Aer Lingus price increase?

GekkePrutser

Has anyone else noticed Aer Lingus putting their prices up?

I normally fly Dublin <-> Amsterdam once every two months or so and I always pay something between €100-150 return.. I never book more than 1 or 2 months in advance. Even the christmas holiday was affordable.

But now when I look for March / April, even May almost every flight is 160 euro each way (not even including bags). It's crazy... I'm not paying €300+ for a return.. There's only one or two services that are cheaper but they're too far apart. Normally there's loads of choice and reasonable prices.

Just wondering if anyone knows the reason for this increase and whether it'll settle down...

coylemj

If you want an effective hedge against rising airline fares, buy shares in Ryanair. When fares go up, so will the share price and v.v.

Wouldn't touch Aer Lingus cause there's always the risk of a strike over the pension scheme or some other excuse SIPTU will come up with.

jjbrien

I have noticed this as well. They used to be around the same or 10 euro more than Ryanair now Ryanair is half the price

Yamanoto

coylemj wrote: »

Wouldn't touch Aer Lingus cause there's always the risk of a strike over the pension scheme or some other excuse SIPTU will come up with.

Seems a touch extreme to inconvenience yourself by flying to bargain basement airports miles from nowhere, based on little more than a fear of avoiding hypothetical industrial action at some point in the future. Your prerogative though.

I've yet to have my travel disrupted by strikes in the six years I've been flying with EI for work (perhaps others have). During that period, I've witnessed many occasions where staff have surpassed themselves in providing a level of care & attention that would simply be unimaginable if travelling with Ryanair. Aer Lingus ain't perfect, but given the alternative...

As for the OP's question, that spike does seem unusually high given that fares have rarely exceeded €130 return when I've booked travel one or two months in advance. Perhaps it'd be worth holding off a short while to see if prices level-out in your favour.

GekkePrutser

You're right Yamanoto: The pricing seems to have returned to normal pricing on the DUB<->AMS route. Yesterday almost every single flight (one-way) for the next few months was priced at 157,99 (almost 320 return) but now I see ones for as low as 44,99 (one-way) in April and there's also a lot more variety in pricing again like there used to be. There always were expensive days, it was just never all of them

I wonder if they had some problem with their site.. Glad it's ok now, going home is very important to me. I was shocked when I saw the pricing.

Ryanair is not an option for me, I never fly Ryanair unless it's unavoidable. I just hate their attitude, I always have the feeling I have to watch everything I do/bring because they're trying to 'catch me out'. I like flying Aer Lingus, and I totally agree, I've had many situations where their staff has been very helpful, like reprinting my boarding pass for free when my home printed one was unreadable. They make travel go smoothly rather than their Ryanair counterparts who throw up as many stumbling blocks along the way as they can and then charge to remove them.

Besides, when I checked they were not actually that cheap on the dates I want to go, as well as the problem that they don't do Amsterdam. The only time I ever fly with them is for work, when the "Ryanair airport" is much closer to the office I'm going to than the regular airport.

coylemj

Yamanoto wrote: »

Seems a touch extreme to inconvenience yourself by flying to bargain basement airports miles from nowhere, based on little more than a fear of avoiding hypothetical industrial action at some point in the future. Your prerogative though.

I've yet to have my travel disrupted by strikes in the six years I've been flying with EI for work (perhaps others have). During that period, I've witnessed many occasions where staff have surpassed themselves in providing a level of care & attention that would simply be unimaginable if travelling with Ryanair. Aer Lingus ain't perfect, but given the alternative...

You completely missed or misunderstood my point. I haven't set foot in Luton or Stanstead or any other such aerodrome premises in over 30 years.

I agree 100% on the excellent service provided by Aer Lingus. I was purely referring to the usefulness of investing in Ryanair as a vehicle to hedge against rises in air fares, not to the actual service provided by either airline.

I've managed to avoid flying with Ryanair for the past 20 years though I'm happy to own shares in the company and spend the dividends on flights in relative comfort with their main competitor flying out of Dublin!

My last flight with Ryanair was a bucket seat from a charter company coming home from Faro in the early 1990s, I last purchased a ticket from Ryanair in the early 1980s.

mikemac1

GekkePrutser wrote: »

.

Ryanair is not an option for me, I never fly Ryanair unless it's unavoidable. I just hate their attitude, I always have the feeling I have to watch everything I do/bring because they're trying to 'catch me out'. I like flying Aer Lingus, and I totally agree, I've had many situations where their staff has been very helpful, like reprinting my boarding pass for free when my home printed one was unreadable. They make travel go smoothly rather than their Ryanair counterparts who throw up as many stumbling blocks along the way as they can and then charge to remove them.

Have you ever asked Ryanair to reprint an unreadable boarding pass? Are just assuming they'll charge you for it.

They won't. My printer at home is dodgy and the printout is not sharp enough to scan at security and twice Ryanair desk have printed it for me, no charge.

Yamanoto

Apologies coylemj, didn't realise you were referring to Aer Lingus shares.

keithclancy

GekkePrutser wrote: »

Has anyone else noticed Aer Lingus putting their prices up?

I normally fly Dublin <-> Amsterdam once every two months or so and I always pay something between €100-150 return.. I never book more than 1 or 2 months in advance. Even the christmas holiday was affordable.

But now when I look for March / April, even May almost every flight is 160 euro each way (not even including bags). It's crazy... I'm not paying €300+ for a return.. There's only one or two services that are cheaper but they're too far apart. Normally there's loads of choice and reasonable prices.

Just wondering if anyone knows the reason for this increase and whether it'll settle down...

Not sure ... we booked Amsterdam - Cork return for 89 / person all in at the start of this month, train is only 1hr 40 from Eindhoven to Schiphol direct.

Ryanair was actually more from Eindhoven - Dublin (Which would be more convenient since its a 10 minute bus from our house)
Dublin is a bit of a balls as its far away from Cork and has crap public transport connections, but Car Rental is usually cheap.

If your coming from Ireland, Eindhoven is an easy connection to Amsterdam, 401 bus straight to the center and the Alkmaar train takes you directly to Amsterdam Centraal.

In my experience the smaller airports are more reliable than the larger ones (e.g. Schiphol) and much more convenient.

With the Ryanair vs Aer Lingus thing... I don't really care, its effectively a bus service.
I do wish Aer Lingus would enforce a carry on policy as I've been at the back half of the line only to be told "No room left in carry on, we'll have to check your baggage into the hold" simply because morons have brought on a rake of junk that didn't need to be with them.

Either way, I factor in the whole cost end to end taking time into account.

If your renting a car on the other side the time factor is less of an issue.

GekkePrutser

mikemac1 wrote: »

Have you ever asked Ryanair to reprint an unreadable boarding pass? Are just assuming they'll charge you for it.

They have done that to me once yes, although admittedly it was several years ago and not in Ireland (it was in Brussels Charleroi). And I did get it free after arguing about it, the whole thing just got me all stressed out. I wasn't aware it's not like that anymore.

keithclancy wrote: »

If your coming from Ireland, Eindhoven is an easy connection to Amsterdam, 401 bus straight to the center and the Alkmaar train takes you directly to Amsterdam Centraal.

I know the Eindhoven connection, it's just not a convenient option for me, where I'm going in Holland is 15 mins by train directly from Schiphol. If I'd go from Eindhoven I'd add 2 hours to the journey at least (and 20 euro each way in bus/train fares), and several transfers.

BTW: I'm sorry if this is turning into another Aer Lingus vs Ryanair argument, there is no point. I hate travelling personally, and because of that I don't mind paying a bit more to have a comfortable and hassle-free trip. Just not three times what I normally pay

It's just that the prices on the Aer Lingus website were super high when I started the thread, I was really shocked because I depend on the service to see my family and I was worried it was a permanent change. But luckily it must have been a mixup because I was able to book it today for 103 euro return in April, and I'm relieved it's back to normal Like I said I'm not that price conscious but 300+ return was just mad.

keithclancy wrote: »

I do wish Aer Lingus would enforce a carry on policy as I've been at the back half of the line only to be told "No room left in carry on, we'll have to check your baggage into the hold" simply because morons have brought on a rake of junk that didn't need to be with them.

I agree, that is a pain, I always abide by the maximum limits for size/weight so it is really annoying if that happens due to other people not doing so. I usually make sure I'm seated in the back so I can board first, or I bring a backpack that fits under the seat if it's really necessary.

coylemj

keithclancy wrote: »

I do wish Aer Lingus would enforce a carry on policy as I've been at the back half of the line only to be told "No room left in carry on, we'll have to check your baggage into the hold" simply because morons have brought on a rake of junk that didn't need to be with them.

In fairness to Aer Lingus, most of the time they don't need to be so strict and given that they get a lot of business passengers, they try to be flexible because people have laptops and document folders along with an overnight bag. It's totally down to the staff at the departure gate and whether they can see the passengers and what they propose to carry on before they start boarding.

Last time I was flying from Heathrow, they made the decision to enforce the 'one passenger, one bag' rule before anyone boarded. That was probably because in Heathrow they can see all of the passengers sitting there before they're called to board and experienced staff can probably tell that's the overhead bins won't hold all the bags. In other airports maybe they don't have such a good view of the passengers so they just wing it (pun intended) until the bins are full and then tell the staff at the gate to start confiscating bags to go in the hold.

What really p1sses me off is the haughty attitude of passengers who then get stroppy with the staff because their precious Louis Vuitton bag has to slum it in the hold when they knew the rule long before they arrived at the departure gate.

ProudDUB

Yamanoto wrote: »

Seems a touch extreme to inconvenience yourself by flying to bargain basement airports miles from nowhere,

coylemj wrote: »

You completely missed or misunderstood my point. I haven't set foot in Luton or Stanstead or any other such aerodrome premises in over 30 years.

Are Ryanair airports really still hell holes of isolation out in the middle no where? I know that they were 20 years ago, but are they still? Ryanair is such a beast of an airline now. These secondary airports make so much money from them now, have the airports not gotten a lot better at providing transports links to and from them?

My last two trip on Ryanair were to London and Brussels. The London flight went into Gatwick. I was in central London in 30 mins thanks to the Gatwick Express train. And I didn't have the wait that you often do in Heathrow, to get the bus from the plane that take for ever to drop you at the terminal, and then have to walk along miles of corridors to get to the tube station. Gatwick is a much, much smaller and easier airport to navigate than the Hades that is Heathrow.

It is the same in Brussels Charleroi. You have a much smaller airport to trek thru which shortens your overall journey time. A bus leaves outside the terminal bldg every 20 mins, and gets you to Brussels city centre in 50 mins. I'm told the train from the main Brussels airport only takes 20 mins. But seeing as I only paid 40 quid for my flight, I am happy to give up that additional 30 minutes of my life, seeing as the corresponding flight into Brussels International was close to 200 quid.

My brother and his wife went away last year for the weekend on Ryanair (Barcelona I think, but I could be wrong.) Their journey to their hotel in the city center took them under an hour too & they didn't seem overly put out or bothered by it.

Yamanoto

ProudDUB wrote: »

Are Ryanair airports really still hell holes of isolation out in the middle no where? I know that they were 20 years ago, but are they still?

Some airports are better than others on Ryanair's route network - as you say, Gatwick has decent rail connections to central London and provides a quicker transit than the schlep from Heathrow T1 down to the Picadilly line. Eindhoven is another spot I can think of which combines decent enough on-site facilities with easy access to the city.

The last three Ryanair airports I've been through - Milan Bergamo, Stockholm Skavsta & Frankfurt-Hahn have a combined distance of approx. 265km from their respective city centres and to my mind, offer a fairly cruddy traveller experience overall.

jjbrien

In Oslo I actaully find it better to go to Oslo Rygge with Ryanair than go to Oslo Gardermoen with SAS. Long walks at Oslo Gardermoen and long wait times at passport control whist at Rygge which is a similar distance to downtown Oslo is much faster. Also the train from Oslo Rygge is cheaper than the train at the main airport.

Ryanair have impoved they used to go to Oslo Torp which is 2 hours away from Oslo. When you landed at the airport there the signs at the airport didnt even mention Oslo in its name.

If there is a 10 or 20 euro diffrence in the fare i normally stick to Aer Lingus for a less stressful journey. Im not a fan of the Ryanair Olympics at the gate.