You know a frequent flyer programme is a disaster when the latest e-mail you receive from the airline is titled, “Claim missing Avios and Tier Credits today”.
It is over nine months since Aer Lingus launched a new frequent flyer programme called AerClub and people are still experiencing issues with the programme. Flights not posting continues to affect passengers on a regular basis.
Lurching from Disaster to Disaster
AerClub launched late and when it did some people reported they were unable to log on to their accounts. Others reported their new status level was lower than it should have been and many flights were reported as missing.
It took a full two months before a missing flights form was provided on the web site which is mind boggling. The fact missing flights are still an issue this far in is pretty surprising.
Advice From Aer Lingus
The e-mail mentioned above provides a bunch of advice for those missing flights in their statement. Obvious advice such as use your new AerClub number and not your old Gold Circle number and to make sure your details in your account profile are up to date.
It also goes on to give details on how to claim, linking to the form and explaining what details you will need to do so. My favourite piece of advice is that you can only earn Avios and Tier Points on flights in your own name. Just what are the Irish doing?
The Biggest Disaster of All
Checking out the Aer Lingus web site, it says the following under Collecting Avios – “Collect Avios points every time you fly with Aer Lingus and our airline partners.” Partner airlines are British Airways, Cathay Pacific, Qantas and United Airlines.
You are going to be out of luck if you have been flying on the partner airlines and crediting to AerClub. The latest e-mail specifically states the following. “We are currently awarding on Aer Lingus flights only – awards for travel on our AerClub partner airlines will follow later in the year.”
Under partner airlines on the web site it mentions this. “This process is taking some time and the Avios points will be credited as soon as possible.” The programme has been live for 9 months now – what a disaster.
Flights on partner airlines worked in the previous Gold Circle Club. Why it’s not working in AerClub is anyone’s guess. Aer Lingus state all the partner flights will be stored as long as the AerClub number is present. That said, I would advise people to keep copies of their tickets and boarding passes just in case.
Overall Thoughts
Come on, Aer Lingus! It should not be this difficult to get it right. Fix your wagon and prevent a further disaster happening. To be fair, I have claimed a missing flight and it appeared perfectly a couple of days later. At least the form works as advertised.
That being said, people should only be required to claim for the odd flight here and there. Some frequent flyers are reporting whole batches of flights missing and having to constantly manually claim.
The lack of clarity with regards to partner airline flights is also a concern. Communications should be clear and concise, a point that seems to be missed when it comes to AerClub. Definitive dates are avoided and only half information is provided.
Have you had any issues with the AerClub? Please feel free to add any comments or questions below. Thank you for reading.
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Featured image by Pat Flynn via The Clare Herald. All other images via Aer Lingus.
Accept the new reality… no matter how much it pains you, Aer Lingus has changed and changed for the worse, there is no road back, it’s profit before loyalty. It’s all broken, Aer club, on line forms, and don’t bother posting anything, it never arrives or if it does isn’t actioned. We all have our experiences and the bad are now outweighing the good. Their people dispair as much as we do as customers. They say a fish rots from the head and that appears to be the case in Aer Lingus!
It is a shame that the AerClub is not working correctly for some people. Hopefully with time things will change but it has been quite a long time already and things still aren’t 100% which is just not great. Cross fingers though, perhaps it will change sometime. At least the airline is doing well and opening lots of new routes. That’s something anyway!
I took four flights with BA in February and naturally enough read Aer Club disclaimer stating I could use my EI frequent flyer program number to these flights which accumulated 16000 points. BIG MISTAKE 6 weeks later after numerous correspondence with EI, Avios and now BA I am still awaiting these points. BA informed me that it appears my Gold Circle membership may have claimed these flights however I never had Gold Circle account and Aer Lingus informed me that I would not be able to claim these flights at this time. In the meantime BA said they can help… Read more »
That’s pretty unbelievable because every single BA fare class except for award flights is eligible to earn Avios as per the table on the AerClub web page. What reason did they give at Aer Lingus for not being able to claim “at this time”? That’s very surprising! I am sure BA referred to ‘Gold Circle’ as they’re used to referring to the Aer Lingus frequent flyer programme as that, so I wouldn’t be concerned about that. Their response is correct though – they’re seeing the Aer Lingus frequent flyer number in the booking which means, to them, that you got… Read more »
sorry for delay. They told me as I booked these flights through BA using my EI frequent flyer program these points will not appear on my account until the next stage of the roll out. They have no idea when this will be. In the meantime I remain in limbo. I have no doubt this has happened to others and I would love to know if they were able to get this resolved? The only thing I have yet to do is call them but reading a few forums this has proved fruitless for many. In the meantime EI got… Read more »
I have all return flights missing for the year 2017, I fly with Aer Lingus all year round sometimes on a weekly basis. Can you imagine how I felt when asked to add flights manually? One flight OK but not 20/30 return flights that are missing! To be fair I have contacted AerClub to complain, they did give a case number, and yes STILL WAITING!!!!!!
That’s no good at all to be fair. I wonder why so many flights are being missed for you – it sounds really bad. Hopefully the case will be settled correctly and you’ll be credited what you’re owed. Cross fingers it all settles down and starts to run seamlessly very soon.
I still have missing flights from January which I have filled out missing flight forms 4 times. I have also a number of other flights missing which have a number of forms filled out also. All in all they total around 90 tier points and given that I am showing 51 points short of silver means I am unable to take advantage of these benefits. I have called Aer club which most of the time is a waste of time as a number of times I’ve been told my case will be escalated but nothing done, emailed them ( last… Read more »
That’s pretty bad… to be honest, with any kind of missing points on any airline, you should have to follow up exactly once and expect it to be sorted out. It sounds like you’ve had an absolutely terrible time of it which isn’t great to say the least. Nine months is pretty diabolical from a customer perspective. Have you had any resolution since? I hope so!!
I was missing 5 business class flights. After months of follow up, including filling out the missing flights forms 3 times, contacting customer service 4 times my account was updated – with 1 flight! So I am still missing 4 flights. A real shambles from Aer Lingus.
Ouch, that’s terrible! That’s a lot of Avios and a lot of Tier Points you’re missing there. It just shouldn’t be that difficult at all. I hope they get their act together soon, as all it does is tarnish the brand. I’d accept teething problems, but the fact it is still happening is a little unforgivable. Good luck – let me know if / when they come through!
I had a return on EI metal, booked via EI.com in July. Outbound posted within 7 days. Inbound didn’t post. I filled in the online form a week ago and the Avios and tier points posted within 2 days. It’s a shambles. I’m sure there are many people that are close to advancing tiers but aren’t/won’t before their credits reset because of the processing issues.
EI should waive any resets until the second anniversary of AerClub’s launch I think.
That is exactly the situation I found myself in – outbound posted, inbound didn’t so I put in a claim and a couple of days later all was well. It’s a bit annoying… I put it down to the fact that my inbound was from Donegal and perhaps the systems weren’t setup as well there. Loads of people are experiencing similar thing.
Hopefully it will all work out in the end… thanks for the comment!
“This is a shocking development that appears to have only just been announced.”
Awkwardly, that page has read that way since the AerClub pages were published…
I have a UA booking I’m waiting on to post, booked in February, flown in May. I booked using that page as guide (W class to get extra Avios). I still have the boarding passes and etkt receipts, etc. Hopefully one day it’ll just turn up, but it is indeed silly how long EIAC is taking to implement.
Thanks for pointing that out, it does mention that straight under the partner airlines. I’ll amend that there to make it clear.
It is astonishing that this is still not working after 9 months. You are smart to keep everything – I will be pleasantly surprised if all the flights credit correctly. Not holding my breath though! Thanks for the comment!