I got a flight change notice from Aer Lingus stating they're cutting their Dublin to Edinburgh flights to only two a day. I had a 10:45 flight booked to connect from my 9:10 transatlantic flight, but they switched me to a 7:10pm flight out. This effectively cuts a the first day out of Edinburgh for my honeymoon trip leaving me a day and a half before we leave for Mull. I'm considering trying to see if Aer Lingus would cancel this leg without penalty since they cancelled my flight, and trying another airline. I see dirt cheap flights on Ryanair saving me just a few hours (leaves at 3pm instead of 7:10), but I'm not very familiar with Ryanair. Does anyone have any thoughts or advice to offer? Basically I'm looking for someone to tell me if it's worth it to book on Ryanair to get 4 extra hours of daylight in Edinburgh on our first day of our trip.<BR>thanks

Ryanair is a good airline to fly so long as you don't cancel or change . The prices are dirt cheap but if you need to cancel or change they will clean you out. check www.ryanair.com. I would fly them. I belive they have a lower baggage weight allowance. Like 35 lbs. Check first.

I do belive you are entitled to a full refund from aer lingus. Just be firm and insist. they cancelled not you.

Is your transatlantic flight with Aer Lingus as well?

Yes, my transatlantic flight is with aer lingus. we're going to scotland, but will spend a week in Ireland and that seemed like a great plan, but booking 7 or 8 months in advanced obviously has it's drawbacks because I might have gone another route if I knew they were going to cancel the flights. thanks for your input.

By the way, does anyone know any other options for going directly from Dublin to Edinburgh? Ryanair's flight leaves in the afternoon, but if I can get one earlier, that's certainly better.<BR>thanks

There are British Airways flights, either direct or changing at Manchester or - really exotically - the Isle of Man (which, technically, is an independent country)<BR>BTW almost all European airports publish their timetables on the Web: just search for the airport concerned.<BR>Details of this at http://www.dublin-airport.com/AR_Dub...e=DN_Timetable

You may also want to look at Dublin to Glasgow. It shouldn�t be much more than an hour extra time from GLA to Edinburgh by bus than from EDI to Edinburgh.<BR><BR>But I suspect this may be a futile search. The airline business is hurting, so all we are seeing on these short hauls are morning and evening flights for the convenience of same day return business travellers.

If you're thinking of flying to Glasgow, do be aware that Glasgow Prestwick is about as far from Edinburgh as it's possible to be and still be in Scotland.

Ryanair are cheap, although getting more expensive. Their planes are clean and usually on time but the drawback is that all their staff appear to hate the customers. This would also appear to apply to their top management, note the way they have treat Buzz customers.

I don't like to use the discount airlines for connecting flights. The reason is that if you overseas flight is delayed, the discount airline will not honor your ticket on a later flight. Obviously in this case you have several hours so you'd probably be okay.<BR><BR>Are you just stopping in Dublin to connect to Edinburgh, or will you be spending time in Ireland? Unless you've already paid for accommodation in Scotland, you could rearrange your schedule so that you do Scotland at the end, rather than the beginning, so you don't lose that whole day.

Thanks for the tip Ann41- I've decided it probably is too risky to connect the same day from a transatlantic flight. Although Ryanair does look like it's got great deals. I'll sleep over in Dublin then go on to Edinburgh the next day. We can't change the order of our trip because we're getting married in Scotland (no residency restrictions) and then honeymooning in Ireland (lots of marraige restrictions). Anyone know a good hotel near the airport for an overnight before our early morning flight out?
thanks