Benefits of Aer lingus

The difference between the two airlines is immense especially when flying from Dublin, Terminal 2 is much more comfortable and easy to get through than Terminal 1, which seems to take much longer to get through screening and check in.

aer lingus is a much more pleasant and comfortable experience, preassigned seating and organised boarding avoids a mad scramble. The staff are much more pleasant too, the seats more comfortable. Unless there is a huge difference in price its aer lingus every time.

munchkin_utd wrote: »

another fairly crucial difference
Ryanair is strictly one piece of handluggage whereas aerlingus is 1piece plus a personal item (handbag or laptop case for example)

also, when booking ryanair requires your passport number. A balls if looking to book something at work or just in general when you havent got the passport in your pocket.
also, when flying ryanair to the UK, they enforce a passport requirement that isnt required by law whereas aerlingus will accept a drivers licence or other photo id if you are an irish or british citizen.

I booked flights with ryanair friday and didnt need the passport till I checked in online..


Another thing about ryanair when booking is all the boxes you have to tick and select,

No i dont want travel insurance,
No I dont want ryainair talk,
No i dont want transport,
No I dont want a rip off bag,
No I dont want priority boarding,
No I dont want to check in another bag,
No I do not want to pick my seat,
No I do not want car rental,
No I do not want a hotel..

Incase you change your mind when checking in online you must do it all over again.

Usually money trumps all other considerations, but for the sake of just afew quid, Id always go Aer Lingus. You just seem to get a whiff of that old school "Hey, flying is a luxury for the well to do and we're here to make you as comfortable as possible, Sir" vibe from them. In comparison to Ryanair where you feel like livestock being exported.

mfceiling wrote: »

I'll take that 3 or 400 quid of a saving by flying Ryanair thanks all the same.

In fairness no one is saying that Ryanair is all that bad and only an idiot would pay 3 or 4 hundred quid more to fly EI all other things being equal.

If the prices are nearly the same it's A L all the way for me. No comparison in comfort and service . I do end up flying Ryanair more often when I go to England though as AL are often WAY dearer !

spurious wrote: »

I never understood the Ryanair reluctance to assign seats. Does it cost them money or is it just they saw it as a way to make more money?

I just know it's an awful pain (mainly for other passengers) if I'm ever travelling with a school group and they end up spread throughout the plane instead of corralled in a few rows.

That would mean people wouldn't use priority boarding as much then because there would be no need to queue.

From a person under the age of 16's point of view, Aer Lingus are better if you want to travel on your own because they actually let you do so.

Also Aer Lingus seem to land smoothly, whereas any Ryanair flight I've been on in the last three years have touched the runway with an extremely unnerving bang.

Murt10 wrote: »

Around the same time, there was some urgent Irish Government business, followed by a vote. A minister was in Japan at the time, and could not afford to fly home from Japan because of the high prices being charged by the national flag carriers. He missed the consequent vote. The Government was furious with Aer Lingus.

Aer Lingus have never flown to Japan, and generally the price of tickets isn't of concern to the state.

EI's sole involvement in an itinerary like that in the 1980s would have been the permanently fixed-price LHR-DUB fare; after having paid a similarly regulated fare on JAL or BA to get there.

Ryanair when given route access charged generally a tiny amount - often a pound - less than the regulated fare and were, at that stage, a full service airline with business class and a loyalty scheme. Not the low fare darlings rescuing the world they make themselves out to be.

I have no idea what the people making that show were smoking, or whether its your memory, but that story washes so poorly that its clearly untrue.

Ryanair only became a low cost airline due to and after deregulation. This misty-eyed myth about them saving us from high fares is complete and utter bollox.

EI's flexibility and quality of customer care during the time when I was travelling to London a lot, such as being able to book an normal price fare and jump to a much earlier flight 90% of the time if I asked nicely, means that I value their service at a premium to other airlines. And when you consider that Ryanair are often no cheaper or within a very close price range, I've had no reason to even consider their services.

garv123 wrote: »

I flew with AL to Amsterdam twice the last 2 new years, Both times we were given emergency seats because "ye´re tall and look like ye could do with the extra legroom"

The first time I had checked in online, the girl tore up my ticked and gave me the emergency seat one, my friend checked in beside me and when I spoke to him as we walked away she asked were we travelling together, I said yes, she asked for his ticket, tore it up and printed off another one beside me.

Couldn´t have been nicer.

Flew with Ryanair to alicante 3 times and back twice over the last 3 months and returning home again thursday. They are the furthest away gates in the airport and are so strick about their baggage onboard. They´ll take duty free bags off you and charge you for them if they do not fit in you´re bag.

Ryanair charge 35euro for a 20kg bag each way vs 15 for aerlingus for 20kg..

Id fly with aerlingus anyday if their flights were near the same price.

On the other hand Aer Lingus usually land on the Runway furthest away across the motorway at Schiphol, so theres a really long taxi back to the gate, the gate is also pretty far from the entrance.

Ryanair I find are much more convenient from Eindhoven, small airport and usually only 10 minutes to get to the departure gate and also around 15 minutes between landing and getting out the airport door.

Checking in online is not possible with Aer Lingus from Amsterdam, whereas it is with Ryanair from Eindhoven.

On a few occasions I've flew with Aer Lingus, I wish they'd enforce the baggage policy as there are people that bring all sorts of crap on board as carry on and once half the people were on they tell the other half that they have to check their luggage since its full, so then you have to wait at Cork while all the knobs that carried on their stuff gets to walk straight out.

They should remove the reclining facility on all short hall flight imo, i've had my knees crippled a few times by someone in front and i've seen a guys laptop screen catching the lip and getting folded.

End of the day its a bus, if your flying to Amsterdam from Cork/Dublin then EI is your best choice, but Ryanair for sure if your flying anywhere below Utrecht in the Netherlands.

Always a massive price difference too (Ryanair being significantly cheaper)

At this stage when we go back to visit Cork, I'll fly Eindhoven to Dublin and rent a car and book bewleys for the morning flight going back and with everything all in it still works out cheaper than Aer Lingus.