Satin first class and absolutely no snacks are offered. Surface was awful.
The trip was mostly nice, till the last moment when they had some issue with opening the flight door. The flight arrived late by 10 minutes, which was ok-ish, but then we got stuck on the plane for 35 minutes at the bridge and that costed our connection flight to LAX which left with 12+ passengers still on our flight. It added 2 days to our trip home, and we had to make lots of rearrangements to deal with the ripple effects. Don't book a 1+ stop trip with a layover time less than 2 hours.
I was not admitted to the flight!!! I need a refund for this
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.
Crew was friendly and helpful, plane was comfortable would fly with them again
The actual flight experience was great. The handling of my luggage was terrible. First, I had to check in at the airport and wasn’t able to check in online because they booked me with a partner carrier in the U.S. that was incredibly inconvenient. I was also told that I would have to check in again with the partner airline in the U.S., also incredibly inconvenient at a large airport. Second, when I was at the counter, they did not tell me my carryon was too big. I only found that out when I tried to board the plane. I don’t know that it actually was too big though. It’s a standard sized carry on that I’ve never had issue with on any planes before. They assured me my bag would be checked all the way to my final destination. Due to flight from Paris to Dublin being delayed, I was rebooked on a different transatlantic flight to the U.S., which resulted in a different connecting flight to my final destination. My luggage was rerouted and I was assured it would be at my final destination. When I got to Newark, I received multiple phone calls alerting me that my bag was across the airport at a different terminal and that I needed to go pick it up near the baggage carousels. In the Newark airport, every terminal has its own security checkpoint. Leaving any terminal and entering another one requires a security check. At this point, I had to go through security in Paris, then again for US customs and pre-clearance at Dublin, then a third time when I had to change terminals at Newark for my connecting flight home. It was at this point I received the call that I needed to retrieve my bag from literally the opposite end of the airport and go through security A FOURTH TIME. These was no notification that I needed to do this before I went to the gate for my final flight. It took me an hour to go do all this, after I had already been traveling for 19 hours while sick and should have been home already were it not for the delay of my original flight. I retrieved the bag. My carryon became a carryon again and fit just fine on the last plane, by the way. I would also like to mention that my TSA flight information was not included on my ticket, so once again, I had to go to the airline counter to get my ticket corrected and reprinted before I could go through security and try to save myself time. Finally, I have celiac disease and prefer not to eat meat. There was literally no food I could eat on the seven and a half hour flight across the Atlantic. When the flight attendant woke me up for dinner (I would have preferred to sleep), I asked if there were any gluten free options. I was told the only option was chicken. I begrudgingly accepted because it was the only option, hoping anything else in the meal could be eaten. There was plain rice and a few green beans. The side dish was teriyaki vegetables containing gluten. There was a piece of bread, containing gluten. There was a custard, containing gluten. I could eat literally nothing except the very small amount of rice and green beans. When the same flight attendant came around again, while I was sleeping, a sandwich was placed in front of me, again food I could not eat. And this was after I got to the flight to find that my newly assigned seat on my transatlantic flight had been given to someone else! It’s like nobody communicates over there. This airline has the worst logistics of any airline I have ever been on, and I travel frequently. Dear Aer Lingus, DO BETTER.
Conveyer belt at the check in area stopped working and check in process was significantly slowed down.
Wonderful experience from start to finish. Extremely nice flight staff and much better food than other airlines I have used. Arrived right on time.
Coming from the EU to the USA, Aer Lingus is a very good choice. You clear U.S. border control while still at the departure airport, so when you land in the States, you don’t need to go through the entry process again — very efficient and fast. In terms of comfort, Aer Lingus is better than the usual EU carriers like KLM, Lufthansa, or Air France, and also better than United. There’s more legroom, and the crew is helpful and kind. The food is average but slightly better than most airlines. Overall, the crew is definitely better than on American Airlines, though not quite at the level of Virgin.
The check in process at CDG was absolutely unacceptable. We arrived to the airport 3 hours and 20 minutes before our departure time, waited in line for 1 hour and 30 minutes to check in (despite having checked in online and only needing to check a bag), then were forced to check all of our rolling luggage despite the fact that all were compliant with carry-on requirements. The staff at the desk were rude and there were only two desks open, while eight people were working. The check in desk wasn’t even opened on time (3 hours prior to departure) and there was no communication about when it would open or why there was a delay. We feared missing our flight because the departure board was not updated, so rushed to our gate to board once we were through security because it was 20 minutes prior to departure, only to wait another 30 minutes before boarding even started. Communication was lacking throughout the process. What a horrible end to our trip.
