Aer Lingus unfortunately seems more like a budget airline than a national carrier. The plane was fine. The crew seemed a bit hurried and without that Irish charm (which may be an inappropriate stereotype and maybe not to be expected on a long international flight but other carriers seem to pull it off). My biggest complaint was that my gold status on Alaska Airlines--which gets me into lounges with BA and other partner airlines--was not accepted at lounges in Rome or Dublin, despite Aer Lingus on paper anyway partnering with Alaska. But the flight itself through Kayak was several hundred dollars cheaper than others, so overall, the right decision. Also, be aware that US customs on flights from Dublin occurs in Dublin (like Canadian airports) so if you have a connection or are just departing from Ireland, give yourself enough time (up to 30 minutes) to negotiate all of the lines. Still better than going through customs in the US after a 10 hour flight.
The flight was okay however, for whatever reason they were not able to check me in for all 3 flights that I had booked through them creating a big problem when I landed in Toronto, in addition my luggage never made it to Toronto as well. So overall experience was not good
Our first flight from Venice to Dublin was delayed due to very bad weather and when we did arrive we were ushered out of the secure area to collect our luggage then told we could not Demeter as the US Customs team closed at 4pm. Thus we were stuck in Dublin for one night with hundreds of passengers scrambling for information and little help from the local staff. Many passengers were left without accommodation and told to find something on their own. We were also told we would get contacted with rebooking details and did not, requiring us to make those arrangements ourselves, in some cases at a very high out of pocket cost. Many passengers swore they would never fly on Aer Lingus again.
Crew was friendly and helpful, plane was comfortable would fly with them again
Wheelchair assistance didn't turn up on time. We had to walk to baggage reclaim and to taxi.
Fast and sensible boarding was absolutely amazing. But extortionate wifi and seats that barely moved, making me unable to sleep, didn't do a lot of favors.
No food service. A sandwich at this hour would have been good. My 1st time on AL so didn't look into pre board purchase options.
Late. Taking off, landing, deplaning. Missed our connection on AerLingus to NYC. Computers down from cyber attack. Put us up for the night. Lost our luggage. Everyone was nice. But it was an awful day.
I liked the front row seats. A lot of leg room. The check-in window needs to be longer
The actual flight experience was great. The handling of my luggage was terrible. First, I had to check in at the airport and wasn’t able to check in online because they booked me with a partner carrier in the U.S. that was incredibly inconvenient. I was also told that I would have to check in again with the partner airline in the U.S., also incredibly inconvenient at a large airport. Second, when I was at the counter, they did not tell me my carryon was too big. I only found that out when I tried to board the plane. I don’t know that it actually was too big though. It’s a standard sized carry on that I’ve never had issue with on any planes before. They assured me my bag would be checked all the way to my final destination. Due to flight from Paris to Dublin being delayed, I was rebooked on a different transatlantic flight to the U.S., which resulted in a different connecting flight to my final destination. My luggage was rerouted and I was assured it would be at my final destination. When I got to Newark, I received multiple phone calls alerting me that my bag was across the airport at a different terminal and that I needed to go pick it up near the baggage carousels. In the Newark airport, every terminal has its own security checkpoint. Leaving any terminal and entering another one requires a security check. At this point, I had to go through security in Paris, then again for US customs and pre-clearance at Dublin, then a third time when I had to change terminals at Newark for my connecting flight home. It was at this point I received the call that I needed to retrieve my bag from literally the opposite end of the airport and go through security A FOURTH TIME. These was no notification that I needed to do this before I went to the gate for my final flight. It took me an hour to go do all this, after I had already been traveling for 19 hours while sick and should have been home already were it not for the delay of my original flight. I retrieved the bag. My carryon became a carryon again and fit just fine on the last plane, by the way. I would also like to mention that my TSA flight information was not included on my ticket, so once again, I had to go to the airline counter to get my ticket corrected and reprinted before I could go through security and try to save myself time. Finally, I have celiac disease and prefer not to eat meat. There was literally no food I could eat on the seven and a half hour flight across the Atlantic. When the flight attendant woke me up for dinner (I would have preferred to sleep), I asked if there were any gluten free options. I was told the only option was chicken. I begrudgingly accepted because it was the only option, hoping anything else in the meal could be eaten. There was plain rice and a few green beans. The side dish was teriyaki vegetables containing gluten. There was a piece of bread, containing gluten. There was a custard, containing gluten. I could eat literally nothing except the very small amount of rice and green beans. When the same flight attendant came around again, while I was sleeping, a sandwich was placed in front of me, again food I could not eat. And this was after I got to the flight to find that my newly assigned seat on my transatlantic flight had been given to someone else! It’s like nobody communicates over there. This airline has the worst logistics of any airline I have ever been on, and I travel frequently. Dear Aer Lingus, DO BETTER.
