A new sweet spot to Europe

Greetings from 36,000 feet over the ocean in a lie-flat bed! Today, we’re going to mix it up and do something special.

I was lucky enough to be invited on the very first Aer Lingus flight from Dublin (DUB) to Nashville (BNA) last weekend, and today, I want to tell you about it (and trust me — you’ll be excited about this).

Here’s what we’ll cover:

• ✈️ The new Aer Lingus route

• 💳 How to book it (for free)

• 🥂 The in-flight experience (business and economy)

• 🇮🇪 What to do in Ireland

✈️ The new flight from Nashville to Europe

Aer Lingus has officially launched a brand-new route between Nashville, Tennessee (BNA), and Dublin, Ireland (DUB).

This route runs four times weekly (Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday, and Sunday) and is an amazing way for those in the Southern U.S. to fly nonstop to Europe.

Both Nashville and Dublin are pretty excited about this new link between the two cities and hosted some fun parties on both ends of the flight to celebrate.

Here’s why this is so exciting:

For those of you who live in Tennessee, Kentucky, or even northern Mississippi or Alabama, nonstop connections to Europe are (or were) extremely limited…

This new route opens those folks up to Aer Lingus’ massive route network with just one stop:

Of course, it also means you can enjoy the magic of Ireland itself (more on that later) without needing to book a positioning flight to another major city.

But this all pales in comparison to what I’m about to tell you…

✅ How to book this route (for free)

As I said, this new route flies four times weekly and takes about nine hours in each direction.

Now, because it serves a smaller airport (by international standards), this route can get a little pricey…

But don’t worry, I’ll tell you TWO ways to book it for free (or close to it). 😉

Aer Lingus uses Avios as its reward currency — the same as British Airways, Iberia, Finnair, and Qatar Airways.

Multiple U.S. banks allow you to transfer your rewards straight to Aer Lingus at a 1:1 ratio, making Avios extremely easy to earn.

Better yet, you can book this exact flight for just 13,000 Aer Lingus Avios each way, which is one of the best sweet spots between the U.S. and Europe:

To be specific, these programs let you transfer directly to Aer Lingus:

• Ultimate Rewards points

• Membership Rewards points

• Bilt Rewards

You can also transfer Capital One miles and ThankYou points to British Airways and Qatar Airways, respectively, and then transfer from those programs to Aer Lingus.

If you need a refresher on how this works, check out our guide for how to transfer Avios between programs.👇

If you need to rack up some Aer Lingus Avios, the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card has a sweet offer: Earn 100,000 bonus points after you spend $5,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening.

…which you can just transfer to Aer Lingus directly, and that would allow you to fly a family of four on this route round-trip for nearly free.

Check it out now if you want to get in on this offer before it’s gone:

Now, in this case, you’ll still be on the hook for some taxes and fees (so it’s not quite “free”), but if you use Alaska miles instead, those fees will be basically nothing.

It’s a little more pricey at 27,500 miles, but the taxes are lower, and you also earn Alaska EQMs on award flights, so this could be a great way to accelerate your way to Alaska elite status.

Anyway, one more cool new feature of Nashville airport (BNA) is a brand-spankin-new Hilton hotel attached to the airport terminal.

I stayed here twice (before and after my trip to Dublin), and it was amazing. To be honest, it’s one of the nicest hotels I’ve stayed at in the U.S. 😬

It’s quite expensive, but that also makes it the perfect place to use a Hilton Free Night Award (which you can get by applying for a Hilton credit card).

If you live a couple of hours from Nashville, you could make the drive up (or position to Nashville) and book a night here before your flight to Europe.

But many of you have probably never even flown Aer Lingus before… So what’s it like?

Well, I’ve flown Aer Lingus FOUR times in the last month — twice in economy and twice in business class.

And I’ve gotta say…

It’s been incredible every time. 😎

💺 Aer Lingus review (economy and business)

The best part about this new route is that Aer Lingus uses their REALLY nice Airbus A321-neo XLR aircraft, which is very comfortable.

Let’s talk about business class first…

Despite being a small plane, Aer Lingus has fully lie-flat seats on their A321neos, including these fancy “throne” seats, which are just one to a row.

The level of privacy is amazing, considering how small the plane is, and I really enjoyed my two flights in these throne seats.

As with any good business-class seat, it also converts to a fully lie-flat bed… it’s freaking awesome. 👇

Business-class passengers also get free WiFi access (for as many devices as you want), which I found to be a nice treat.

Of course, the meal service is also top-notch, and business-class passengers get a wide range of food and drink options, which seem to vary slightly by route (which I love).

On this inaugural flight to Nashville, I chose the thyme and parsley chicken with mashed potatoes, along with a smoked salmon appetizer and fluffy lemon cream mousse for dessert.

But don’t think you need to fly business class to get a top-notch experience…

When I flew on the same plane in economy, I was impressed with the meal service — it blew most other airlines out of the water.

Another thing I love about Aer Lingus’ newer planes (which they will be flying on the Nashville route) is that you can connect your Bluetooth headphones to the in-flight entertainment screens.

There’s nothing better than throwing on your big Bose or Apple noise-canceling headphones and enjoying a movie without any of the annoying wires… 😎

This is all well and good, but what happens when the plane lands in Dublin?

Well… you have a lot of options…

🍀 What to do in Ireland

Nashville and Dublin make for a pretty incredible city pair… Both places are known for their live music, culinary scene, and late-night culture.

In fact, 71% of Irish adults say they listen to country music (I know, I was surprised, too). 🤠

Anyway, Dublin has a lot to offer. In my three days there, I packed a LOT of stuff in… So much that there’s not enough time to cover it here…

So check out this article if you want the lowdown on how to see Dublin and some of the surrounding countryside in just a few days:

Finally, I want to disclose that Nashville International Airport paid for me to fly to Ireland, enjoy some activities, and fly back on this inaugural flight.

Furthermore, Aer Lingus kindly upgraded me to business class for free.

With that said, I’ve flown Aer Lingus three times before this experience (all in the past month), and the content you read today is my own opinion based on all of my experiences with the airline.

Bottom line

Aer Lingus has a brand-new route that connects Nashville and Dublin for the first time.

This new route allows flyers in Tennessee, Kentucky, Alabama, Mississippi, and even Georgia to fly nonstop to Europe or beyond on a world-class airline.

Now that you know about the flight experience and how to book this route with points, tell me something:

That’s all for today, friends. I hope you enjoyed this first look at a special new route between the U.S. and Europe.

And heads up — we’ll be taking tomorrow off, but you can still tune in to our Weekend Round-Up newsletter. Otherwise, I’ll see you all bright and early on Monday!

52°22'35.4"N 52°15'17.4"W

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