Aer Lingus

For an international carrier it must rate as the poorest value. The audacity of them to charge for alcoholic beverages and the gall of them to recommend you spend €18 odd on what they call a decent meal when most national carriers provide the same free. I was travelling with some friends from Australia and they were taken aback by the frugality of the meals and beverages. Not my favourite airline and would only travel with them if it was absolutely necessary. As the Irish have a habit of mimicking every other country don't know why they cannot take this on board.

3/10/14 London Heathrow to Dublin Flight EI155. I am fed up with the Aer Lingus bashing on this site. Whilst conceding that I am Irish and could be accused of bias on the number of occasions over the last few years I have flown with Aer Lingus I can truthfully say that the overall service has been outstanding. Flight delays are usually outside the control of the airline. The crews without exception have been warm friendly and totally professional. I have enjoyed flying with Aer Lingus and look forward to doing so again.

Flew CWL-DUB-JFK and YYZ-DUB-CWL business class. Had the opportunity to bid for upgrade which we did and was accepted. The flight from CWL was on Stobart Air new plane and surprisingly quite a bit of leg room and seat comfort. We chose this route so we could clear immigration in DUB which was very easy to do and then sit in the BC lounge until ready to fly. The trip over was great comfortable seats which laid flat wi-fi 5 course meal on real plates and a tasty snack before we landed. The cabin crew were delightful nothing was too much trouble. The IFE was ok I mainly listened to music which had some great artists on there and some relatively new releases. I did not watch a film as I was too busy playing email tag with friends taking advantage of the wi-fi. Arrived at JFK on time and breezed through the terminal to collect luggage and to meet our waiting transfer. Return journey YYZ-DUB-CWL. Business lounge in YYZ airport is run by KLM massive lounge with great selection of food and drinks. The return plane was a different configuration and older so BC was not as comfortable in my opinion. There were only 12 seats and 2 were empty we were in row 1 and the screen for the IFE was so far away I could barely see it. One member of staff to care for our needs she was rather offhand and sourfaced not like that smilers we had coming over. Dinner was served it was ok but not to the standard of the outward flight and the seats were not as comfortable due to the fact that when you did use the recline/lie flat you were placed at an angle that made you feel as if you were about to slide on the floor. During the flight I asked for a cup of coffee (I dont sleep) and she said I will be serving breakfast in 30 minutes would you like yours now I said no just the coffee. When she served breakfast she did not give me mine so had to ask when she replied "oh you said you did not want breakfast". When we arrived at DUB we had to go through security again despite having just gotten off a plane and only being in transit. Due to the plane being slightly late we only had 15mins to get to our gate. Our bags were scrutinised and my friends duty free was checked to see if the seal had been broken and the receipt matched with the label. Very irritating we did end up being slightly late to our gate (we had our boarding passes) but it was stress we could have done without. The flight back to CWL was with Stobart Air packed but no problems. All in all not bad for the price we paid as the outward journey balanced the return.

I flew from Chicago O'Hare to Dublin and from Dublin to Amsterdam and Amsterdam back to Dublin and Dublin back to O'Hare and I must say I was pleased with the airline. The food was good the entertainment was good and the leg room on the flights was great. Only issue I did have was from Amsterdam to Dublin because we arrived 30 minutes left and nearly missed our connecting flight from Dublin to O'Hare however we made it on time with all of our belongings. Will definitely use Aer Lingus again on any future trips to Ireland.

Used the BHX-DUB flight taking about an hour and just wanted to say what a pleasant experience it was compared to the competition on this route. No check-in queue or problems even though I was late due to a delayed train. A relaxed and pleasant experience throughout. No being herded onto stairwells so that the airline can stick to its tight schedules - just walked straight onto the plane after a short wait. The plane itself was a newish ATR 72-600 with an easy-on-the-eye light grey/blue interior - not the oppressive yellow and blue of the competition. Also no jarring announcements or being pestered to buy scratch cards. National carriers are also often a small window on the country to which you are travelling so it was nice to have staff that were actually Irish. Terminal 2 in Dublin is also much easier than T1. A relaxing experience and good all round - well worth the extra few euros (although actually cheaper than FR for this particular trip).

We recently flew Aer Lingus from Chicago to Dublin and we can now say that we have a new favorite airline. Flights were on time luggage problems were non-existent and the staff was great.

I flew from Chicago O'Hare to Dublin and from Dublin to Amsterdam and Amsterdam back to Dublin and Dublin back to O'Hare and I must say I was pleased with the airline. The food was good the entertainment was good and the leg room on the flights was great. Only issue I did have was from Amsterdam to Dublin because we arrived 30 minutes left and nearly missed our connecting flight from Dublin to O'Hare however we made it on time with all of our belongings. Will definitely use Aer Lingus again on any future trips to Ireland.

Kerry-Dublin-Kerry on 14th October. Flight is Aer Lingus Regional operated by Stobart Air. Flights departed and arrived on time and were relatively smooth. Transit through Kerry and Dublin airports (with no luggage) was easy. The aircraft was uncomfortably hot during the early morning flight from Kerry. Food was dreadful - a rock hard scone from 'Clodagh's Kitchen'. Not Clodagh's best bake! These are relatively minor though easily resolved quibbles in what is a very useful service.

Flew from Belfast City Airport to Palma. The flight was delayed on the way out although it was confirmed that this was due to the airport the plane was leaving to come to Belfast to pick us up and in the end it was only just over an hour due to a speedy turn around by Aer Lingus staff. The aircraft was clean and tidy and not at all tired looking a good job especially given the short turnaround time that staff had. Flight was comfortable with a decent enough level of leg room although the cabin did feel a little hot on both out and inbound flights. The food selection was decent and of a standard a little higher than I would have normally expected although perhaps in the grander scheme of things like most airlines a little pedestrian. The return flight was much the same no problems and nothing to further stress my wife and I while travelling with our toddler for her first time on a plane. Also a few days after landing I contacted Aer Lingus as we seemed to have misplaced a new pair of shoes we had bought in Palma airport for our daughter. Usually some airlines are impossible to deal with after the fact however Aer Lingus were helpful and really gave the impression they went the extra mile to see if they could locate our misplaced shoes.

Aer Lingus Flight 111 from Shannon to JFK on 1 Oct 2014. We found the flight attendants to be aloof and unprofessional. Several passengers asked for different things and the flight attendants would just "yes" them but never followed through with their requests. It was like they were playing a game - just yes them and don't deliver. Will look for alternate airlines on future flights. I have been flying for over 30 years and never experienced anything like this before.