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Chicago to Barcelona via Dublin

Posted by (Seattle, WA) on

Hi everyone,

My wife and I are headed to Barcelona on our first travel adventure to Europe and I had a question about passport control in Dublin and how much time we will need to make our connecting flight to BCN.

We are flying Aer Lingus from Chicago and land in Dublin at 5:15AM. Our connecting flight with Aer Lingus to Barcelona leaves 6:40AM, which leaves us just a hour and 25 minutes to spare. Does anyone know what the process is, or have any tips, on how we best navigate this?

When booking flights we were assured that we would have enough time to make our flights, but now I'm not so sure as I read that the Ireland is not part of the Schengen Area, meaning that we will probably have to pass through passport control in both Dublin and Barcelona, correct?

Does it work differently since we are not changing airlines? I do see that Aer Lingus has a second flight to BCN at 6:40PM. I assume that if we miss our morning connection they would book us on the later fight?

Again, this is our first trip so we are very new to how all of this works and any help or information you can lend will be greatly appreciated.

Thank you,

Posted by
21157 posts

We changed at Dublin on the way to Duesseldorf from Chicago on Aer Lingus. You just follow the signs and transfer to the connecting flight. There is someone there to direct you at the dividing point for entry to Ireland and connecting flights. He just checked that we had boarding passes for continuing flight. Our connection was at 7 am, but we had no trouble. I don't think our passport was checked, there are no stamps. It was checked on arrival at Duesseldorf.

Posted by
15788 posts

Ireland is not part of the Schengen Area, which means just the opposite - you are in transit and will just go through the airport from gate to gate, no immigration or customs, but probably a security check. The Dublin airport is not so big, it should not take you a long time to get to your departure gate.

When you check in at ORD, just make sure that your luggage is tagged to BCN and that it's tagged short-connection and that you have boarding passes for your connecting flight to BCN.

And yes, since you are ticketed on Aer Lingus, they are responsible to get you and your luggage to BCN. If there's a delay they may hold the BCN flight for you (especially if there are others connecting on your flight). If not, they'll put you on the next flight they can, which could be a different airline. Worst case - you'll have to park yourself in a pub. If you're going to be stuck in the airport, you should ask for food vouchers from the airline. And if you have a long layover, you could even take the shuttle bus into Dublin for a few hours. Also ask the airline to help you contact your BCN hotel to let them know you're delayed.

Since you have a short connection, there's a chance your luggage may not make it onto the connecting flight. Pack what you need for your first 24-48 hours in your carry-on.

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