WishUWereHere wrote: » Thanks for sharing this. On opening the page, I saw the following on the scroll bar on the RH side:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n4_t7a0gXRQ On 1m23, there is a TU 134 belonging to Aeroflot taking off. Did Aeroflot fly regularly then between Dublin & ( I guess ) Moscow?
EI public statement as part of the IAG Capital Markets day did imply "first to fly the XLR"
But that could refer specifically to "first to fly the XLR from Ireland to the USA"
Q1 2024
EI will be the launch airline of the XLR
First time on the Neo out of Cork and these seats are fecking uncomfortable
Always the Cork lads giving out...........🤣
Agree, removing the head rests was a bad move.
I fear there we will come a day in the near future when we look back upon the luxury of mid-2010 Aer Lingus and think "those were the days".
I had the "pleasure" of a NEO last Wednesday ORK-LHR. Boarded and thought "the aisle is nice and wide" without realising where they got the space for the extra width. The new seats are incredible narrow and the seatbacks are like an ironing board. I almost cried with joy when I arrived at the gate for the return journey and saw an A320 wearing the old livery. Headrest heaven.
That and the seat is just rock hard. Id usually fall asleep on the flight but could not do that today.
told ya about the new seats on the NEOs a few pages back . They are dog rough , whoever specced that muck out needs putting on the naughty step or at least forced to work in Ryanair in their planning department and shown how to spec a modern seat out. One of the v.few benefits of EI was a comfy seat but even thats been tossed, for reasons which are not at all apparent. zero marks.
The seat is basic but the reason it was chosen by IAG are very apparent, it’s the lightest in its class and IAG ordered around 9k units from Recaro years ago for the majority of their Airbus narrow body fleet. Aer Lingus was never going to be exception.
Personally I don’t find it too bad, it’s obviously a massive downgrade on the previous seat but very few airlines were flying seats like those around Europe anymore. Basic, light weight, slimline seats are here to stay unfortunately.
New seats are only half the issue, pitch on the new A320s is the other half.
there's a bunch of people on here who insist EI is its own business but as soon as you complain they blame the spanish parents .
Whatever FR are using is miles better if we want to compare ironing boards. different planets on a new FR max8 seating and a new EI NEO 320 (also better pitch on FR IMO )
The truth is, as often, somewhere in the middle. Aer Lingus can make many of its own decisions of course but when it comes to large investments such as fleet and cabins, IAG call almost all the shots.
Note how IAG is described as ordering those seats, not the individual airlines. Same things goes for fleet, it’s always initially listed as an IAG order which is then later distributed to group airlines, usually via a cancellation and reorder as and when required.
I was booking flights to London Heathrow for st Patrick’s weekend. BA I could fly same time as ei for €100 return and with a checked bag or around €70 without one. Ei not even in the ballpark for any flight. Do people not bother checking ba for flights and just brand loyalty for Heathrow?
I think BA also allow you to bring a 23kg checked where as EI allow you to check a 10kg or pay a tenner to carry it onboard.
Agree with the first part. And "it's OK because everyone else uses the same seats now" really isn't a compelling argument.
I completely disagree. The new Ryanair seats are awful, they're by far the worse seat of any airline I've been on. I'm about 180 cm and can't put my head back at all without hitting the hard plastic top of the seat. The old Ryanair seats are fine.
The new EI seats are definitely a significant dowgrade but they're still a lot better than the Ryanair ones.
I quite like the seats that SAS use. They're slim but are still fairly comfortable.
It's LCC seats though and not getting LCC prices. If Aer Lingus are going to lower their standards to Ryanair, EasyJet, Vueling etc they're going to suffer when price is often treble those. Even then, id say the usual Ryanair or Vueling seat is a lot better than this new Aer Lingus one
And thats your right on an Internet forum . I'm 188 tall and FR new seating was perfect for me even down to Gran Canaria a good long run . EI even on LHR-DUB was an exercise in crap seats and an aching back
That extra height probably makes a difference. A seat design which is extremely uncomfortable for average height males is a bad design.
I don't think I could manage the Ryanair seats for more than two hours. The old seats are perfectly fine but there's no way of knowing which seats you'll get.
Other plane on the way back, thank god
Same experience as me then. Out on a NEO, then sheer joy at returning in an older plane. Unfortunately, the plan is that ORK-LHR will be only operated by NEOs.
Maybe this is all a cunning plan to reduce the amount we fly, and thus emissions 😀
Ryanair actually becomes more enticing then though. Would depend on their flight times of course but that Neo is horrific
Not sure I’d go that far! Booking the 321LR rotations to/from LHR and elsewhere is becoming more and more attractive though….
But the A321LRs aren't going to operated in and out of ORK are they? If Dublin was my nearest airport, I'd be sorted with BA to LHR or LCY, or the EI A321LRs to LHR. In Cork, it's only EI A320NEOs to LHR or FR to STN, with limited FR services to LGW and LTN as well.
My biggest gripe with aer lingus continues to be the remote terminal. Fair enough when terminal 2 is full and busy but there is nothing worse than sitting on the plane after landing late at night heading towards T2 when all you want to do is get home and the plane takes the turn towards the remote terminal even though there are no planes at t2. With that turn you can add an unpleasant 15mins to the journey because of the bus, between loading, the stairs and the ridiculous journey it takes around the t2 building. They won’t even open the rear doors to speed things up.
cost saving trumps customer experience for Aer Lingus every time. They should return to the deboarding at t2 and then pushing the plane to the remote terminal but because they are probably saving €20 on the bus option being cheaper they pick this.
And thats before you talk about Aer Lingus regional parking over beside airside!
All these little things add up to the point that Aer Lingus is no longer the smarter choice.
I’ll probably get pulled up again and told that remote parking is the norm in other airports, but that doesn’t matter here, Aer Lingus’s competition don’t do it so it’s a major disadvantageous to travel aer Lingus
Fair point. I had my Shannon-tinted glasses on…
I suppose the question is whether this deters people from booking EI and whether it's costing them business or revenue. I've rarely heard anyone complain in the moment and I suspect that most passengers don't think at all about the issues that preoccupy a couple of dozen regular posters here and elsewhere.
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