Aircoach Cork Online Booking

ballooba · 16-08-2013 8:03pm #1

It says on the Aircoach website that you need to book before 5pm on the day of travel to be guaranteed a seat. I assume a booking can still be made online on the day of travel, just that it won't guarantee a seat? I am travelling from Cork tomorrow when there is unlikely to be an issue getting a seat, but will be travelling back down next Friday evening when there likely will be an issue.

devnull · 16-08-2013 8:47pm

No you can only book up to 5pm the day before you are due to travel at present.

ballooba · 16-08-2013 8:51pm

Balls. Thanks for the info. Guess I'll have to buy a return ticket off the driver and hope I get a seat next week.

foggy_lad · 17-08-2013 9:40am

ballooba wrote: »

Balls. Thanks for the info. Guess I'll have to buy a return ticket off the driver and hope I get a seat next week.

You could try GoBé, might be a euro dearer but you are guaranteed a modern coach with a toilet. Saw a very old looking aircoach heading off for Cork the other day and thought about how the years will have eaten away at the comfort levels.

devnull · 17-08-2013 10:07am

GoBE is much more than a euro more expensive these days for comparable tickets, there was a price increase of a euro or two here or there across online tickets a few weeks ago.

The good points of GoBE however are you get a toilet and can book online up to a hour or two before the coach, so it still may be a better option for the OP if it's not too late for him to read this now.

The oldest vehicle Aircoach have that route is one vehicle from 2005, with the rest from 2006-2009. I'd hardly call that old. It's not just about age, it's about how well vehicles are maintained and the build quality of them about how they stand up to lots of usage.

The Joncks have the most legroom of any coach in Ireland. They hire in coaches from other operators during peak times and they simply have to hire in what is spare from these operators, in the summer such operators won't have that much free as it's during peak tourism season and events such as the GAA are on. Better to have an extra coach hired in to run alongside the normal coach which may be of a slightly lower standard and travel rather than being left behind.

ballooba · 17-08-2013 10:17am

Thanks for the heads up on go be. I looked at it yesterday and didn't realise the price was for two persons. Its only two euro more. Is it better?

devnull · 17-08-2013 10:33am

GoBE Prices are as follows per person.

Cork to Dublin
€13 Online Single (€9 Aircoach)
€17 Walk up Single (€15 Aircoach)
€22 Online Return (€18 Aircoach)
€27 Walk up Return (€22 Aircoach)

Cork to Dublin Airport
€18 Online Single (€15 Aircoach)
€20 Walk up Single (€18 Aircoach)
€28 Online Return (€25 Aircoach)
€30 Walk up Return (€28 Aircoach)

I personally prefer Aircoach because of the better legroom on most of their coaches (apart from the Levantes) and the cheaper price and the fact their timetable is more regular and better Dublin City Center location, but if toilets are valuable to you and you need to book for the same day then GoBE would be the better choice since all their coaches offer toilets when only around 60 percent of Aircoach vehicles do and you can book GoBe up to an hour or two before their services depart.

Bus Eireann is currently doing a 5 euro seat sale on the Cork to Dublin stopping service, but whilst this is timetabled to be just half an hour slower than the non stop buses, in reality it's taking around an hour more.

jacko1 · 17-08-2013 10:51am

Travelled GoBE recently and def better than Aircoach

At the moment though its hard to beat the train at 14.99 ew if you book a week in advance

SandyfordGuy · 17-08-2013 10:58am

Looking back on your posts on tthe subject you clearly aren't objective

you have connections with the cIe group

SandyfordGuy · 17-08-2013 11:02am

well you claimed the timetable was not achieveable before for aircoach without breaking the law but gobus has a bigger distance to cover go the same amount of time and leaves less for the airport leg'

will you accuse them of speeding too?

LoonyLovegood · 17-08-2013 1:59pm

In fairness, GoBé is regularly late.

Victor · 17-08-2013 3:44pm

SandyfordGuy wrote: »

Looking back on your posts on tthe subject you clearly aren't objective

you have connections with the cIe group

Not really your business.

Moderator

ballooba · 19-08-2013 10:42am

I ended up taking the walk up return fare on Aircoach yesterday morning. EUR 22 return, not bad seeing as I didn't make my mind up when I was travelling until late Saturday evening. Thanks for the tips.

devnull · 19-08-2013 12:09pm

It's decent vlaue for a walk up alwright.

dfx- · 19-08-2013 7:38pm

devnull wrote: »

The oldest vehicle Aircoach have that route is one vehicle from 2005, with the rest from 2006-2009. I'd hardly call that old. It's not just about age, it's about how well vehicles are maintained and the build quality of them about how they stand up to lots of usage.

Having personally got that bus from Dublin to Cork, it is extremely comfortable compared to the toilet containing buses. 100 times better

devnull · 19-08-2013 7:43pm

dfx- wrote: »

Having personally got that bus from Dublin to Cork, it is extremely comfortable compared to the toilet containing buses. 100 times better

There's actually a toilet on that Setra, which is near the offside door, although it's not really obvious unless you know it's there. It's a classically styled, but nice coach though, certainly better than the Levante's but still I prefer the Jonckheere's to anything on the route, but that Setra is the next one in line.

Victor · 20-08-2013 2:49am

I'm wondering. If you are mean to wear your seatbelt the whole time on these coaches, how do you get to the toilet?

ballooba · 27-08-2013 3:24pm

Just to update on this. It was a zoo trying to get onto the bus on Friday. It was like trying to get off a sinking ship onto lifeboats. I would not recommend attempting the Friday evening services without a booking. We were lucky that we had return tickets, so we weren't at the bottom of the hierarchy. The hierarchy went as follows:

- Internet Bookings made before 5pm on previous day for guaranteed seats
- Other internet bookings for the specific timetabled service.
- Those disappointed from an earlier service / left behind (signed vouchers/tickets).
- Those with paper return tickets i.e. completing the return leg of journey which was not booked online.
- Walkups.

There was a dedicated bus for online bookings for our service because they were almost fully subscribed for a bus on internet bookings alone, this took a few other stragglers. The rest of us were left to take the bus which had partially filled at the airport.

bk · 27-08-2013 5:36pm

Which in fairness is exactly how the hierarchy should be.

Also in fairness to Aircoach, if you can't get on the current bus, they sign a voucher to guarantee you'll get on the next bus an hour later, assuming they don't have reliefs on, which they often do at busy times.

Once I even saw just one person left behind at 7pm ex-Cork, the last bus of the day and the Aircoach guy was saying to him not to worry, that they will get him too Dublin!!! I was greatly impressed.

My only complaint about Aircoach is that they should really allow for same day bookings like GoBe does. I believe more people would book online then and they would have a better chance to plan relief coaches then.

Meanwhile on Sunday, I was heading from Cork to Killarney by BE for the day. There was 8 of us getting on the 10:30, but only 6 seats left, the inspector shrugged his shoulders and said we had to wait for the 12:30. Wouldn't even sign our tickets either to guarantee we would get on the 12:30 so we had scramble and fight all the pensioners free travel pass holders who were pushing their way on *

* Pensioners can be seriously pushy and even violent when boarding buses! The Aircoach on a Friday ex-Dublin isn't half as bad as that, which I think says something about the whole free travel pass system.

BTW got the 7am ex-Cork Aircoach today, was totally full, no seat left. And I say the 10am ex-Dublin to Cork Aircoach and from the outside it looked full or close to it (certainly more then 75%). So looks like Aircoach are doing very well.

I'm still surprised GoBE don't go back to an hourly schedule to take up some of the obvious demand that is there!

dowlingm · 27-08-2013 8:10pm

bk wrote: »

* Pensioners can be seriously pushy and even violent when boarding buses!

I remember getting a decent shove from a nun while trying to get on the 2 Blackrock bus in Cork in Spanish Student Season many moons ago

AlekSmart · 27-08-2013 11:50pm

bk wrote: »

Which in fairness is exactly how the hierarchy should be.

Also in fairness to Aircoach, if you can't get on the current bus, they sign a voucher to guarantee you'll get on the next bus an hour later, assuming they don't have reliefs on, which they often do at busy times.

Once I even saw just one person left behind at 7pm ex-Cork, the last bus of the day and the Aircoach guy was saying to him not to worry, that they will get him too Dublin!!! I was greatly impressed.

My only complaint about Aircoach is that they should really allow for same day bookings like GoBe does. I believe more people would book online then and they would have a better chance to plan relief coaches then.

Meanwhile on Sunday, I was heading from Cork to Killarney by BE for the day. There was 8 of us getting on the 10:30, but only 6 seats left, the inspector shrugged his shoulders and said we had to wait for the 12:30. Wouldn't even sign our tickets either to guarantee we would get on the 12:30 so we had scramble and fight all the pensioners free travel pass holders who were pushing their way on *

* Pensioners can be seriously pushy and even violent when boarding buses! The Aircoach on a Friday ex-Dublin isn't half as bad as that, which I think says something about the whole free travel pass system.

BTW got the 7am ex-Cork Aircoach today, was totally full, no seat left. And I say the 10am ex-Dublin to Cork Aircoach and from the outside it looked full or close to it (certainly more then 75%). So looks like Aircoach are doing very well.

I'm still surprised GoBE don't go back to an hourly schedule to take up some of the obvious demand that is there!

You don't know the half-of-it BK....:eek:

But,the point regarding the success of the AirCork Express confirms my belief that deliberately realigning its Cork services away from the DSP "market" was a strategic commercial decision which has paid hefty dividends.

AirCork are filling the vast majority of their seats with real,rather than notional percentage Farepaying pasengers,ie:the revenue stream is in real-time rather than a %age at some future date...That has turned out to be a game-changer for the Company.

Have we any tales from the "ordinary" 008 these days,I would be particularly interested in the various short-hops still possible and how it's revenue figures are stacking up ?

bk · 28-08-2013 10:56am

AlekSmart wrote: »

But,the point regarding the success of the AirCork Express confirms my belief that deliberately realigning its Cork services away from the DSP "market" was a strategic commercial decision which has paid hefty dividends.

Of course it was a strategic commercial decision, but I honestly believe the DSP scheme had little to do with it and at best played a minor role.

The main commercial reason Aircoach shifted from the stopping service to the express service is because the express service was carrying far more passengers then the stopping service. The express service not only took passengers from their stopping service and BE's, but also from Irish Rail and car and people like me who now go to Cork more often due to the cheap, fast service.

Remember that when Aircoach first introduced the express service, it was far less frequent and it was run in parallel with the stopping service. However obviously Aircoach saw that the express service was massively more popular then the stopping service and they then made the decision to end the stopping service and move the coaches used for that service over to a more frequent express service.

Of course this was a commercial decision, but I believe it was driven mostly by the success of the express service passenger numbers, rather then DSP.

What people need to remember about all this, is that Aircoach started two new routes roughly around the same time, the Cork and Belfast routes. And they did so without buying a single new coach! They did it by shuffling around existing services, cancelling the cork stopping service and a Dublin Airport route and also reducing the frequency of other airport routes. They did get four new coaches for free from their parent company in the UK.

But the point is they clearly made the commercial decision to maximise the use of their existing resources by focusing on the most profitable routes.

And of course for a private company that makes a great deal of sense.

AlekSmart · 28-08-2013 11:22am

bk wrote: »

Of course it was a strategic commercial decision, but I honestly believe the DSP scheme had little to do with it and at best played a minor role.

The main commercial reason Aircoach shifted from the stopping service to the express service is because the express service was carrying far more passengers then the stopping service. The express service not only took passengers from their stopping service and BE's, but also from Irish Rail and car and people like me who now go to Cork more often due to the cheap, fast service.

Remember that when Aircoach first introduced the express service, it was far less frequent and it was run in parallel with the stopping service. However obviously Aircoach saw that the express service was massively more popular then the stopping service and they then made the decision to end the stopping service and move the coaches used for that service over to a more frequent express service.

Of course this was a commercial decision, but I believe it was driven mostly by the success of the express service passenger numbers, rather then DSP.

What people need to remember about all this, is that Aircoach started two new routes roughly around the same time, the Cork and Belfast routes. And they did so without buying a single new coach! They did it by shuffling around existing services, cancelling the cork stopping service and a Dublin Airport route and also reducing the frequency of other airport routes. They did get four new coaches for free from their parent company in the UK.

But the point is they clearly made the commercial decision to maximise the use of their existing resources by focusing on the most profitable routes.

And of course for a private company that makes a great deal of sense.

Excellent post,and quite clearly defines the underlying issues currently bedevilling the Irish Public Transport scene.

In the absence of any clear,cohesive Public Transport Funding model,the various elements continue to flail around "doing their own thing",elements of which,as demonstrated by AirCork Express work very well,but only in isolation.

The stated Government policy of reducing subvention year on year in favour of higher end-user costs is valid enough IF they were'nt also pushing a supposed PSO line.

Aircoach have,to a great extent re-written the rule book with the Express Service,something only possible due to the company's independent status.

Pink11 · 19-11-2013 4:34pm

I swear by the aircoach! I find the busses comfy - IF the bus doesn't have a toilet they stop in Urlingford instead.

For 18 euro return you can't really beat it if you're travelling solo. Dread to think what it'd cost me in petrol. If there was 3/4 of us would head up in someone's car though and share petrol costs.

Would def recommend everyone books online. It's a popular service and people with online bookings are priority and let on first.

Pink11 · 19-11-2013 4:38pm

OH and a special mention for the long back holiday in October.

I had my online ticket so I was fine but demand for walk on tickets were huge and aircoach brought in extra busses to ensure everyone got down to Cork from Dublin on the long weekend. Really nice staff.

Little_olivia · 04-12-2013 9:14pm

Does anyone know if you can change you're booking times? My confirmation email came back with the wrong return time - 3 hours later- . Do you think i could get the earlier, correct bus or will they re-charge me?

Victor · 05-12-2013 9:14am

Little_olivia wrote: »

Does anyone know if you can change you're booking times? My confirmation email came back with the wrong return time - 3 hours later- . Do you think i could get the earlier, correct bus or will they re-charge me?

Phone them.

If the bus isn't busy, there generally isn't a problem. If it is busy, those with the correct booking get priority, then other ticket holders, then people paying cash.

Little_olivia · 05-12-2013 9:19am

Victor wrote: »

Phone them.

If the bus isn't busy, there generally isn't a problem. If it is busy, those with the correct booking get priority, then other ticket holders, then people paying cash.

Ok so I'd be second ish in priority. That's grand so! Thanks

bk · 05-12-2013 2:15pm

Little_olivia wrote: »

Ok so I'd be second ish in priority. That's grand so! Thanks

I'd ring them and get it changed!

The buses at many peak times are mega busy these days. Literally filling a whole bus with bookings only.

devnull · 05-12-2013 2:56pm

Ticket validity is listed here:
http://www.aircoach.ie/aircoach.disclaimer.php

I've heard them tell people different though, but that is what they currently have on their (awful) website, it wouldn't surprise me if it was incorrect or outdated, so i'd follow BK's advice.

TheBandicoot · 05-12-2013 3:42pm

I was on Cardiff Lane yesterday and noticed the Aircoach "stop", i.e some laminated A4 stuck to a nondescript wall and no markings of any kind on the road, there were cars parked opposite the A4. It really is dire.

Aircoach Cork Online Booking

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