aer lingus suck

joseph brand

Just want to say that I heard lots in the news about Ryanair being cheapskates but never a word about Aer Lingus, they are terrible.

1. return flight to Tenerife: 260 Euro
2. No meals.
3. menu of food to be purchased includes budgie breakfast for 8 Euros and not available(tiny)
4. Sandwiches on menu not available either.
5. only 2 brands of cigarettes available from range of 10 brands.
6. compulsory 2 hr delay cos plane cant load when its windy, and all others could????

To sum up, they suck, they bite the big one in true Irish style and I will never use them again, EVER!!!

Rabies

I find Aerlingus are usualy ok. Have not used them in about 9 months or so and had no probs with them. 5hr flight to America with them last year was good. Arrived on time, not charged extra for food on the plane. Don't smoke so don't care about selection of brands available.
Although last week I priced my flights with Aerlingus because I'm going back to work in the states for the summer. Last year it only cost me €360 return. This year it will cost €600 odd, WTF Shopped around for better price and can get flights same dates and times for €450. What is the story with the price increase.

edit:
While shopping around I found it was cheaper to get a flight to London and fly to Boston from there. Coming back would be the same, fly to London first, then to Dublin. That would cost about €550. Still €100 cheaper than Aerlingus.

Sleepy

Yeah, was surprised when booking a flight to London last week that bmi were cheaper than both Ryanair and Aer Lingus. I've always been a big Ryanair fan and would prefer to give my cash to an Irish company but when bmi will bring me to Heathrow for less than ryanair will take me to Gatwick, I'm sorry, but patriotism goes out the window...

rymus

last time I flew aer lingus was from Cork to Amsterdam. I then got on a KLM flight and the difference was incredible. More legroom, food that's actually edible, pleasant staff and an all round better flight. In fact, on my way back to Cork 2 weeks later (and after being bumped up to business class because of some **** up) I found that even KLM's standard class was so many times better than Aer Lingus business. It boggles the mind then to think what KLM business and KLM first class is like.

zervi2003

I flew with them to and from the States recently and in general they were quite good-food was grand, airplane on time and films were good.

Was some fella kicking or kneeing the back of the seat all the time.

The only comment that I have is that the cabin crew/air hostesses/hostes were not very nice.

Ive heard that KLM are really really good in every way-but have never been on a flight of theirs so cant compare.

Dont BMI give you a breakfast/snack on flights to London and still they are cheaper for both economy and business class.
They also e ticket, which means you can book your ticket on a sunday and fly on the monday.
Aer lingus dont e ticket the london route.

Also aerlingus flights to london are cheaper if you book them on the BA website albeit you are booking them as BA flights via code share.

Kinda makes a mockery of what the FA says as you are about to leave the plane... " and remember for the cheapest aerlingus flights go to aer lingus dot com"

Incidently if you want to fly business class to the states, fly over to london and go with either BA or Virgin and get their fully flat bed seats-they are class especially the ones on VA.
Aer lingus are stuck in the sixties with the kind of comforts they give their business class passengers and thats because theres no decent competition on the route.

bombidol

I recently fly with Aerlingus to the states and it was so so. The flight itself wasnt too bad at €377 to Chicago return. But the Air Steward punters were ****ing **** on it, seriously. Ignorant insulting ****ers. the food was god awful but it took off and landed on time which is all you really want. I flew United Airlines the last time i went and it was much much better. Each person had an individual LCD screen and could watch one of 6 movies playing at anytime as well as an on screen map of where you were over the atlantic and a countdown to landing.

If you can get a cheap flight with em its worth it, just eat before you get on the plane. Other wise try around, most airlines are similar i find apart from the Creature comforts on the plane itself.

Saying that on my way back from Chicago to Dublin i missed the plane due to a hold up in Detroit and to get home i simply rang Dublins Aer Lingus number from the states at about 3 in the morning. Booked another flight which i was told was gonna cost me 750 Euro. When i checked in, they looked it up on the system and for some reason it said i was delayed getting to Chicago because of Continental Airline ( which i wasnt) they dropped the price from 750 to 150 and i got home in one piece about 2 days late


gar

Sleepy

Have to say the best airline I've ever been with was Malaysian. Got a Heathrow to Melbourne flight with them (6 hour stopover in Kuala Lumpor would have been a downer but for the fact that cigarettes were £4.80 for 200 there at the time )

Personal telly and phone that turned into a controller for a Super Nintendo. About 6/7 different movies at any given time. Fantastic food (I've had much worse in many restaraunts). Lovely, polite, helpful cabin crew. I think they've won airline of the year recently and you can see why.

One thing I've often wondered about was how did Aer Lingus pull that off a few years ago? Their cabin crew are notoriously aloof and unhelpful, they were over-priced until Ryanair hammered them for so many years they simply had to start lowering costs... useless bastards altogether...

RuggieBear

I've had good and bad experiences with Aer Lingus. And don't get me started on Ryanair (twice had 7hr delays)

GOOD: On the flight from LA to Dublin got chatting to two cute young hostesses who then plied me and my mate with extra beer and flirted with us for the whole flight.....i was in fantasy paradise...

BAD: Flight from Dublin to LA, had a ****ing middleaged battleaxe of a head hostess who was a surly cow. My mother was with me but she had a bad knee and had to keep her leg stretched and was in a bit of pain and quite distressed. The headbitch comes over to me when my mother had hobbled to the toilet and told me to" control THAT woman...she is upsetting my cabin crew". No ****ing empathy at all.


Best flight i've had was Auckland to LA with Quantas....managed to get upgraded to bussiness class. WOW!!! I was on the aisle and My mate was inside me. He was able to stand up and get around me without touching me, there was that much legroom.....

P

Sleepy

I hope you went over the bitches head and reported her to Aer Lingus for that incredible rudeness?

RuggieBear

Originally posted by Sleepy
I hope you went over the bitches head and reported her to Aer Lingus for that incredible rudeness?

We tried to find a customer service desk in LAX in order to lodge a complaint but we ended up running out of time and needing to get to another terminal for a flight to LAS Vegas....but it really suck in the craw... Haven't flown with them since. Heading to NY in June and have decided to go to Heathrow so i don't have to fly with Aerlingus and their cramped Airbuses....unfortunately Boeing is the only way to fly longhaul as far as i'm concerned....have had more pleasant flights to Australia (24hrs) than some of my Ryanair sojurns to Liverpool (35mins)....
p

Sleepy

My return flight from Oz was great! I found myself on a smoking flight with free booze and ended up chatting to a dead interesting bloke from the Royal Australian Merchant Navy who was flying over to England to sail some rich gob****es brand new 60-ft yacht down to Sydney and actually getting paid for the privelege! Got completely hammered due to the increased effects of alcohol in the air... great times:D

therecklessone

Originally posted by Rabies


edit:
While shopping around I found it was cheaper to get a flight to London and fly to Boston from there. Coming back would be the same, fly to London first, then to Dublin. That would cost about €550. Still €100 cheaper than Aerlingus.

IIRC, at one stage it was cheaper to book a flight from Ireland to the US from the UK than it was from Ireland!!! T'was the competition among UK travel agents that did it do you see. Maybe the EU-US discussions regarding transatlantic flights and the end of the stopover malarky will see prices fall here as more US airlines start to fly into Ireland.

Blisterman

Well at least Aer Lingus give you tickets. I was flying to London with Ryanair and they wouldn't accept my passport as ID, because it was out of date. It's still ID, isn't it?
So I had to book a last minute business class ticket on Aer Lingus.

Sleepy

ouch, that must've hurt the ould wallet!

Hairy Homer

Aer Lingus business class to the states is wonderful. Coming back from the States even better. (Getting a good kip is more useful coming East to West)

Especially of course if you're not paying for it.

I notice Fungus have stopped giving out free food on short haul flights. Now for short hops to England I couldn't care less but to Tenerife, that;s a bit of a liberty. Especially for the price you paid.

Ryanair. Only if I must. Depends on where I want to go. For eastern London, City Jet to London City Airport (if you book early and cheaply) is your only man.

super_furry

Aer Lingus are also the only airline to ban electronic devices such as MP3 players and Gameboy Advances. You can understand the CD and DVD bans because, but to ban all electronic devices is just stupid.

I have to fly to Dallas in September and there's no way I'll even consider going with Aer Lingus - I'll go mad without my GBA or Jukebox Zen.

monument

Originally posted by super_furry
Aer Lingus are also the only airline to ban electronic devices such as MP3 players and Gameboy Advances. You can understand the CD and DVD bans because, but to ban all electronic devices is just stupid.

Yea that's my only real problem with them (so far). Flying to LA again with them in May, so fingers crossed.

I got such dirty looks when using my own headphones in their audio jack.

dead air

well, I booked a flight to chicago with aer lingus a couple of weeks ago online and I needed to change a flight time, I have to comment on this thread that the aer lingus CSR on the end of the line was the most pleasant, polite and friendliest CSR I've dealt ever with. Gold star for customer service from me anyway.

I've flown with Ryanair a couple of times last year, and they were pretty decent (flights were on time and staff were friendly enough, one flight was ten minutes early even). Pity they have to try to sell you everything once your on board.. travel insurance, hotel rooms, gatwick express tickets, car rental, credit cards, car parking... I don't even get that much spam anymore!

Lump

It's not like they are forcing them on you..... they are actually trying to be helpful, and if you get the standstead express ticket on the plane it's cheaper.....


OH YEA, RYANAIR, THEY'RE CHEAP!!!!


John

bombidol

**** that, i used my GBA on the Aerlingus Flight to the states and back again. Screw them. Theres no risk from a GBA at all so im not obeying their stupid backwards rules. They seen me multiple times playing for hours and not a word was said, even the air staff seem to know its dumb

therecklessone

Originally posted by Hairy Homer


Ryanair. Only if I must. Depends on where I want to go. For eastern London, City Jet to London City Airport (if you book early and cheaply) is your only man.

Tax (only)on Dublin to London City (return) with Cityjet = €48.51

Price of flight+taxes for Ryanair Dublin to London Stansted (return) May 26/27 = €48.85

:eek: :eek: :eek:

therecklessone

Originally posted by bombidol
**** that, i used my GBA on the Aerlingus Flight to the states and back again. Screw them. Theres no risk from a GBA at all so im not obeying their stupid backwards rules. They seen me multiple times playing for hours and not a word was said, even the air staff seem to know its dumb

Word of warning:

If you are warned not to play the GBA by a member of the cabin crew and you refuse to comply you will be forked royally. Actions can include diverting to nearest airfield for not so short meeting with local constabulary. Hope that this happens this side of the pond rather than t'other side, more chance of a fine and a slap on the wrist here that there...

BuffyBot

Aer Lingus - I was due to fly to New York with them in January, but cancelled due to a major cock up the made over Christmas with my flights.

Between Dublin and Heathrow I'd much rather bmi. Very pleasant and helpful staff, self service checkin, free food/drink, and generally cheaper than Aer Lingus (you would wonder how bmi can do it when Aer Lingus can't!).

Transatlantic, I'd recommend going via London and flying with Virgin if at all possible (especially if you are flying business class. Very nice!).

daveJAM

Have to agree, the Virgin Atlantic service is amazing. Personal LCD screen so you get a choice of movie. While you're queueing up to check in, they have someone go down through the queue to check your passport and tickets and put a little sticker on it. When you get to the desk you just hand them your bags get your boarding card and your off.

Air Canada are pretty good too. They're partnered with BMI, so you can get BMI to Heathrow and then Air Canada on to Canada. Pretty painless experience.

I'll be flying Continental to the States this year. Anyone know what they're like?

Imposter

I've been flying Aer Lingus Dublin-Munich and Dublin - Vienna for the last 2 years now. Initially I was happy enough even after they went on strike in May 2002 and I had to fund a ryanair flight from Dublin to Stanstead (over 200€ just for this flight) and then go by trains and tube to Heathrow to catch a BA flight to Munich.

Lately i'm not so happy. Flew home the week before christmas but on the return flight there was no food. Now this would not normally bother me especially if I know it in advance but how hard was it to announce this change on the flight 1 week before? Add to that then the food trolly toddles down the aisle. We were nearly landing in Vienna by the time it got to me and they had virtually nothing left.

In the last few weeks I've been looking at a flight home in or around May/June. I'm not fussy but there is nothing that is anyway reasonably priced. Everything is over 300€ return where before it was 200 or less.

Looks like i'll be flying Ryanair and having to change at Stanstaed now. The 4 flights are still way cheaper than Aer Lingus, and a train fare to Vienna.