AerLingus - my experience

cammag

My wife and I looked at flights from Dublin to Athens for late April 2017. Ryanair offered flights on Friday 28th and Sunday 30 April, departing 7.20am. Aer Lingus offered a flight on April 29th, departing 2.40pm. Ryanair were about €40 cheaper, but we decided to fly out with Aer Lingus because of their much more convenient afternoon departure time. The booking was completed in Sept 11th 2016 and I started putting arrangements in place for the hotel and for commitments on Saturday night and Sunday, April 29th and 30th.

A few days prior to Christmas, Aer Lingus emailed us at 1am, announcing our flight was being brought forward from 2.40pm to 5.55AM!!!
That was a rescheduling of departure time by 8hrs-45mins.
The new reality is that we paid Aer Lingus €40 more to avoid early departure times BUT NOW Aer Lingus are flying out 1hr25mins earlier than Ryanair.

Aer Lingus would refund our money or put us on an alternative flight.... but all their Athens flights leave at 5.55am....
Anyhow, in the intervening months after booking the flight, we have already made hotel arrangements in Athens and booked other commitments in Athens based on arriving on Saturday, so we are stuck with Aer Lingus this time. Snookered.

However, this sour experience with Aer Lingus will determine my future bookings. I've had 3 timetable changes with them previously, but none of this magnitude - I've not had any change of schedule with Ryanair.
Plus the fact Ryanair seem to be the only airline that guarantees it doesn't deliberately overbook its flights, leading to people turning up and not being able to get on the flights they thought they had secured.

It's sad to think that someone like me, who would previously have paid a little more to fly Aer Lingus over Ryanair, has been brought to the point of losing all confidence in Aer Lingus for our future flights. Never again!

You reap what you sow.

lotmc

Booked return flights with Aer Lingus Dublin <==> Paris over weekend a few years ago. The return flight options on Sunday were 2.30pm (€110) or 9pm (€50). We went with the 2.30pm flights as we had to be back to reclaim kids from minders and be ready for next day.
About 2 weeks before departure Aer Lingus contacted us to say 2.30pm flight was cancelled, and we were being put on the 9pm flight. We were offered a refund, but had booked hotel etc etc so that wasn't a good option. Contacted Aer Lingus to at least get a refund of the difference in price, but they were not interested, and "take it or leave it" attitude. Turned out that they cancelled the flight as both flights were full, and it made sense for them to use one of their big Airbus planes for the 9pm flight.
Have never flown with them since, and never will again, unless I have to.
Never had a bad experience like that with any other airline.

Wanderer2010

Aer Lingus have gone to the dogs the past few years, its an awful airline for value and service. You don't get one single thing free, even on long flights, and Ive used them a few times going to America. They send you these big long questionnaires after the flight asking about your booking experience, your seats comfort, staff etc and that's it they never get back to you if you had a bad experience. They really have nosedived for customer service of late.

Dial Hard

Wanderer2010 wrote:

Aer Lingus have gone to the dogs the past few years, its an awful airline for value and service. You don't get one single thing free, even on long flights, and Ive used them a few times going to America.

Unless something has changed since January, food and soft drinks are still free on Aer Lingus' transatlantic flights.

beechwood55

I just can't fly with Ryanair. Our last 4 flights with them were delayed. Last year we arrived at Nice airport for our evening flight home to discover - on arrival at the airport - that it was delayed by 3 hours. That was the second year in a row we had that experience with them. Am sticking to Aer Lingus. Have never had an issue with them.

Wanderer2010

Dial Hard wrote: »

Unless something has changed since January, food and soft drinks are still free on Aer Lingus' transatlantic flights.

Yes but any long(ish) flights to Europe have nothing free, you need to pay for everything. Contrast that with BA, even hopping over the water to London you get a free drink and snack, its the little things that make a difference. Aer Lingus have gone very mean.

amcalester

Wanderer2010 wrote: »

Yes but any long(ish) flights to Europe have nothing free, you need to pay for everything. Contrast that with BA, even hopping over the water to London you get a free drink and snack, its the little things that make a difference. Aer Lingus have gone very mean.

If you thinks those drinks and snacks on BA are free then you must not be paying for the tickets.

Wanderer2010

amcalester wrote: »

If you thinks those drinks and snacks on BA are free then you must not be paying for the tickets.

Actually I am recently back from London. Return tickets were 40euros cheaper with BA compared with Aer Lingus.

amcalester

Wanderer2010 wrote: »

Actually I am recently back from London. Return tickets were 40euros cheaper with BA compared with Aer Lingus.

Fair enough. Out of curiosity I checked a few random dates earlier and BA were consistently €30-€40 more expensive on Dub - LHR Flights.

In 6 years of flying back and forth between Dublin and London I never once flew BA, Aer Lingus or Ryanair were always the cheaper option.

deconduo

Wanderer2010 wrote: »

Contrast that with BA, even hopping over the water to London you get a free drink and snack

Not anymore - no more free drink/snack on BA short haul as of January.

Wanderer2010

amcalester wrote: »

Fair enough. Out of curiosity I checked a few random dates earlier and BA were consistently €30-€40 more expensive on Dub - LHR Flights.

In 6 years of flying back and forth between Dublin and London I never once flew BA, Aer Lingus or Ryanair were always the cheaper option.

I book through Skyscanner and I get the cheaper deals. I know that means you have to book through the likes of tripsta.ie etc but I have never had an issue with them.

Phil.x

Aer lingus and now worse than Ryanair and have being for some time especially their extra charges.

juli123

Thank you for shearing your experiences! i will join air lingus next month the first time.