Aer Lingus v Ryanair regarding customer care if flight delayed/cancelled

Wrex

As we all know, Aer Lingus is seen by many, to be a cut above Ryanair when it comes to looking after it's customers, regardless if it is actually true, that is the perception.

Article from a cancelled flight last night

https://www.independent.ie/irish-news/aer-lingus-passengers-stranded-in-london-after-flight-cancelled-38344701.html

Especially when it comes to European flights, and where flights are handled by third party ground agents, do Aer Lingus deserve this tag of an airline that will look after you when things go wrong?

Captain_Crash

My only experiences of Aer Lingus when I had flights issues were nothing but brilliant. Flying out to MAD the flight was cancelled, they told us to come back the next day and they would get us there. So we did and they did, no issues.

A few days later coming home the flight was cancelled again and without so much as hint, they put us in a 5 star hotel in Madrid with meal vouchers for breakfast and dinner and organized transport to the airport when they eventually got us on a flight home nearly a week later.

It was during a big snow event so circumstances were abnormal and there were many cancellations.

The only other issue I had was the day before a Cat 5 Hurricane hit Miami (Irma), I asked could I rebook my flight as South Beach was being evacuated and I was to leave the next day anyway so they sent me to Dublin via Chicago without any hassle.

I then asked would they pay my phone bill as I had to call them form my mobile in the US and they didn't even ask to see the bill, I had told them it was €100 (it was really something like €112.99 etc) and I got a cheque in the post for €250 about a week after I contacted them.

Haven't had any cancellations with Ryanair before (but several delays) so nothing to compare with.

NH2013

From my personal experience as those I’ve talked with Ryanair is very consistent, no help given, just get yourself a hotel room and taxi, save the receipts and try get the money back from them. Never really get all the money back but you’ll typically get 80-90% of it back within a couple months, not ideal.

Aer Lingus however is very hit and miss, have personally had similar experiences to the above where everything was looked after to a T, hotel, meal vouchers, transport etc, but I have also had a more Ryanair Style, “Organise it yourself and submit receipts” situation, and quite a few month before I got the money back but did get it all and some more so not the worst to be fair.

Not sure which is worse, on one hand there’s no care from Ryanair, but at least you know that so you can just go, find a hotel straight away and get as much sleep as possible until the flight is rescheduled, on the other hand while Aer Lingus can be great, it’s inconsistent so you don’t know where you stand. I’m still bitter about queuing up for 2 hours to be told to find a hotel myself and save the receipts.

Wrex

NH2013 wrote: »

From my personal experience as those I’ve talked with Ryanair is very consistent, no help given, just get yourself a hotel room and taxi, save the receipts and try get the money back from them. Never really get all the money back but you’ll typically get 80-90% of it back within a couple months, not ideal.

Aer Lingus however is very hit and miss, have personally had similar experiences to the above where everything was looked after to a T, hotel, meal vouchers, transport etc, but I have also had a more Ryanair Style, “Organise it yourself and submit receipts” situation, and quite a few month before I got the money back but did get it all and some more so not the worst to be fair.

Not sure which is worse, on one hand there’s no care from Ryanair, but at least you know that so you can just go, find a hotel straight away and get as much sleep as possible until the flight is rescheduled, on the other hand while Aer Lingus can be great, it’s inconsistent so you don’t know where you stand. I’m still bitter about queuing up for 2 hours to be told to find a hotel myself and save the receipts.

Thanks for your reply, and that sums up my thoughts exactly.

Locker10a

I’ve had a couple flights cancelled over the years, they were handled okish, considering it’s was totally last minute the staff did ok, what annoys me is that airports/airlines don’t seem to have a revised plan for these things, it always seems to be chaos. Once I was cancelled, EI organised busses and hotels probably working the hour, however I opted to make my way to another airport for an early morning departure the next day, no problem, I didn’t que at the desk I rang their customer helpline and was changed to an new flight in 5 mins.
Another time I was contacted by text with a few hours notice that my flight was cancelled, again I needed to travel that day and called them, they booked me from alternative airports. In a cruel twist I missed my train that would connect me onto my new flight! So I rang back, and they changed me AGAIN, no problem and this time they booked me onto another airline! This was last year.
The very worst experience was not my own but relayed to me down the phone as it happened by a close friend, she was flying Lufthansa, flight cancelled, they don’t allow rebooking online like Aer lingus and Ryanair, you had to q to see an agent. Only all the agents timed out of work! And the next shift didn’t start until about 3/4am the next morning, passengers were advised to sleep on the floor in the space they were in the q. My friend was luckily close to the front of the q.
She stayed in that q the whole night to be rebooked, no other choice. She was put on a new flight to Dublin the next morning when staff came in to deal with the early morning departures.
The worst part was this was a Lufthansa base!!! Yet they couldn’t get their own staff!

rivegauche

NH2013 wrote: »

From my personal experience as those I’ve talked with Ryanair is very consistent, no help given,

and my experience is the exact opposite; The flight was delayed due to Strike action elsewhere in the network. Desk staff were helpful, provided accurate information, gave vouchers for refreshments on time without prompting and a few weeks later I recieved full EU261 compensation. I have been delayed overnight by Aer Lingus. I bear them no great grudge despite shirking their EU261 responsibilities; Planes go tech from time to time. People take the marvel that is air transport for the masses for granted.
My experience is no less or more anecdotal than yours.

Strumms

Ryanair go for the minimalist experience when shît goes bad...

Minimal information - be prepared to wait and then go actively seek info yourself instead of being told.

Minimal apology - if it’s a controllable delay the attitude is ‘well shît happens’ any apology will be muttered if at all. You might need to shell out for a hotel on arrival or have had family waiting up to go pick you up but ‘so what’ you are paying 20 quid return.

Cienciano

My only 2 bad experiences is with air lingus and I fly far more regularly with Ryanair, so that's saying something.

In fairness, any other incident or problems I've had were air lingus too, but on 2 leg flights which Ryanair don't do so more to go wrong.

Chris_5339762

I've had one with Ryanair and the biggest problem is that with the sheer number of flights (at Stansted) the rebooking queue which you were supposed to join stretched from one end of the terminal to the other, and was at least five hours long.

You also couldn't rebook with the app as every cell tower near the airport was completely overloaded.

The airport closed due to snow which was the reason for every flight being cancelled, but it was dreadful. I ended up getting the train to Gatwick and spending about €100 getting home with EI. Since it was a weather cancellation of course there was no compensation and Ryanair refused to provide meal vouchers when asked.

billy few mates

rivegauche wrote: »

and my experience is the exact opposite....

Of course it was...

Irish Steve

There are a number of people in this and other threads that seem to take a perverse delight in sniping at each other without adding any value to the thread or the forum.

Take this message as a formal warning that the patience and tolerance of the moderators is wearing VERY thin, we are already well beyond a reasonable threshold of irritability, and if we don't see a change in this behaviour, we will have to take more robust action for the good of the forum.

grimm2005

In my 8 years or so of regular flying (about 9 or 10 return flights a year approx) I've been lucky enough to only ever have one cancelled flight, this was with Ryanair and if I remember correctly it was due to taxi drivers strikes in Brussels and they were blocking all the roads to the airport or something which shut down the airport (not sure of the exact details but either way this was one of a few on-going strikes at that time that shut the airport). We were given a heads up a few days before we were due to depart by Ryanair that our return leg would coincide with this strike and that there was a good chance that our flight would be cancelled but it couldn't be guaranteed as the strike was uncertain but in any event, they gave us the option of booking onto any other flight within 7 days either before or after our original return flight. Opted not to take a chance and wait and booked in on a flight 1 day earlier than we were due to fly back and it was all sorted online without any hassle. The strike did go ahead so we were right to change the booking but it was all handled very quickly and easily and the flexibility we were given with which to change our flights was quite reasonable I thought.

I've never had any massive delays (probably an hour or so at worst) and I would say I fly Ryanair about 80% of the time. The few times I would fly with Aer Lingus, I found the flights were consistently delayed where Ryanair's were always generally on-time although in the last few years I have found that delays are now more common on Ryanair which is disappointing but it's usually no more than 30 minutes.

I think for either airline, the chances of any major issues arising is very low, and with that in mind I tend to book based on price and convenience which is why I end up on FR flights more often than not. I don't care if someone is trying to sell me a scratch card or I'm not sat with my friend or partner, I'll have my headphones on anyway regardless of carrier.

Hotblack Desiato

Wrex wrote: »

Article from a cancelled flight last night

https://www.independent.ie/irish-news/aer-lingus-passengers-stranded-in-london-after-flight-cancelled-38344701.html

Over 100 passengers were booked on to the Aer Lingus 9:35pm flight from Gatwick to London.

Quality journalism from the Indo as usual.

Arrangements were being made by the airline to put the passengers up in hotels.

So what are they complaining about? Aer Lingus or any other airline can't magic up another plane out of nowhere.

PukkaStukka

Have an experience this week with Aer Lingus retuning from Newquay. Flights themselves were excellent taking 45 minutes to return. Arrived in T2 and waited an astonishing 90mins for our bags to reach the carousel. No explanation for this delay was provided,only sincere apologies from EI customer service. A duty manager was to personally apologise and explain what happened, but we left after 10 further minutes of waiting because we had been delayed enough at that stage.

I went through the rigmarole of complaining via social media and was referred to registering my complaint online. All I wanted was an explanation and they couldn't or wouldn't do that.

I spoke subsequently to a neighbour who works there who told me their customer care operation has been outsourced, and in that person's opinion, is not up to it.

I've always paid a premium to travel EI for the piece of mind knowing they'll look after you if things go wrong. My experience this week has dented that somewhat.

L1011

Regional flights are handled by an outsourced handler also, rather than the EI staff who handle their own so there's another layer of people to dig through to find out cause

PukkaStukka

L1011 wrote: »

Regional flights are handled by an outsourced handler also, rather than the EI staff who handle their own so there's another layer of people to dig through to find out cause

Agreed there is usually additional layers at play here given the particular flight. Having said that, it was an EI flight in every other sense and ultimately the buck stops with them

Noxegon

There are a handful of flights cancelled out of Dublin tonight. The queue in terminal two is stretching half way across the terminal.

Jamie2k9

Wrex wrote: »

As we all know, Aer Lingus is seen by many, to be a cut above Ryanair when it comes to looking after it's customers, regardless if it is actually true, that is the perception.

Article from a cancelled flight last night

https://www.independent.ie/irish-news/aer-lingus-passengers-stranded-in-london-after-flight-cancelled-38344701.html

Especially when it comes to European flights, and where flights are handled by third party ground agents, do Aer Lingus deserve this tag of an airline that will look after you when things go wrong?

What is your issue with this cancellation. Appears to me passengers were looked after reasonably well.

Aer Lingus are usually far better then many carriers however do have issues from time to time yes.

People need to understand there is 200 odd of you and usually one or two agents so delays can be expected. Its not practical to have extra staff employed for somethung thats generally rare.