Aer Lingus

✅ Trip Verified | The seats are disgusting unfortunately. I was in row 28 and my seat felt like it was about to collapse. The coffee and tea stains all over the tray table were also very visible. This is a 07:20am flight out of Dublin. It will be its first flight so clearly the plane was not cleaned over night. I moved to row 27 as it was not occupied. And all 3 of these seats were even more filthy. The tray tables all disgusting with coffee and tea stains. Clearly not cleaned or disinfected. The safety demonstration card had gum attached to it and every duty free magazine is gross. Page edges all curling up and the edges are dark from so many people touching them for months. The variety of A320 types are also disappointing. Ironically the older A320s have better seats. More leg room and adjustable headrests. The new A320/321Neos are extremely uncomfortable. No adjustable headrest and no seat recline.

Not Verified | We recently had a very frustrating experience with Aer Lingus on flight EI429 from Pisa to Dublin on 18 August 2024. Despite arriving at the gate only three minutes late, we were denied boarding, even though the plane was still on the tarmac, near us, with the stairs down and the door open. The ground staff refused to let us board without even checking with the crew, which was completely unreasonable. To make matters worse, the staff showed no willingness to assist or explain the situation. They ignored our requests for clarification, even though we later discovered that the flight left with a delay of over an hour. This made their decision even more unacceptable. We have contacted Aer Lingus multiple times via email to seek clarification and assistance, but have received no response. The lack of customer service and basic communication is shocking. Due to this situation, we had no choice but to take four different modes of transportation (taxis and trains, all at additional cost) to reach Milan, where we finally managed to depart in the late evening, having to purchase new tickets once again with Aer Lingus I strongly urge Aer Lingus to reconsider how they handle customer situations and offer timely responses. Based on this experience, I cannot recommend this airline to others.

✅ Trip Verified | Our second leg on this plane. The first was from Manchester to Belfast. There is no business class available for this flight but Economy Flex offered lounge access. We were allocated row 1 A&C which sounds great until you realise that the only passenger door, aside from emergency exits is at the rear of the plane. Consequently, we were almost the first onboard but the last off. Not such a big deal as the aircraft has only 72 seats. There is a trolley service on this one hour flight but we didn't bother, there seemed little point in paying for overpriced snacks and drinks. No IFE or Wi-fi on these flights. Cabin crew of two were pleasant and professional and that is about all you can say.

✅ Trip Verified | This airline is still living in the 20th century. Their app doesn’t display changed bookings, the app displays incorrect boarding & gate closure times, and the app doesn’t display your gate at all. That’s just the tip of the iceberg. Our first flight out of Chicago was delayed by an hour. They first said it was due to sanitizing the plane, but the pilot later admitted the aircraft had brake issues. Fine. We got to our layover late due to this (again, fine - these things happen). But there were no Aer Lingus personnel to be found anywhere near our gate that just closed to our connecting flight around 8am local time. We walked down past several gates and found an Aer Lingus gate agent that was just standing there. She asked us to wait so she could walk us to claim our baggage and take us through security again. 25 minutes passed before she called us to follow her. This was a red flag - a normal airline would have had us booked on the next flight immediately. Anyway, she walked us through some doors and asked us to wait there for her. She never came back! After 1/2 hour, we took it upon ourselves to find our luggage and go through customs to do so. Only one of our checked bags was found, and they had transferred it to our new flight that was already booked. Remember, this agent had us waiting around and walking all around the airport for no reason. We finally got on our next flight and landed in Rome another hour later than the rebooked flight was supposed to land! What a terrible experience. And not only that, but our three hour flight from Dublin to Rome didn’t even include a complimentary snack or water! Everything was at a cost. My God, What terrible service. We then spent hours at the luggage help desk and on the phone with Aer Lingus in an attempt to get our lost luggage. Their call center was clearly overseas and they were pretty useless. Luckily we had an AirTag in our luggage so we knew it made it to Rome. We sent proof of this to Aer Lingus per their request and they said they’d find it and send it to our resort. We called daily for updates, and each agent knew less than the previous. Luggage never arrived. We bought all new clothing. At the end of our trip, we asked a Rome airport agent (not Aer Lingus, just an airport agent) if we could check the lost baggage area. She let one of us in and we found it immediately. Needless to say, we’ll never fly with Aer Lingus again. Horrible, horrible airline.

✅ Trip Verified |   On August 24, 2024, my Daughter and I attempted to travel from Amsterdam to Seattle via Dublin. The flight, EI605, was scheduled to depart Amsterdam at 1:15 pm. We arrived at the Aer Lingus counter to check in at 10:30 am. There were already 25-30 people in front of us waiting in line and no gate agent insight. By 11:30 am, there were at least 200 people waiting in line to check in. When I called the Aer Lingus number for the Netherlands and asked where the gate agents were I was told, “They usually show up 45 minutes before the flight departs”. At 11:32 a single gate agent showed up and started checking people in. 20 minutes later, a British Airways gate agent who had finished checking people for a British Airways flight next to us, walked over to an empty counter and started helping. By the time a third gate agent arrived it was 45 minutes before the scheduled departure time and there were still dozens of people waiting in line. Everyone was extremely anxious at this point because there was til the airport security line to get through. We arrived at the departure gate at 1:30 pm. Once onboard someone announced that the airline had decided to delay the departure so that all passengers could make the flight. Due to the delay, we missed our connecting flight to Seattle in DUblin. We arrived at gate #418 in Dublin, a gate agent was still present. She told us since we missed the flight we would have to go back to baggage claim, pick up our bags and proceed to a ticket counter to book another flight. She neglected to tell us we had to be escorted by an Aer Lingus employee to baggage claim. After about 30 minutes of looking for some help we finally met a very helpful woman named Loraine. She was kind enough to escort us and others in the same predicament to baggage claim. After retrieving our bags we went to the Aer Lingus “Ticket Assistance” counter. There a gentleman named Sean described our travel options, booked a flight for the following day and told us Aer Lingus would pay for a night in a local hotel as well as dinner. When we arrived at the Carlton Dublin Airport hotel, the people working the front desk told us the hotel was completely booked. When I asked if there were other hotels nearby I was told, “We’re a 4 star hotel, we only deal with other 4 star hotels and they’re all booked full as well”. We caught a ride back to the airport. When we arrived back at the Ticket Assistance counter and told our friend Sean what had happened he disappeared into a back office for a few minutes. When he returned he said, “Since all of our contracted hotels are booked, your only option is to obtain your own lodging and send us the receipt for reimbursement”. I called at least a dozen local hotels without success. By this time it was 6:30 pm and our flight to Seattle was scheduled to leave in 12 hours. We decided to spend the night in the terminal. To add insult to injury, when we arrived in Seattle my Daughter’s suitcase somehow failed to make the flight. We’re still waiting for it. I have been a professional pilot since 1987. This was by far my worst commercial airline travel experience ever.

✅ Trip Verified | This is honestly one of the worst airlines to fly with. The boarding took forever to start. We were flying at 17:30 and we were already late boarding. This was the same for our flight from Dublin to Toronto. The food was absolutely garbage and the staff were not friendly at all.

✅ Trip Verified | Aer Lingus is not a 4 star airline. We chose this airline because we assumed by its rating here we would receive a good standard of service. It is important to us, as we were travelling with a physically challenged passenger. The actual onboard product was ok. They used older planes, but clean and functional. They had fairly good food and ok in-flight entertainment — would give it a better rating if the sound was improved. Their strength was their cabin crew. They were very good. Friendly & attentive. Where is all unravels for these guys, however, is their customer support & communication. Like mentioned, we traveled with a passenger that requires special assistance. I had communicated all the special needs months ahead of schedule, yet upon arrival at airport I learnt not all the information had been passed on. This is not totally abnormal unfortunately, but in this case, I couldn’t even call regarding the matter. I was reliant on an extremely slow & disorganised email service. In fact, we have already returned from our 3 week trip and some of the emails still haven’t been answered! Thankfully the cabin crew were able to help us when onboard, yet even they were frustrated with the lack of communication. On this trip two of our bags failed to arrive in Toronto and a bag was missing on return. It took 7 days to be reunited with one of our bags in Toronto, and when we got it, it was wet inside. In that process, the airline blamed Canadian customs. Canadian customs explained it was a typical ruse for an airline to blame them when they made a mistake. On this return leg, we have been waiting 4 days. There no real way to contact them to find out what the updates are. All we know is that it was loaded into a container in Dublin. As there are at least 2 Aer Lingus flights to Amsterdam per day, I can’t imagine what they are not doing. Possibly waiting for it to get totally soaked again?

✅ Trip Verified | Day 1 - 10 AM : upon landing in Lyon (France) after flying from Toronto (Canada) through Dublin (Ireland), we find out our checked luggage are missing. Report and destination address submitted immediately through the kiosk, and confirmed with relevant luggage agent onsite. Are assured our luggage would get sent directly to airport closest to our destination (Turin, Italy) and delivered to our door, with a likely turnaround of 24 to 48 hours. Day 3 - 6 PM : our luggage lands in Turin (Italy), after flying through Lyon (France) and Frankfurt (Germany). That route contradicts what the onsite luggage agent had told us and added one extra unnecessary day to the initial delay. Day 5 - 5 PM : Turin Airport Lost and Found office advises our luggage is now in their possession (at this stage, it had already been in Turin Airport for nearly 48 hours), and notifies that we would have to fill in a customs form to allow them to proceed with our luggage shipping to our final destination, with an estimated delivery time of an additional 24 to 48 hours. At this stage, it could mean a full week for Aer Lingus to gets us reunited us with our luggage after they have located them (in Dublin airport) and were provided with our destination address. What took them an additional two days, adding to the previous unnecessary delay. Day 6 - 2 PM : we retrieved our luggage from Turin Airport Lost and Found office, despite the 3.5 hour drive involved. When asked how long they have been in Turin Airport, Sagat Handling claim “they don’t know, and are too busy to find out”. To summarise, my partner and I waited six days before getting reunited with our luggage, while anyone could fly from Dublin to Turin and back in a single day. After the sequence of mishaps and miscommunications that led to this outcome, you would expect some acknowledgement from the airline. I unfortunately had further opportunities to test Aer Lingus poor customer service tools and processes (offering no visibility on case history, status and next steps) and interest (simply receiving standard replies and templates - not addressing our case specifics), and escalated the saga to the highest executive level at Aer Lingus. Despite multiple attempts, none of them showed more professionalism or interest in customer experience satisfaction. How does that align with your mission statement (“Our mission is to make every journey count. We do this with care and consideration for people and planet”),

Not Verified | Aer Lingus is the airline I have flown on the most in my life and the majority of my flights have been top notch. Seats are comfortable, aircraft are clean, food is good, flights have been on time and staff have been friendly. I was flying from Faro to Dublin on an A330-202 on the 10th July 2024. The aircraft is 22 years old so I knew the cabin was going to be a bit aged. However the IFE was quite outdated and my seat felt thin. The IFE had no modern headphone jack, still had physical buttons on it and used the old Aer Lingus shamrock on the screen. One re-occurring issue I have with Aer Lingus is with the IFE system's map. It is primitive and is completely un-interactive. Apart from this the IFE is great. It is fast and has a good choice of movies, TV shows, audio, info and games.

✅ Trip Verified | We flew from Cleveland, OH to Chicago, IL then Chicago to Dublin and finally to Glasgow. We had the most amazing flight attendant on our way from Chicago to Dublin (Casey-Jade)! When we got to Dublin we found out our flight to Glasgow was delayed twice for 3+ hours. We had issues at the airport from Aer Lingus on what gate to be at, making us go back and further from two gates that were rather far apart. When we were boarding the plane on the tarmac I saw our luggage out on the tarmac to be loaded onto the plane. After boarding the flight, my mom could see from her window that our luggage wasn’t being loaded onto the plane and then the baggage carrier loaded our bags back onto his car to drive away. My mom brought this to the flight attendants attention. Others on the plane then notices the same thing happening to their bags. We asked the flight attendant to do something about this but neither did and the male flight attendant was rude when speaking to us. After continued questioning, the male flight attendant did open the door and asked the man on the ground if all bags for were loaded on the plane, he said yes. Obviously, the baggage carrier on the ground wouldn’t think he missed bags to load. This was all either flight attendant did to help prevent our bags from not making it to our final destination. While the male flight attendant was visibly mad and spoke to us in a very aggressive manner the whole time. We then arrived in Glasgow, without our luggage. We were 2 of 8 passengers who’s luggage weren't loaded onto that flight. We filed the claim at the desk. I explained to the representation that my mom and I were on a guided tour trip and we would be moving from one hotel to the next each day – we would not be at the same hotel for the first 3 or 4 days of our trip. I called to speak to a representative later that day to see if our bags made it on one of the multiple other flights out of Dublin to Glasgow that day. The person I spoke with could not answer this. I asked for a supervisor and was told they needed to call me back. Conversations like this went over for an additional 2 days. I had explained to every single person I spoke with the severity of our situation and urgency in which we needed to get our luggage. I got the run around from every customer service representative and supervisor from the lost baggage team. I could never get a clear answer on what was happening, where my bags were or when they would arrive. No one seemed to care, at all. It was an awful experience and feeling. I finally saw by checking the online form that our bags were picked up. They were picked up by Aviation Operations. They weren't delivered that day. I called Aer Lingus’s customer service again and couldn't get an answer as to why they were not delivered or when they would be. So I reached out to Aviation Operations myself. They initially informed me that they would be delivered the next day which would then put us at a different location, again. After more communication, they told me that having my request upgraded to ‘express’ could get them there the same day. I was appalled to hear that after everything I had communicated to the customer service front line and supervisors that NO ONE had marked this as express already. We did finally get our bags due to my persistent effort but now Aer Lingus is being difficult about reimbursement for all of these issues.