Aer Lingus

We flew Aer Lingus for our trip to Europe. We are a family of 4 with extensive travel experience. The tickets were not very cheap to begin with. We wanted to fly into London and fly out of Paris. For this the fare difference between Aer Lingus and Virgin British Airways was about $25-40 per person. Having flown with them I have now decided it would have been better to have flown with BA or Virgin. The flight from SFO to DUB and back is a long haul flight. On this flight we were offered one meal and one breakfast bar. The staff don't ask for Water or any other beverage from time to time. I saw other passengers bringing their own food drink etc.. They are probably used to traveling on this airline and are adequately prepared. The quality of entertainment is poor and the system they use is slow to respond. From time to time it hangs and we had to ask the crew to reboot the system. I guess we have been used to superior service from BA Singapore Airlines Cathay Air New Zealand and were disappointed even though the difference pricewise was not much. Speaking for myself and family we will not fly Aer Lingus again even if they offer a cheaper price.

Sunday flight 19.00 17/8. I dread going home with Aer Lingus as there is usually a scrum to get on the plane as the regulars do not understand the meaning of the word queue and the staff don't control the amount of luggage each passenger takes onboard leading to the ritual scratching of heads when their oversized hand luggage doesn't fit in the overhead locker and delay as bags have to be stowed. Why does this continue? When eventually the passengers were on board (it takes forever as many cant count) we then had to listen to the captain boasting about how he was going to get us there early - of course he didn't. Cut the showing off - control the passengers hand luggage and teach them and the staff some manners. Far too expensive for this nonsense - get professional.

Firstly do not be tempted to sit in seats 31 E D F G or 29 A C H I on the Dublin to Boston route the Aer Lingus website will not show that these seats do not recline. I flew Aer Lingus DUB-BOS-DUB in August 2014. It has good staff reasonable planes and routes. But it is really badly let down by its archaic web site with no access to your booking or seat selection before check in tacky interiors with seat pockets hanging off cramped seats some the worst airplane food I have ever had the misfortune to eat. On my transatlantic flight I ended up sitting for 6 hours on the way out in a seat that didn't recline with the person in fronts seat wedged in my face. On the way back I was determined not to let this happen again so chose a middle aisle seat with apparently (on the online check-in website) had seats behind and in front However instead I got a lovely seat beside the toilet which didn't recline as there was a bulkhead behind not shown on their plan. Online check-in is worthless as you still have to queue up in Boston and your carefully printed ticket is torn up and binned. Overall the whole experience was so poor I would much rather go with an airline that actually wants to give passengers a reasonable experience even if it takes a few hours longer to get to my destination.

I use to fly with Ryanair back and forth from Dublin every few weeks. After Ryanair changed their flight times to Dublin which did not help me I changed to Aer Lingus. The staff are friendly and always smiling the planes are comfortable and the times of the flights are fantastic. The prices are always a little higher than the other company's but I would not change back.

First and last time I will fly Aer Lingus. Returning from New Zealand I flew Air NZ Premium Economy to SFO (normally I go All Air NZ AKL to SFO/LAX to LHR-Belfast). However this trip I availed of Aer Lingus' new service from SFO to DUB to cut out a flight. Seats were incredibly cramped and uncomfortable with very small seat pitch and minimal recline which the passenger beside me commented on also as they boarded. Food was utterly disgusting my alleged beef Stroganoff actually tasted worse than it looked which was no mean feat I didn't even attempt a 2nd mouthful. Wine was extra $5USD. For a long haul flight costing over $900USD one way I think this is a bit mean "breakfast" was a joke a cling film wrapped ham and cheese roll and about 100ml of water in a foil sealed plastic tub tossed out. The whole experience just felt like a cost-cutting exercise. IFE was average/poor small selection of mostly dated material. I would advise anyone going for a long haul fly out of London on one of the better carriers.

Our flight on July 31 was a very poor experience. Passengers on flight 661 from Vienna to Dublin were left stranded at the gate for close to two hours past the posted departure time. Monitors in the area claimed the flight to be on time. There we absolutely no Aer Lingus or any other airport employees in the gate area during this time. The security personnel-the only non passengers we could access - refused to assist the passengers as we all became increasingly frustrated at the lack of information. We made phone calls to the Vienna airport (they must share the blame for this debacle as well) and Aer Lingus. No one offered any help whatsoever. Aer Lingus has apparently trained their employees to respond to any question or concern with a very irritating reply: "We understand that you are frustrated". This is all we heard from Aer Lingus employees throughout this flight. Not one Aer Lingus employee responded with appropriate action. At check in we were promised help with a seating request that I had tried to manage multiple times before arrival. No help was ever provided. The hot meal was frustrating as well. Many passengers were left with no option for the meal. This is no way to respect paying customers. We will avoid Aer Lingus in the future as it is apparent that they are in no way interested in appropriate customer service.

LGW-BHD EI021 31 July 14. Excellent customer service and particularly impressed with clear communication and politeness of cabin manager on this flight. A320 seats much more comfortable than the A319s that EI also operate on this route.

Berlin SXF - Dublin on 31st July another delayed departure due to passengers bringing oversized wheelie bags into the cabin and then struggling to find space and in some cases lift them into the overhead lockers. I saw one lady bring on a case large shopper and two large plastic bags! I had checked in a bag and placed a duty free bag in the overhead bin asked to remove it and place it at my feet so a passenger could place a large case in there - flatly refused. This is not the first time this has happened and ruins an otherwise usually pleasant journey compared with the other main airline operating out of Dublin. Come on Aer Lingus get tough with those bringing on excessive amounts of baggage and stop trying to penalise those of is who pay to check in luggage.

Dublin to SFO - good seat space good inflight entertainment pleasant crew flight on time dinner and snack tasted good. From SFO to Dublin - all was good as above except for the meals these were tasteless.

Dublin to San Francisco return. Outward journey via Boston (second leg with Jetblue which was great) as the direct flight was sold out for days around my date of travel. Thankfully got one of the last seats on the direct flight on the return journey. Business class wasn't in the budget for this trip but the seats in economy were fine (I'm 6'0'' tall). I ordered one of the special meals for the Boston flight which was well worth it had the regular meal from SFO to DUB which was fine and you could help yourself to drinks and snacks from the galley at any time. The service is consistent the aircraft's always immaculate the personal entertainment has plenty of choice and the staff generally very friendly and helpful. You can select most seats on the aircraft for free at time of booking. Lets hope AL go daily on this route in 2015.