I wrote a couple of weeks ago about how Aer Lingus may re-join oneworld. Readers commented how it’s not ready – they were right, I was wrong.
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Booking System
I covered in another post that other carriers can book Aer Lingus flights easier through codeshare agreements in their own loyalty programs than Aer Lingus can on its own system. Using British Airways Avios system as its currency, British Airways can easily book connections or break up awards if guests want to extend their stay in a given city since each flight is individually purchased. The site also simply shows an error page if there are insufficient seats available which makes it unclear if the website is malfunctioning, the flight doesn’t exist, or if there simply aren’t any award seats.
This all seems to be a small concern in the greater context of reasons an Aer Lingus’ oneworld membership is not currently a good fit.
Check-in
“You’ve booked separate tickets.”“Yes, because the website won’t ticket a connection. Phone support said you can marry them at the airport.”“No. We cauhnt. Only they cauhn.”“So you can see both flights but can’t marry them and we need to enter Ireland, claim bags, re-check, clear security again, and US Customs in under two hours?”“Yes.”
“There’s a non-stop to New York, are there any seats there? Maybe we can move to that.” I was prepared to pay any APD differences just to reduce our stress, workload, and risk.“Let me call over there and see.” Great, thank you. She stared at me and then motioned to get out of line.“Should we wait here while you ring them?” I asked.“No, I said you cauhn call them. I’m not calling anyone.” Lovely.“Are there seats available on that flight?” A couple of keyboard clicks, eyebrows elevate.“Yeah.” It was clear the flight was fairly open.“In business?”“No. Business is full.” That was a hard pass only because I just couldn’t be bothered to switch everything around on the phone and then risk Sally Sunshine assigning seats for us in an area we were crammed by a bathroom with our infant son. Maybe the flight being fairly open was really just in middle seats randomly. We had already prepared for the disjointed connection, we might as well see it through.She handed the passports back with luggage tracking tags and sent us on our way.“Can we have our boarding passes, please?”“Didn’t you check-in online?” We did but it hadn’t output a digital copy. We didn’t print anything at the hotel, and why would we when we had to check bags in anyway?“He’ll have to print it for you.” Sally said and moved us to another counter where he began printing our passes. She moved on to the person behind us before we had the chance to move our first bag.“Business class? Business class? Business class? Sir, are you special services” she shouted to the elderly man struggling with English behind us fumbling to get out his passport. We walked away trying to recall another oneworld carrier this reminded us of.
A RyanAir By Any Other Name
Conclusion
The long haul experience is a different story but for many oneworld flyers, it’s a tale of two Aer Lingus’. However, for American Airlines or Alaska Airlines flyers that may be making connections from the States, or eventually premium flyers from Asia (should Japan Airlines or Cathay Pacific add Dublin to the network) the European experience is substandard. It’s a cultural shift from a discounter in which the client is at odds with the airline, attempting to circumvent its fees and procedures to a relationship where the customer is assumed to facilitate the airline and its ability to continue flying. Our readers that commented the airline wasn’t yet ready for the oneworld stage were right and I was wrong. All the same, I am happy to set the record straight.
What do you think?
Lesson : Never be in a hurry and always give extra time ( 4 hours or more ) for connections , especially international .
That’s absurd – time is money and it should not take four hours to make a connection.
@Matthew … +1 . Everyone says I am absurd , and I readily agree . I am the most absurd person on the planet .
Anyway , I am an extremely slow mover ( disabled ) who has never missed , or been stressed , by a connection , because I give myself at least 4 hours . Particularly international . Would anyone give themselves only 2 hours to connect in Timbuctoo or Ulan Bator ?
Consider the delicious Food Court at the UA gates in San Francisco . That alone is worth a 4 hour connection time .
This summer my family & I were stranded in London for 3 days due to a 2 hour connection which disappeared completely when the first leg was 1.5 hours late. Some of our checked-in bags arrived in T5 & others in T3. BA didn’t have space on any flights back to the US for 3 days (or that’s what they told me, a BA Gold member at that time). The upside was that BA dutifully gave us the full long haul compensation under UK261 besides covering our food & lodging.
True, but at some airports, like LHR, a 3 hour block is sometimes needed.
@Aaron … and if you are transiting terminals at LHR , I’d say 4 hours .
Aer Lingus = British + Ryan on a bad date. Trash airline and trash airport.
DUBLIN preclearance is a total S–Tshow. After preclearance there are no lounges or quiet areas.
Many third world countries are better.
There is the 51st and Green lounge. This is accessible to all business class passengers on US bound flights
Oh dear, another post founded on ignorance.
Try the 51st & Green lounge if you meet the entry critera that’s after you pass US border controls staffed by people who are infinintely more pleasant than those you will encounter at any airport on US soil. Perhaps they’re more pleasant because they’ve escaped the US, a place where a convicted criminal is about to become head of state.
An airline who will not under any circumstances check bags through on separate tickets, where the hard product on their short-haul flights is terrible, and where many of their agents can be surly and unhelpful? You could have just as easily been flying on BA, and as far as I know they’re not leaving OW anytime soon. Checking bags through on separate tickets is something almost no airlines do anymore, least of all any of the operate-like-LCC OW airlines. And I can’t remember the last time anyone at a OW carrier cared at all what status I held. EI will fit in quite nicely with OW just as they are.
Not OW, but I check bags through multiple tickets on Delta somewhat routinely. Never had a problem with it. Even when the second ticket is another airline that’s not even in the same alliance, but ticketed through Delta (e.g. HA.) It takes them slightly longer to check the bags, but usually not much. It is their official policy to through-check bags across multiple Delta tickets, between Delta tickets and flights operated by Delta, or between Delta and some of their partner flights.
I have found this before with Aer Lingus. I was flying from LHR the check in was fine but beyond that it was a joke…the only business class lounge that i have been in where the only food offering was plain bread.
This was for a flight LHR-SNN. The onboard service was poor and the crew had such a disgracefully rude attitude they made a bad AA crew seem welcomming! barking orders at passrngers over the PA miserable! throughout service. Needless to say that was the last time I flew Aer Lingus and made the decision to never fly them again. Interestingly i booked my return journey SNN-MAN with Ryanair who, compared to Aer Lingus felt like flying EK or SQ!
Ryanair are much maligned, but for those short hops I’ve often found the cabin crew far friendlier! EI has a tendency toward battleaxes. (Not all, etc etc)
Hmmm,
I travel with EI LHR-SNN at least every month and I don’t recognise anything about your experience other than that check-in at LHR is usually staffed by excellent people.
The EI lounge at LHR has just had a full refurbishment and has a very decent food offering for flights of about an hour. EI crews in the main are a lot more cheerful and positive than others in Europe which sets them all in a different league to the misery US carriers inflict on their passengers anywhere and everywhere.
Please stick to Ryanair though, Aer Lingus don’t need people like you.
The way you pluralize “aer lingus” is aer linguses. Add -es. Basic grammar taught in elementary school. Adding an apostrophe to “Lingus” as you did makes the word possessive, which doesn’t make sense in the context.
@Jason … Good eye !
First world problèms ! Y’all have my sympathy.
We think of the Irish as very friendly, but what Aer Lingus is now is the result of competing vs Ryanair for the last 25 years and all the horrendous service levels that entails. Changing the marketing and airplanes doesn’t change the culture.
Additionally, as a former tech “partner” of Aer Lingus, I can state that one of the primary reasoms it will be a long time before they are anywhere close to a oneworld-level digital experience is that they have deferred IT investment to the point where their tech stack is essentially that of a 1980s airline.
I would not book a codeshare flight on any airline which is operated by Aer Lingus under any circumstances.
Does this have anything to do with The Israeli Foreign Policy? Irish have been very critical of Israel and their Non Stop Bombing of Civilians.
CX DID fly to Dublin, and they used to have Aer Lingus as a connecting partner. But I bet the IT systems are what drove them to end their partnership.
I wish I had flown YYZ-DUB on EI, and then DUB-HKG on CX pre-COVID. That was a quick, well-connected combination.
Amazing.
Any frequent traveller based in the UK knows that you don’t go anywhere near MAN, there’s always a choice. A colleague based near there always travels to BHX to avoid it. MAN usually comes last by a significant margin in any survey of customer satisfaction and all that happens is that management at MAN whine and whinge that it’s not true and people are biased against them so nothing improves at all. People are biased against them because of the cr@p service they inflict in exchange for the fees you pay to pass through the place, no surprises there.
Equally, Aer Lingus have policies and procedures that are their own and not like those of others, developed after they left OW. It’s a fool who thinks OW rules apply just because they bought their ticket through a OW carrier be it with either money or miles.
Sounds like a garbage experience.
But I don’t know that this excludes them from rejoining OW.
I’ve had AA refuse to thru-check bags on entirely domestic, all AA metal itineraries (granted this is not as big of a PITA as refusing on an international connection, but it’s still a PITA).
Plenty of datapoints to show that BA isn’t necessarily better in this regard.
The onus is on the customer to know the customer service culture of the metal that they are flying upon, full stop. Alliance membership or lack thereof doesn’t really enter into it, regardless of what flashy promises are made in marketing materials, etc.
Worst business class experience. Flew from Aberdeen to Orlando via Manchester. Which was code shared with Loganair. The interconnectivity was terrible, no business class benefit what so ever. Onboard Aer Lingus the food and service was terrible. No idea how anyone can rate this airline highly.
Reading the comments I get the feeling you really don’t get it. I can fly for 4 hrs in Europe with a flag carrier for about £200 return good solid experience. In the states weve flwn 2 hrs paid £450 quid return.. Miami Costa Rica… on out and return AA overbooked and threatened to offload randoms… which they did… airport experience at Miami was very poor and security exactly the same as a UK airport post 911 but with more aggression. It’s cheaper even on a flag carrier in Euope and it’s on a par with USA flights…
I’ve waited for the place to comment on Aer Lingus business practice. I lost the cost of a Belfast to Birmingham flight that they cancelled with me in the boarding area. Aer Lingus say the ticket is the problem of Emerald Air, their client. Emerald Air say that Aer Lingus is responsible for cancellation. Both say refunding me for a flight they didn’t make was the other’s problem. Short answer is it’s my loss. That sort of business strategy is one example of creating new profitability avenues.
Yikes. So many sensitive comments from Irish and Brits on here. God help you the next time you criticize Aer Lingus; the whataboutism comparisons with the US and non relevant political mentions of our incoming president and of Israel in these comments seem up to par with everything else about European insecurity right now.
Interesting to read of this.
Last Summer I flew from Liverpool to Washington DC (via Dublin) and they printed a thru-ticket at Liverpool with no fuss.
We definitely didn’t have to collect our bags and chdck in again.
Have always found Liverpool a much better airport to use than Manchester.