Aer Lingus

I'm sure people have had problems, but like all larger airlines, that's the minority of the experiences.

InFlight Entertainment- Check
Seat Comfort- Not worse than any other choice. (Their widebodies are a 2-4-2 configuration in economy, which most prefer over 3-3-3 or 3-4-3)

Just flew them last month and again last year. All.flights long haul.had three seats on either side of aisle. Good entertainment/choice of movies/games and food.was very good. No problems. Seats comfortable. Not sure about bringing own food though but since the food was very good, had dinner and light snack about hour before landing no need to bring own food in my opinion.

The only issue with bringing your own food is if you try to enter Ireland with food that is not allowed into the country. There's a story somewhere about a person who was served a whole fruit (I don't remember if it was a banana or apple or what) on the plane, didn't eat it, put it in her bag and when she went through customs in the U.S. it was detected and she lost her Global Entry status for having brought in a prohibited food item.

I have flown transatlantic several times with Aer Lingus and they are now one of my favorite airlines. Seats are about the same as other economy classes, but the food was much better and the cabin crews were great. One thing I really appreciated was that when the captain turns on the seatbelt sign due to expected turbulence, the cabin crew locks the restroom doors. It's a great safety measure for those of us belted in who don't want the fools who ignore the seatbelt sign landing on top of us.

We flew US to Dublin and back on Aer Lingus as well as some regional flights. We were happy with them. No problems at all. Decent movies. Seats were as comfortable as any seat is for 10 hours.

I flew them from US (IAD) to Ireland and back in 2016 and they were fine. My wife's flights earlier this year to Dublin and back were good, although they swapped in some charter plane for an actual Aer Lingus plane on one of the transatlantic flights. I have a trip booked with them in early December to Manchester, UK and back from Heathrow. Twice already I've received e-mails about schedule changes. Lots of airlines do this of course. The first time the changes were minimal. The second time I was switched from a flight leaving IAD about 8 pm, to one leaving at 5 pm (maybe they cancelled the later service?). OK, can live with that, but they had left my Manchester connection the same, so I had a 5 1/2 hour layover in Dublin rather than about 2 hours. Quick research told me there is an earlier Manchester flight with 90 minute connection. You can't make that kind of change online because the system thinks you're just wanting to change for your own whim rather than because of what they did, and will charge extra. So I called Aer Lingus, got through to them quickly, and the lady on the phone was helpful; it took a while for her to do it while I was on hold, but she put me on the earlier flight. Agree that their fares tend to be quite good.

I'm flying with Aer Lingus for the fourth time next year, this time to LHR (usually fly to Frankfurt). Never had any issues. Booked a couple of weeks ago, under C$1000, seat selection and luggage included. I don't see the cheap flights from the USA which Concerned Local obtained, not for my dates at any rate.

We’re flying Aer Lingus from SF to Dublin to Paris and back. Our fare was $695 each until i upgraded to best seats in coach for a total of $900 per ticket. We’ve never flown Aer Lingus but i’ve only ever heard good things about it. We chose this airline so we can spend part of our month vacation in Ireland at no additional airfare cost.

We fly every year and are very pleased with the staff and planes internationally. You can bring food from the airport and yes there are movies, music, games. You do have to select a seat ahead and if you change you cannot do it online..one drawback.

They seemed to be going through a rough patch a little while ago, don't know how things are now. From the Irish Times:

Worst customer service problem ever

Ah, no.

When something goes wrong how they handle it is how you find out if they're worth your business.

We heard you Concerned local, you don’t like Aer Lingus.

Many people do.

It’s not “impossible” to talk to customer service, my son and i both have called many times and they answer our calls promptly, no waiting on Hold. And they have been very helpful.

I've had nothing but great experiences with Aer Lingus and will fly them again with no hesitation. Their USA call center answers the phone promptly IME, and was professional, friendly, and able to resolve my issues quickly. I also love the Irish music played while boarding, the big sincere-looking smiles and friendly service from the cabin crew, it all made me feel like I was already in Ireland before the aircraft door was even closed.

As is now common across many legacy European airlines, you need to pay attention to the details of your ticket - some tickets may have things like seat selection, checked bags, etc. "de-coupled" (not included); read the details so there are no surprises. Many airlines are doing this nowadays (to complete with low cost carriers); TAP Air Portugal is another using this hybrid model.

Like any airline, people do have bad experiences with Aer Lingus, and are quick to vent about them online. My experiences were only positive and I look forward to flying with them again. YMMV.

Aer Lingus initiated a direct flight from Cleveland to Dublin last May and my wife and I took it. We had good service, a great price and you of course can't beat a direct flight. I would fly them again without hesitation. (They did skip the morning coffee service.) Seats, entertainment, tv/music -- all fine. I assume you could bring your own food but we didn't.

Happy travel!

Every airline i have ever flown allows you to bring your own food. What airline doesn’t??

Round trip LAX - Dublin this past summer. No issues As comfortable as a 10 hour flight fully booked can be . Only complaint no coffee on board so hard to wake up from the OT outbound . Service from LAX was perfunctory but return from Dublin crew was a bit more proactive, Left water and cups in back galley to help yourselves, snacks readily available .

Appreciate all the responses!!
Cheers

Thought I would update some real-time data here. I’m sitting at the Aer Lingus assigned gate at Schiphol for my scheduled Aer Lingus flight that was supposed to leave here at 13:20. It is now 12:48 PM and all we can see is the flight is “delayed 10 minutes” in the boards here. But there is no plane outside, the gate is still closed. There are no attendants on site here and Aer Lingus website continues to insist the flight is on time. 😅 I have signed up for flight alerts and have received nothing.

On the way over, we boarded our Aer Lingus flight to Dublin at SeaTac that was supposed to takeoff at 20:10 on November 24 to stop in Dublin. We sat on the plane on the tarmac after boarding, until midnight. Over 4 hours. Then we had to disembark and all of us had to scramble to find flights. We were directed to an Aer Lingus counter at SeaTac, which was staffed by two people, (and a third that occasionally showed up disinterestedly) for a fairly full flight of people. I had immediately called the one 800 number while walking and after about 50 minutes on the phone, with several different attempts at a flight, I managed to get a nonstop the next day from Seattle to Amsterdam there after insisting on another airline- so only losing the overnight portion of our first night there. The new flight was Delta, thank god (we were originally scheduled to land at 19:30 on Saturday the 25th and the new flight would put us at 9:20 in the morning the next day). We did get a hotel voucher and a food voucher.

Still, no word on this flight. At this point, I will be hesitant to fly Aer Lingus in the future.

If this flight takes off on time, and I make the connection in Dublin, it will be a miracle, but I am trying to optimistic.

I’ll update if I make it to Dublin.

I will absolutely add, though, the original flight seemed to be full of Irish natives, going home, and it was the most pleasant holdover I have ever experienced. Nobody was upset, and everybody was laughing and joking and extremely polite. You gotta love the Irish.☘️🇮🇪

Well, flight tracker shows, as you will know by now, that today's inbound from Dublin arrived at Schiphol 18 minutes late at 1258 (having left Dublin 36 minutes late) and has an average delay time of 10 to 20 minutes.

So the Aer Lingus information, at least at Schiphol, was not unreasonably incorrect.

As I write at 1330 CET it is showing as gate closing, ETD 1330.

Yes the plane showed up taxiing at 13:01. We did indeed leave, but did not actually get into the air until 14:00. We just landed in Dublin

we were originally scheduled to land at 19:30 on Saturday the 25th and the new flight would put us at 9:20 in the morning the next day

That's 600 euros a piece you're owned for EU261 compensation. Aer Lingus was the fastest, easiest payout I've ever gotten. (Granted that was 2019)

Received compensation deposited in my bank account this am, for both of us. Thank you Scudder!

Flight delays happen on most, if not all other airlines as well.

We flew Aer Lingus direct from Hartford, Ct to Dublin this past May. I didn't find it cheap at all as it cost $900 plus upgrades. The reasons I chose them was because I live 30 min from the airport and it was a direct flight.I paid extra for seat selection and I was not allowed to chose seats on the return flight. When I got to the airport in the U.S. , I spoke to multiple people who told me they couldn't help me from their end and to speak to an Aer Lingus rep in Dublin. When I deplaned ,I spoke to a representative from Aer Lingus and she told me she couldn't do anything as the seats wouldn't release until closer to the date for the return flight. She told me to come back to the airport the day before the scheduled flight.This was something I couldn't do because I was in Cashel the day before. When I checked in for the flight even though I paid extra when I booked my ticket to sit with my family in the first place, the only seat available cost me extra and was nowhere near my daughter and my husband. So not only did I get ripped off by Aer Lingus, I had a middle seat between a husband and wife.who were obnoxious. He booked the window seat and his wife booked the aisle seat. I'm sure they did this on purpose hoping they would not have someone sitting in between them The husband asked me to switch seats and I said I would switch with his wife. He did not like that response and he and his wife who both drank the entire flight made my trip miserable with their catty and uncalled for remarks. I will never fly Aer Lingus again. While I am aware the nasty husband and wife duo could be on any flight, I did not find Aer Lingus prices reasonable and I did not appreciate their scam.