Aer Lingus Service

CaptainSkidmark

razorblunt wrote: »

she gave me 2 as "they're small".

You mean she felt embarrassed about selling you a tiny can of pop for 3.50!!

The_Wanderer

CaptainSkidmark wrote: »

You mean she felt embarrassed about selling you a tiny can of pop for 3.50!!

I could have sworn the poster said he was on a TA flight. Hence the can of pop was free.

razorblunt

Yep, they were free drinks before the meal.

lintdrummer

CaptainSkidmark wrote: »

razorblunt wrote: »

she gave me 2 as "they're small".

You mean she felt embarrassed about selling you a tiny can of pop for 3.50!!

You're clearly from a generation that remembers the good old days of aviation. That type of business model where the alcohol can be flowing and everything on board is complimentary is only sustainable under two conditions: you either charge higher fare prices and absorb those costs that way, or you have a nonchalant approach to profit because you are state owned. Neither of these approaches is viable for most airlines in today's economy and certainly not by EIN.
For clarification the cost of a 'baby' soft drink on board short haul is 1.50 and the regular cans are 2.50.

Locker10a

joeysoap wrote: »

I travelled with Aer Lingus, Ryanair and EasyJet in the past 12 months. Ryanair are fine, but the hard sell is continuous from boarding to landing. Aircraft was new and the overhead lockers now hold a lot more. 2 hours late leaving Dublin, lots of emails apologising but that was it. EasyJet out of Belfast were fine, staff appeared to all from Norn Iron, lots of selling, lots of 'someone ' won 10,000 in this flight last week, which was amazing as I heard that the previous flight over a year earlier. Much more drink sold on board too, they ran out of beer after an hour. Aer Lingus was fine too, staff are definitely more relaxed than the other airlines about selling and in general are more easy going. Which suits me. Sandwiches are slightly better quality then the other two (but I prefer the tea on RY). EJ are extremely strict on one bag per person, and this includes ladies make up bags and laptops/iPads - they must fit in your bag. Ryanair and EJ have taken cases off me at the gate, Aer Lingus never have. Aer Lingus check in your cabin bag free is you ask them (proper check in, receipt sticker and you can carry liquids this way without paying for a full bag. I agree AL seem to have the most hassle boarding but I think this down to a badly designed T2. My preference AL, EJ and RY for staff, RY EJ and AL for punctuality, AL RY and EJ for comfort . Overall Aer Lingus shade it.

I totally agree with everything you said but for one point, and that is I would have to place easyJet last for on time flights, their on time performance in particular out of Gatwick is abysmal.

joeysoap

Locker10a wrote: »

I totally agree with everything you said but for one point, and that is I would have to place easyJet last for on time flights, their on time performance in particular out of Gatwick is abysmal.

Only ever flew EJ out of Belfast, no experience of other flights with them. I also flew AL out of Belfast before they switched to city airport .

PukkaStukka

I've never flown EJ but have flown FR and EI frequently. For sheer bargain basement costs that include whipping passengers into a frenzy for boarding BEFORE the aircraft has even arrived at the gate, then FR win this one.

If you want things a bit more relaxed with usually a nominal difference in price, and no prolonged hikes from security to the wilderness that is Pier D then EI win this one.

If I had to choose between the two then I'd fly EI any time I can.

munchkin_utd

PukkaStukka wrote: »

<snip>
If I had to choose between the two then I'd fly EI any time I can.

similarily, with the choice of Lufthansa, Aer Lingus (and Ryanair from "Munich west") , Lufthansa would win every time.

They even have non battered in flight magazines.

I would caution against people getting too excited about free stuff onboard. Lufthansa have small crap, VERY germanic (heavy on chives, gherkins and other vile stuff) snacks and being able to pay for a more filling food option is sometimes a positive if you are on the road all day and haven't a chance to grab a bite en-route. This is compounded by the crapness of the likes of Frankfurt airport or Schiphol who close their facilities near the gates well before the last flight of the evening.

VG31

munchkin_utd wrote: »

I would caution against people getting too excited about free stuff onboard. Lufthansa have small crap, VERY germanic (heavy on chives, gherkins and other vile stuff) snacks

That's not my experience of LH at all. My last few flights I've had a fresh tasting (!) lemon cake, a small roll and a sandwich. All were surprisingly good quality for "free" airline food.

vkid

Have flown Ryanair and aer lingus to Amsterdam from dub twice each since Xmas. No real difference anymore, Ryanair are just generally cheaper so would go with them in future I think..assuming no connections.

Flew aer lingus from Shannon to faro , in may and august and the on board staff were really poor. Same last year. Similarly Dublin to Prague in Aprilwith are lingus. Some of the older cabin crew could really do with a reminder of who the customer is.

Haven't tried Ryanair on the Shannon faro route yet but might next may.

Flew Aer lingus Shannon to Heathrow in february and couldn't meet nicer crew. And similarly Ryanair to stansted in march from Shannon, again spot on.

Think standards have definitely dropped at aer lingus in recent years but it can depend on the route and what cabin crew are on your flight. Realistically though that shouldn't matter.

duskyjoe

Sitting in business here on the EI104 reading all the negativity. Have to say 10/10. Service excellent, Crew excellent. Just sayin.....

Mr rebel

devnull wrote: »

To be honest in general I find Aer Lingus staff ok - however they are not as well drilled as Ryanair in my experience in a lot of cases and are more likely to make slight deviations and work less strictly to rule. This can have benefits and drawbacks, but I often feel like Aer Lingus staff are showing more discretion and feel they have freedom to do what they want more than those who work with Ryanair. This sometimes works in the customers favour but sometimes it means that they are not as 100% serious about doing everything 100% correctly.

Unfortunately there still are people in the company who view customers as a unwanted distraction from having a chat with each other on the flgiht. On 3 out of 4 of my last flights I have had issues with staff who are simply not interested in helping customers and instead have been too busy discussing their own internal politics behind a curtain. Honestly on all airlines where I have seen the curtain on short haul, it has been abused in this way as a way to "cut themselves off" from the passengers.

In one situation I rang the call bell to ask for another drink like they asked to and they flat out ignored. I rang it again 5 minutes later and again 5 minutes after that and nobody batted an eyelid, same for a few other rows which had the call bell light on, after 15 minutes of being ignored because I was coughing over and over I went down to a crew member and asked for a drink. I was told that they were entitled to a break and they would get me one in 5 minutes and they never came back to me.

I have also seen junior members of the crew who are doing an excellent customer service job and doing everything by the book being laid into by a senior person who is too busy chatting to another member of crew and has their focus elsewhere. "That's not our job as per union, we're not paid enough." which is incredibly frustrating to witness someone who actually tries to help people out and going the extra mile to be talked down by someone who is trying to hold back progress.

However my last flight with Aer Lingus was really excellent and they did everything right and were very professional and everything worked smoothly. Unfortunately I've noticed that the crews which are led by the older generation of Aer Lingus staff have a far worse attitude and constantly are obsessed by unions and suchlike than the younger ones who are eager to help the customers rather than trying to find an excuse not to help.

I do feel however AL service has generally improved over the years, but still there are a few hangers on there who simply only care about themselves and the two worst experiences I've had on about 100 flights in the last 10 years are on AL.

I think the call bell feature on most airlines are useless and generally ignored by cabin crew. The little light can be difficult to see from it anyway when they are quickly walking through the aisle.

JCX BXC

Best one I had was a few months ago when I was on a Ryanair plane when I lit the light and a member of cabin crew comes over and turns it off before walking away again!

CaptainSkidmark

lintdrummer wrote: »

CaptainSkidmark wrote: »

razorblunt wrote: »

she gave me 2 as "they're small".

You mean she felt embarrassed about selling you a tiny can of pop for 3.50!!

You're clearly from a generation that remembers the good old days of aviation. That type of business model where the alcohol can be flowing and everything on board is complimentary is only sustainable under two conditions: you either charge higher fare prices and absorb those costs that way, or you have a nonchalant approach to profit because you are state owned. Neither of these approaches is viable for most airlines in today's economy and certainly not by EIN.
For clarification the cost of a 'baby' soft drink on board short haul is 1.50 and the regular cans are 2.50.

Who Said anything about alcohol? its not all about drink.

devnull

Mr rebel wrote: »

I think the call bell feature on most airlines are useless and generally ignored by cabin crew. The little light can be difficult to see from it anyway when they are quickly walking through the aisle.

I've only seen that as a problem on Aer Lingus and Wizz, every other company I've been on has been observant and believe me they heard it they just couldn't be bothered since when I tackled them about it they said they were on a break and were discussing union business.

Pat Dunne

My experience of EI inflight staff standards is that they have remained very constant over the last 35 years. As in all walks of life you will encounter various forms of service some sublime, some dowright rude, with the vast majority in between.

However what I have noticed in that time and especially in the last 15 years are the attitudes of PAX, which for the most part remains fair and decent. However, my experience would also lead me to believe there is now a noticeable minority of PAX who process a air of entitlement, arrogance and on occasions an attitude of aggression in how they deal with inflight staff.

devnull

Pat Dunne wrote: »

However what I have noticed in that time and especially in the last 15 years are the attitudes of PAX, which for the most part remains fair and decent. However, my experience would also lead me to believe there is now a noticeable minority of PAX who process a air of entitlement, arrogance and on occasions an attitude verging on the agressive in how they deal with inflight staff.

I agree that passenger behavior varies and there are some as you describe and that kind of behaviour is never acceptable, and this has without doubt increased in the last few years and worse than it was 10 years ago. In the last 3-4 years I have seen an ever increasing poor attitude to crew who are just doing their job.

Lately I have noticed a big increase of people wanting to walk around the play after "seats for landing" and totally ignoring fasten seatbelt signs who just ignore crew constantly and get aggressive for very small things and have a terrible attitude.

However I have been on one flight where the crew either were either lacking in knowledge, or were given incorrect info or just plain lied to the passengers which turn the plane into a very hostile place, things got very heated and lots of people of all ages got very annoyed.

I have also been on an airline (not FR or AL) where they have been more interested in flirting rather than basic safety and showing the cockpit to their friends. I made a complaint and was called a liar and threatened with all kind of things. When I mentioned I had proof they quickly shut up and offered me compensation and blame the previous threats on a "junior member of staff."

Simon Gruber Says

duskyjoe wrote: »

Sitting in business here on the EI104 reading all the negativity. Have to say 10/10. Service excellent, Crew excellent. Just sayin.....

Business is a different ball game altogether. You're paying a premium to be there and expect a certain level of service. EI are very good at providing that because the more bums in seats at the pointy end, the more pure profit they have in the back.

joeysoap

There is no doubt passenger attitudes has changed over the years. passengers reading or even closing their eyes during the safety demonstration is fairly normal now but what isn't acceptable (in my eyes) is talking all the way through. Total disrespect. On a AL flight from Brussels last year the announcement was made that small items etc should be placed under the seat as the flight was full (it was full) and a gent in front of me placed his hat in the overhead, of course as the flight filled up and they were looking for space a cabin crew member took it out and asked who owned it. Queue silence from the owner, cabin crew asked again and at this stage I piped up. Owner never acknowledged he never heard the announcements or saw people struggling for space in the overheads. When the cabin crew had left he attempted to put it in again, and when it wouldn't fit got really annoyed. There is also no doubt that Al (and lately RY) allow cabin bags over the size limits. Try that on EJ.

Dardania

joeysoap wrote: »

There is no doubt passenger attitudes has changed over the years. passengers reading or even closing their eyes during the safety demonstration is fairly normal now but what isn't acceptable (in my eyes) is talking all the way through. Total disrespect. On a AL flight from Brussels last year the announcement was made that small items etc should be placed under the seat as the flight was full (it was full) and a gent in front of me placed his hat in the overhead, of course as the flight filled up and they were looking for space a cabin crew member took it out and asked who owned it. Queue silence from the owner, cabin crew asked again and at this stage I piped up. Owner never acknowledged he never heard the announcements or saw people struggling for space in the overheads. When the cabin crew had left he attempted to put it in again, and when it wouldn't fit got really annoyed. There is also no doubt that Al (and lately RY) allow cabin bags over the size limits. Try that on EJ.

To som

joeysoap wrote: »

There is no doubt passenger attitudes has changed over the years. passengers reading or even closing their eyes during the safety demonstration is fairly normal now but what isn't acceptable (in my eyes) is talking all the way through. Total disrespect. On a AL flight from Brussels last year the announcement was made that small items etc should be placed under the seat as the flight was full (it was full) and a gent in front of me placed his hat in the overhead, of course as the flight filled up and they were looking for space a cabin crew member took it out and asked who owned it. Queue silence from the owner, cabin crew asked again and at this stage I piped up. Owner never acknowledged he never heard the announcements or saw people struggling for space in the overheads. When the cabin crew had left he attempted to put it in again, and when it wouldn't fit got really annoyed. There is also no doubt that Al (and lately RY) allow cabin bags over the size limits. Try that on EJ.

To some extent, the airlines are their own worst enemy in this regard, heavily monetising hold luggage.

I'm all for MOL's ideal of preventing people from taking the kitchen sink with them, but at some stage, we will reach the minimum amount people can take with them when travelling.

With EI being loosey goosey about what gets allowed onto the plane (and if Ryanir are reverting to looser rules) I wonder if part of this is bad feedback loops within the business e.g. the desk staff not hearing the fallout when the cabin staff can't get the plane off the ground...

jackinthemix94

duskyjoe wrote: »

Sitting in business here on the EI104 reading all the negativity. Have to say 10/10. Service excellent, Crew excellent. Just sayin.....

Have you flown with a decent airline in business?

lintdrummer

CaptainSkidmark wrote: »

Who Said anything about alcohol? its not all about drink.

I did. One of the major things that has changed over the years is that a beer or glass of wine is no longer complimentary and I would say many people who have been flying for years miss that. Your initial post was basically a moan that you don't even get a complimentary 'sandwich or a glass of anything', which in fairness could be easily misconstrued as a reference to alcohol.
To be honest, you're coming across as little more than a troll with your posts. You've had nothing constructive to add and your simply venting about your perception of the service EIN 'should' provide. You haven't even acknowledged that what I've said in my previous post is true, if you want those kind of perks then you have to pay a premium for them and the majority of the Aer Lingus customer base is simply not interested in that.

John_Mc

duskyjoe wrote: »

Sitting in business here on the EI104 reading all the negativity. Have to say 10/10. Service excellent, Crew excellent. Just sayin.....

Yeah but it's business class, you'd expect good service if you're paying 3-4 times the price of economy

Simon Gruber Says

jackinthemix94 wrote: »

Have you flown with a decent airline in business?

What's wrong with EI's current business offering? Better than any other of the other transatlantic carriers out of Ireland. Might not be as good as BA or an ME airline but they're not looking for the same kind of money for it.

Jack1985

CaptainSkidmark wrote: »

And when you are on a short hitch between Cork and Heathrow and your being asked do you want to buy tea, news papers, sky shopping and heathrow express tickets it certainly does feel like you are being molested by sales people!

So here's the obvious lie. Aer Lingus do not sell Heathrow Express tickets, the only connection Aer Lingus has to Heathrow Express is discounts for EI Staff.

So what's with the chip on that shoulder? Is it because they don't play your remixes for boarding music?

JCX BXC

Jack1985 wrote: »

So here's the obvious lie. Aer Lingus do not sell Heathrow Express tickets, the only connection Aer Lingus has to Heathrow Express is discounts for EI Staff.

So what's with the chip on that shoulder? Is it because they don't play your remixes for boarding music?

They sell them online at least.

Mr rebel

devnull wrote: »

I've only seen that as a problem on Aer Lingus and Wizz, every other company I've been on has been observant and believe me they heard it they just couldn't be bothered since when I tackled them about it they said they were on a break and were discussing union business.

Iberia Express also ignore the call bell from my experience.

Noxegon

Pat Dunne wrote: »

However, my experience would also lead me to believe there is now a noticeable minority of PAX who process a air of entitlement, arrogance and on occasions an attitude of aggression in how they deal with inflight staff.

I think you're right. I'd also say, however, that much of the aggression can be blamed on the fact that air travel in the cheap seats becomes more and more miserable each year as airlines refit their planes to cram in more seats even as passengers get larger, the sales pitch gets more aggressive, the few freebies get scrapped, et al.

As an example, I recently had a flight with my partner booked about six months up front but without paying for advance seat reservation – and we found ourselves assigned to different parts of the aircraft. That's not the kind of behaviour likely to put travellers in a good mood. And yes, we could have paid for seats, but a few years ago we wouldn't have had to.

If passengers were treated a little better I daresay there'd be far fewer issues with behaviour.

Noxegon

lintdrummer wrote: »

if you want those kind of perks then you have to pay a premium for them and the majority of the Aer Lingus customer base is simply not interested in that.

You're making an assumption with that.

The reality is that the majority of the Aer Lingus customer base has no choice in product short of a connecting flight. If they want to get to most European airports in one hop then it's going to be a choice between EI or FR, both of whom offer an economy product only.

Simon Gruber Says wrote: »

What's wrong with EI's current business offering? Better than any other of the other transatlantic carriers out of Ireland. Might not be as good as BA or an ME airline but they're not looking for the same kind of money for it.

The old EI business product was well behind the times, but the new one is very good, especially if you get one of the standalone seats. I flew in Seat 3A on the 757 earlier this year and was very happy with the service.

(See, I can say nice things about Aer Lingus occasionally!)

Locker10a

devnull wrote: »

To be honest in general I find Aer Lingus staff ok - however they are not as well drilled as Ryanair in my experience in a lot of cases and are more likely to make slight deviations and work less strictly to rule. This can have benefits and drawbacks, but I often feel like Aer Lingus staff are showing more discretion and feel they have freedom to do what they want more than those who work with Ryanair. This sometimes works in the customers favour but sometimes it means that they are not as 100% serious about doing everything 100% correctly.

Unfortunately there still are people in the company who view customers as a unwanted distraction from having a chat with each other on the flgiht. On 3 out of 4 of my last flights I have had issues with staff who are simply not interested in helping customers and instead have been too busy discussing their own internal politics behind a curtain. Honestly on all airlines where I have seen the curtain on short haul, it has been abused in this way as a way to "cut themselves off" from the passengers.

In one situation I rang the call bell to ask for another drink like they asked to and they flat out ignored. I rang it again 5 minutes later and again 5 minutes after that and nobody batted an eyelid, same for a few other rows which had the call bell light on, after 15 minutes of being ignored because I was coughing over and over I went down to a crew member and asked for a drink. I was told that they were entitled to a break and they would get me one in 5 minutes and they never came back to me.

I have also seen junior members of the crew who are doing an excellent customer service job and doing everything by the book being laid into by a senior person who is too busy chatting to another member of crew and has their focus elsewhere. "That's not our job as per union, we're not paid enough." which is incredibly frustrating to witness someone who actually tries to help people out and going the extra mile to be talked down by someone who is trying to hold back progress.

However my last flight with Aer Lingus was really excellent and they did everything right and were very professional and everything worked smoothly. Unfortunately I've noticed that the crews which are led by the older generation of Aer Lingus staff have a far worse attitude and constantly are obsessed by unions and suchlike than the younger ones who are eager to help the customers rather than trying to find an excuse not to help.

I do feel however AL service has generally improved over the years, but still there are a few hangers on there who simply only care about themselves and the two worst experiences I've had on about 100 flights in the last 10 years are on AL.

Sorry but as crew I have to respond to this. Depending on the airline (most airlines nowadays in Europe anyway) that " curtain time" is infact your only opportunity for a break, the only time to eat and drink something. So sorry if the humans, employed as crew on your flights were trying to get break away from their duties for 10 mins or so.
I've in the past had pax who pressed the call bell 3/4 time for second helpings of drinks, despite being told we are on a break and could come back and serve him after 10 mins, some people's behaviour is despicable on flights, thankfully the majority still have decency and manners.
If you don't like that crews don't always answer call bells promptly then perhaps take up with the airlines their policy of crew having their breaks inflight and not on the ground.
If we knew we would get a guaranteed break, free from all duties and have the chance to eat and drink on the ground then the curtain would not be relied on so much for breaks