Aer Lingus

I asked a couple of friends whose April flight to Dublin was cancelled by Aer Lingus last week. They were offered a voucher good for 5 yrs for 110% of the ticket value including fees and taxes OR a full refund to the original method of payment. (I believe they took the voucher and are optimistically planning their future trip.)

This info is in the Aer Lingus website when you click on the Covid-19 banner at the top of the home page.

Hope you make this trip. We were in Ireland last July and fell in love with the country and the people. We plan to return

Thank you for this information, that is more than I thought they would do! Hopefully, we will get a nice offer. Not sure how financially sound they are? Credit may be risky?

I should add that the refund is only offered if they cancel your flight. If you cancel, you are offered a voucher or a chance to reschedule your flight with no change fees.

Again, I appreciate input. Thank you

A word of caution:

No matter how generous the voucher, if you are offered (or are entitled to) a substantial refund, get your money back!

Some rather large airlines have filed for bankruptcy over the years, immediately rendering vouchers worthless -- even if the airline survives in some form.

The discount airline Ryanair made several bids for Aer Lingus over the last two decades. The low valuations were startling, and reflected a lack of confidence.

Given the present crisis, who knows what will happen to even the strongest airlines?

Are you a member of Aer Lingus's Travel Club? I'm not and I'm searching for why our experience with them is so different.

This is my first flight with them from SF to Dublin. I applied for a Refund (for medical reasons) on their automated system a couple of weeks ago. Supposed to be 7-10 Business days for answer. Then I got an email 5 days ago saying my flight had been cancelled but NO refund as a choice. Either reschedule (with no booking fee) or a voucher. Then I've sent email after email to the customer service with no answer.

Just got another email from Aer Lingus offering again to rebook wo change fees or a voucher.

Sent another email to Customer Service on the same ticket I've had open for two weeks asking for refund => no answer

I don't think I'll book Aer Lingus again if I have a choice.

Another thread here just posted a link from DOT that states Airlines are required to offer refunds for cancelled flights. I'll try and forward that link but it won't do any good. They're doing the Stonewall bit.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/travel/news/dot-to-airlines-refunds-are-not-optional-for-canceled-flights/ar-BB128p6C?ocid=spartanntp

I'm booked on Aer Lingus RT Seattle to Dublin, leaving May 4 and returning May 23. Now that my RS Best of Ireland in 14 Days tour (May 8 - 21) has been canceled, I obviously won't be going.

Beyond that, Aer Lingus is limiting flights to Dublin from the U.S. to a very few cities. Seattle isn't one of them. But the flight is still shown online and I keep getting messages encouraging me to take the voucher.

I have not yet received a cancellation notice. When I do, I'll be applying for a refund. I'm so thankful to those who have posted the link with the rules on what airlines are supposed to do when they cancel flights. I hope Aer Lingus will do what they're supposed to do without prompting, but I'm not above reminding them about that.

I've been "reminding" them for about 3 weeks now. Every two or three days I send another email to their Customer Service => no reply.

Apparently the European Union has regulations that require a refund choice if a flight has been cancelled. I reminded them of that in my first emails.

They're ignoring that.

Now I'm also sending the MSN link I posted above for the American Department of Transportation regulations. So far, still ignoring me. No reply at all for all the emails I've sent for 3 weeks.

Appreciate all the input. Please keep posting on individual progress with Aer Lingus. Since my flight is coming up near the end of June, I will just have to wait and see what happens?

Ireland is not expecting to emerge from lockdown until July at the earliest.. maybe even September.

I would expect that your flight will be cancelled.

Just had a email from a new person at Aer Lingus, Sheila. At least this person seems to know I exist.

But the letter goes on to say:

"We apologize, but we will no longer be operating the flights on your itinerary
due to current extraordinary circumstances."

I notice they were careful not to use the "cancelled" word. They did NOT offer any choice of refund in the email. Just the same two choices of rebooking or a voucher. :-(

I replied and pointed out that both the EU and the American DOT require a choice of refund with a cancelled flight but perhaps they're going to try and call it something else than "cancelled".

Don't know.

This is a long message, but I hope it helps others with Aer Lingus reservations. Some of the relevant information is hard to find.

I received yet another email from Aer Lingus today. It once again encouraged me to get a voucher.

I checked my flight reservation under Manage Trip. It still shows the reservation and lists only 3 current possible flight days in the change options.

I logged out and returned without logging in. I tried to schedule a flight just like mine, RT Sea-Dub, May 4 - May 23.

Below is the message I got for both departure and return flights. It is consistent with what I read about Aer Lingus flying from very few US cities and with my guess that Seattle was not one of them. It makes me wonder why, when they already know that they will not be flying from/to Seattle, they have not yet sent me a cancellation email.

"No flights on this day. There are no flights on your selected date.

Please choose an alternative date or for seasonal routes, see our timetable."

So I clicked on the timetable link and got this:

"Unfortunately our timetable is changing so frequently at the moment that the information you find here may not be fully up to date.

To check the schedule of a particular route, please use the flight search booking option."
(This is what I did without logging in.)

"To check the status of a particular flight operating within two days, please use the flight status option." (This is the trip management option I tried when logged in.)

"For the latest information on travel news and restrictions, visit our flight disruption information page." (I already had this bookmarked.)

This is the link to Flight Disruption Information:
https://www.aerlingus.com/support/flight-disruption-information/

Early on the page you see:

"Options for your booking

Cancelled flights

If your flight is cancelled we will contact you directly. Visit the Manage Trip section to make sure your contact details are up to date."

To learn more, you have to go waaaaay down the page to the Coronavirus (COVID-19) FAQs and select this question:

"My flight is cancelled, what are my options?

If your flight has been cancelled, please do not travel to the airport. We have a number of options available to you.

If you have booked via Aer Lingus please see options below:"
(For emphasis here I italicized the links that are on the page. I also separated the paragraphs for easier reading. On the actual page, they are not separated, so the one-liner refund option is almost buried. The bolding is the same as in the page.)

"Apply for a voucher by filling in your details on the voucher request form. We'll send you a voucher for the full value of your flight (including taxes and charges), plus an extra 10%. So if your flight cost at total of €200, we'll send you a €220 voucher. Terms and Conditions apply. See more details and FAQs on the voucher request page.

Apply for a full refund using this form.

If you would like to change either the date or destination of your journey, we will waive the change fees that would normally be associated with doing so. Please note that if you change your travel plans to flights that are more expensive than your original booking, the difference in price will still be charged. If you wish to take advantage of this flexibility, simply go to the Manage Trip section on aerlingus.com.

If you run into difficulty, you can contact our call centre on 1890 800 270 or 01 761 7835 (IRL) or 0333 006 6920 (UK)
or 1-(800)-585-0672 (North America)
to discuss alternative flights.

Get more information on your rights and our obligations under Regulation (EC) 261/2004"

Sent "Sheila" from Aer Lingus another email reminding whoever is on the other end it's been two days since I replied to her email and asked for a Refund (since they were cancelling the flight in the email from her but were careful not to use the "Cancel" word in their email (see above) )

No reply. But this morning received what looked like an automated email msg saying, if I understand it, that the first leg from Portland to SF to Dublin was cancelled. And the msg used the "cancel" word. The return trip, a couple of weeks from now, didn't seem to be mentioned/cancelled. Hard to tell. Still waiting on a reply from Sheila, maybe I have to wait till their system cancels my return flight (Dublin => Us) as well.

Don't know.

All this information is very helpful.. Now that part of the trip is cancelled, what to do?

Helpful info!
I have a flight SEA-DUB to Rome on 4/26. Ha! Ha!
Rosebud -- How far in advance did Aer Lingus cancel your friends flight?
I would like a refund and have been told to wait, from what I've read. I also bought travel insurance.
Any suggestions on what I should do?
I have read all the same website info on Aer Lingus as everyone else.

Robert H can you clarify whether you cancelled your flight or not? Your first post reads that you cancelled your flight for medical reasons. Your further posts read that since they cancelled the flight you want a refund. If you cancelled the flight before they did, you would only be entitled to a voucher.

I applied for a cancellation on the 20th => no reply since then to it or too repeated emails asking status.

Started getting the automated msgs last week about them cancelling the flights. I started including those in my questions to Customer Service
=> no reply

I've asked repeatedly that if they are going to deny me the Refund to tell me and I'll start the appeals process => no reply

So far nothing but the great Stone Wall. :-(

Robert, I hope only the very best outcome for you! The fact that you cancelled before they did might play into the voucher vs. refund issue. I hope you get your refund.

All very interesting and informative comments. Has anyone had a cancelled flight and actually received a refund?

I applied for cancellation/refund. So for it has never been granted or denied.

Maybe in these times that's enough to screw me over. Don't know.

My wife and I were scheduled to fly Aer Lingus from Seattle to Dublin on April 14 returning on April 30. Over the last 3 weeks or so, I've received an email each week offering to change the dates of our flight without any fees or to receive a voucher, but no emails indicating our flights had been cancelled. Checking the flight status on the airline's website in recent days just returned a message stating " No matching flight information results found" which suggested to me the flight was cancelled.

Being only 36 hours or so from our scheduled departure time, I called Aer Lingus this morning to find out the status of our flight from Seattle. I reached a customer service person after being on hold for only a minute or two. After providing our flight booking number and verifying my contact information, I was informed our flight had indeed been cancelled. The customer service person asked how she could help and I said I was seeking a full refund. She told me she needed to start a case number for processing the refund and then provided me with the case number for reference.

I haven't received any email confirmation from Aer Lingus since making my call this morning, but am optimistic that I will see the refund sometime over the next month or so. Fingers crossed.

Just got an email from Aer Lingus cancelling my flight of 4/26 to Rome. Gave me options for a voucher or to re-book. I called customer service. They answered right away. She asked if I wanted a refund. I said yes and she entered info and then gave me a reference #. The advise to wait is the best, even if it makes you a little nervous as time gets closer. Good luck.

They cancelled my flight from Portland to Dublin (Apr 3, email a day after the filght) but did not cancel the return flight (Apr 21) from Dublin to Portland. Aer Lingus website still shows that as "active". :-(

Guess I'll have to wait for Apr 21 (or after) for them to do that. Then maybe I can get this settled.

I can’t believe how Aer Lingus is treating customers! Makes me never want to travel with them again! I too have a round trip ticket and purchased separate Round trip to Heathrow. I am probably in for a long struggle.

This thing about the outbound Aer Lingus flights to Europe being cancelled, but not the return to the US got me worried.

By pretending to want to fly RT Seattle-Dublin on the dates I already have a reservation for, I'd already checked the Seattle-Dublin flight option on May 4th and got a "no flights on this day" response. Today I checked the return Dublin-Seattle on May 23rd and got the same message.

I have received no cancellation email yet, as seems consistent with others. At least now I have verification that Aer Lingus will not be flying SEA-DUB on May 4 or DUB-SEA on May 23.

Now I guess I must wait until very close to flight time to apply for a refund. Annoying!

Sig: I know! I didn't realize that Aer Lingus hasn't been the Flag Carrier of Ireland since 2016 when they were "privatized". I don't think I would have booked with them if I'd known as (to me!) that seems to give a little more assurance stuff like this wouldn't happen.

Lo: I'm seeing other reports that just calling up a Customer Service rep (and waiting through the long wait) and asking them if their system shows the flights as cancelled or not. They seem to see it sometimes quite a bit ahead of when you get notified. Then a lot of them will cancel it then if you make the request. YMMV and all that.

If this doesn't take the cake. Yes, I'm old. :-)

I finally broke down and called Aer Lingus. I was waiting for a msg from them that my return flight was cancelled before calling as members here have suggested. I already had one that the departure flight was.

When I finally spoke to a person they told me, wait for this, that my application to cancel the flight for medical reasons and requesting a refund had been granted when I applied. And that the refund would be showing up when the Credit Card company processed it. When I asked why I hadn't been notified, they said they never send emails about such matters. When I asked why my approximately 15-20 emails over the past 4 weeks had been ignored => they couldn't explain it.

I guess all's well that ends well, or something. Just wanted to close out this story. It kind of shows Aer Lingus in both a good then bad light. At this point I'm willing to blame Algorithms and Computers but who knows (or ever will know).

Update on my Aer Lingus situation:

On 4/22 I called Aer Lingus to find out what to do because I knew that they were not flying out of or into Seattle. I was told that I must wait until I got a cancellation email to apply for a refund.

The flight was to leave Seattle on 5/4 (Monday) and I had not received the cancellation notice as of last night (4/28), so I tried to see how to apply for a refund online. I not only could not get into their website, but when I tried "Manage My Trip" to see what was going on, I got this message:

"We're sorry but it is not possible to manage this booking. Please contact our helpdesk."

So I called them this morning at 800-585-0672. I was told that I couldn't get in and got that message because the flight was showing "unavailable status." That is because it was canceled. I talked to a woman named Caterina. She gave me a case number.

She also said that it could take 2 months for the reimbursement to my credit card and to check back if that hasn't happened. That's the end of June!

A voucher is not a good solution for me because my trip to Ireland might have been my last to Europe. She seemed to understand that. We'll see.

I was told yesterday by an Aer Lingus representative that our flight from Seattle to Dublin is “not operational.” I said I noticed she was very careful not to say the word canceled. She answered that it was 99.99% that it would be. Until it is canceled, no refund, only voucher. HOWEVER, since our tickets were purchased from Travelocity she couldn’t help us. On another line at the same time, Travelocity said we would have to call Aer Lingus (not so!). After asking to speak with a supervisor, we were finally given a refund (we think & hope). We are currently waiting for a confirming email & have been told the refund could take up to 8 weeks. Fingers crossed!

Just logged in to review replies, thank you all for input. I have never flown Aer Lingus before, but wondering if my flight end of June is not cancelled and I have to cancel my flight, because my cruise was cancelled, what are my options? Do they offer flight credit in this case?

I am happy to report that we were able to get a refund from Aer Lingus this past week. We had booked directly with Aer Lingus in February 2020 and our flight was scheduled for June 22 out of Philadelphia for return in July. When I used Manage Trip Tool on the Aer Lingus website and typed in the flight information, the message "it is not possible to manage this booking, please contact the help desk" appeared. Then I thought to approach it from another angle and see if I could book a flight on June 22 out of Philadelphia. When I tried, the message "no flights on your selected date" came up.

In our minds, this meant that the flight was cancelled but we wanted to verify this before we filled out the refund form on their website. We would prefer a refund over a voucher.

When you call their help desk (US-1 800 474 7424) and pick the prompt for refunds, you get a prerecorded message directing you to the refund form on their website. Again, we wanted to speak a living person to verify that our flight was indeed cancelled, so we picked the prompt "to speak to a Customer Service representative for matters other than refunds." The person we spoke to verified that our flight had indeed been cancelled. We asked for a verification email and a case number and she offered to register us for a refund over the phone. We received a confirmation email that day and a refund was deposited in our credit card account within a week.

Wow! Maybe they're starting to catch up. I've been waiting since I got my case number on April 29th. Then they said 2 months. The person I talked to on my latest phone call said 6 weeks, putting the possible refund date this week. I'm not holding my breath 🤔.

Thank you all for your input on Aer Lingus. I just read todays email regarding Aer Lingus refund for June 22 flight. Being that this is the same day I was to fly from IAD to Dublin, I decided to call Aer Lingus help desk to see if I could a refund. Happy to report after a short wait, I spoke to a very helpful Aer Lingus representative who arranged a full refund back to my American Express card, no hassle, great service Aer Lingus!

Success! After initially contacting Aer Lingus about a refund back in mid-April and making a follow-up call in mid-June, proof of my refund finally showed up on my credit card statement. The airline representative I spoke with in June was able to process my refund as we talked and said the refund should appear on my account in 3-5 days. That's exactly what happened.

They finally processed my refund!! My flights Dublin to Isle of Man were scheduled for the first weekend in June. Had to wait for them to be cancelled the flights even though the airport was closed to Ireland at the time. Now I am trying to decide if I should book the same flights for next year when the trip has been rescheduled or play it by ear.

After having 3 sets of flights that I paid for cancelled by Aer Lingus (a total of over $3600) I followed all the rules and filed for refunds online on June 4th. Then crickets. A phone call to customer service in early July got me nowhere as the agent told me that there were more than 80,000 requests and I could wait at least 3 months. She didn’t even take the case numbers on my claim but just hung up on me. I waited until almost the end of August and as I was googling to see if and what had happened to others I saw that some had complained to Better Business Bureau. Rather than complain, again, on social media, I went in and filed a complaint. And it worked. Less than a week after complaining I first had emails from Aer Lingus that they would be refunding me and then days later the refunds came through. I lost a bit on the change in exchange rates from Euros to dollars on two sets of tickets - we are US citizens with residency in US but live in Ireland most of the year and sometimes book tickets on the Irish site in Euros - but I am okay with that. File the form in a few minutes and get your refund. Thanks to whoever posted about taking that step.