Does Aer Lingus offers the world’s worst flight gift card scheme?

Gift vouchers for travel products can be represent dreadful value. Not only do they restrict choice – they can come with onerous conditions attached.

Last year, The Independent revealed that tickets bought using an air-travel voucher called Flightgiftcard cost far more than paying with plastic.

Individual airline gift cards often expire after a year, further reducing their value.

But Aer Lingus appears to run what is possibly the travel world’s worst gift card scheme.

Jess Wright, a community worker from Bristol, and her wife-to-be, Tanya Hazell, told family and friends that they did not need any wedding gifts. But if anyone was really keen to give them something, then they would welcome an Aer Lingus voucher towards a planned trip to the US in 2020.

They intend to fly on the Irish airline via Dublin to California.

The couple were given nine vouchers, totalling £925, which they hoped would go a long way towards paying the air fares.

“In the hectic mayhem of the pre-wedding planning we just didn't think to look at all the voucher information,” said Ms Wright.

When they studied the conditions after their marriage, they discovered to their horror that Aer Lingus does not allow gift cards to be combined for a single purchase.

Ms Wright said: “I had no idea this would be the case. In every other instance with vouchers you can usually use all the credit together.

“We are now going to be left with multiples of vouchers that need to be used within 12 months with no means of being able to afford the money or the time to use them all.”

After The Independent intervened, Aer Lingus agreed to pay the couple a lump sum of £925 to allow them to book without restriction.

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A spokesperson for the airline said: “As stated on our website, a maximum of one voucher is permitted per transaction.

“Equally the voucher must be in the name of the person travelling. However we enable guests to change the name on the voucher via the ‘Manage Voucher’ function on our website.

“All terms and conditions regarding Aer Lingus vouchers are detailed on aerlingus.com.”

With a £9 flat fee for issuing gift cards, the airline earned £81 in transaction fees from selling the nine vouchers.

Aer Lingus’s close rival, Ryanair, charges £2 per voucher. It allows up to four gift cards to be combined on a single booking.