Dublin and Oslo on EI/BA
Jul 29, 2001, 7:27 am
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: Oct 1999
Location: Highland Park, IL USA
Programs: AA PLT 2MM, UA Plat, SPG Gold, HH Gold
Posts: 561
Dublin and Oslo on EI/BA
Just back from holidays in Dublin and Oslo. Overall, some excellent flying experiences. All travel was in business class on a OneWorld mileage award ticket.
Saturday, July 21
EI124, Chicago ORD - DUB
Arrived at Terminal 5 fairly early and there was no queue for check-in. Headed to the EI lounge, with only a few other pax present. Small finger sandwiches, fruit, cheese/crackers, and cookies were set out along with the various beverages. There were no napkins anywhere though which I thought a bit strange.
Boarding of the A330 commenced slightly late, and we took seats 2A/C in the half-full business class. Menus were distributed but no amenity kits, with the purser later explaining that they were not loaded on board which I thought a bit odd...I normally carry at least an eyeshade and earplugs but had neither. This was unfortunate since the person in 3A had seemingly never learned the concept of an "indoor voice"
.
Weather was moving into Chicago so while we originally taxied out to 9R they eventually switched us to 9L...and we got there through the "back roads" by the various maintenance hangars. While I'm sure planes move through there all the time, I've never been aboard. We took off at 8:45 PM, about an hour after schedule.
The dinner service started with drinks, and some small hors d'oveures (one stick carrot, one brocoli floret, a slice of paté, and then shortly thereafter small hot quiches and egg rolls were passed). I kind of felt like we were at a banquet hall, not a plane. Then the main menu commenced, with an appetiser of either crab cake (it was quite yum!) or salami and mixed salad. Baked bread slices were also served. There were five mains to choose from: beef, chicekn, pheasant, sea bass, or vegetarian brochette. Chose the sea bass which was OK but nothing special, and it came with overcooked (crunchy) rice. Dessert was a small plate of petit fours, some cheese, and fruit. In total, it seemed like we must have gone through about 30 different serving pieces -- three forks, four knives, five spoons, etc. Everything labelled "Premier" including the napkin. The glassware is Waterford crystal which I found to be a very nice touch. But I wouldn't want to see the dishwasher's bill for service
The flight itself was fairly uneventful and 3A eventually did fall asleep. The seat pitch was quite generous and I was able to sleep just fine. A continental breakfast was served about 45 minutes prior to landing; because no eye shades were available, pretty much every one woke up when they turned the cabin lights on. We landed in Dublin only 30 minutes late. As other Flyertalkers had said, Premier baggage comes out pretty much immediately, on a separate carousel. Only problem is that there was no signage indicating this, so thanks to those who gave me a "heads up".
We took a taxi into town for IR£12. The hotel of choice was the excellent Morrison Hotel right on the Liffey. I love that place though I had only been once before for a night. Still, they welcomed me back (ah, computers) and even brought a fruit plate to the room shortly after we were settled in. My wife marvelled at the well-thought-out decor and excellent food and service.
Dublin was great -- we visited the usual (Trinity College/Book of Kells, St. Stephen's Green, Dublin Castle) and also did a day trip out to Mallahide Castle. Could have used a couple more days in Ireland...I'll be on the lookout for Aer Lingus specials in the fall.
Tuesday, July 24
EI212 , DUB - Manchester MAN
BA7903, MAN - Oslo Gardermoen OSL
EI offers no direct service between Dublin and Oslo, so we had to connect with either BA or AY on the OneWorld ticket. Our options were pretty simple, LHR or MAN. Having never been to MAN, and seeing that a one hour connection was "legal", as opposed to the two hour stopover at LHR, we chose the former. EI212 was aboard a BAe146 with two class service, about 2/3 full. For only a thirty five minute flight, we were impressed to get an "Aer Lingus Commuter Premier Afternoon Snack" consisting of fruit, kippered salmon, and chocolate truffles.
Arrived at MAN and realized we'd have to change terminals to connect (OneWorld should really try to streamline this at both LHR and at MAN). It was a very long walk to T1, and we had to pass through security and the transfer desk. Still, we arrived at T1 with enough time to check out the BA Terraces lounge which was really nice, comparable to LHR.
We then made our way to the gate for boarding. We had to walk down two flights of stairs to get to the plane, for some reason they did not offer the use of the lift at the gate. We boarded the ERJ145 only for the captain to announce that one of the computers was down. They switched us to a different plane (my wife liked this one better as the tail design was "flower field" instead of "historic ship yard"). This added 30 minutes but wasn't too bad. Anyway, British Regional Air (BA subsidiary) set up this plane, to my surprise, as two class service -- rows 2-4 in front of the magical curtain. No difference in seating, but we did get a cold meal including fruit, fish, and bread. The flight to Oslo was uneventful. Gardermoen airport is very nice but felt very empty at this hour (9 PM), though a few other flights had arrived. They've done a very good job of channeling inbound traffic, in a completely separate level above the departures.
Passport control was the friendliest agent I've ever come across -- asked us what we were planning to see in the country, why we chose Norway, etc. I don't think these were screening questions, she just seemed generally friendly. The luggage was out by the time we got to the claim area. Thankfully, we had read in the tour book to take the "Flytoget" train -- a taxi would have been really expensive. The train came about ten minutes later and was really nice, sort of like the Heathrow Express.
In Oslo, we stayed at the Radisson SAS Scandinavia. This was a fine hotel on the edge of the city center. Arriving as late as we did, it felt a bit isolated, but we warmed to it over the next couple of days.
[This message has been edited by ka9taw (edited 07-29-2001).]
Saturday, July 21
EI124, Chicago ORD - DUB
Arrived at Terminal 5 fairly early and there was no queue for check-in. Headed to the EI lounge, with only a few other pax present. Small finger sandwiches, fruit, cheese/crackers, and cookies were set out along with the various beverages. There were no napkins anywhere though which I thought a bit strange.
Boarding of the A330 commenced slightly late, and we took seats 2A/C in the half-full business class. Menus were distributed but no amenity kits, with the purser later explaining that they were not loaded on board which I thought a bit odd...I normally carry at least an eyeshade and earplugs but had neither. This was unfortunate since the person in 3A had seemingly never learned the concept of an "indoor voice"
.Weather was moving into Chicago so while we originally taxied out to 9R they eventually switched us to 9L...and we got there through the "back roads" by the various maintenance hangars. While I'm sure planes move through there all the time, I've never been aboard. We took off at 8:45 PM, about an hour after schedule.
The dinner service started with drinks, and some small hors d'oveures (one stick carrot, one brocoli floret, a slice of paté, and then shortly thereafter small hot quiches and egg rolls were passed). I kind of felt like we were at a banquet hall, not a plane. Then the main menu commenced, with an appetiser of either crab cake (it was quite yum!) or salami and mixed salad. Baked bread slices were also served. There were five mains to choose from: beef, chicekn, pheasant, sea bass, or vegetarian brochette. Chose the sea bass which was OK but nothing special, and it came with overcooked (crunchy) rice. Dessert was a small plate of petit fours, some cheese, and fruit. In total, it seemed like we must have gone through about 30 different serving pieces -- three forks, four knives, five spoons, etc. Everything labelled "Premier" including the napkin. The glassware is Waterford crystal which I found to be a very nice touch. But I wouldn't want to see the dishwasher's bill for service
The flight itself was fairly uneventful and 3A eventually did fall asleep. The seat pitch was quite generous and I was able to sleep just fine. A continental breakfast was served about 45 minutes prior to landing; because no eye shades were available, pretty much every one woke up when they turned the cabin lights on. We landed in Dublin only 30 minutes late. As other Flyertalkers had said, Premier baggage comes out pretty much immediately, on a separate carousel. Only problem is that there was no signage indicating this, so thanks to those who gave me a "heads up".
We took a taxi into town for IR£12. The hotel of choice was the excellent Morrison Hotel right on the Liffey. I love that place though I had only been once before for a night. Still, they welcomed me back (ah, computers) and even brought a fruit plate to the room shortly after we were settled in. My wife marvelled at the well-thought-out decor and excellent food and service.
Dublin was great -- we visited the usual (Trinity College/Book of Kells, St. Stephen's Green, Dublin Castle) and also did a day trip out to Mallahide Castle. Could have used a couple more days in Ireland...I'll be on the lookout for Aer Lingus specials in the fall.
Tuesday, July 24
EI212 , DUB - Manchester MAN
BA7903, MAN - Oslo Gardermoen OSL
EI offers no direct service between Dublin and Oslo, so we had to connect with either BA or AY on the OneWorld ticket. Our options were pretty simple, LHR or MAN. Having never been to MAN, and seeing that a one hour connection was "legal", as opposed to the two hour stopover at LHR, we chose the former. EI212 was aboard a BAe146 with two class service, about 2/3 full. For only a thirty five minute flight, we were impressed to get an "Aer Lingus Commuter Premier Afternoon Snack" consisting of fruit, kippered salmon, and chocolate truffles.
Arrived at MAN and realized we'd have to change terminals to connect (OneWorld should really try to streamline this at both LHR and at MAN). It was a very long walk to T1, and we had to pass through security and the transfer desk. Still, we arrived at T1 with enough time to check out the BA Terraces lounge which was really nice, comparable to LHR.
We then made our way to the gate for boarding. We had to walk down two flights of stairs to get to the plane, for some reason they did not offer the use of the lift at the gate. We boarded the ERJ145 only for the captain to announce that one of the computers was down. They switched us to a different plane (my wife liked this one better as the tail design was "flower field" instead of "historic ship yard"). This added 30 minutes but wasn't too bad. Anyway, British Regional Air (BA subsidiary) set up this plane, to my surprise, as two class service -- rows 2-4 in front of the magical curtain. No difference in seating, but we did get a cold meal including fruit, fish, and bread. The flight to Oslo was uneventful. Gardermoen airport is very nice but felt very empty at this hour (9 PM), though a few other flights had arrived. They've done a very good job of channeling inbound traffic, in a completely separate level above the departures.
Passport control was the friendliest agent I've ever come across -- asked us what we were planning to see in the country, why we chose Norway, etc. I don't think these were screening questions, she just seemed generally friendly. The luggage was out by the time we got to the claim area. Thankfully, we had read in the tour book to take the "Flytoget" train -- a taxi would have been really expensive. The train came about ten minutes later and was really nice, sort of like the Heathrow Express.
In Oslo, we stayed at the Radisson SAS Scandinavia. This was a fine hotel on the edge of the city center. Arriving as late as we did, it felt a bit isolated, but we warmed to it over the next couple of days.
[This message has been edited by ka9taw (edited 07-29-2001).]
Jul 29, 2001, 7:58 am
#2
Original Poster
Join Date: Oct 1999
Location: Highland Park, IL USA
Programs: AA PLT 2MM, UA Plat, SPG Gold, HH Gold
Posts: 561
Saturday, July 28
BA 7902, OSL-MAN
EI 207, MAN-DUB
EI 129, DUB-ORD
Ah, the dreaded double connection. On the freebie ticket, this was all we could get -- AA was full up on all their LHR-ORD flights in J (and the booking agent strongly discouraged me from "downgrading" to Y, "you don't want to fly coach"). We didn't lose any time with the extra connection -- connecting times at MAN and DUB were both one hour, so just about the same as the two hour connection at LHR -- so we went with it.
We took the airport bus from the Radisson on the return, easier than schlepping to the Sentral Stajsion for the train. Gardermoen airport was a little less efficient on the return. BA is handled by Servisair, and the very small map at each check-in island that shows you where to check in showed Servisair at both islands #1 and #3. We of course went to #3 first when we needed to go to #1. Oh well. Ended up wasting a fair bit of time and the check-in took a while, so we didn't have tons of free time before the flight. Therefore I can't comment on the OneWorld lounge at OSL. We also completely missed the VAT refund desk -- the map said it was just beyond passport control -- but it really meant the first control point, where they only looked at our boarding passes. So we went through passport control and realized we had missed the VAT desk -- and couldn't go back. Boarding was via a bus which took us to the ERJ parked on the tarmac.
The reverse direction flight was fine, this time with a hot breakfast in J including ham and mushrooms on some kind of flat bread. It also had fruit, danish, and a bread roll. I am not sure how I feel about two class service on the ERJ. Our seats were no bigger, there is no extra lav at the front, in short - same old same old. However, it did show me that the US carriers could offer more service than they do on the ERJs...with AA, DL, and others using them for fairly long flights, they could offer more than a bag of pretzels.
The connection at MAN was even more cumbersome on the return. At the security checkpoint leaving T1, we had to wait for an immigration officer to come stamp our passports -- on a connection from England to Ireland ???? But it's never a good idea to argue with immigration or customs so we waited. We then proceeded to T2 where they wanted us to go through the whole thing (X-ray, passport) again, but relaxed when they saw the stamp in our passports. Very strange. At least MAN has a Starbucks Coffee and a Boots, so we entertained ourselves in the brief time before boarding.
The Aer Lingus flight from MAN to DUB was packed full, with only 9 seats allocated to J. We pushed back almost half an hour late, due to delays in loading baggage (the captain announced that they were short staffed in baggage handling). Once airborne, a "Premier Cold Lunch" was served including fruit, a roll, and "Kassler & Smoked Gouda". I know and like Gouda cheese, but couldn't figure out what kind of meat Kassler is. Anybody?
Flew out to the west of DUB and landed to the east, giving us a nice view of the Emerald Isle on approach. Landed about 20 minutes late on a one-hour connection to an international flight, with immigration still to clear. Thankfully, Aer Lingus was looking out for us -- they picked us up plane-side in a "Premier" van and took us directly to the gate area for our ORD flight -- right outside US Immigration. We even had a few minutes to backtrack and buy that great Irish Smoked Salmon from Howth & Co -- I love that stuff!!!
The immigration officer seemed slightly puzzled by our connection ("How long have you been in Ireland") but cleared us through, and the flight was boarding.
On this slightly-older A330, business class was almost full. Menus and amenity bags with the usual stuff were distributed. The cabin crew was really professional and very caring on this flight -- overall, EI was earning high marks for their service both directions. This plane had room to put bags under the seat in front -- on the outbound, that area was blocked. We pushed back and took off right on schedule.
The inflight lunch started similar to the outbound with banquet-hall snacks, followed by an appetiser of crab with avocado and grapefruit or poached pear wrapped in prosciutto. The crab was excellent. Both were served with salad and sliced breads. The mains were steak, lamb, sole, duck, or taglioni. I had the lamb (don't remind me about foot and mouth
) which was excellent. Dessert was a raspberry mousse for me, with other choices being a gateau chocolate cake, fruit, and another raspberry something-or-other. This was followed by a cheese and fruit plate. I think the dish/cutlery count for this meal was 40-50; even the sugar and cream were served in "premier" dishware (for which I felt guilty as I don't drink much coffee or tea). I passed most of this flight reading Carl Hiassen's "Sick Puppy" which was quite good. Cabin service was polite but quite available throughout the flight -- water bottles, hot towels, etc. About an hour before landing, they served finger sandwiches (including smoked salmon) with petit fours (an eclair and a couple of others) and some fruit.
We landed in Chicago on 27L about 15 minutes early. When we pulled into gate 9, they announced that they had a message for me -- uh oh The dreaded double connection had done me in...my suitcase was still in Dublin. I must be cursed -- at the Flyertalk dinner in Chicago last month, I admitted to someone that I had never had a bag delayed or lost. Now it's happened three times since!!!! At least in this case, Aer Lingus was still providing great service -- they had already filled out the paperwork, given me a claim number, and just needed address/phone. They also gave me a kit bag which included soap, detergent, shampoo, shaving stuff, toothbrush/paste, even a t-shirt and underwear. Since I was on my way home, I didn't really need any of this, but I happily accepted (Air France last month didn't even offer an apology). The t-shirt even has the Aer Lingus logo, which sent my wife looking for a shamrock on the underwear . So, all told, this made for my fastest international arrival at O'Hare -- we had already cleared immigration in Dublin, didn't have to wait for a bag, so basically walked right out to our waiting ride. If all goes well, the bag shows up this evening.
On the whole, another great set of OneWorld flights. I'm not sure exactly why, but I really like flying Aer Lingus -- it just feels sophisticated in some way, even though it's mostly tourist traffic. They may be one of the small guys (39 planes) in OneWorld, but I'm glad they're there, and that in this case, they had a decent connection to BA to Oslo.
Next international trip -- a passage to India, or so I'm told.
[This message has been edited by ka9taw (edited 07-29-2001).]
BA 7902, OSL-MAN
EI 207, MAN-DUB
EI 129, DUB-ORD
Ah, the dreaded double connection. On the freebie ticket, this was all we could get -- AA was full up on all their LHR-ORD flights in J (and the booking agent strongly discouraged me from "downgrading" to Y, "you don't want to fly coach"). We didn't lose any time with the extra connection -- connecting times at MAN and DUB were both one hour, so just about the same as the two hour connection at LHR -- so we went with it.
We took the airport bus from the Radisson on the return, easier than schlepping to the Sentral Stajsion for the train. Gardermoen airport was a little less efficient on the return. BA is handled by Servisair, and the very small map at each check-in island that shows you where to check in showed Servisair at both islands #1 and #3. We of course went to #3 first when we needed to go to #1. Oh well. Ended up wasting a fair bit of time and the check-in took a while, so we didn't have tons of free time before the flight. Therefore I can't comment on the OneWorld lounge at OSL. We also completely missed the VAT refund desk -- the map said it was just beyond passport control -- but it really meant the first control point, where they only looked at our boarding passes. So we went through passport control and realized we had missed the VAT desk -- and couldn't go back. Boarding was via a bus which took us to the ERJ parked on the tarmac.
The reverse direction flight was fine, this time with a hot breakfast in J including ham and mushrooms on some kind of flat bread. It also had fruit, danish, and a bread roll. I am not sure how I feel about two class service on the ERJ. Our seats were no bigger, there is no extra lav at the front, in short - same old same old. However, it did show me that the US carriers could offer more service than they do on the ERJs...with AA, DL, and others using them for fairly long flights, they could offer more than a bag of pretzels.
The connection at MAN was even more cumbersome on the return. At the security checkpoint leaving T1, we had to wait for an immigration officer to come stamp our passports -- on a connection from England to Ireland ???? But it's never a good idea to argue with immigration or customs so we waited. We then proceeded to T2 where they wanted us to go through the whole thing (X-ray, passport) again, but relaxed when they saw the stamp in our passports. Very strange. At least MAN has a Starbucks Coffee and a Boots, so we entertained ourselves in the brief time before boarding.
The Aer Lingus flight from MAN to DUB was packed full, with only 9 seats allocated to J. We pushed back almost half an hour late, due to delays in loading baggage (the captain announced that they were short staffed in baggage handling). Once airborne, a "Premier Cold Lunch" was served including fruit, a roll, and "Kassler & Smoked Gouda". I know and like Gouda cheese, but couldn't figure out what kind of meat Kassler is. Anybody?
Flew out to the west of DUB and landed to the east, giving us a nice view of the Emerald Isle on approach. Landed about 20 minutes late on a one-hour connection to an international flight, with immigration still to clear. Thankfully, Aer Lingus was looking out for us -- they picked us up plane-side in a "Premier" van and took us directly to the gate area for our ORD flight -- right outside US Immigration. We even had a few minutes to backtrack and buy that great Irish Smoked Salmon from Howth & Co -- I love that stuff!!!
The immigration officer seemed slightly puzzled by our connection ("How long have you been in Ireland") but cleared us through, and the flight was boarding.On this slightly-older A330, business class was almost full. Menus and amenity bags
with the usual stuff were distributed. The cabin crew was really professional and very caring on this flight -- overall, EI was earning high marks for their service both directions. This plane had room to put bags under the seat in front -- on the outbound, that area was blocked. We pushed back and took off right on schedule.The inflight lunch started similar to the outbound with banquet-hall snacks, followed by an appetiser of crab with avocado and grapefruit or poached pear wrapped in prosciutto. The crab was excellent. Both were served with salad and sliced breads. The mains were steak, lamb, sole, duck, or taglioni. I had the lamb (don't remind me about foot and mouth
) which was excellent. Dessert was a raspberry mousse for me, with other choices being a gateau chocolate cake, fruit, and another raspberry something-or-other. This was followed by a cheese and fruit plate. I think the dish/cutlery count for this meal was 40-50; even the sugar and cream were served in "premier" dishware (for which I felt guilty as I don't drink much coffee or tea). I passed most of this flight reading Carl Hiassen's "Sick Puppy" which was quite good. Cabin service was polite but quite available throughout the flight -- water bottles, hot towels, etc. About an hour before landing, they served finger sandwiches (including smoked salmon) with petit fours (an eclair and a couple of others) and some fruit.We landed in Chicago on 27L about 15 minutes early. When we pulled into gate 9, they announced that they had a message for me -- uh oh
The dreaded double connection had done me in...my suitcase was still in Dublin. I must be cursed -- at the Flyertalk dinner in Chicago last month, I admitted to someone that I had never had a bag delayed or lost. Now it's happened three times since!!!! At least in this case, Aer Lingus was still providing great service -- they had already filled out the paperwork, given me a claim number, and just needed address/phone. They also gave me a kit bag which included soap, detergent, shampoo, shaving stuff, toothbrush/paste, even a t-shirt and underwear. Since I was on my way home, I didn't really need any of this, but I happily accepted (Air France last month didn't even offer an apology). The t-shirt even has the Aer Lingus logo, which sent my wife looking for a shamrock on the underwear . So, all told, this made for my fastest international arrival at O'Hare -- we had already cleared immigration in Dublin, didn't have to wait for a bag, so basically walked right out to our waiting ride. If all goes well, the bag shows up this evening.On the whole, another great set of OneWorld flights. I'm not sure exactly why, but I really like flying Aer Lingus -- it just feels sophisticated in some way, even though it's mostly tourist traffic. They may be one of the small guys (39 planes) in OneWorld, but I'm glad they're there, and that in this case, they had a decent connection to BA to Oslo.
Next international trip -- a passage to India, or so I'm told.
[This message has been edited by ka9taw (edited 07-29-2001).]
Aug 2, 2001, 10:09 am
#5
Original Poster
Join Date: Oct 1999
Location: Highland Park, IL USA
Programs: AA PLT 2MM, UA Plat, SPG Gold, HH Gold
Posts: 561
<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by Kurt:
Kassler is a type of ham. What did it taste like?</font>
Kassler is a type of ham. What did it taste like?</font>