Aer Lingus - New Business Class

WheatenBriar

Tenger wrote: »

New seats are currently on all aircraft. Last 2 are down in Bordeaux getting refitted.

Can I enquire about ballpark cost on such a forward booking in J Class?

40k avios gets Bos Untill april 28th when BA rates change
Providing you find availability,you can book up to a year ahead

An awful lot of Americans used their free Amex card avios for those

thecommander

WheatenBriar wrote: »

An awful lot of Americans used their free Amex card avios for those

Was about to get a business AMEX for that purpose, but the main company that we deal by card with stopped taking them. Would have racked up a load over the course of a year.

Francis007

My missus and I have been flying Virgin Atlantic Upper Class Heathrow to Boston every year since 2007.
However in the last year or so the VA Upper Class Cabin on their Airbus 330's has been " redesigned "
What that actually has meant is that the original 3 rows in the front cabin has now been squeezed into 4 and the panel between each seat is now a see through glass one rather than the original solid screen.
So, this " redesign " has actually meant less room and less privacy !
Now I know that VA are now using the new Boeing Dreamliner on this route but we have decided to have a change this year and try Aer Lingus new Business Class cabin. We depart in October and will be in New England for 3 weeks.
Will let you know our thoughts on the comparison between the 2 products. AL advantage is the US pre-Immigration and Custom clearance at Dublin. VA advantage is the simply fantastic UC lounge at Heathrow.....and the pretty decent one at Logan.
Also I think we will have to sit with the peasants ( joking ! ) on the flight from Heathrow to Dublin and return !
Also AL was a few hundred pounds cheaper for the two of us....but not much in it.
However the AL product looks good and we are both looking forward to it.

Jamie2k9

EI lounges in DUB/BOS are fairly decent and as your business you have access to the new arrivals lounger at DUB (exclusively for J passengers)

If your flying on the 11.50 outbound USCP is quiet busy but shouldn't be to bad in October.

Francis007

Morning Jamie

Thankyou for the quick reply.....and your reassurance that we made a good decision this year by choosing AL over VA ! Yep, on the outward bound,we are flying Heathrow-Dublin on the 08.50 and Dublin-Logan on the 11.50. At the moment both cabins are only one third occupied.Returning on the EL136 Boston-Dublin departing 19.00 and arriving 05.05. Then connecting flight to Heathrow at 06.40.

We purchased our tickets through Travelbag as they were a few hundred pounds cheaper than purchasing directly through the AL website. Only problem is that although we have been given an AL booking reference no. by Travelbag, the AL website does not seem to recognise it when I try to " manage bookings ".

So, although I have our seats allocated in the 2 Business Class parts of our flights, I cannot allocate seats for the Heathrow-Dublin or Dublin-Heathrow legs. Also cannot put in any advanced passenger info.....and it seems as though we will not be able to do an online check in 24 hours before our departure. Any ideas of how we can get round this ? Bearing in mind we are retired "Oldies".....and things like this worry us now. ( joke )

We will miss the "bling " of VA but this flight will be £600 cheaper for the 2 of us...and I think I can forego it for this year !

goingnowhere

This is normal as you didn't book directly with EI, if you have a reference code beginning with 2 then you have a valid EI reference

You can't pick a seat on DUB-LHR until 30 hours beforehand anyway

Advanced passenger information will be dealt with at check in and boarding cards for the connecting flight issued at the same time.

You have lounge access in LHR outbound and DUB on return in addition to DUB and BOS, just show the business class boarding card

Francis007

Hi " Goingnowhere " Thankyou for your kind and helpful reply.

My reference code does begin with a 2....but I cannot type in any of my advanced passenger info on the AL website. It fails to recognise it. In other years flying VA ,I have done this many weeks before departure on the VA website. I know I am worrying too much over this......but being 67 years of age and being re-knowned in my Family as someone who likes to plan everything well ahead ( you know, " fail to plan, plan to fail etc ! ). In fact my Family regulartly take the P out of me for this ! It is a constant source of amusement for my adult children who have now all flown the nest.

May I ask please that if I cannot pick a seat on the LHR-DUB and vice-versa flight until 30 hours beforehand, why, when you look at the seat map of both those flights, are there many seats already allocated ? Just asking !

Thankyou in advance

MJohnston

Are you able to use this option on the Seat Selection/Advanced Passenger Information parts of the EI website?



It seems to fit with your situation.

goingnowhere

MJohnston wrote: »

Are you able to use this option on the Seat Selection/Advanced Passenger Information parts of the EI website?



It seems to fit with your situation.

This may or may not work, it has issues with connecting flights

All else fails, you can simply call Aer Lingus by phone and the can sort it out for you, as you have a business class ticket they may as a courtesy allocate you seats there and then but in general its best wait to the airport as online check in will probably only offer rows 10-29

Francis007

goingnowhere wrote: »

This may or may not work, it has issues with connecting flights

All else fails, you can simply call Aer Lingus by phone and the can sort it out for you, as you have a business class ticket they may as a courtesy allocate you seats there and then but in general its best wait to the airport as online check in will probably only offer rows 10-29

No,unable to do that. The website just refuses to recognise my booking reference, even though Travelbag insists that my booking reference no. beginning with 2 is a valid AL number.

So, what Travelbag were able to do was to allocate the Business Class section of the flight seats but not the short haul part Heathrow to Dublin and back.

May I ask if as we are flying Business Class are we allocated seats in the front of the plane seperated by a middle seat ? Or is that offered only on European flights ?

I did ring the help desk of AL about this and they were not helpful at all. Nearer hte date of the flight I think I will ring again and if not helped at all will ask to speak to a Supervisor . Well, we did pay almost £4000 for our flights so I think we deserve a little consideration ! This is another big difference with our experiences over the last 10 years with VA. They could not have been more charming or helpful if we had a minor problem. Even though I am an old git now I must admit that I will miss those girls in red !

On the Dublin-Boston and return we have decided to go for the individual seats on the left hand side of the plane. ( well, we have been married for 45 years so we can cope with not sitting together for 6 and a half hours ! ) Thought they looked a better bet than the " Captain Kirk " seats on the opposite side. Any thoughts ?

Thankyou for all the help given here. A good and informative site.

Idbatterim

I think this pre clearance thing gets more credit than it deserves. I live in Dublin, now with this pre clearance, you need to show up 2.5-3 hours in advance, often they are damn early red eye flights. If you were flying to US via uk, ok you are going "backwards" which I dont like, but you could show up to Dublin airport and halve the time you have to arrive early, to pre clear... You are losing the time on one end or another...

Dardania

Idbatterim wrote: »

I think this pre clearance thing gets more credit than it deserves. I live in Dublin, now with this pre clearance, you need to show up 2.5-3 hours in advance, often they are damn early red eye flights. If you were flying to US via uk, ok you are going "backwards" which I dont like, but you could show up to Dublin airport and halve the time you have to arrive early, to pre clear... You are losing the time on one end or another...

i actually can't comment the other way, as I've never flown to the US without using Dublin pre-clearance.

What I do like is the fact that when I arrive in the US, after connecting internally there, I can still get dinner/pint before hitting the sack (instead of arriving to hotel at silly o'clock)

MJohnston

Idbatterim wrote: »

I think this pre clearance thing gets more credit than it deserves. I live in Dublin, now with this pre clearance, you need to show up 2.5-3 hours in advance, often they are damn early red eye flights. If you were flying to US via uk, ok you are going "backwards" which I dont like, but you could show up to Dublin airport and halve the time you have to arrive early, to pre clear... You are losing the time on one end or another...

Bit of a flaw in your thinking there to be honest - when you're connecting to a US flight through LHR, you generally have to be arriving there at least 2 hours before the LHR flight departs, so you have to be in DUB about 4 hours before that US flight, unless you're one of those people who is happy to have all the anxiety of cutting it really close. So, already you're adding an extra hour at least to your schedule. Then you have to factor just how stressful LHR is in comparison to DUB, it's just never ending massive queues and stress imo. And then you still have to add in the amount of time you're going to spend in the immigration queue once you've stepped off your 7-12 hour flight, in a US airport, most of which are absolutely terrible with having long queues at customs.

Even thinking about the times I had to fly to SFO through LHR gives me PTSD. Meanwhile, last time I flew EI to SFO, I strolled through the (comparatively) stress-free DUB, precleared without any significant amount of wait time. Once I arrived in SFO, the time it took me between getting from 'doors open' at the gate and checking into my San Francisco hotel was 30 minutes (I had no checked baggage at all, but still).

No comparison imo, I'd even encourage people flying from London to SFO to go through Dublin, because the pre-clearance removes so much stress and waiting from the end of the flight (which is the part during which you really can't deal with it).

LXFlyer

Idbatterim wrote: »

I think this pre clearance thing gets more credit than it deserves. I live in Dublin, now with this pre clearance, you need to show up 2.5-3 hours in advance, often they are damn early red eye flights. If you were flying to US via uk, ok you are going "backwards" which I dont like, but you could show up to Dublin airport and halve the time you have to arrive early, to pre clear... You are losing the time on one end or another...

First of all no one is forcing anyone to get a "red eye" flight.

In fact out of a total of 19 flights that avail of the US CBP at Dublin, only 5 depart before 10:00, and only one of those flights is the sole flight of the day to that destination (Charlotte).

Everywhere else has a later option if you want it.

As for check-in, if you fly via they UK, or any other hub airport in Europe, while your check-in time at Dublin would be less, probably 90 minutes versus 180 minutes, you then have the additional block to block time to that hub (say 80 minutes to Heathrow), and then allow 2 hours connecting time between flights.

You also have a slightly longer transatlantic flight, and you then have to queue in the US airport for both immigrations and customs.

Therefore all your supposed time saved has been more than surpassed by flying direct and has been even before you arrived in the US.

Jamie2k9

Call a spade a spade here it is over rated and gets so much undeserved hype particularly with media.

Yes its a fantastic facility
Yes its good for passengers transiting in the US
Yes its good for transit passengers at DUB as it used the time productivity which would otherwise be waiting at a gate.

It is not as quick as most PR would suggest
It is very congested at times and staffing is usually an issue.

I believe it has played a part in DUB success but it has not played a massive role in recent years. Growth would still have happened and transit would of grown.

WheatenBriar

Francis007 wrote: »

No,unable to do that. The website just refuses to recognise my booking reference, even though Travelbag insists that my booking reference no. beginning with 2 is a valid AL number.

So, what Travelbag were able to do was to allocate the Business Class section of the flight seats but not the short haul part Heathrow to Dublin and back.

May I ask if as we are flying Business Class are we allocated seats in the front of the plane seperated by a middle seat ? Or is that offered only on European flights ?

I did ring the help desk of AL about this and they were not helpful at all. Nearer hte date of the flight I think I will ring again and if not helped at all will ask to speak to a Supervisor . Well, we did pay almost £4000 for our flights so I think we deserve a little consideration ! This is another big difference with our experiences over the last 10 years with VA. They could not have been more charming or helpful if we had a minor problem. Even though I am an old git now I must admit that I will miss those girls in red !

On the Dublin-Boston and return we have decided to go for the individual seats on the left hand side of the plane. ( well, we have been married for 45 years so we can cope with not sitting together for 6 and a half hours ! ) Thought they looked a better bet than the " Captain Kirk " seats on the opposite side. Any thoughts ?

Thankyou for all the help given here. A good and informative site.

Have a look at,or ask a question on the gold circle forum on flyer talk,you are more likely to have your questions answered there due to there being a majority of business class passengers on there compared to here

Here is the link


http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/aer-lingus-gold-circle-club-718/

MJohnston

Jamie2k9 wrote: »

Call a spade a spade here it is over rated and gets so much undeserved hype particularly with media.

As a frequent US-bound flyer, I would absolutely disagree. It may not be "as quick as most PR would suggest" (I don't really know which figures this is referring to tbh) but it's far, far quicker than going through the same process in any major US airport, which is all that matters to most.

roundymac

It takes seconds in SNN.:D

WheatenBriar

MJohnston wrote: »

As a frequent US-bound flyer, I would absolutely disagree. It may not be "as quick as most PR would suggest" (I don't really know which figures this is referring to tbh) but it's far, far quicker than going through the same process in any major US airport, which is all that matters to most.

A lot of U.S airports have machine immigration for Esta now though,so a lot quicker than used be the case

Jamie2k9

MJohnston wrote: »

As a frequent US-bound flyer, I would absolutely disagree. It may not be "as quick as most PR would suggest" (I don't really know which figures this is referring to tbh) but it's far, far quicker than going through the same process in any major US airport, which is all that matters to most.

If your a frequent traveler it should be quicker. I'm not saying its quicker in the US for the 30 minute time which is given at Dub is not overly accurate in summer. I have saw cases of up to 90 minutes been required in DUB to clear peak season while not common it can be painfully slow but as I said staffing is a big cause of this.

Tenger

Idbatterim wrote: »

I think this pre clearance thing gets more credit than it deserves. I live in Dublin, now with this pre clearance, you need to show up 2.5-3 hours in advance, often they are damn early red eye flights. If you were flying to US via uk, ok you are going "backwards" which I dont like, but you could show up to Dublin airport and halve the time you have to arrive early, to pre clear... You are losing the time on one end or another...

I would disagree with your time assessment but agree with the overstating the credit of pre-clearance on the DUB traffic increase. EI are the major driver of transfer pax in DUB and yes the pre-clearance is a selling point for their network. On the other hand we have seen the US carriers (with no onwards connection network to UK?Europe) increasing numbers over the last 3-4 years.

Its all about whether you want to queue for an hour before the flight or at the other end.

roundymac wrote: »

It takes seconds in SNN.:D

Stop showing off

Crumbs868

WheatenBriar wrote: »

A lot of U.S airports have machine immigration for Esta now though,so a lot quicker than used be the case

Find these great, especially as they have installed so many of them. Seems to be the same machine as Dublin so easy to use.

Ace2007

Hi Guys,

Without starting a new thread - can you tell me what the Wi-Fi is like in Business class on a flight from Dublin to LA? never used the internet on a plane, is it actually decent, or will it stop/start music/films?

Idbatterim

Wifi has been very poor bordering on unusable when I have flown to us with aer lingus. In economy though

Creamy Goodness

Ace2007 wrote: »

Hi Guys,

Without starting a new thread - can you tell me what the Wi-Fi is like in Business class on a flight from Dublin to LA? never used the internet on a plane, is it actually decent, or will it stop/start music/films?

I think you're being very optimistic on the performance of airplane wifi. You're 36,000ft in the air getting about 5Mbps shared between 200-300 people. You will not be able to stream movies reliably. Music - depending on the nitrate - you might be able to.

Great airplane wifi as a I need to send an email/message/light work and you're more on the mark.

MJohnston

Ace2007 wrote: »

Hi Guys,

Without starting a new thread - can you tell me what the Wi-Fi is like in Business class on a flight from Dublin to LA? never used the internet on a plane, is it actually decent, or will it stop/start music/films?

No, even the best airplane wifi is only good for browsing and nothing more. No chance of music or films streaming (download them before you leave, this is possible with most apps like Netflix or Spotify).

Unfortunately, the likelihood is that someone somewhere on the plane will try to stream these things and kill the connection for everyone else (and still not get any luck themselves), and there will be others who have heavy-bandwidth apps or programs on their phone or computer that they aren't even aware of (Dropbox and the like).

At best, you'll be able to pull up Facebook and browse it.

Ace2007

Creamy Goodness wrote: »

I think you're being very optimistic on the performance of airplane wifi. You're 36,000ft in the air getting about 5Mbps shared between 200-300 people. You will not be able to stream movies reliably. Music - depending on the nitrate - you might be able to.

Great airplane wifi as a I need to send an email/message/light work and you're more on the mark.

Ha, I just had no idea, and since they charge economy near €20 for the privilege I assumed it was okish, obv not, will looking into getting some music offline so

goingnowhere

Its grand for browsing

Netflix, youtube etc are enough trouble on 3G let alone on a satellite connection 7 miles up over the void that is the Atlantic.

In the early days it was very slow, but it has improved since