Aer Lingus Seat Booking

375200272

Do I have to book the seat?
If I do not book the seat,
is it OK?
Just like Ryanair~

mikedragon32

You don't have to pre-book your seat.

When you go to check in, be it online or at the airport, they'll assign you a seat automatically and at that point you should be able to select one for free, if you're not happy with what you've got (however, the choice will obviously narrowed somewhat).

Unlike Ryanair, everyone gets assigned a seat, so there's no mill to get exit rows or whatever.

pauraic1990

On Aer Lingus, all seating is allocated for each passenger. It really up to you, if you want to book the seat ie if you want to seat in the front or seat in the overwing exit for extra legroom.

There will be no ryanair style boarding, They just called family with children to board first, then from 29 to 20 to board and so on. You can relax at the gate lounge unlike ryanair.

leuler

I was also wondering about this. We are going to Paris with 2 children and a baby. It will cost us an extra 40 euro to book our seats, don't mind doing this if we have to, but a lot of money if we can get seats together anyway. Is it worth the risk not booking, don't mind where we sit as long as it is together.

leuler

leuler wrote: »

I was also wondering about this. We are going to Paris with 2 children and a baby. It will cost us an extra 40 euro to book our seats, don't mind doing this if we have to, but a lot of money if we can get seats together anyway. Is it worth the risk not booking, don't mind where we sit as long as it is together.

just make sure to check in early and you should be fine.
there are other airlines who make sure parties sit separately unless they pre-book (as incentive) but AL aren't one

leuler

Cheers, hoping to do the web check in as soon as it is open. Will be happy if I can get 2 + 2 anywhere. The seats were *free* but cost 450 with baggage :eek:

Bigcheeze

leuler wrote: »

Cheers, hoping to do the web check in as soon as it is open. Will be happy if I can get 2 + 2 anywhere. The seats were *free* but cost 450 with baggage :eek:

Are lingus will seat you together. No need to worry.

sporina

hi all, have a few flights booked with aer lingus and i am getting mails to say that i have to book a seat - this is new to me. So what, they are charging for the particular seat you sit in now? Man. And how long as this been the case?

Also, i have never checked in on line before - what are the advantages of that? You still have to get your luggage on board?
And I assume you have to have your seat booked before using the on line check in?

roundymac

I think if your doing a web check-in you will be allocated seats at random by the computer.Also if a lot of the seats are pre booked there may not be that great choice of seats left.If you want to sit together I would prebook espechially with young kids.

roundymac

Just noticed date of OP, as a matter of interest how did you get on with your seat allocation?

sporina

i am traveling alone so i do not mind where i sit - i refuse to pay any more of these add on's for flights.

But what are the advantages of checking in on line? Is it really only for those who do not have luggage?

mikedragon32

sporina wrote: »

i am traveling alone so i do not mind where i sit - i refuse to pay any more of these add on's for flights.

But what are the advantages of checking in on line? Is it really only for those who do not have luggage?

Assuming you're travelling with Aer Lingus, you can check in online whether or not you have luggage. The main advantage is you get a better selection of seats (if you check in less than 30 hours before departure, there's no charge for seat selection) over those who check in at the airport.

If you don't care about where you sit, you may as well wait and check in at the airport.

sporina

mikedragon32 wrote: »

Assuming you're travelling with Aer Lingus, you can check in online whether or not you have luggage. The main advantage is you get a better selection of seats (if you check in >30 hours before departure, there's no charge for seat selection) over those who check in at the airport.

If you don't care about where you sit, you may as well wait and check in at the airport.

thanks for that.

So if you check on line, do you only pay for your seat <30 before departure?
Also, if you check in on line, do you still have to queue to put your luggage through?

mikedragon32

Yes, if you try to check in online more than 30 hours prior to departure, it will force you to select and pay for the seats before you do the check in.

You still have to queue to put your luggage through even if you check in online, but it's a fairly quick process and there's rarely (if ever) a queue of more than 5 people at the "Tag and Drop" desks.

munchkin_utd

mikedragon32 wrote: »

Yes, if you try to check in online <30 hours prior to departure, it will force you to select and pay for the seats before you do the check in........

Do you have a link for this?

I tried everywhere on the Aer lingus site but no sign of any mention of fees for <30 hours or >30 hours online checkin.

mikedragon32

munchkin_utd wrote: »

Do you have a link for this?

I tried everywhere on the Aer lingus site but no sign of any mention of fees for <30 hours or >30 hours online checkin.

Whoops got my < and > mixed up... Durrrr. I'll just use words:

If you try to check in online more than 30 hours prior to departure you will be forced to go through the process of paying to select seats first.

Link: http://www.aerlingus.com/travelinformation/knowbeforeyoufly/check-in/web-check-in/

Aer Lingus wrote:

New Advance Web Check-in
Check-in here if you booked via www.aerlingus.com and are between 30 days and 30 hours before your scheduled departure time.* If your flight is scheduled to depart within the next 30 hours, please use the standard Web Check-in facility provided above.

*Advance Check-in is available on

All flights between Ireland and the United Kingdom.
All flights between Ireland and Austria, Belgium, Italy, Czech Republic, Greece, Switzerland, Germany, Turkey, Bucharest, Portugal, Lithuania, Poland, Croatia, Bulgaria, Finland, Hungary.
All flights between Ireland and Lyon, Nice, Paris, Toulouse, Perpignan, Marseille, Bordeaux.
All flights between Ireland and Alicante, Barcelona, Lanzarote, Madrid, Santiago de Compostela.
Please note you must assign seats before you can use advance check-in.

Last bit of text made bold by me for emphasis.

And from here: http://www.aerlingus.com/help/help/manageyourbooking/#d.en.1612

Aer Lingus wrote:

Shorthaul Flights
Low Fare
If you wish to choose your seats for your journey in advance, you can request your seats up to 48 hours prior to the scheduled departure time with a fee.

Thanks for pointing it out munchkin utd, I'll edit my posts above for clarity, it's a pretty big mistake!

dots104

Let me get this straight i am flying to hamburg tomorrow and have checked in online for it fine. But i cant check in on my return flight which is next week till a day before or they charge me for a seat. how am a expected to check in over there. i only have carry on luggage so what do i do.

mikedragon32

dots104 wrote: »

Let me get this straight i am flying to hamburg tomorrow and have checked in online for it fine. But i cant check in on my return flight which is next week till a day before or they charge me for a seat. how am a expected to check in over there. i only have carry on luggage so what do i do.

You can check in at the airport, no charge!

mikedragon32

dots104 wrote: »

Let me get this straight i am flying to hamburg tomorrow and have checked in online for it fine. But i cant check in on my return flight which is next week till a day before or they charge me for a seat. how am a expected to check in over there. i only have carry on luggage so what do i do.

You can check in at the airport, no charge!

dots104

thanks. thats a bit of a pain. why not have online check in. surely it would save money for them

gaz wac

Hi,

Can i just ask a quick question, first time flying with a baby on friday, so we tried to book our seats last night but we couldnt, because of the baby. Do A.L call familys and babies up first? Keep getting different answers when I do a search on line!.

Thanks for your help

Doirtybirdy

yes they do gaz.
You'll be fine

mikedragon32

gaz wac wrote: »

Hi,

Can i just ask a quick question, first time flying with a baby on friday, so we tried to book our seats last night but we couldnt, because of the baby. Do A.L call familys and babies up first? Keep getting different answers when I do a search on line!.

Thanks for your help

If you're looking to preselect your seats when travelling with an infant with Aer Lingus you have to call the reservation center. I think it's to avoid you selecting an exit row, but there's probably some other reason.

gaz wac

but we should still ring A.L and book our seats, yea ?
Also, we have a car seat, does that get checked in with the suitcases? is that classed as a extra bag ?

thanks for reply

Just saw Mikes reply, just didnt know which was better, prebooking seat or leaving it till we get to checkin

cheers

Doirtybirdy

I replied to your pm but forgot about the fact you can't pre book online with an infant,you'll have to ring.

You will board first though,no matter where they put you.
You will be seated together

Micky 32

What's the story with their seat pricing? Just booked a flight to NY for end of April. Apparently on the seat map there were only a few left and i had no other choice to pay 20 euro for them extra . They are not exit seats just random seating around the plane. Is this a scam or am i missing something?

arubex

It has been a while since I booked Aer Lingus transatlantic, but if you pick any seats during the booking process you will be charged.

Otherwise you have to wait until the online check-in window opens ( T-48 hours isn't it? ) and see what they have allocated you.

L1011

You didn't need to select a seat at booking at all. That there's only a few showing available doesn't mean that there's that few seats left either. You'd have be assigned / able to pick from what's available at checkin without any extra fee

Micky 32

arubex wrote: »

It has been a while since I booked Aer Lingus transatlantic, but if you pick any seats during the booking process you will be charged.

Otherwise you have to wait until the online check-in window opens ( T-48 hours isn't it? ) and see what they have allocated you.

I go every 5 months or so, the first time i have had to pay extra. However the return flight showed loads of spare free seats.

The_Wanderer

If this is rows 9 or 10 then its well worth the extra €20. A really secluded section of economy between the business class and the economy galley / toilets. I always book these seats if going T/A.

Micky 32

Nope both seats are in rows 13 and 12. Also the seat map looked a lot different as if it were a different plane to a A330.

Tenger

Micky 32 wrote: »

Nope both seats are in rows 13 and 12. Also the seat map looked a lot different as if it were a different plane to a A330.

Aer Lingus price rows 9-15 on the A330 as 'Choice' seats, thus they cost E20 to pre-book.
Saw elsewhere that the EI seatmaps are glitchy at the moment.

roundymac

He could be going from SNN on the 767 that's coming in for the summer.

Micky 32

roundymac wrote: »

He could be going from SNN on the 767 that's coming in for the summer.

Nope flying out from Dublin

The_Wanderer

Micky 32 wrote: »

Nope flying out from Dublin

What flight no's is it? Could be the early early 757 operated flight? EI103? (off the top of my head)

Jamie2k9

The seat maps on JFK at the minute are a little messed up but the actually pricing for seating would be correct.

Noxegon

For what it's worth, I've always considered it a scam that you can't check in online more than twenty-four hours in advance if you haven't paid to select a seat...

Tenger

Noxegon wrote: »

For what it's worth, I've always considered it a scam that you can't check in online more than twenty-four hours in advance if you haven't paid to select a seat...

Is it really a scam? You pay to pre-book and have access to early check-in.
You don't pay, you wait until 24 hours before you fly. Seems straightup to me!

Its what the commercial/marketing people called targeted ancilliary revenue options.

That's not to say I'm a fan of it however.


"Choice seats" are a scam IMO. Why should row 15 cost more than row 16. Oh you are 18 inches closer to the door and get served 30 seconds before me. The website info implies that there is extra legroom...as many US carriers have a system where the first 2-3 rows in 'Coach' have extra legroom. (I do see the cost value of exit rows and actual legroom seats)

munchkin_utd

i also fail to see whats the problem.
The seats are free when you checkin online nearer the time or at the airport so just do that.

dropzone

I've recently booked a transatlantic flight with aer lingus and wasn't charged for picking a seat. Also the seat map was glitchy showing a different configuration of seats and missing rows but I still managed to get a seat where I wanted.

roundymac

Noxegon wrote: »

For what it's worth, I've always considered it a scam that you can't check in online more than twenty-four hours in advance if you haven't paid to select a seat...

Calling it a scam is a fairly serious comment, if you don't like their policy don't fly with them. You do have choices.

Micky 32

I don't want this turning into an argument about the word scam. I booked the flight well in advance, for end of April. What annoys me is i keep getting emails of 200 euro each way flight deals. When i go to book it's more than that, works out a good 100 euro more in total. Then when i go to select a seat i'm forced to pay 20 euro for it.

The reason i selected the seat was because in the FAQ's it says " you must select your seat" . I was worried incase i arrived on the day and because i didn't select a seat there might be no seats for me. It wouldn't even show the seats that would have been allocted to us. I felt pressured online to select the 20 euro seat.

L1011

Micky 32 wrote: »

It wouldn't even show the seats that would have been allocted to us.

That's because they aren't allocated until checkin...

The FAQ telling you need to select a seat is the FAQ for online checkin, either that or they've made an error on the site but I'd suspect the former.

pclive

I think its to do with the new business class layout its had a negative impact on the other seating plans at the rear, maybe someone in the know will confirm what the issue is?
Calling it a scam is a fairly serious comment to make!

Tenger

pclive wrote: »

I think its to do with the new business class layout its had a negative impact on the other seating plans at the rear, maybe someone in the know will confirm what the issue is?
Calling it a scam is a fairly serious comment to make!

How would new Business Class affect seating at the rear?

Everything to the left of the 2nd door will be Business class from now on. The 2 rows that are there now will be removed. The other seats will not be affected.


As for the OP, there is not going to be an issue where they have "no seat" for you. The airline aims to make additional revenue on all pax.
You mentioned offers of 200 Euro each way...sounds about right. This is the headline price tag that EI (among other airlines) will use to get webtraffic and possible bookings.
However those emails will not include the taxes and baggage charges.

andy_g

Moved to Travel as its about travelling and seat selection.
You will get better answers here.

Travel Charter now applies.

Micky 32

In the emails i get the one way price includes taxes and charges and admin fee. The latest email for the summer to NY have increased a bit ( despite lower oil prices) 279 euro.

pclive

Spoke with my friend who had the same issue at the weekend and he confirms that he contacted aer lingus and was advised that the new business class arrangement has messed up the seating plans for the rest of the aircraft.

IrishPhoenix

I booked 3 weeks ago and the seat map for the return flight was all glitchy. Did you select the blue choice seats instead of the grey coloured normal seats? When I was booking I was offered the choice to either pay for the choice or exit seats if I wanted them, or pick a standard seat for free. I picked the standard seat and wasn't charged anything extra. The website said at the time that standard seating was included in the ticket price [low fare not flex or anything] so you shouldn't have to wait until check in to pick your seats.

jaymcg91

IrishPhoenix wrote: »

I booked 3 weeks ago and the seat map for the return flight was all glitchy. Did you select the blue choice seats instead of the grey coloured normal seats? When I was booking I was offered the choice to either pay for the choice or exit seats if I wanted them, or pick a standard seat for free. I picked the standard seat and wasn't charged anything extra. The website said at the time that standard seating was included in the ticket price [low fare not flex or anything] so you shouldn't have to wait until check in to pick your seats.

When I last flew I picked then needed to change. I couldn't do it online but I tweeted them with my PNR etc and they were really helpful.

schemingbohemia

Pure User Error, no scam, you just didn't read the information correctly.