Aer Lingus

We are booked on Aer Lingus for our next cruise. Has anyone had any experience with them? We will be on an Oct. transatlantic and hear a lot about missing luggage.

On international flights , If I have checked bags, I only check them to the connecting city. It's a real hassle to have to claim your bags and then check them again to the final destination but it reduces the risk of your bags getting miss routed and is a lot less of a hassle than being without them when you arrive in a foreign country.

On international flights , If I have checked bags, I only check them to the connecting city. It's a real hassle to have to claim your bags and then check them again to the final destination but it reduces the risk of your bags getting miss routed and is a lot less of a hassle than being without them when you arrive in a foreign country.

Hmm, I didn't know you could check them to the connection and then re-check for the final leg. That might be a hassle for sure, as we start in Oklahoma City. That would mean several re-checks and I'm not sure we have the time between flights to go back and forth through security. But as you said, being without luggage is a pain. Especially since we will be on a cruise ship going from port to port.

On international flights , If I have checked bags, I only check them to the connecting city. It's a real hassle to have to claim your bags and then check them again to the final destination but it reduces the risk of your bags getting miss routed and is a lot less of a hassle than being without them when you arrive in a foreign country.

I didn't know you could only check to one of the connections. That would be a hassle as we start in Oklahoma City and it would mean several re-checks. I'm not sure we'd have the time to go back and forth through security. But as you said, it's a bigger hassle to not have luggage and we will be going from port to port. Something to consider.

I have flown Aer Lingus out of Boston a couple of times to Ireland for business. They seem to me to be OK, no better or no worse than American, Delta, US Air etc. I fly about 100,000 miles per year.

Check out http://www.flyertalk.com

You will find that most people trash the airline. When we flew them, we found their service to be average.

Does anyone know if they have food service and if so, is it included with your fare or do you pay separate?

We used Air Lingus for our Ireland trip. Enjoyed the service.

We are booked on Aer Lingus for our next cruise. Has anyone had any experience with them? We will be on an Oct. transatlantic and hear a lot about missing luggage.

I have never heard of that airline. Will you be staying in the city that the ship leaves from a day or two before you sail? If so, and if the worst happens and your luggage is lost, you would have time to get them before you sail.

Hope it works out for you and you have a wonderful cruise.

Does anyone know if they have food service and if so, is it included with your fare or do you pay separate?

Food included

Here's more info:

http://www.aerlingus.com/cgi-bin/obel01im1/Services/cabin_comfort.jsp?BV_SessionID=@@@@1135061068.1192396568@@@@&BV_EngineID=cccfaddmfgmjelfcefecfigdffgdfkh.0&P_OID=-8074&Category=3

Check out http://www.flyertalk.com

 

You will find that most people trash the airline. When we flew them, we found their service to be average.

You have to take most of the trashing on Flyertalk with a grain of salt. A good percentage of those that post on Flyertalk fly first class 90% of the time, fly the world's best airlines-Singapore, Cathay, Qantas, BA and LAN, and feel really deprived if they have to fly in a "non suite" first class cabin.

Aer Lingus doesn't compete on any of those levels. Hence, the trashing. I have flown them intra Europe quite a few times and they are certainly MUCH better than Ryan Air or Easy Jet for about the same price. NO, they aren't BA, but they are definitely on the same level as most American carriers in coach.

I flew Aer Lingus from BOS to SNN, and onto LHR last month. The outbound flight included a dinner meal that I had pre-ordered, low fat & low sodium. Non alcoholic beverages were complimentary. However, the return flight, Barcelona to Dublin fell short. We had to be bussed onto the tarmack to board the plane, which is standard in Barcelona. Since we were about a forty minutes late leaving Spain, it was a mad dash to make our connection. We bought snack packs and coffee on the flight - nothing was free. Our luggage was ticketed through to final destination, BOS, but we did not have boarding passed for the TA as the attendant in Spain said we had to get them in Ireland. Ugh, and finding Aer Lingus's customer service booth was another challenge. We found our gate just as they were starting to board. If we had to claim luggage on either connection, we would not have made the second leg of each flight. I had ordered a low sodium meal and a low fat, but only got the low fat. The flight attendant told me to speak with Aer Lingus in Boston when I arrived to let them know! The plane to BOS was much older than the one we flew going to Europe. I planned to watch a few movies on the seat back, but this particular A330 only had the drop down TV's.

Considering the price difference between what the cruise line wanted and the final cost of our air and private transfers [and food & beverages], we were ahead by about $600.

Darcy