500

The health benefits and payouts are better with the BOI card but VHI is slightly better on others. Overall I think given the €78/year fee, with airport access, free flights when over €5k spent, and decent travel insurance the BOI card is a good offer. The avios points are a nice addition, don't think I would use them much myself though.
 
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