Next question. Aer Lingus opinions?

It is decent.
Having been to Ireland twice
I use it from Chicago to Dublin on my way to other parts of Europe because the fares are usually among the lowest.
It depends on what you need as a traveler. For example are you asking about food service or seat comfort in different cabins baggage allowances etc.

I was mostly thinking about customer service, do they have a good reputation, etc
But yes! Food service, seats, all that stuff you mentioned!!

I don't have any experience with things of this nature, and for me, it's a big deal. It took me a long time to save for this... I don't have a lot
So I am trying to get the best bang for my buck.

They have good customer service. If you are just planning to buy an economy class in my opinion there is not much difference between airlines on trans atlantic flights as far as food is concerned. Out of all the carriers United has the least amount of room in economy I find. Aer Lingus is more bang for you buck than United. But price is a deciding factor.

They have had lovely customer service for us. With their lilting Irish accent they might even call you "darling".

They are fine. Reviews on TripAdvisor, Skytrac.

Its like any other airline. Can be a great experience or not. I most always fly Virgin and until my last flight every excursion had been great. The last one not so much because of unruly children which the cabin crew did nothing about. Long story short, after a written complaint complete with iPhone video of the little troublemakers 2 crew members ignoring their antics I got miles added to my account.

I also made the decision from this point on in my life I'm no longer flying economy.

It's not a long haul for you if you are flying to Dublin. If the price is right I'd go for it.

Welcome to the forum.

Thank you. I have asked a lot of questions on the Germany forum but it's my first time here. If I can get a cheap way to Toronto, I will probably go for it. There is a train directly to downtown Toronto and someone mentioned a shuttle from there to the airport. That sounds good to me.

I knew by coming here, I would get good advice. Thanks!!!

We would just have carry ons.... and probably some sort of over the shoulder purse type thing for me. Do they charge an arm and a leg for carry ons??

No problem with Aer Lingus. Used them to fly to Duesseldorf a couple of years ago. Easy transfer at Dublin, Returning to the US you go through US Customs and Immigration at Dublin airport, I don't think that is the case for Canada. I prefer the A-330 to Boeing aircraft.
I did have some difficulties booking multi-city tickets on their site, so went with a RT. Maybe its improved since then. Customer service was very good at the check-in at O'Hare, Dublin, and Duesseldorf. And the price was right.

Carry on bag is free. But these are the size and weight limits
https://www.aerlingus.com/travel-information/baggage-information/cabin-baggage/

We flew them from Chicago to Dublin in 2011. It was our first overseas flight with my husband's guide dog. All the personnel we encountered were as kind as can be and very helpful. With more than 100 flights with my husband's guide dog, Aer Lingus was the best for our situation.

I've flown Aer Lingus twice in the last few years, and had no complaints at all. I don't pay attention to food, as I never eat airline meals, and I assume the seats will be fairly uncomfortable no matter what airline I fly, so I don't really pay too much attention to seat comfort.

Where are you going and from where are you returning? There might be better options.

I have used them on four trips with no problems and no complaints.

We flew Aer Lingus in 2015 -- Chicago to London via Dublin, returning from Paris -- and had few complaints. The seats on the Airbus 330 were definitely more comfortable than what you'll find on most U.S. domestic flights, though still not super-roomy. The standard meal was OK, not great but good enough. I doubt it's worth paying extra to upgrade the meal. Save your money for nice meals in Europe. Entertainment on the way to Dublin was actually quite good, lots of choices, though we had to poke those touch screens pretty hard. From Dublin, we flew on an Airbus 320, which I'd compare to a Boeing 737, to London. It was like a routine domestic flight.

Returning to Chicago from Dublin, the entertainment choices were substantially more limited, for some reason, but there was still stuff to occupy ourselves. The food on that leg also seemed a bit sub-par, but, hey, we were coming home from Paris, so maybe the Aer Lingus food suffered in comparison.

All our flights were on time. Our connections were all under two hours, but we had no trouble at all, though you'll be pretty bleary-eyed, and maybe grumpy, shuffling through the Dublin airport at 6 a.m. or so. Also, clearing U.S. customs on your return through Dublin is a major plus. When you land back home, you can just exit the airport immediately.

Customer service has been excellent in my limited interactions. Representatives on the phone have been extremely pleasant, courteous and helpful. Gate and in-flight personnel were also perfectly fine, as well.

We're flying Aer Lingus again in May, taking the same flight from Chicago, then connecting to Venice and returning from Rome. I had a panicky moment recently when I discovered the airline had canceled the once-a-day flight to Venice and put us on the next day's flight, which was unacceptable. I took a deep breath and made a couple of calls to customer service reps (both with those lovely slight Irish accents). Again, they couldn't have been more pleasant in assisting me and offering options. Ultimately, we chose to start our trip from Chicago a day earlier, so we now have an extra day in Venice, darn it.

So, having flown Aer Lingus once, we didn't hesitate to book them again when a decent fare came along. Depending on your ultimate destination, I would advise you to check the frequency of flights from Dublin. For example, on our trip to London, if there had been a problem, there were at least six more flights to London that day, whereas they have only one flight to Venice, as I learned after booking. We found a positive resolution to our canceled-flight problem, but in another situation, it could have been a huge issue.

EDIT: You're allowed one checked bag for free, though we only had carry-on. Pay attention to the size and weight limits. Be aware that if you're connecting from an international flight, you have the same baggage allowance on the "regional" flight to your ultimate destination. If you were flying just within Europe on a regional flight, the baggage allowance is quite a bit stricter.

@ Frank ll...... we are starting out from Detroit or Windsor or Toronto Ontario Canada. Any of them are good for us. Heading to Munich. I saw on kayak a flight, Toronto to Dublin to Munich for under $900 canadian. That is pretty good in my opinion!!

Judy.. have you flown transatlantic before? I ask because I think for us, I look for price, reliability and safety.. and comfort is last. The reason comfort is last is price.. lol

flying economy on any airline for 7-12 hours sucks. I have flown many ( not top notch airlines like Singapore, Quatar.. etc etc ) transatlantic and ecomony is never comfy .. lol

Last 5-6 yrs we have started upgrading to premium economy , and while nothing near as nice as first class or eve business class.. its better than the economy section any day.

Don't expect to be super comfy, don't expect the food to be anything more than calories to keep you alive.. and in some cases. not even free. .lol

We have flown Aer Lingus twice but only in Europe. and its fine.. just like all the rest of the cheapo inter europeon lines.. and yes.. the Irish workers do make everything seem nicer with their lilting accents..

Yes I have flown to Europe and back, ONCE. 20 years ago. We went on a cruise and I remember the cruise line arranged everything. We were just told where to show up and when.
It isn't my lifestyle to take vacations on planes, or vacations at all, really. So this is actually a big deal for me. It took a long time to save for this.

So I thank everyone for their kind responses, feel free to keep them coming!!

Edited to add.... I just checked the prices for premium economy and it's double. So that's out.

We have had good experiences with Aer Lingus. One nice thing is that you can go through US customs and immigration in Dublin on the way home. Aer Lingus is now our airline of choice for travel to Europe, mostly because they are the only carrier flying directly from our home airport (Hartford - Bradley).

Prem economy should not be twice !!!' I would never pay that !

I fly from west coast Canada and can get Prem economy for 16-1800 CANADIAN !! For you guys that's like 50 bucks lol

No I would not pay that much either so do not misunderstand my post at all ! What I mean is all flights suck ( unless you can afford first class ) so just find cheapest one that works for you , grit your teeth, and get over to Europe !

Almost no one here is a luxury traveller , most are middle of road , and I am budget / moderate , Id rather go cheap for 4 weeks than nicer for only two .

Aer Lingus is fine. But I agree with the other posters: most airlines are fine, and the differences in coach class aren't great enough to matter most of the time. None are stellar - unless you're paying a lot extra for business or first class.

Premium Economy or Economy Plus (which are different from each other) can be worthwhile upgrades. They're usually $80-300 more each way.

To look for airfares, use Kayak or Google Flights. Then, once you know who flies where and on what routes, double check what you get against what the airline's own website shows. For my last trip, I got a fare from Kayak of about $720 on Aer Lingus; but, Aer Lingus' own website had these flights for $690!

Start by figuring out whether you want to fly into and out of Munich, or whether you'd do better flying into one city and out of a different one. This is called "open jaw," and you find these flights by looking for "multi city" or "multiple destinations" on websites. For some budget airlines, two one ways are the same cost as one roundtrip. But for many airlines, two one ways costs a fortune, while a multi city flight is about the same as the average of the roundtrips. For instance, if Detroit to London roundtrip is $600 and Detroit to Munich roundtrip is $1000, Detroit to London and Munich to Detroit, all on one ticket, should be about $800. You save time and money by not backtracking, so always consider an open jaws itinerary.

Since you said it's equal for you to fly out of Detroit, Windsor, or Toronto, be sure to price flights from all three. One may be cheaper or easier than the others. The only rule in airfares is that there are no rules, so you just have to check all options.

I'd try to minimize the number of stopovers, and to not have too long or too short a layover. Kayak has filters on the left; you can select "more filters" and then choose how long you want your layover for each segment to be - very handy.

Just did a kayak search playing with dates and departure airports. The best I found was: Toronto to Munich, return Frankfurt to Toronto. Leave Sept. 6 and return Sept. 23. Iceland Air. Total $1510 for 2, taxes and fees in. I think that is a great price. Getting to/from Toronto will be an added expense but not horrible.

IF I decide that this one is "the one", what is my next move? Travel agent? Iceland Air website? I say travel agent, because they may be able to put together a package that would include the train to and from Toronto.

And.. one more question. What are those "hacker fares" I see on the kayak website?

Thank you. I'll be back with more questions for sure!! 😊

A "Hacker Fare" is a combination of one way fares on two different airlines. You can do this on your own with airlines such as Icelandair and Aer Lingus. Major airlines typically push you into buying round trip tickets by charging premiums for one-way fares, although this practice is becoming less common.

"IF I decide that this one is "the one", what is my next move? Travel agent? Iceland Air website? I say travel agent, because they may be able to put together a package that would include the train to and from Toronto. "

You can use a travel agent if you wish - but they will charge a commission, for what you can do yourself. You can book the airfare direct on the Iceland Air website, then book your own trains online as well.

If you need help with the trains, let us know.

And congrats on doing this! Many of us here have been doing booking our own airfares ourselves for years, so we're familiar with all the wrinkles, but I do realize it's daunting to do it the first time. You'll see - one or two more times, and it will be second nature.

Thank you. I'm doing this tonight when I get home from work. I'll let you know how it turned out. Lol.

"Hacker fare" ?? Blehhh. One more smug bit of Internet sales babble to interfere with plain talk. And plane talk, too.
I have had this discussion elsewhere and assume you are working in Canadian dollars only. Flights from Detroit cannot compete if you are paying Canadian for them. If you start in Windsor the most economical fare to Europe will probably be direct from Air Canada, which may involve its partner Lufthansa on the same ticket. Flying the Air Canada feeder Windsor-Toronto costs less when it is included in an AC ticket to Europe. Icelandair and WOW look attractive until the extra costs are added in. The biggest cost is in time, which can be measured in dollars (even Canadian dollars) as well as stress. A non-stop from Toronto to a European gateway is easier than making connections. Connecting in Europe to a budget airline will be arduous. VIArail to Toronto plus the new airport train will eat up lots of time without saving much cash. And you have gained enough experience here to be confident as your own travel agent.

Ok.. all booked! Thanks to those who answered me. I have a new question but I'll start a new thread instead of dragging this one any further. Thanks!!