One of the best flight experience I have had in along time. Would fly with them again.
Like getting a bus. No great luxury but will get you there
Got us to destination alive, albeit a bit late. Luggage was left behind. No live tracking app available (available on some other airlines). Supposedly going to be delivered in next couple of days.
The trip was mostly nice, till the last moment when they had some issue with opening the flight door. The flight arrived late by 10 minutes, which was ok-ish, but then we got stuck on the plane for 35 minutes at the bridge and that costed our connection flight to LAX which left with 12+ passengers still on our flight. It added 2 days to our trip home, and we had to make lots of rearrangements to deal with the ripple effects. Don't book a 1+ stop trip with a layover time less than 2 hours.
The connection time between the regional flight (from Newcastle) to an international flight (to The States) was too short. To require as second security scan and customs clearance within an hour and 20 mins is not enough time to make the actual connection. We had a final boarding call the minute we walked out of US customs and had to sprint (with two small children) through 20 gates to make it in time before the door closed. The concept is great in theory to clear customs before leaving Europe, but the timing needs to be adjusted. We travel abroad frequently and won’t be using this route again. Thanks.
This is a bit of a rant, but I'll try to keep it civil. The flight was delayed for 2 hours with almost ZERO updates from agents. Just "there's technical issues, we don't know if or when it'll be resolved" once an hour maybe? And the gate signs, and app never updated to show the delay until it was finally resolved. So when I called Aer Lingus to see if I could rebook, I had literally the dumbest conversation with the person on the phone there where he says "It's showing your flight departed at 11:10. So it's already departed!", where I responded, "Well, it's 12:45 and I'm on the phone with you, standing in the airport, staring at the plane. So...I'm not sure what your system is saying, but we aren't in the air right now.". He said "Nothing I can do. Since it doesn't show delayed in my system, you would be charged to reschedule." Once we finally departed 2 hours late, things were going smoothly as I would expect, except in another very strange way. The stewardesses were rolling the cart down the aisle offering drinks and I asked for a water, to which they said "Sure, you can buy a bottle". I'm not sure if this is an Aer Lingus thing. Maybe something I'd expect from Ryan Air, but for a 3 hour international flight, to not have complimentary water available for customers is an absolute first, in 15 years of flying for me. I'm not upset with the plane staff at all. They were very friendly, but Aer Lingus' policies, how they handled the delay, and the unbelievable conversation with the customer service representative, leaves a lot to be desired in those areas. Also, I'm not upset about the delay. Things happen. Technical issues. But this is a place where airlines really need to clearly communicate with their customers. They also changed gates from 12N to 13N and there was no notification on any app, or announcement over the PA. End of rant. I hope they get some feedback on how to improve communication, because otherwise, they were great. And the second leg of my trip was incredibly smooth - no nickle and diming water, no communication issues. Very professional and efficient and even landed early
Flight takeoff was delayed an hour, but arrival time was not updated at the same time as departure time, so those picking me up at the other end were not alerted to the change in my arrival.
NOTE. Aer Lingus does not accept American Express. I was denied boarding because I could not pay the fee for my oversized bag. I did not have another credit or debit card. Moreover, at CDG, I needed to check my bag at one location, go to another location to check my oversized bag and a THIRD location to pay for my oversized bag. Hence, once I was denied boarding, my bags were already en route to the plane. To retrieve them I needed to go to a FOURTH location in another part of the terminal. Last, Aer Lingus will not reimburse me for any portion of my ticket. I lost $1000 bc Aer Lingus doesn’t accept American Express at the CDG counter even though I paid for my ticket through the Kayak link with Amex. Kayak should remedy this situation if they want to continue to partner with Aer Lingus.
The biking process was confusing and I was called for a seat assignment from I number I repeatedly though was spam, but the flight itself was great
This flight left about 45 minutes late, and arrived about 45 minutes late, which was enough to make us miss our next flight and trap us in Dublin for 24 hours!!
