Earthman
Aug 4, 05, 9:31 am
First report here so be gentle :D
I've flown club world a few times and am familiar with the flat bed so I was a bit worried about what sort of seat EI would have, having found no photo on the net and well CW does spoil you.
I'll combine both legs in this report (Airbus A330 200 ):
Firstly we flew down from Dublin full fare economy,we collected our boarding passes at the Gold circle desk in Dublin, there was no queue and it was straight off to the Dublin aer lingus lounge.
It's nothing special as you probably know ,just a coffee and tea machine with assorted biscuits,cheese and crackers etc available and one tv if you want to watch the likes of CNN or Sky or ITV or something.
Anyways on to shannon where we had less than an hours lay over so it was straight to the USA immigration desk to get the passport stamped,hand in that green form,get the customs form stamp , photo taken,fingerprints etc.
This was to prove very handy on landing in jfk as there were no queues,it was straight through to the customs officer(as we were travelling with hand baggage only) and literally out into the arrivals hall withing 5 minutes of deplane-ing (nice american word I think,at least I hadnt heard it over here before)
Now the next bit has pictures :)
On the Monday we returned and were checked in in seconds and went straight to the jfk Aer lingus lounge.
We were worried about this as someone here on this board had said it was no great shakes and contimplated taking the air train over to the terraces if necessary...
I have to say I was impressed,the Lounge is not the terraces but its not far off it to be honest and while its titled as the aer lingus gold circle lounge,its shared with Emirates and Northwest amongst others.
These window seats (http://members.boards.ie/man/CIMG0127.JPG) were very relaxing and had a view out to the planes boarding and taking off.
The kitchen area (http://members.boards.ie/man/CIMG0128.JPG) had loads of snacks and sandwiches :) here (http://members.boards.ie/man/CIMG0129.JPG) is another view of it.
The lounge is quite big and down towards the other end theres more seating and a tastefully decorated library library (http://members.boards.ie/man/CIMG0130.JPG)
This (http://members.boards.ie/man/CIMG0131.JPG) is a better view of the library complete with loads of British,Irish and European papers as well as loads of books including novels.
I thought that library was a nice olde world touch.
The lounge also had a free internet cafe area with 3 nice new pc's with flat screens: picture (http://members.boards.ie/man/CIMG0132.JPG)
There was also a TV area styled like a cinema (http://members.boards.ie/man/CIMG0126.JPG) , you asked for the earphones from the front desk.
The flight was called so we hurried back to board the plane.
Here (http://members.boards.ie/man/CIMG0124.JPG) is the seat.
Now if you have been spoiled with the excelent fully flat bed seats on any airline that has them, then you will be disappointed with this.It's adequate though foe a 5 1/2 hr flight to Ireland but a let down(not literally unfortunately)and reclines only slightly more than say BA premium economy.It's wider I think and some rest is possble, but you would want to be very tired to get a decent sleep there. I thought it was comparable to a comfortable armchair.This is where EI need to cop on so hopefully on their next plane orders...
The ptv's were similar to the ones on BA club world but with only 9 tv channels, four of which played recent/current movies.
The food was lovely throughout,and I chose the roast beef as a main,we had already been given very tasty canopé's.
My flash left me down unfoirtunately with a very over flashed picture of the dishes but the desrt came out well, I chose a yummy Ice cream (http://members.boards.ie/man/CIMG0137.JPG) with a blackberry centre.
We were also treated to a breakfast that could have included a cereal about an hour before landing in Shannon.
The stewardesses were nice and helpfull on all legs.
As this flight stopped off in shannon, we got off for a half hour and investigated the shannon lounge-a very disappointing place with a few snacks and it was smaller than the Dublin one.
I'm still mightilly impressed with the JFK one though, if only they could do that in Dublin aswell...
The flight back to Dublin lasted about a half hour and our "priority" premier bags( yes we did a lot of shopping :D ) were actually off the plane so fast that they were on the special "premier" carousel when we got to it with no delay-the economy passengers had to wait for theirs on another carousel.
I've flown club world a few times and am familiar with the flat bed so I was a bit worried about what sort of seat EI would have, having found no photo on the net and well CW does spoil you.
I'll combine both legs in this report (Airbus A330 200 ):
Firstly we flew down from Dublin full fare economy,we collected our boarding passes at the Gold circle desk in Dublin, there was no queue and it was straight off to the Dublin aer lingus lounge.
It's nothing special as you probably know ,just a coffee and tea machine with assorted biscuits,cheese and crackers etc available and one tv if you want to watch the likes of CNN or Sky or ITV or something.
Anyways on to shannon where we had less than an hours lay over so it was straight to the USA immigration desk to get the passport stamped,hand in that green form,get the customs form stamp , photo taken,fingerprints etc.
This was to prove very handy on landing in jfk as there were no queues,it was straight through to the customs officer(as we were travelling with hand baggage only) and literally out into the arrivals hall withing 5 minutes of deplane-ing (nice american word I think,at least I hadnt heard it over here before)
Now the next bit has pictures :)
On the Monday we returned and were checked in in seconds and went straight to the jfk Aer lingus lounge.
We were worried about this as someone here on this board had said it was no great shakes and contimplated taking the air train over to the terraces if necessary...
I have to say I was impressed,the Lounge is not the terraces but its not far off it to be honest and while its titled as the aer lingus gold circle lounge,its shared with Emirates and Northwest amongst others.
These window seats (http://members.boards.ie/man/CIMG0127.JPG) were very relaxing and had a view out to the planes boarding and taking off.
The kitchen area (http://members.boards.ie/man/CIMG0128.JPG) had loads of snacks and sandwiches :) here (http://members.boards.ie/man/CIMG0129.JPG) is another view of it.
The lounge is quite big and down towards the other end theres more seating and a tastefully decorated library library (http://members.boards.ie/man/CIMG0130.JPG)
This (http://members.boards.ie/man/CIMG0131.JPG) is a better view of the library complete with loads of British,Irish and European papers as well as loads of books including novels.
I thought that library was a nice olde world touch.
The lounge also had a free internet cafe area with 3 nice new pc's with flat screens: picture (http://members.boards.ie/man/CIMG0132.JPG)
There was also a TV area styled like a cinema (http://members.boards.ie/man/CIMG0126.JPG) , you asked for the earphones from the front desk.
The flight was called so we hurried back to board the plane.
Here (http://members.boards.ie/man/CIMG0124.JPG) is the seat.
Now if you have been spoiled with the excelent fully flat bed seats on any airline that has them, then you will be disappointed with this.It's adequate though foe a 5 1/2 hr flight to Ireland but a let down(not literally unfortunately)and reclines only slightly more than say BA premium economy.It's wider I think and some rest is possble, but you would want to be very tired to get a decent sleep there. I thought it was comparable to a comfortable armchair.This is where EI need to cop on so hopefully on their next plane orders...
The ptv's were similar to the ones on BA club world but with only 9 tv channels, four of which played recent/current movies.
The food was lovely throughout,and I chose the roast beef as a main,we had already been given very tasty canopé's.
My flash left me down unfoirtunately with a very over flashed picture of the dishes but the desrt came out well, I chose a yummy Ice cream (http://members.boards.ie/man/CIMG0137.JPG) with a blackberry centre.
We were also treated to a breakfast that could have included a cereal about an hour before landing in Shannon.
The stewardesses were nice and helpfull on all legs.
As this flight stopped off in shannon, we got off for a half hour and investigated the shannon lounge-a very disappointing place with a few snacks and it was smaller than the Dublin one.
I'm still mightilly impressed with the JFK one though, if only they could do that in Dublin aswell...
The flight back to Dublin lasted about a half hour and our "priority" premier bags( yes we did a lot of shopping :D ) were actually off the plane so fast that they were on the special "premier" carousel when we got to it with no delay-the economy passengers had to wait for theirs on another carousel.