galway, ireland on AA

 
Old Jan 6, 2008, 11:15 am
  #1  
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galway, ireland on AA

I have a business meeting in Galway and would like to fly transatlantic, upgrading with eVIPs. I have checked Expert Flyer and it seems I have 3 options.
1. ORD-DUB-ORD. No available upgrades at this time. 3 hour bus from DUB to Galway.
2. ORD-MAN-DUB-ORD Available upgrade only on ORD-MAN. Still a 3 hour bus each way.
3. ORD-MAN-GWY-MAN-ORD Transatlantic upgrades available. MAN-GWY is operated by RE (AER ARANN). No bus needed. But cannot book on RE at AA.com. Any info on AER ARANN? I guess I would need 2 reservations. Would I have to go through immigration at Manchester?
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Old Jan 6, 2008, 11:26 am
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Your only question seems to relate to immigration in Manchester, and as departures to Ireland are considered akin to domestic flights from the UK you will need to go through some sort of passport check in MAN although i don't think you need to complete the UK landing card. In LHR they do a passport check in the FCC when transiting to a Ireland flight.

I would take the direct flight to Dublin and avoid the UK. You could fly from DUB to SNN and then Galway is under an hour drive, or you could take the bus. I would be surprised if the upgrade on the ORD-DUB flight did not clear- what is the I class availability?
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Old Jan 6, 2008, 11:37 am
  #3  
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Thanks for the advice. J class ORD-DUB is at least 3/4 empty. Maybe I will just take my chances with the upgrade.
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Old Jan 6, 2008, 11:48 am
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for some reason aa.com won't price ord-dub-snn-dub-ord but aerlingus fly dub-snn-dub so you can get aa miles. call aa and ask them to price it out on one ticket.
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Old Jan 6, 2008, 11:48 am
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I would recommend going to Dublin from ORD and connect in Dublin to Aer Arran who fly DUB - GWY. A travel agent should be able to get you an interline ticket or else buy a separate ticket on www.skyroad.com. AT DUB you will clear immigration - depending on your ticket you may have your bags cleared to GWY. At worst you will lose about 300 miles RT on the DUB - GWY legs

Aer Arran are a small efficient airline on the Ryanair model - they operate ATR turboprobs and flight time to GWY is about 40 mins. The airport is very convenient for most of the industrial estates/business parks in Galway

Let me know how you get on with the ORD Evip upgrade as I plan to fly that a lot this year and have 8 to burn...
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Old Jan 6, 2008, 11:49 am
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Why take a bus when you could go first class on the train?
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Old Jan 6, 2008, 3:01 pm
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The Bus is more than 3 hours!!! Could take you that long to get out of Dublin on a bad day. The road from Galway to Dublin is a nightmare and is prone to delays as some of it is single carriageway. Roads out of Dublin are some of the most congested in Europe due to woefully inadequate public transport in the Republic. Aer Arran are fine and the flight is only 35-40 mins from DUB, sale on at the moment of 20 euros each way. You will need separate bookings though and as they are a low cost operation there will be no interlining of bags etc. SNN is only an hour away too.

GWY is a tiny little airport. No walking, hardly any queues for security, not prone to delays so very quick and easy to get through but not many facilities.

Last edited by BRSlad; Jan 6, 2008 at 3:13 pm
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Old Jan 6, 2008, 3:36 pm
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IMHO, I'd tend to go with the routing where upgrades would clear for sure, however, I haven't experienced upgrades to DUB not clearing, nor can I recall reading of ORD-DUB being one of those routes where upgrades never clear.


If you decide to go thru MAN, at least it is not NEARLY as bad as, say, Heathrow.
While there's no OW "F" lounge for an EXP, the BA Terraces lounge MAN is very nice.

Last edited by skye1; Jan 6, 2008 at 8:10 pm
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Old Jan 6, 2008, 4:51 pm
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As someone who lives in Ireland I would suggest ORD-DUB-ORD, I'd be very VERY suprised if the upgrade didn't clear, infact I'm surprised there's no availability now, I've never seen ORD-DUB-ORD full in J.

Then take AerArann to Galway. It might be an idea to try to use a travel agent and get an interline ticket or else leave plenty of time between flights on the return, Galway airport does suffer delays from time to time with fog.

Taking the bus is possible, there is a privatly run bus service from Dublin Airport to Galway citylink.ie, taking the public bus is too much hassle, getting a bus into the city and then another back to Galway could take 5 or 6 hours. Same with the train, you have to get into the city and the trains are not very frequent.

If you don't mind the smaller planes Aer Arann is the way to go.
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Old Jan 6, 2008, 8:07 pm
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Originally Posted by circusboy
Then take AerArann to Galway. It might be an idea to try to use a travel agent and get an interline ticket or else leave plenty of time between flights on the return, Galway airport does suffer delays from time to time with fog.
Will AerArann let you take "1 bag plus 1 personal item" into the cabin on that Dublin-Galway flight? (Someone else said it was on the "RyanAir model", and RyanAir certainly wouldn't.) If you're traveling AA with carryon only (the OP didn't say either way), it's likely that much, and thus connecting to a budget flight that doesn't allow that much means checking one bag and waiting for it at the other end, whereas on the bus or train you can take it all with you.
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Old Jan 6, 2008, 8:23 pm
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Originally Posted by sdsearch
Will AerArann let you take "1 bag plus 1 personal item" into the cabin on that Dublin-Galway flight? (Someone else said it was on the "RyanAir model", and RyanAir certainly wouldn't.) If you're traveling AA with carryon only (the OP didn't say either way), it's likely that much, and thus connecting to a budget flight that doesn't allow that much means checking one bag and waiting for it at the other end, whereas on the bus or train you can take it all with you.
I'm not sure how they would approach this from Dublin, if the ticket was interlined I wouldn't see a problem as they would allow him take it on board, if he had to check in again in Dublin this could be more of a problem, however Galway is such a small airport the luggage can be off the aircraft quicker than the passengers. I wouldn't see this being an issue on the return from Galway.

Taking the train is a much slower option overall. 45 minutes min from airport to station, then 2hr 45 minutes on the train vs 25 minute flight, even if the OP had to wait for luggage overall it would be much quicker. Aer Arann is on most occassions cheaper than a first class train ticket.

Last edited by circusboy; Jan 6, 2008 at 8:29 pm
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Old Jan 6, 2008, 8:32 pm
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Originally Posted by circusboy
I'm not sure how they would approach this from Dublin, if the ticket was interlined I wouldn't see a problem as they would allow him take it on board, if he had to check in again in Dublin this could be more of a problem, however Galway is such a small airport the luggage can be off the aircraft quicker than the passengers. I wouldn't see this being an issue on the return from Galway.
That of course assumes what is in one of the bags can be safely checked.

I often fly with laptop and other electronic stuff in the personal item bag, and a camera bag (with SLR and lenses) stuffed into my rollaboard. Both of those contents are things that the airlines won't insure and recommend you always carry on.

Now, perhaps with just the right bag I could combine all my valuable stuff into one bag. But it's a big hassle (it doesn't allow for it to be subdivided the way it's convenient). But I know photographers whose rollaboard is a hard Pelican case full of photo equipment, with no room for the laptop, so that still has to go in the additional "personal item".

So it's not always just a timing hassle to check the second bag...
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Old Jan 26, 2008, 12:06 pm
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[]delete

Last edited by SPEIDEN; Jan 26, 2008 at 12:15 pm
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Old Jan 26, 2008, 12:42 pm
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I too am traveling to the west (Castlebar) from Dublin. I arrive at 8;35am and the flight to Knock is at 6:15 Pm for 20 euro. Another alternative is the train Dublin Heuston leave 12:40 arrive Castlebar 15:58 Do I have enough
time to make it to the train station? How do I get from the airport to the train station?? I do not understand the seating on the train
Premier seats Standard seats Ticket only It is a 3 1/2 hr train ride if you buy ticket only do you stand the whole way??? Why cant you buy tickets on the train for more than 28 days in advance. A round trip ticket on the train is 44 Euro. Another way is the bus It leaves at 11;15 cost 19 Euro but is 4 hours. I am thinking after 8 hours in a plane do I really want 4 hours in a bus. What would you do or do you have any other suggestions?
I also needed a hotel for my return as we leave at 10:30 and we want to be at the airport 2.5 hours early and it is at least a 3 hour ride so I booked Days Inn for $111.00 Anyone know anything about this hotel. I realize this is the American forum but I saw this topic already posted and I will also post this in the Uk section. Thanks for any suggestions>
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Old Jan 26, 2008, 2:00 pm
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If you arrive in DUB in the morning on AA, a 12:40pm train should be enough time to get to the city center. There is a bus that services the airport to right near the train station for right around 10 Euro (if not a bit under), or you can cab it for probably 40 Euro. The airport is quite close to the city center, so you shouldn't have any problem.
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