Got us to destination alive, albeit a bit late. Luggage was left behind. No live tracking app available (available on some other airlines). Supposedly going to be delivered in next couple of days.
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.
My seat was broken. No sound available and the armrest between my wife and I was broken so it could only fold halfway up. Seats were a big close together so they felt a bit claustrophobic. Boarding was a little frustrating in Dublin as there is not sufficient room to actually queue up. Boarding was also frustrating for people behind me who were unable to use the overhead due to people abusing the privilege and putting more than one item each up there. Staff was friendly and helpful to those people.
The staff was amazing, so friendly and responsive. Check in was tedious as the online service was not available and the desk understaffed. It took a full hour in line to check in. The seats, in economy, where quite spacious until the people in front of us reclined their seats which then meant the seat was touching our knees. The inconsiderate people who were seated in a bulkhead kept their seats reclined for 80% of the flight and then got annoyed when we bumped their seats while shifting positions. It was highly unpleasant..
The connection time between the regional flight (from Newcastle) to an international flight (to The States) was too short. To require as second security scan and customs clearance within an hour and 20 mins is not enough time to make the actual connection. We had a final boarding call the minute we walked out of US customs and had to sprint (with two small children) through 20 gates to make it in time before the door closed. The concept is great in theory to clear customs before leaving Europe, but the timing needs to be adjusted. We travel abroad frequently and won’t be using this route again. Thanks.
Canceled my flight couple hours before takeoff. They could not find a decent re-routing and refused to pay for when i subjected alternative with Lufthansa.
Seats a little to soft on the SFO DUB flight
I was not admitted to the flight!!! I need a refund for this
Well, I think we left close to on time. Crew was “eh”.
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
