Aer Lingus

✅ Trip Verified | 7/12 ready to fly home from Edinburgh to Hartford CT via Dublin. We were told the connector from Edinburgh to Dublin was late and we couldn’t fly to Hartford. We were re-routed to Heathrow and then to Boston and were told by Aer Lingus that we were ‘on our own in Boston’. We had to wait at he Edinburgh airport for 5 hours before boarding the flight to Heathrow and were given a measly 5 pound credit for food. When we complained about being stuck in Boston at 9:30p.m. They said this happens all the time. Basically they couldn’t get rid of us fast enough. A terrible experience at every level.

Not Verified | Chicago to Amsterdam via Dublin. This review is a long time coming. I’d like to start off on a positive note. Betty and her colleagues working at the check-in desk at O’Hare on the evening of June 27, 2019 were life savers. These women went above and beyond to help me get on an earlier transfer flight, and deserve to be acknowledged. Unfortunately, all other circumstances surrounding my trip were nightmare-ish. I chose to fly them again due to the cost and convenience from Chicago. During my last trip with Aer Lingus my luggage was lost during a connection from Dublin to Rome. Hours and hours were spent on the phone with essentially no help. The only reason I recovered my bag was pure luck. I went to the airport to see if miraculously my bag made it on the same flight the next day and it did. Albeit, it was sitting in the middle of the airport and no one ever contacted me that it had arrived! I received zero compensation for this inconvenience despite submitting a claim to the airline. I booked with Aer Lingus again after the last disaster because the price was significantly less, and the in-flight experience is not terrible compared to some airlines. First, plans changed prior to my departure and the customer service line was worthless. Prepare to be on hold for an hour and then speak with an operator that is prepared to do nothing to assist you. If you must fly this airline and run into an issue with your departure, the only option is to work with personnel at the origin airport directly. Additionally, the check in process at every airport (aside from O’Hare) has been run with zero efficiency. At my recent check in departing from Amsterdam back to the USA, there were two employees working the desk. A family was dealing with an issue and it held up the line for an hour. It would have made much more sense to have them step aside and work with them after the majority of passengers had checked in. The line system itself is also ridiculous. There were two lines marked “check in” and “bag drop” but since most flyers were unable to check in online (another annoyance), it was unclear if there was any differentiation in the line. This created much discord between the passengers waiting and arguments as to whose turn was next. Although I arrived at the airport with almost three hours to spare, given the check-in snafu, I felt I had to rush through security and customs. As such, I did not check my boarding pass and only realized while arriving at security that the agent did not print out a boarding pass for my transfer flight. I rushed to the gate to inquire whether they could print a pass there because of the error at check-in. They told me that they could not assist me and my only option was to re-check in at the Dublin airport. I have an hour and 35 minute layover and also have to go through US customs, so how will this be feasible? Further, now our flight is delayed and there is a very solid chance I will miss my connection back to a Chicago. All in all, do your best to avoid flying this airline at all costs. The consistent terrible service and inefficiency you will encounter every step of the way is not worth any amount of savings.

✅ Trip Verified | Boarding was chaotic - they cram all the passengers on one bus for a lengthy wait and then drive to the airplane. The plane itself is tiny and very old, with the seats very close together - you can feel the knees of the passenger behind in your back - and for some reason they filled up every seat toward the front and then left rows of empty seats in the back of the plane, nearest the one exit. There were two flight attendants, one was very rude, and another who spilled some kids milk all over me and my iPad as she was carrying trash down the aisle. I’ll give it a 4 out of 10 though, because at least it got me to my destination and it flies to/from Newquay which is a brilliant little airport, but I will try a different airline next time. There are alternatives with newer planes and more/better service from Exeter. Sadly that means not using Newquay.

✅ Trip Verified | Boarded 10.45 flight EI891 Lisbon to Cork on June 29th 2019. Have to say never boarded a flight that smelt so bad in my life! The staff did not acknowledge this when I brought it to their attention!!! Sat for 2 hours before disembarking due to a wheel problem which needed a new wheel to be flown from Dublin the following morning. This part I get, unexpected things happen. To be honest, though, a spare wheel must be available on site. I don’t know much about flying a plane but it would seem pretty basic to me! Communication and clarification were sparse at best. Lost sheep - I know what they are now! No hotels booked, no details of the alternative flight, no plan made for any person in that flight (except the Aer Lingus staff who headed off to their pre-booked hotels). I will add that those on the flight included the elderly, infirm and wheelchair bound. It’s 1 am and entire flight left to our own devices to survive a late night in Lisbon. About 50 people slept on the airport floor, no water, no blankets. An €18 meal voucher received at about 1 pm on June 30th. Email confirmation received for 1 pm initially, then corrected to 2 pm, later ”confirmed” for 8.05 pm. This is farcical. It’s not what I expect from our national airline! The level of customer service is pathetic and unacceptable. I am annoyed that we could not have been told last night to arrive at a more reasonable hour. According to Ground Force in Lisbon there was never a slot available to fly at 2pm. In all of this time, there was no sign of any Aer Lingus staff. Ground Force may be contracted by Aer Lingus as airport admin but to be honest, we would deserve better than this! Aer Lingus did issue a message saying that air traffic control had restricted their ability to make a departure at 2 pm. Lisbon airport ground control told us there was no such slot available! Why can’t people tell the truth? Seemingly no slot was available and so I find myself sitting unnecessarily at the airport unable to even check in! Very, very poor reflection on Aer Lingus as a company. I understand perfectly that flights are delayed. I understand perfectly that things don’t always go to plan. I do not understand how events like this are handled so badly. What a pity as this is what defines an organisation. Frustrated, annoyed and tired.

Not Verified | Dublin to London. I had a flight booked as a stop over with another airline. I flew Aer Lingus just to transfer airports to the actual airline I booked through. Because of this third party booking I could not use the kiosk to print my boarding pass. I asked the woman at the kiosk for help and she told me to use the kiosk, when I explained the issue she told me that the kiosk was the only way to print my boarding pass. I tried to get help at the ticketing counter and was told they could not help because I had already purchased a ticket. By this point I was an hour and fifteen minutes into the process. I then stood in another line to get help from the baggage drop. Two people in a row went on break as I got to the front of the line leaving one person to help close to 200 people still in line. Then she shut down her line to help priority board the people who’s gates had closed. Finally got my boarding pass print after almost two hours in line. I then tried to check my bags in the automated line and was flagged because I was flying to the United States. I waited almost 5 minutes for someone to notice the big red light over my bags and come assist. No one did. I asked the man sitting in the empty line next to me for help (business class assistance line) and he told me that he would not help and that I needed to go find someone who would help me. Finally managed to find help. All in all it took over two hours to print a boarding pass and check my bags. I emailed customer service to simply make them aware of these issues and they have been more than unhelpful. She told me she could not help because I would not give her a valid booking number even though I have explained several times that I do not have one for her airline since I did not book with them to begin with. She also decided to assign a gender role when speaking with me. When I corrected her mistake and explained that I was offended by her presumption I was told it was my fault for not providing my gender when filing my complaint. I was so shocked by her response that I felt the need to address it with her supervisor. I asked twice to be transferred to a supervisor and in response they have stopped responding to my emails. All I wanted to do was let this company know about the problems I experienced. Instead I have receive some of the worst customer service of my life.

✅ Trip Verified | On the 13.06.2019. I had my flight with Aer Lingus from Dublin to Lyon. I purchased two hour lounge access with it for EUR 30.00 as i had a good experience with Dublin Airport lounges in the past. This is the most pathetic excuse for an airport lounge i have ever seen and i been to a lot of them. The selection of drinks was limited. The place was dirty, there was no food. Next door, there is a far better lounge. After that my flight was delayed but nobody cared to communicate this to us. Then on the 16.06.2019. I could not view my boarding pass even though i had checked in the day before. I had to go to the counter to check in. We arrived a little later at the Dublin airport, where my luggage was misplaced. I spoke to the ground staff and reported luggage as missing. Asked the ground staff on how to proceed next, and was advised they will find my luggage within 72 hours. 72 hours later still no luggage but an SMS to call them. After speaking to an associate for 30 minutes and not getting anywhere i asked for a supervisor and was promised a supervisor call back in an hours time. 20.06 filled out lost baggage survey and called customer support as i did not receive promised supervisor call back. Was transfered to a supervisor who told that this will be resolved in 5 days. I asked him what will happen if not, he said that this won´t be the case. That if not found they will consider it lost! 21.06 in the late afternoon called them again. Spoke to another person telling me that they found my luggage and will deliver it to be today or tomorrow. 22.06 late afternoon called again as i haven´t received my luggage. was advised, that they are still checking if this is my luggage. Then on the 25.06 i called again asking for an update. They said they still don´t have one. I asked to talk to supervisor and was promised a supervisor call back within an hour. At 07:00 pm i called again insisting to speak to a supervisor and spoke to the most incompetent supervisor i have ever dealt. If a customer doesn't have their luggage for several days has spend hours on the phone you do not sigh at them. I also escalated to Aerlingus via fb while they were quick to respond, no body took accountability for the action. Nobody from the complaints department reached out to me to find out what happened.

✅ Trip Verified | My wife is in the airport carrying her luggage and our baby boy in a car seat, since Aer Lingus lost our buggy which she would attach to car seat. She asked the Aer Lingus staff at the airport to help her to carry the babyseat and surprisingly they said that they are too busy. I cannot believe that there were not at least 1 staff that could help my wife to carry our baby in the car seat to the bus station, which is 3 minutes from the entrance door. My wife just needed 5 minutes of your time ok? The "busy" staff. Never had any complain about this airline, they are really good. Please get your ground staff in some customer service training to handle this situations.

✅ Trip Verified | Dublin to London City. Good services at Dublin airport, the Aer Lingus staff was helpful and nice. Staff was sufficient in number, queue was small and managed properly. Slight delay possibly because of weather.

✅ Trip Verified | Amsterdam to Dublin. Bad communication on flight delay - basically none, arriving plane only landed 10min before planned take-off still no information. Yes, planes are delayed all the time but a minimum of straight forward communication should be possible. Also very unfriendly personal randomly picking hand luggage to be checked in and somehow picking exactly does people who then had their hands full of stuff like batteries, Computers and such that are not allowed to be checked in. Seriously needs to improve staff training and communication procedures.

✅ Trip Verified | Brussels to San Francisco via Dublin. I have never in my life experienced such poor customer service. I booked a flight from BRU to SFO, but due to weather and slow ground operations at DUB airport I ended up missing my connection to SFO. I got rebooked onto a flight from DUB to JFK and JFK to SFO. Not only did this add 15 additional hours to my trip; they also managed to lose my bags in JFK. When I finally arrived in SFO at 3am after 30h of traveling, all 3 of my bags were missing. Additionally I had made a bid to upgrade to business class, based on the information I was given: a flight from DUB to SFO. However when I got rebooked, I got downgraded to economy for the second leg of the flight. And of course, availability isn’t always there, but when I raised this issue with them, they refused to compensate me or give me a partial refund. Over the course of 4 days I made over 16 phone calls, filled out multiple complaint claims, reached out to them on twitter. But they did nothing to help me retrieve my bags. I kept getting the same standard answer over and over again: As American Airlines were your final carrier they will need to trace the missing baggage. In our industry, it's the final carrier's responsibility to return the delayed baggage. They will work directly with us on your behalf to return the bags to you as soon as possible. And indeed, they tried to work with Aer Lingus. They put in 3 requests to get the bags transferred onto their system. But Aer Lingus was unresponsive. I also reached out to Aer Lingus’s own delayed baggage department, who also put in a request and sent 2 emails to raise this issue. Yet again, not a single response from Aer Lingus. As a result, my bags are still being held hostage in the Aer Lingus terminal at JFK. After yet another attempt to raise awareness with Aer Lingus on twitter, I got shut down without any meaningful response. This seems to be their thing: making customers go away as fast as possible while providing zero help. Filing a complaint on Aer Lingus has been designed to frustrate and infuriate people. Of course, things won’t always go according to plan, and often there’s not much that can be done about it, but a company like Aer Lingus should have a proper system for dealing with complaints in a timely manner, supported by caring staff. Putting customers through the same form over and over again is only designed to make them go away.