A tale of two airlines

Noxegon

I’ve just come back from a long weekend in Munich, flying Aer Lingus in both directions.

The outbound service was on a LR with decent seats, a bit of space, and seatback TVs - quite possibly the best short haul product I’ve experienced on a European carrier in recent times.

The return was on a 320neo with horribly uncomfortable seats that left me feeling quite sore after two hours and change.

I find it a bit bizarre that two such different products can be found on the same route with the same airline, especially since there was no obvious indication of the difference at booking time.

Locker10a

The first flight was just the luck of getting a long haul aircraft operating a short haul flight.

somenergy

On short hops dont have expectations

Noxegon

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123655660#Comment_123655660

Where did I say I had expectations?

I just commented that it was bizarre to offer two materially different products on the same route. As for it being luck to get a long haul aircraft, a quick look at FR24 shows that a LR (or indeed an XLR) is used on the morning service to Munich more often than it isn't.

EI is in competition with Lufthansa on the Munich route. I'd have thought that a consistently better product than the competition would help attract passengers, but what do I know?

(Separately, I think it's a great pity that short haul no longer includes a vaguely decent seat cushion as standard, but I guess that's a discussion for another day….)

Astral Nav

LH use at least four 320/1 variants on their Irish German routes. The 321LR is basically spare for six hours so is used to supplement the all Europe fleet. As stated above it's a nice bonus.

EDI sees an A321 and ATRs. I rather have the 321 but won't see the other as bizarre on that route.

No airline is going to use a long haul aircraft on a short haul route purely to compete with another airline. It's a highly costly driven industry and passengers are also similarly looking for best prices.

Xander10

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058420077/a-tale-of-two-airlines

Is this not a tale of one airline?

ednwireland

a tale Of one airline no ?

Anyway flown that LR knock to Heathrow and it is a class above the regular aircraft.

EchoIndia

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123656321#Comment_123656321

A320 Neo is used on NOC-LHR, not the A321LR.

the_amazing_raisin

Did BA Dublin to Heathrow a couple of months ago and the experience was very different to what I'd expect from typical short haul

Free snack and water on the flight, goodie bags for the kids at check in, checked bag included

Obviously Ryanair is cheaper on the base ticket price but when you add family seats and luggage then BA was competitive very quickly

And I saved about €40 using Avios gained from Revolut points so it worked out well

Short haul flying these days is largely a bus with wings but there's still some nice options out there

LXFlyer

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058420077/a-tale-of-two-airlines

There certainly is an indication at time of booking - if you click on the "flight details" below the times for each flight, you can see the aircraft type - if it is an Airbus A321 then it's one of the transatlantic fleet.

Since the A321LR were first delivered, they have been operating short haul flights in between their transatlantic sorties. Currently they can be seen operating most days (and some daily) on:

EI 154/155 DUB-LHR-DUB

EI 352/353 DUB-MUC-DUB

EI 604/605 DUB-AMS-DUB

EI 520/521 DUB-CDG-DUB

EI 522/523 DUB-CDG-DUB

EI 380/381 SNN-LHR-SNN

EI 908/909 SNN-CDG-SNN

It is also about delivering a similar product on certain key routes that are seen as potential transatlantic feeder flights.