Aerlingus AerClub/Avios

L1011 · 07-06-2016 9:19pm

There has been sufficient catering on my last few afternoon in to late evening flights but they have all been very short haul (LGW-DUB, DUB-MAN, BHX-DUB). This was not the case last summer. Whether this is across the board or not is very hard to tell, though.

The new FFP introduction is a bloody disaster but so has everything to do with their FFP since TAB was closed really - its not a worsening of recent cause!

The cheapest part of the whole experience recently was having to fly from Pier B which is half building site, half neglected 1990s but it isn't really EIs fault that T2 would be at capacity well after the morning rush.

They're still better than my last Ryanair experience, which was post cuddly-Ryanair changes. Still had cattle queues (passengers fault, I admit), still had rude/arrogant staff, etc. Luck of the draw there too, I imagine.

Marcusm · 07-06-2016 11:21pm

Locker10a wrote: »

Guys does anyone know whats going on with Catering in EI? I know last year there was some problems which I believe was down to staff shortage ? But why am I hearing that the same problems are occurring again this year?
Last summer I flew short haul with EI on an aircraft that had no catering, Ok it was a shot flight and I got over it, I understood it was due to a staff shortage in Dublin catering, these things happen sometime i thought and I got on with my life!
Now Im hearing they are having the same or similar issues this year? And there are no where near enough fresh options(sandwiches etc.) being loaded for the busy sun routes.
Every week I come on here and read a new article about the investment IAG want to make in expanding EI, how much potential there is, the possibility of X,Y and Z new type of aircraft etc. But all I see is empty talk, from Stephen Kavanagh or Willie Walsh!!
Am I imagining it or has the quality of the EI brand slipped downhill slightly?
Whats going on? I constantly hear complaints about things like cleaning and catering, and while on the grand scale of things they are minor issues I can't help but feel the minor issues eventually lead to deterioration of standards and service! ?
All this is happening while Ryanair are going from strength to strength, and the boys in EI seem to making more cuts than ever before? Or am i wrong?
I pick this catering issue as I have heard numerous complaints about lack of food on short haul flights, Ive experience as crew and so I understand its difficult to predict and cater for demand, but surly if this is a re-occuring issue then someone in EI would have the foresight to do something and realise the loss of inflight revenue if nothing else ?
Is this problem over stated? Or have the errors from last summer been amended ?

It's a buy on board service catered from a Dublin base. It's not surprising that they may not have sufficient on the return leg; commercially they cannot refuse a sale on the outbound leg in the hope/expectation/plan that they will sell it on the return. They will estimate likely sales and plan inventory on that basis.

Conversely, BA remains a free F&B airline (for the moment at least on short haul). It's easy to cater one nuts/biscuit or 1 panino per person (depending on sector). They still have issues on booze loading as it is frequently the case that certain items, champagne, certain who skies, are under stocked on the return.

In the short term, I expect EI's short haul food sales model to be replicated on BA euro fleet.

pilotsnipes · 08-06-2016 12:22am

Locker10a wrote: »

Last summer I flew short haul with EI on an aircraft that had no catering, Ok it was a shot flight and I got over it, I understood it was due to a staff shortage in Dublin catering, these things happen sometime i thought and I got on with my life!
Now Im hearing they are having the same or similar issues this year? And there are no where near enough fresh options(sandwiches etc.) being loaded for the busy sun routes.

I can't say too much, but you couldn't be more spot on.

I deal with it every single day, it makes me cringe when I see the same issue over and over and over and over.

But here's why it's happening. I cannot *stress* *this* *enough*. The entire company is now completely focused on what is returned on the "Voice of the Guest" surveys they send out.

Complete and absolute direction/maintenance of the brand is being lead by these surveys, as dictated from the very top of management.

If the survey results don't show a downwards movement in satisfaction scores with regards to things like the dirty (sorry FILTHY) cabins every day, or the fact that 75% of my flights have not enough passenger food - there is nothing going to be done about those areas. NOTHING.

So please, everyone, fill out one of those surveys. Send it in, we have been told *directly* from the top that crew reports have no influence on items like mentioned above.

The "KPIs" need to be hit for things to change.

Every week I come on here and read a new article about the investment IAG .....I can't help but feel the minor issues eventually lead to deterioration of standards and service! ?

Couldn't agree more.

Is this problem over stated? Or have the errors from last summer been amended ?

I wish they were, but I know they arent. :mad:

L1011 · 08-06-2016 12:26am

Where do you get these surveys? My BHX flight was at least subpar cleaning wise...

Locker10a · 08-06-2016 7:46am

I think these are only sent out after you take a flight ! They are not open to the general public only to customers, next time I fly hopefully I'll get one and I'll be sure to help by filling it out!

Locker10a · 08-06-2016 11:00am

Marcusm wrote: »

It's a buy on board service catered from a Dublin base. It's not surprising that they may not have sufficient on the return leg; commercially they cannot refuse a sale on the outbound leg in the hope/expectation/plan that they will sell it on the return. They will estimate likely sales and plan inventory on that basis.

In the short term, I expect EI's short haul food sales model to be replicated on BA euro fleet.

Regards to them estimating likely sales and planning inventory on that basis, well that's the issue here that's what they are NOT doing ! Hence why I asked the question in the first place and why people are complaining!! Why are they not doing this ? As it hurts In flight revenue and customer satisfaction!

As for BA adopting the Aer Lingus approach to onboard service ! I highly doubt it! The Idea behind a buy on board menus is that you make money! EI don't do that because they don't stock enough so people sitting ready to hand over money for a sandwich can't as there are none left

Tenger · 08-06-2016 1:21pm

From chatting to EI mates I would concur with the above. Rather than follow the previous CEO strategy of go for a seperate market segment the current leadership in EI seem to think that cutting back will increase efficiency which will make them able to compete against the biggest airline in the world.

Marcusm · 08-06-2016 3:15pm

Locker10a wrote: »

Regards to them estimating likely sales and planning inventory on that basis, well that's the issue here that's what they are NOT doing ! Hence why I asked the question in the first place and why people are complaining!! Why are they not doing this ? As it hurts In flight revenue and customer satisfaction!

As for BA adopting the Aer Lingus approach to onboard service ! I highly doubt it! The Idea behind a buy on board menus is that you make money! EI don't do that because they don't stock enough so people sitting ready to hand over money for a sandwich can't as there are none left

It's all a conspiracy to stop you getting a chicken and stuffing sandwich!! Hardly, they will have inventory planning and they will get it wrong on many flight. It's likely much more profitable to run out occasionally rather than to constantly over stock and throw away money.

As regards BA, the new CEO has transferred across from Vueling, an ultra low cost model with substantially smaller leg room than Ryanair! He has a mandate to take out further costs and catering will feature on this. BA's planes have been getting a reputation for being dirty (mostly because they are not cleaned at out stations). Reducing the amount of complementary F&B will improve this as well as fuel consumption!

Locker10a · 08-06-2016 3:28pm

Marcusm wrote: »

Locker10a wrote: »

Regards to them estimating likely sales and planning inventory on that basis, well that's the issue here that's what they are NOT doing ! Hence why I asked the question in the first place and why people are complaining!! Why are they not doing this ? As it hurts In flight revenue and customer satisfaction!

As for BA adopting the Aer Lingus approach to onboard service ! I highly doubt it! The Idea behind a buy on board menus is that you make money! EI don't do that because they don't stock enough so people sitting ready to hand over money for a sandwich can't as there are none left

It's all a conspiracy to stop you getting a chicken and stuffing sandwich!! Hardly, they will have inventory planning and they will get it wrong on many flight. It's likely much more profitable to run out occasionally rather than to constantly over stock and throw away money.

As regards BA, the new CEO has transferred across from Vueling, an ultra low cost model with substantially smaller leg room than Ryanair! He has a mandate to take out further costs and catering will feature on this. BA's planes have been getting a reputation for being dirty (mostly because they are not cleaned at out stations). Reducing the amount of complementary F&B will improve this as well as fuel consumption!

Thanks for your reply,
I understand how inventory planning works, the point is here they are constantly off the mark with inventory planning for busy flights, it happened all last summer and a smart business would have realised last years mistakes and made alterations to prevent that happening in future, this opportunity has been lost and the same issue is popping up again this year.....Smart may Fly Aer Lingus but Smart certainly isint running Aer Lingus.....

While Alex Cruiz may have been successful at Vueling I personally feel he's not the right man for BA, I'll allow time for him to prove me wrong ! I'm sure the BA accountants will love the extra revenue from pax paying for food and the fuel savings but I feel it's unfortunate the BA brand will become low cost, but if it works great for them!

L1011 · 08-06-2016 11:59pm

160,000 a year would suggest one in ten or so. I'm well over ten flights in the past 12 months but would also be a common demographic

Dardania · 13-06-2016 9:02am

In the EI fleet thread where the topic wrongly came up, pilotsnipes referred to a voice of the guest survey which no one had heard of...
well I received one

Subject is: Tell us what you think.

And it's done by RED C Research, all redirected to a: http://www.aerlinguslistens.com/mrIWeb/mrIWeb.dll address

Stimpyone · 23-06-2016 2:13pm

Just took a quick survey in the office here and not one person out of ten has heard about the voice of the guest survey.
I work for an engineering company with roughly 200 employees and we fly a lot . Most, if not all would be members of
various airlines loyalty programs on the fairly lofty tiers.

Trouble is we use a dedicated travel company (UK based) to look after all our trips (hotels, cars and flights). We just let them know where and when we want to travel. I d guess these guys are getting the surveys sent to them that probably should be filled out by ourselves.

If so I d imagine that this would be quite a common situation within the business world and EI are missing
out on feedback from a large number of regular customers.

Oh and I can never lie flat on the lie flat beds in business class, too tall L

Locker10a · 23-06-2016 2:17pm

Stimpyone wrote: »

Just took a quick survey in the office here and not one person out of ten has heard about the voice of the guest survey.
I work for an engineering company with roughly 200 employees and we fly a lot . Most, if not all would be members of
various airlines loyalty programs on the fairly lofty tiers.

Trouble is we use a dedicated travel company (UK based) to look after all our trips (hotels, cars and flights). We just let them know where and when we want to travel. I d guess these guys are getting the surveys sent to them that probably should be filled out by ourselves.

If so I d imagine that this would be quite a common situation within the business world and EI are missing
out on feedback from a large number of regular customers.

Oh and I can never lie flat on the lie flat beds in business class, too tall L

If this is the case I suggest you forward your complaints via the Aer Lingus customer relations form, it's the only way these things will change

AndyBoBandy · 06-07-2016 10:33am

just spent 3,000 of my points upgrading myself & herself to the business class seats on flights to/from Faro later this month!!

feck it, might as well use them up before 'the changeover'

about 5k left, so maybe some Arnotts vouchers are in order!

maximum12 · 06-07-2016 2:15pm

AndyBoBandy wrote: »

just spent 3,000 of my points upgrading myself & herself to the business class seats on flights to/from Faro later this month!!

feck it, might as well use them up before 'the changeover'

about 5k left, so maybe some Arnotts vouchers are in order!

Well spent. I could never sleep well in the old business class cabin but the new "coffin" style seats are great.

endagibson · 10-07-2016 8:57pm

endagibson wrote: »

Received my statement this morning. I have about 4,500 points. I see where I can book flights or upgrades, but the flights don't seem like great value and I'm rarely flying anywhere that offers upgrades. What else can you spend points on and where can you do it?

Anyone got advice on what to do with the points? I took a look at the classic site, but the "Giftzone" links were broken. I have 5,000 points and no interest in spending them on flights.

Extraplus · 13-07-2016 1:18pm

endagibson wrote: »

Anyone got advice on what to do with the points? I took a look at the classic site, but the "Giftzone" links were broken. I have 5,000 points and no interest in spending them on flights.

I'm in the same boat, the flights and upgrades don't seem worth the points, but there doesn't seem to be anything else to spend them on now!

Ol' Donie · 13-07-2016 2:28pm

I got return flights to Chicago in August for 6,000 points, plus 250 ish quid in taxes.

The price for the flights last week when i booked them was 940 quid.

So that's good.

Took quite a few phone calls.

Gold Circle, all is forgiven.

AndyBoBandy · 08-11-2016 3:02pm

Aer Club looks like its finally arrived!!

We're delighted to be bringing you an advance introduction to AerClub, the new loyalty programme of Aer Lingus. Our brand new programme is all about rewarding and recognising loyalty, in the air, on the ground, and online. Over the next few weeks, we'll be continuing our programme of enhancements, and we'll continue to update you with more news. In the meantime, remember to use your membership number when booking flights. Your flight activity will be recorded, and any Avios points and Tier Credits will be credited to your account.

AndyBoBandy · 08-11-2016 3:04pm

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=43FfxXDdxbI

Dardania · 08-11-2016 3:05pm

AndyBoBandy wrote: »

Aer Club looks like its finally arrived!!

We're delighted to be bringing you an advance introduction to AerClub, the new loyalty programme of Aer Lingus. Our brand new programme is all about rewarding and recognising loyalty, in the air, on the ground, and online. Over the next few weeks, we'll be continuing our programme of enhancements, and we'll continue to update you with more news. In the meantime, remember to use your membership number when booking flights. Your flight activity will be recorded, and any Avios points and Tier Credits will be credited to your account.

This the email they just sent out? Still vague on dates...

Dardania · 08-11-2016 3:05pm

AndyBoBandy wrote: »

Aer Club looks like its finally arrived!!

We're delighted to be bringing you an advance introduction to AerClub, the new loyalty programme of Aer Lingus. Our brand new programme is all about rewarding and recognising loyalty, in the air, on the ground, and online. Over the next few weeks, we'll be continuing our programme of enhancements, and we'll continue to update you with more news. In the meantime, remember to use your membership number when booking flights. Your flight activity will be recorded, and any Avios points and Tier Credits will be credited to your account.

This the email they just sent out? Still vague on dates...

AndyBoBandy · 08-11-2016 3:07pm

Dardania wrote: »

This the email they just sent out? Still vague on dates...

yeah, but with that video as well, it seems like they are finally ready to roll it out..

I'd imagine it'll be a lengthy migration...

Dardania · 08-11-2016 3:10pm

AndyBoBandy wrote: »

Dardania wrote: »

This the email they just sent out? Still vague on dates...

yeah, but with that video as well, it seems like they are finally ready to roll it out..

I'd imagine it'll be a lengthy migration...

I'm just narky on the topic due to a year of broken promises, and anticipation etc.

AndyBoBandy · 08-11-2016 3:15pm

Dardania wrote: »

I'm just narky on the topic due to a year of broken promises, and anticipation etc.

Aren't we all,

I only made it back in by the skin of my teeth recently based on the 2,400 points required (I didn't want to spend points buying back in), whereas going by spend as per Avios, I'd have probably made it in a long time ago as a lot of my flights were booked last minute, so quite expensive..

Derek Zoolander · 08-11-2016 3:51pm

anyone got any idea of how Tiers will map across.

Not hopeful that any gold circle members will map to either platinum or concierge level given the miserly conversion ratio of 2:1 for points.

Jamie2k9 · 08-11-2016 6:23pm

It will be next month before official launch AFAIK.

Anyone will they allow those who couldn't join Gold Circle since November 2015 and because of continued delays if they will allow bookings since to be redeemed.

Tenger · 08-11-2016 6:40pm

AndyBoBandy wrote: »

yeah, but with that video as well, it seems like they are finally ready to roll it out..

I'd imagine it'll be a lengthy migration...

I got a chance to listen to some of the IAG presentation from last Friday and their (Avios, not Aer Lingus) date was firmly 'Q42016' so ye got no more than 6 weeks to wait.

The EI CEO section of the presentation didnt refer to AerClub as dar as I can remember. (Was too busy trying to listen to any fleet info)

MayoSalmon · 08-11-2016 8:51pm

Tenger wrote:

I got a chance to listen to some of the IAG presentation from last Friday and their (Avios, not Aer Lingus) date was firmly 'Q42016' so ye got no more than 6 weeks to wait.

Tenger wrote:

The EI CEO section of the presentation didnt refer to AerClub as dar as I can remember. (Was too busy trying to listen to any fleet info)

It's happening Nov 29th and that date is present in the t&c's in the email sent today

Dardania · 08-11-2016 8:53pm

Well spotted

https://www.aerlingus.com/localized/en/modals/aerclub-terms-and-conditions.html?rrid=1902399685&rmid=2016_aerclub_intro&utm_source=2016_aerclub_launch_&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=2016_aerclub_intro&utm_term=intro_mail

Aerlingus AerClub/Avios

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