Review: Aer Lingus - Gatwick painful experience from Las Vegas

mutebuy

just had a very painful experience from Aer Lingus yesterday.

Arrived into Gatwick from Las Vegas on Virgin Atlantic VS044. We had about an hour to get through the customs/passports queues and then check in with aer lingus in their new Zone B in Gastwick because Aer Lingus don't let you get a straight through connection from Las Vegas to Dublin via another airport when using another carrier. Why? Who knows a lot of what Aer Lingus does does not make sense, they've a really poor business structure and waste serious amounts of money in areas while trying to save or make it. Just look at their 7kg carry on baggage policy - pathetic!!!

We arrived at the check in desk in Gatwick 45minutes before our connecting flight EI237 (after waiting in the queue for about 5 minutes while the a/l staff wasted time). We were told that we'd missed our flight and all our tickets were sold on. We ended up not being allowed on the flight and had to each pay st£70 to book the next flight. (there were at least 14 people in the same position as us from the same flights and some had to wait until 10pm for their next flight).

To rub sallt in the wounds 2 things happened. Our EI237 flirght was delayed by over 40 minutes which would have given us loads of time to make it (I also think it was delayed because our bags made it but we didn't). The EI241 flights we were put on was delayed by a further 2 hours which ended up delaying our return to Dublin by over 7 hours.

Aer Lingus really need to get their act together. You should be able to check in from Las Vegas (or whereever) straight to Dublin (your bags automatically do) without having to clear customs (this is possible).

in the meantime, I strongly recommend you use either BMI (preferred option) or BA - but anyone other then ryanair or aer lingus would be better.

brettmirl

mutebuy wrote: »

in the meantime, I strongly recommend you use either BMI (preferred option) or BA - but anyone other then ryanair or aer lingus would be better.

BA don't fly to Ireland anymore Only codeshare with Aer Lingus.

So, if you rule out Ryanair, your only options are BMI from Heathrow, Cityjet from London City or Aer Arann from Luton.

BuffyBot

mutebuy wrote: »

just had a very painful experience from Aer Lingus yesterday.

Arrived into Gatwick from Las Vegas on Virgin Atlantic VS044. We had about an hour to get through the customs/passports queues and then check in with aer lingus in their new Zone B in Gastwick because Aer Lingus don't let you get a straight through connection from Las Vegas to Dublin via another airport when using another carrier. Why?

If it's on the one ticket, Virgin should have been able to check your luggage through, and most likely have given you a boarding pass.

If you booked the Aer Lingus flight separately, then it's your fault unfortunately. Virgin would be under no obligation to check the luggage through and wouldn't be able to issue you boarding passes.

We arrived at the check in desk in Gatwick 45minutes before our connecting flight EI237 (after waiting in the queue for about 5 minutes while the a/l staff wasted time). We were told that we'd missed our flight and all our tickets were sold on. We ended up not being allowed on the flight and had to each pay st£70 to book the next flight. (there were at least 14 people in the same position as us from the same flights and some had to wait until 10pm for their next flight).

Again, if this was booked as part of one ticket, Aer Lingus shouldn't have charged you because the inbound flight being late was outside of your control. However, if it was separate bookings, then again, Aer Lingus are in the right here - they followed the policies outlined on their website.

Aer Lingus really need to get their act together. You should be able to check in from Las Vegas (or whereever) straight to Dublin (your bags automatically do) without having to clear customs (this is possible).

On one ticket, it is. Two separate ones - not necessarily, you are relying on the policies on the first airline. So apportioning blame really depends on how you booked the trip initially.

mutebuy

BuffyBot wrote: »

If it's on the one ticket, Virgin should have been able to check your luggage through, and most likely have given you a boarding pass.

If you booked the Aer Lingus flight separately, then it's your fault unfortunately. Virgin would be under no obligation to check the luggage through and wouldn't be able to issue you boarding passes.


Again, if this was booked as part of one ticket, Aer Lingus shouldn't have charged you because the inbound flight being late was outside of your control. However, if it was separate bookings, then again, Aer Lingus are in the right here - they followed the policies outlined on their website.



On one ticket, it is. Two separate ones - not necessarily, you are relying on the policies on the first airline. So apportioning blame really depends on how you booked the trip initially.

thanks Buffybot. You raise a good point.

We actually booked our tickets through trailfinders - we booked them as one though (though I am not sure if that's how trailfinders booked them). When we phoned them they were as surprised as we were that we had to go through customs and check in again. As far as we were concerned we had bought 1 ticket. (our original flight out was different -we flew aer lingus to Heathrow).

some others in the same situation as us had booked tickets through expedia.

BuffyBot

Sounds like someone, somewhere messed up. It may well be Aer Lingus, but it may not be - so it might be a bit soon to be dumping the blame on them

El Stuntman

I do lots of Virgin longhaul flights out of Heathrow and had a similar experience a few years ago with AL where I was very snootily told by some AL functionary that they did not check through bags onto Virgin flights.

BMI by far your best option.

Neamhshuntasach

I have used lots of Aer Lingus flights where i use a different carrier to bring me to another airport before Dublin and i've always got my bags checked straight through. Not sure why i've never had problems. I just always say Dublin is my final destination and they print the tickets. Granted i never book separately.

jhegarty

No travel agent should have book with less than a 2 hour connection.

Take up the complaint with them if you could never had made the connection.

shanagarry

Neamhshuntasach wrote: »

Granted i never book separately.

That is the key point.

Virgin don’t have any codeshare agreements into Ireland, so you can’t book a flight from one of their longhaul destinations to Ireland on a single ticket.

OP, you actually had two separate reservations, one with Virgin and one with AL. Hence why you had to collect your bags and check in again separately rather than being checked straight through as you would have been on a single ticket.

Your gripe should be with Trailfinders rather than with AL for not informing you of that.

BuffyBot

so you can’t book a flight from one of their longhaul destinations to Ireland on a single ticket.

Actually, you can. Aer Lingus and Virgin Atlantic have an interline agreement (different than a codeshare, it´s what allows airlines to transfer bags etc to each other). Travel agents and various websites can ticket a single trip using both carriers.

Now it´s could be a different scenario than the OP´s and Trailfinders mucked up, or the airlines - but it´s very possible to have Aer Lingus and Virgin Atlantic on the one ticket.