ireland's airline
 

can anyone tell me about experiences you had on aer lingus... particularly the new york to shannon flight. thanks in advance<BR>aaron

I went in January 2002 it was a good flight the air plane was new 300 air bus had video system in each seat back good food, guiness,and movies and an attractive staff I flew out of Newark return from Dublin

We had a good flight in March into Shannon out of Chicago. Seats are small but then whose isn't. They have a good safety record.

no problems. Boston to shannon was comfortable and on time. Where alse can you get guinness at 35,000ft.?

I have been flying Aer Lingus between Bos and Dub and LHR and Dub since 1993, at least 2-3 times a year. Never a problem, late flight, poor flight or bad service. How's that for a good recommendation?

thanks for all the great replies.

I traveled Dublin to Boston, March 2000. We sat on the tarmac for four hours while they replaced a computer and then we discovered that the first class passengers had been taken off without the rest of us in cattle seeing them and had been allowed to spend that four hours back in the terminal. When we finally did take off, the captain kind of said "well, here goes, we'll hopefully not have any problems." Other than that it was no different than any other trans Atlantic flight.

Only problem we had with Aer Lingus was in regard to luggage.<BR>At Shannon (returning to JFK) they were very rigid about luggage allowances & made us check our carry ons (never had to do this before). I noticed that the plane compartments for luggage were half full so they must have been limiting a lot of passengers.<BR> We argued a bit with the agent, trying not to have to check 1 of the carry ons that had valuables (no time to make adjustments - the airport was a mob scene too). The agent said, in passing, that if we were worried, we could check out how our luggage was at the JFK luggage carrousel (we were going on to SFO). <BR> Good thing he added that: we learned that Aer Lingus didn't check luggage all the way through to SFO. It was up to us to take it off the JFK carrousel, take it to United and check it on through to SFO!<BR> (Going to Ireland, we'd had one piece of checked luggage which United, at SFO, had checked all the way through to Shannon, putting it on Aer Lingus so that it went on to Shannon.)<BR> Don't know why Aer Lingus couldn't extend the same courtesy on the return.

I've flown Aer Lingus about 5 times now. Each time I say never again, and then they offer these cheap fares. But now it's really never ever ever again. The planes are tiny, and usually overheated. If you're delayed because of weather or a mechanical problem (I dealt with 1 weather and 2 mechanical delays), Aer Lingus will do absolutely nothing to help you with your connection, and will be nasty about the fact that they won't help you.<BR><BR>The food is also bad. The only good thing I can say about Aer Lingus is that sometimes they have good fares. But it's just not worth it to me. Of course, you don't have many other options direct to Ireland. Continental is one, and their planes are even smaller. Even though it's a pain, I prefer to connect through London, and fly United or Virgin.

The U.S. doesn't have an "in transit" system the way European airport do. Therefore, you have to claim your luggage at the first stop in the U.S. and recheck it on to your continuing flight after you've cleared customs and immigration. It's a big pain, but it wasn't Aer Lingus' fault.

When I've flown Aer Lingus through JFK, bags were checked through but like at other international airports in the U.S., you must claim your bag to accompany it through customs. I've always been able to give it back to the international carrier for fdelivery to the domestic flight -- never had to take my checked bag and stand in line to check it with the onward airline.

kayd, that's what I was trying to say--that you do have to claim it to go through customs and immigration then you can put it on that other little coveyor belt and pray!