I was not admitted to the flight!!! i need a refund for this.
One of the best flights I've been on in a while. Very genuinely friendly staff. Courteous, kind, respectful. On a past flight (not Aer Lingus) I remember being woken up rudely to put my seat forward. Like a child being berated for something. Oddly jarring experience when someone could just tap you gently on the shoulder and gesture kindly. But I noticed the Aer Lingus staff were incredibly patient with everyone on the plane. It's the holiday season and I noticed a lot more elderly customers on the plane than I typically see flying, and the staff went above and beyond with helping accommodate people. Service throughout the flight was flawless. They came through offering water, and picking up garbage at perfect intervals. Seemed like this flight, everyone was on point. And the flight landed early on top of that
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
Seats are small, but comfortable and more space around you, so for a normal person the seats are perfect. If you are a big and fat individual, I would not think the seats are comfortable. All else was good and normal. Lots of movies to watch.
It all went very well, except for the ramp coordination upon landing in Boston. That, however, was resolved in fairly short order.
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 same as I stated prior. We incurred extra costs that should be reimbursed, given we were not communicated with about schedule changes.
My experience with Aer Lingus was not too good. First, because of the last minute delayed flight from Amsterdam to Dublin we almost missed our flight from Dublin to Philadelphia. Secondly, the flight from Dublin to Philadelphia had very uncomfortable seats especially it was a very long flight. My buttocks were constantly in pain for sitting on these seats for this long. Lastly, the service in the plane was also slow. I asked for a second cup of water and the hostess told me he'll be right back with that where it took him over an hour to come back with water. It was warm in the plane and I was very thirsty. Overall this airline needs much improvement in their services.
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!!
Experience was great overall. However, the connection time between my flights (1hr 15 mins) was too short. We had to get through security check and US immigration in that time, and I made it to the gate just as they were announcing it was about to close. Flights with such a short connection time should maybe not be offered for purchase, or an advance alert would be helpful. Other than that the in-flight experience was excellent, especially the food. Many thanks!
