After a four-year pause, nonstop flights between Minneapolis-St. Paul (MSP) and Dublin (DUB) resumed Monday as Aer Lingus finally returned to the Minnesota airport. But that long-awaited route is just part of a broader trend.
As Aer Lingus and other airlines have added more flights between the U.S. and Dublin, it's never been easier to score a cheap fare (or a deal using points) to Ireland.
Minneapolis lost its short-lived nonstop route to Ireland early in the pandemic, but the wait for Midwestern travelers is over. The Irish carrier with big green planes returned Monday evening, the first of four weekly flights to the Emerald Isle flying an Airbus A330. Aer Lingus officially added Minneapolis back to its summer 2024 lineup along with Denver (DEN), which is set to begin May 17.
“This represents the restoration of all of our pre-COVID flying, so this is a big day for us,” Bill Byrne, the airline's director of global sales said Monday ahead of the first flight back to Dublin. “We're really ecstatic to be back.”
But they won't be alone in Minneapolis for long: Within hours of Aer Lingus' announcement last summer, Delta matched them with a nonstop route of its own. Delta's daily service to Dublin is scheduled to commence next week – though, unlike Aer Lingus, Delta only plans to fly that route until late October.
From Minneapolis and Denver this year to previous additions in cities like Cleveland (CLE) and Hartford (BDL) to JetBlue's expansion to Ireland this summer, there are more airlines flying more routes to Dublin than ever. And that means one thing: Lower airfare for travelers like you and me!
We've sent Thrifty Traveler Premium more cheap fares and points deals to Dublin than ever before, including this record-low fare from Minneapolis.
The return of Minneapolis and addition of Denver gives Ireland's flag carrier a whopping 16 destinations in North America. While most fly straight to Dublin, the airline also operates a handful of nonstop routes to Shannon (SNN) and even Manchester (MAN) across the channel in England.
That airline's expansion alone is a win for travelers on the hunt for a deal to Dublin. It's not quite a low-cost carrier, but Aer Lingus has made a name for itself with cheap transatlantic fares and a free stopover program, allowing flyers to stop in Dublin for up to seven days on their way to (or back from) somewhere else in Europe.
Read next: Our Guide to Visiting Ireland
Did you really think the U.S. airlines were going to let Aer Lingus go it alone, though? Of course not. Delta retaliated in Minneapolis within hours, defending one of its biggest hubs with a nonstop flight to Dublin of its own. And as it continues expanding in Europe, JetBlue added two routes to Dublin as of March.
Just add them to the growing list of airlines flying to Ireland and back. Here's the full list of North American airlines' routes to the Emerald Isle this year:
- Air Canada flies from Toronto (YYZ), Montreal (YUL) and Vancouver (YVR)
- Air Transat also flies from Toronto (YYZ)
- American Airlines offers nonstops from Charlotte (CLT), Chicago-O'Hare (ORD), Dallas-Fort Worth (DFW), and Philadelphia (PHL)
- Delta Air Lines will fly to Ireland from Atlanta (ATL), Boston (BOS), Minneapolis-St. Paul (MSP), and New York City (JFK)
- JetBlue started service from both Boston (BOS) and New York City (JFK) to Dublin in March
- United Airlines flies nonstop to Ireland from Chicago-O'Hare (ORD), Newark (EWR), and Washington, D.C.-Dulles (IAD)
- WestJet also offers nonstops from Calgary (YYC), Halifax (YHZ), and Toronto (YYZ)
That's a lot of routes … and a lot competition. And Aer Lingus regularly pressures all of them to cut prices with cheap fares like these:
As you can see, it's not out of the ordinary to find sub-$400 nonstop fares to Dublin (DUB) or even Shannon (SNN). Don't want to fly Aer Lingus? No problem: Sales like these have regularly led to nationwide sales to Dublin on other carriers, with fares dipping into the $400s on American, Delta, United, or one of their partners.
While you'll typically find the best fares to Ireland in the off-season (winter) or shoulder season (usually fall and spring), the surge in seats flying to and from Ireland has even triggered some cheap summer fares to Dublin as well!
And it's not just cheap fares flying economy, either. As those fares have tumbled, we've also found an unprecedented amount of award availability to book lie-flat business class seats to Ireland using miles.
And that includes one of our favorite ways to get to Dublin: Aer Lingus business class.
We've repeatedly found wide-open award space flying Aer Lingus business class overseas, including the new route from Minneapolis-St. Paul (MSP) and countless other cities. Best of all, you could book these nonstop, lie-flat fares for as low as just 45,000 points each way.
The beauty of booking Aer Lingus is just how easy it is to get the miles you need. You can book these seats with Avios miles from either Aer Lingus or British Airways (which are transferrable from credit card programs like Chase, American Express, or Capital One). You can also book them with Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan or even with miles from United, too!
You know the tide has turned in travelers' favor when one of the best deals in the world of points and miles pops up. That's right, flying Delta One business class to Dublin … but not using 400,000 SkyMiles each way: You could book these seats for just 50,000 points instead.
This is the ultimate unicorn fare, as Delta rarely allows travelers to take advantage of this workaround and book business class abroad for just 50,000 points via Virgin Atlantic. But we've found some unprecedented availability for Thrifty Traveler Premium members to book a trip to Dublin in lie-flat seats, including that brand-new route from Minneapolis.
Take a look at what Delta is charging for that exact same flight now: 375,000 SkyMiles, more than seven times the cost!
It was one of our best deals of the year and made for some happy, Dublin-bound travelers in the months ahead. And it was only possible thanks to all the new routes and competition flying to Ireland and back this year.
Bottom Line
After years of waiting, Monday marked the highly anticipated return of nonstop flights between Minneapolis-St. Paul (MSP) to Dublin (DUB) flying Aer Lingus – and, come next week, Delta.
They're just the latest additions to the growing list of ways to fly from North America to Dublin and back. With more routes on many different airlines to Ireland than ever before, it's a recipe for some of the best flight deals we've ever seen … whether you're flying in economy or forking over some points for business class in 2024 and beyond.
Thrifty Traveler editor Kyle Potter contributed to this story
Lead photo courtesy of the Metropolitan Airports Commission