EI customer service

I personally have never had a particularly bad experience with Aer Lingus, I find that staff tend to be a varying degree of good to excellent but there are, like all airlines, the odd occasion where I witness areas that could be improved upon. My flights usually involve crews from the smaller bases, Cork and Shannon, so the pool of staff is much smaller and the level of service very consistent.

On a recent Heathrow-Cork service during boarding I saw a passenger speak to the cabin crew about a watch he'd left upstairs in the terminal bar, the crew were jolly and reassuring, a quick phone call and a short wait later and he was reunited with his watch, the classic "not a bother, take your seat and relax yourself now" response followed from the crew. It was a prime example of how Aer Lingus crew are a class apart, you rarely see that laid back but ever professional approach from other airlines. 

With that said, I've also seen some instances where crew let themselves and the airline down. I used to work in the industry and for one of Aer Lingus' rivals so I can't help but notice and take an interest every time I fly. The issue I find most common (but still rare) is usually arrogance, a bad attitude or a snotty demeanour towards passengers, it comes from staff of all ages and all departments so doesn't seem like an age or experience thing. I must admit, it almost always comes from the female members of staff and not their male counterparts. This is just my own observations. It angers me when I see it, passengers getting snapped at, eyes rolling and crew hiding in the galley.

There's also the old, "it's all managements fault" attitude which makes me laugh. A reality check is seriously needed for any staff who use that excuse for bad manners or an awful attitude. There's a select group of staff both current and former who take great pleasure in knocking the company at any opportunity, the rumour that the airline was due to lose its 4 Star rating was spread with venom throughout the company earlier this year only to be totally disproved as the airline actually increased its overall score. People like that do not belong in aviation, in fact there are very few industries that require attitudes like that. Some will even read your post and see it as a job well done, some twisted way to send a message to management that everyone's unhappy when all it really does is reflect badly on them as a person and employee.

Management aren't perfect, one in particular is a real problem thanks to his attitude and arrogance, I personally would think Aer Lingus would be a better place without him but alas, it's not my decision to make. If your flights were recent, the attitudes of the staff may have been affected by the comments made by this member of management where he accused staff of stealing (not actually unproven) which resulted in a major backlash and an apology from the CEO but not the member of management in question which is very telling. The relationship between management and staff needs work but it'll never be perfect, very few companies are.

I am a long time customer of EI. I am concierge level and fly frequently with many other airlines also.

I have had one SERIOUS incident with EI. Where a colleague was injured by one of the staff. This, I have to say, was handled incredibly badly by the staff on board and also by the pilot. My colleague was threatened by one staff member. It wasn’t until he involved outside parties that management stepped in.

Apart from that I tend to find EI staff wonderful for the most part. There are some younger staff that have a serious attitude problem, especially on TA service. They may have a nice long flight ahead but I am still paying top notch for the service.

Most of the male hosts I have encountered have been very professional indeed. I agree it seems to be a female thing and very rare at that.

I have had some brilliant air hosts on other airlines...Virgin on the whole is great, Alaskan was superb as was Jet Blue. Lufthansa is very efficient by not that personable. British was hit and miss. Aegean is kinda snooty. Air France was ok. Alitalia was horrible. Cops airlines was terrible.

The funniest incident was Air Mexicana... no information about safety we boarded and the airplane took off with no such thing as a safety briefing.

My last flight was last Monday and a return on Thursday morning with AA. Horrible grumpy staff on one leg and absolutely brilliant personable and attentive staff on the other.

It all depends on what the person feels and the crew have to put up with in my opinion. None of us are saints... but with EI a flight out of DUB TA should not have attitudes attached.