Aer Lingus

Recently travelled to Ireland via Heathrow on ANZ then partner airline Midland to Dublin. After 2 very enjoyable weeks in Ireland travelled Dublin to Edinburgh with a party of 20 on Aer Lingus. 16 had an extra bag booked and all those were well underweight. One person had an extra bag not overweight but not booked for which the additional charge was 320 euros. This was negotiated down to 270 euros and we were advised that the charge would have been wiped had we flown into Ireland using Aer Lingus. To put the extra charge in perspective the price of a return ticket plus bag on the net that day was 119 euros. This experience detracted from our visit and does not seem a good way to engender goodwill towards the airline.

First time Aer Lingus trip. SFO to DUB (and back this is a review of both trips). Ticket was over 1000USD so I was very surprised that drinks and snacks were not free except soft drinks and a tiny bag of pretzels. I have never experienced this on an international flight before. Food was pretty bad mostly tasteless slop for the main meal and an insulting muffin and coffee/tea for "afternoon tea" which was literally thrown at some people. We could watch movies/TV free but the headset quality was atrocious we couldn't hear clearly (same for announcements which could be a safety hazard). I switched to my own headset so I can confirm that this was an airline problem. Attendants were inattentive - on the night time outbound trip they disappeared so no water could be had overnight (there was no-one at the back of the plane). They were also curt and unsmiling - except when I tried to board when they stopped the passengers immediately ahead of me and went into a whole "Irish" routine which went on for a while. The waiting masses were rolling their eyes at this. The seat-belt sign was on the whole trip so in the end we just ignored it. All in all I will try to avoid Aer Lingus from now on.

Glasgow to Dublin on Friday returned Sunday. Booked and paid for seats at the front of the plane only to find that the only exit is at the back. Not a major issue but annoying plus a complete waste of money on what was already an expensive flight. Delay on way back as gate was late opening all kept waiting at gate in absolutely freezing conditions. Cabin staff on way out were very friendly and gave lots of great advice on shopping in Dublin.

LHR-DUB-LGW was pretty good both ways with the outbound being delayed and inbound arriving early. Flight staff were always very nice and welcoming. Since this was a short flight the low-cost carrier side of the airline revealed itself quite a bit. Didn't experience any problems and would definitely fly with them again.

Dublin to Paris CDG return. I paid for a flexible ticket which costs more than twice the ordinary fare. By right this should be equivalent to business class fare. However Aer Lingus operates an economy only seating on this route. It used to include 2 checked bangs of 20 kgs each. Not anymore as you only get one 20kg bag now. With this fare you get lounge access but you still have to purchase food and drinks on the plane. Outbound flight was largely ok. On the return trip I was very annoyed to discover that the overhead bin was full and as I was on seat 1C there was no front seat I could put my small carry on luggage under. Eventually the stewardess managed to squeeze it in an overhead bin above the seat behind. I find this unacceptable as obviously no proper checks were carried out allowing people to carry disproportionately more stuff on board and thus depriving others from getting their fare share of space. It irritated me even more that I had paid over the odds to discover that there was no space for my small carry on luggage above my seat. I have to agree with strict policies regarding carry on luggage as is with Ryanair. I guess I will still continue flying Aer Lingus as there are not too many options on this route but Aer Lingus should probably have a small business class cabin so that those who pay more get that bit more for the extra they fork out for their ticket. Alas I am unlikely to see this in my lifetime. In summary I think the worst thing an airline can do is combining a low cost approach while still charging extra for which you don't get much more. If Aer Lingus wants to be a real low cost airline that's fine but don't charge more and give nothing much in return.

I recently flew Aer Lingus from Malaga to Dublin and then on to San Francisco again with Aer Lingus from Dublin the following day. I have never flown with Aer Lingus before but cannot fault either the flights or their customer service. We booked the enhanced meals on our return flights from Dublin to San Francisco and my only comment would be that although the outgoing meals were superb the incoming meals appeared to have been a little overcooked. Without exception all flights left on time and arrived early.

Flew EI111. Service I will admit was bad. I fly maybe 4 times a year with Aer Lingus on its European network and some people need to remember that we sadly have left the era of luxury air travel like the Great Swissair. Even flag carriers now have to cut costs. What you pay for on Aer Lingus is very cheap for the service compared to another low cost Irish airline.

We travelled Newcastle-Dublin-Chicago early October and chose Aer Lingus because of the option to do Immigration in Dublin. What a disappointment. At US Immigration in Dublin we were handed Customs Forms. The guy handing them out had no idea what they were for or who had to fill them in. The Immigration process however was fairly straightforward and much quicker than we've experienced in the US. Once on board what a disappointment. We waited almost two hours before the flight attendants came around with the drinks trolley. They only came around once in an eight hour flight. And we had to pay for the drinks. This is the first time we've had to do this on a Transatlantic flight. They never came around with complimentary water or juice. I asked the attendant for some water which she brought to me but when the lady in front asked for water she was told they'd stopped serving drinks!! Lunch was pretty grim and afternoon tea was a flapjack - pretty hard to swallow when you're thirsty! On a positive note when we landed in Chicago we collected our luggage and were on our way pretty quickly. The return overnight flight was no better then our flight from Dublin to Newcastle was delayed because of an incident in Dublin airport. We were sitting in a very cold aircraft for over an hour. The pilot said he would start the engines to warm the plane up - the propellors turned twice! When we got home I had a query and needed to speak to Customer Service. I filled in a Customer Service form - 4 weeks later I'm still waiting for a response.

LHR to DUB. Flew out of T2. As a Gold Circle member I used the lounge. The views and ambience is far superior to the old T1 lounge but the food is still pretty pathetic the exception being the coffee - there is a machine as well as a percolator. The flight was fine with one exception the seat pitch was incredibly tight. This is a refurbished plane with the magazine rack at eye level. I am only 5ft 4" but I still found the space very tight.

October 16. Business Class Orlando to Dublin and economy class connecting to Amsterdam. It is difficult to fault this airline. The quality and attitude of the flight attendants is remarkable. This was true even on the connecting economy flight to Amsterdam despite the seating being very tight and the flight was packed. Flights departed and left on time. Boarding was more chaotic as patrons waited while families with infants and those in wheelchairs boarded early but brought with them large extended families as well to take advantage of the early boarding. October 25 the return flight from Amsterdam only allows check in with KLM but Aer Lingus passengers find out too late that they cannot print boarding passes from the hotel but only at blue KLM machines in the airport. On return to Orlando in the time it took to walk for the gate to baggage Aer Lingus already had the bags on the conveyor belt. Now that's a first.