Aer Lingus

Return flight vegetarian meal was inedible: Flavorless rice, overcooked (spoiled?!) vegetables and no seasoning, salad had no dressing, bread was freezing cold and hard. Only thing that was OK was the fruit cup. Then later when the snacks were passed around I get handed a chicken sandwich and a cookie made with beef gelatine. I asked the flight attendant if there was anything without meat and she said no. She did not offer any alternative. It felt like a cruel joke. There are millions of vegetarians on the planet and probably thousands who fly with Aer Lingus. Why is this dietiery requirement so hard to accommodate? Really, really dissatisfied.

Our Aer Lingus flights from JFK to Dublin, then back from Dublin to JFK were great. We had never flown with Aer Lingus before, but had heard good things in the past.
Flight to Dublin– the staff was extremely friendly! Not only were they courteous and attentive to all of the passengers needs, but they smiled the entire time as well. They didn’t bother us too much but were always there when we needed something (not that JD and I needed a lot, but still). The plane was very clean and pretty comfortable, supplying pillows, blankets, and ear buds. Their selection of TV shows, movies, and games were great! Definitely kept us occupied for the 6 hour flight. The food wasn’t awful either, it’s still airplane food but it was bearable. The flight left on time and landed on time, always a good thing!
Dublin to JFK, same as stated above, minus the over-​friendlyness of the staff. They were a bit «stiffer» and not as warm, but they still were there when needed.
I would fly Aer Lingus again in a heartbeat.

Cost-​cutting goes international («It’s ‘the recession!’»). I frankly refuse to fly overseas on American-​owned carriers, so Aer Lingus is it if you live in New York and want to fly nonstop to Ireland. That said, I flew with Aer Lingus back in 2008 on a return trip from Denmark (Copenhagen to New York, via Dublin) and had OK memories of it from that passage.
We booked our tickets for our November trip to Dublin at a very affordable price point (something like $ 645 round-​trip) and off we went. Aer Lingus uses Airbus A330s on these routes which provide the familiar and comfortable 2+4+2 seating configuration in Economy. There are AVODs at each seat, though I thought their system was a little clunky and the movies they had were pretty mediocre. It’s as if they cut costs on paying for movie rights too (I mean, I had to watch «Blended» for God’s sake). They have fortunately not adopted the infamous «slim-​line» seats yet, so the seats are reasonably comfortable for a flight of this duration, and at about 5.5 hours going, and 7 hours on return, it isn’t unpleasant.
Aer Lingus’ Economy service is a-​ok. The food service was satisfactory, though on take-​off from New York, they do bar service (wine, beer and spirits at € 5 each, so no freebies!), then dinner, so by the time we were served dinner on our 8:30pm flights, it was around 11:30pm New York time (or 4:30am Dublin time) — Perhaps it would help to speed that up a bit. The food served is edible, but nothing mind blowing. It was really very three star airline quality, overall. I know I mentioned the (relatively) short duration of the flight, but one thing I have never seen before is no pre-​landing service on a flight from New York to Europe. They did serve coffee, but no pastry, no apple, nothing… Yes, cost cutting goes international. (On the flight back, second service was a granola bar and that is a flight of 90 minutes more).
I will say that the flight attendants on board are exceedingly friendly (but not in that annoying Frontier Airlines way), and that warmed by semi-​embittered heart. No lost luggage also helped. The check-​in process in New York and in Dublin was quick too. Aer Lingus uses jetBlue’s Terminal 5 at JFK in New York which is fine since it’s a lovely terminal. So as I tend to write in all my airline reviews, this is the choice you get if you want a nonstop flight from New York to Dublin, and a perfectly average one at that.

Let me tell YOU something.
The aer lingus staff at the check in counters @ JFK, Dublin, & Amsterdam were all amazing.
The other passengers on the flights I took? The most civil & well behaved people I’ve encountered in the world of flying.
People didn’t bombard or barbarically stampede each other to get off the plane.
They actually…
*wait for it*
…respectfully waited for others before them to deplane.
Wow, what a concept! Courtesy for your fellow passenger.
Americans, get it the f*** together –_​–
There was one bitter, rude flight attendant on the first leg of my trip. I believe she was in a position (literally) that was not in her job description…
Anywho, other than that, commendable & amazing staff on the flights as well.

I have a great deal of experience flying from New York to Europe and I hate to say that the experience on Aer Lingus rates near the bottom. It wasn’t terrible, just eh. The flight crew was quite friendly as were the counter agents handling my bags. The in-​flight service was the problem. Let’s just say it is rather spartan. You got the typical coach class airline food, but you got only ONE shot at the beverage cart for the entire flight. One. The sodas come in those little mini cans. You need to buy any booze, wine, beer, etc all at the same time before dinner. Amazing. I guess you need to hunt down the attendants if you want anything else. Shouldn’t be that way. You do not see any attendant for hours during the flight. Here is a word of warning about flying to the US from Dublin… leave yourself PLENTY of time! You do US Customs and Immigration in Dublin so you just pick up your bags in the US and off you go. BUT… the process in Dublin is excruciatingly slow. I arrived 2.5 hours before my flight and finally got into my seat 15-​minutes before departure! No shopping, no money exchanging, no time to hit the restroom one last time. You stand in line to get your bags checked, then you stand in line for security, then amazingly, you stand in line for the US security to kick in, which means shoes and belts off and computers out. Then unbelievably you stand in line again for Immigration and Customs. I’ve never been so stressed out for a flight departure. If there was traffic getting to the airport, if our taxi was late, if we stopped at Duty Free after the first security check not realizing we had two more lines to stand in, we would never have made the flight. When they say get there three hours before departure, be prepared to use EVERY single minute of it waiting in line. Not the airline’s fault, but just a word of warning when traveling from Ireland. As for Aer Lingus, it wasn’t terrible. We arrived on time on both legs of the trip. It was kind of like taking the bus to Ireland…

We are freq flyers on 2 major US airlines. We took a flight with Aer Lingus 18 Dec 2013. They said they were unable to check in our bag all the way to our US destination. We had to pick it up in London and carry it on the LHR train to the international terminal. There we discovered the agent had accidently cancelled all our return reservations. It look an hour for a United supervisor to get our reservations sorted out so we could get home. Aer Lingus did not respond to emails… finally posting on FB, they told us to fill out a form. We did. They said they could find no record of us. So we scanned and sent in copies of our ticket stubs and luggage tag from DUB to LHR. This morning after waiting another week, I sent another email and posted on FB. Aer L said they still have no record of us and to buzz off. Incredible!!! And by the way, you don’t eve get a free cup of coffee… they jam the flights and charge for water, tea, coffee, etc etc. FLY RYAN AIR… much better, much cheaper & much nicer!!!

Beware about this airline service, Aer Lingus is the worst airline company I’ve ever dealt with. I booked a ticket to Paris from NY a month prior to my trip and got the booking confirmation and final itinerary by email. On my day of trip, I went to their booking desk for check-​in and they told me my ticket has been canceled because they had some issue with my credit card. They told me I should buy the ticket on that same day in order for me to get on the plane. The original price I paid for was around $ 800 but they were asking for over $ 2,000. I complained that they should have contacted me by email or phone and let me know about the cancellation but they insisted that I have to talk to my bank about this issue. Such a horrible customer service!!! Who would call the airline company just to make sure your ticket is still valid after you’ve already received the confirmation number and the final itinerary?! They were just rude, not helpful and totally unwilling to assist me with this situation. I’ve booked flights online many times and it never happened to me before and I will never use this airline again.

Aer Lingus is such a great carrier, good food, nice entertainment, comfy chairs for economy. We were going to Belgium back in 2010 for a festival and we had a short stop in Dublin enough time for tea and coffee. Then back on the plane to Belgium which was less than 2 hours. Why the 4 stars well I noticed that Aer Lingus flies at a slightly lower altitude so when we reached the Bay of Fundy we hit a patch of turbulence that made me nearly «shat» myself. So I dont know whether to blame turbulence, altitude, my guts or aer lingus on that one. :) Other than that the flight was great.

I don’t have too many Trans-​Atlantic flights to compare this to, but Aer Lingus poops all over Air Berlin in my experience.
The economy seats are decently comfortable, and you’ve got your own individual in-​flight entertainment. (Although mine was, as the Irish say, shite. The sound kept turning off randomly, which made it difficult to follow the intricate plot of the romantic comedy I was loving.)
In terms of the food, Aer Lingus subscribes to my own theory that keeping expectations low is the best policy. For instance, the menu in the seat claimed we would be paying for our meals, so it was a nice surprise to receive the food for free. I was also a bit skeptical about the Beef Bourguignon, and when it turned out to actually be bolognese, I was somewhat relieved. It was actually decent, and my counterpart’s chicken could almost have been called tender. The scone was a nice touch as well.
I do think I should’ve received some sort of medal for saving the feet of the little girl across the aisle from being crushed by the huge food cart, but no airline is perfect.

The worst customer service I have ever encountered. Their replies to any concerns that you may have are answered by someone that obviously does not like her job, and no matter how many letters you write, your correspondence will always be answered in the same cookie cutter format. They have the nerve at the end of the form letter to invite you to keep flying Aer Lingus. I booked on American and
British Airways.

When I traveled to Dublin in the Summer of 2007, I flew on Aer Lingus because they offered the cheapest airfare. This airline was awesome!
As you can imagine, everything is GREEN… and I was literally the only non-​Irish person on the plane. I stuck out like a sore thumb but I enjoyed all the attention I got, because if I were any of my fellow passengers, I’d be wondering what the hell this Asian girl was gonna be doing in Ireland all by herself too.
Most of the flight attendants had an Irish accent, which was so awesome! It definitely made for an entertaining flight, I loved it. They were all so cheery, it was great.

Flew Aer Lingus MAN-​DUB-​JFK. Pretty mucn time on both legs. MAN-​DUB is a very short flight with a for-​pay service and no IFE but who cares when you’re in the air for no more than half an hour?
The transatlantic leg was pretty good. Economy seats were as comfortable as I’ve experienced and the on-​demand IFE had a good selection. Food wasn’t bad and service was friendly and efficient. I’m holding back on five stars for the lack of complimentary alcoholic drinks in economy although I dare say it’s only a matter of time before the last hold-​outs like BA drop them too.
But Aer Lingus’s killer feature, and why I’d actively seek to fly with them again, is that you do US pre-​clearance customs and immigration in Dublin. The downside is this means no duty-​free sales on the plane but this is more than compensated for the ease of getting straight through the terminal at JFK. I had no checked luggage and was with my wife less than 10 minutes after leaving the plane!

This airline brings me to the Emerald Isle!
It has never been late departing out of JFK, when I used it on the many occasions that I visited Ireland.
It has a great staff (lovely Irish stewardess).
A great variety O’ drinks to prepare your liver for cities like Dublin and Shannon.
Plenty of legroom for the long flight (5 – 6 hours).
Finally it has plenty O’ entertainment, like music to listen to, and tv shows/​movies to keep you occupied. Last time I went to Dublin, I enjoyed a Taxi marathon one way, and a Simpsons marathon on the way home!!! You think Homer is funny? Check him out 30,000 feet in the air!
I cant wait to get back over to my favorite place to visit outside of the states. I have lived there, vacationed there, and someday when I hit the Mega Millions, would love to spend my final days there with a Guinness in one hand and a shot of Jamesons in the other.