paulg

I am in the middle of planning a trip to both Ireland and Scotland. A key part of this trip is that we are flying in and out of Dublin (much cheaper than a multi-city trip), so the timing of the round-trip from Dublin to Edinburgh and back is important to saving as much time as possible for the site-seeing. We are flying out of Dublin to return home to the US at 10:45am. The earliest flight I can get into Dublin is a RyanAir flight from Edinburgh at 8am that arrives in Dublin at 9:05am. I'm curious if anyone has done this or understands the Dublin airport enough to answer this question. Question: Is it at all possible to transfer from a domestic RyanAir flight to an international Delta flight in the 1:40 allotted (9:05am to 10:45am)? My gut feeling from many other travels is no way, but I've never done a domestic/international transfer like this between different airlines, and maybe the Dublin airport is special in this way. The obvious alternative is to arrive the day prior and spend an extra night in Dublin (or even reverse the entire trip and start in Scotland), but this is a more complicated option I'd like to avoid if possible. Thanks in advance.

janisj

Do not fly in to DUB the morning of a morning flight out. You should 100% fly in the evening before.

OR -- rearrange your itinerary so you fly from DUB to Scotland the day of arrival and finish up your trip w/ the Ireland bits.

paulg

Thanks, janisj. That's what I was afraid of. I just did a bit of Google searching as well and came up with the same bit of advice. In fact, I was seeing a minimum of 3-4 hours required if coming in on RyanAir. My alternate plan already has us flying to EDI that first day like you say, so I'll guess I'll proceed with this plan.

janisj

Your bags will not be interlined. And Delta may require you to be at DUB 2 hours (or even longer) prior to departure.

>>My alternate plan already has us flying to EDI that first day like you say, so I'll guess I'll proceed with this plan.<<

I'd book a flight to EDI about 4 hours after arrival. The transfer won't take 4 hours at DUB but that would give you a little wiggle room.

paulg

Perfect, that's what I was thinking as well. We arrive at 8:45am and I'm looking at a RyanAir flight departing at 12:45pm or AirLingus at 1:05pm. Thanks again.

Macross

Dublin arrival is very quick unless there is a problem. My freind and I both checked bags since it was a straight through. Her bag was brand new bright blue, very easy to find on the baggage claim. We waited and waited for said bag. There was an older blue bag that kept riding around and we pulled it off and took it to the counter. We explained to aer lingus that this guy had to have taken her blue bag. We gave name on bag and they looked him up and found his number. He was through immigration and on the way to Dublin in a taxi. He had to turn around and come back, aer lingus had to walk him back through to baggage claim and return bag and get his own. Took around 1.5 hours total. We were happy to have bag back so end of story but who would have thought?
Three hours is needed in Dublin for flight to US. We love to duty free shop so never do less.

Southam

Your transfer must include time for the US immigration procedure that is done in Dublin rather than when you arrive in the US. Ryanair does not provide connections with anybody.

Like most airports, Dublin has a useful website where you can check the layout for yourself. Click on the flight connections button here: https://www.dublinairport.com/

Where were you considering as a departure airport in Scotland? And where is your US airport? It is unusual that a multi-city itinerary will be much more expensive. Even allowing that Ryanair has some very cheap flights, flying back to Dublin will also cost you time and hassle.

Sassafrass

Think of this. You have the cost of the flight back to Dublin plus the cost of a night in the hotel in Dublin. Might as well fly home from Scotland the night before because going to Dublin the night before does not give you any more sight seeing time, but will cost the extra flight and hotel.

Did you look at multi-city or multi-destination tickets or two, one-way?

paulg

Multi-city were minimum $400 more per person and up to $600 more and we are a group of 4. Ryanair flights are ~ $60 round-trip (Aer Lingus are ~ $150 if I need schedule flexibility), so it's enough of a savings that it was worth the extra bit of hassle. This is between DUB and EDI. Trust me, I understand the implications. There is not the cost of an extra night of hotel if you arrange the trip properly to where you end the trip in the city you fly out of, which is what we are doing now. The only extra cost is the island hopper flight and the time for the flights ... we decided this was worth the $1000+ savings.

Sassafrass

You are right about that! That is a lot of money. Many people do not know what you knew, and they look at one way instead of multi-city. That is why I mentioned it. Looks as if you are set now.

paulg

Yeah, we got what seems to be a pretty good fair round-trip to DUB ($850) on Delt (at least it was much lower than when we previously checked) so it was tough to pass up. Thanks for the additional discussion.

paulg

Correction: $950 including fees on Delta.

bvlenci

<i> Your transfer must include time for the US immigration procedure that is done in Dublin rather than when you arrive in the US. </i>

My daughter had an awful time with the US immigration procedure in Dublin this summer. In spite of having allowed two hours, she almost missed her flight. She said the signs were confusing also.

Macross

There are more airports getting ready to do this. A friend is going to Madrid soon. UK is hoping to do the same. It has its pros and cons. I have done Dublin pre clearance four times and like it.
I get what your doing. We just usually stay a few days before and after in Dublin.