colmc

It has been a while since I've done up a trip report so I decided to do one from (mostly) the back of the plane. Interestingly it involves 4 carriers who would position themselves as "low-cost", albeit with differing approaches to the term and in different markets that I've taken flights with over the last few weeks.

I've broken it into parts. The rest will follow :-)

colmc

Aer Lingus' approach to being "low-cost" is probably scattergun at best. It's a beast that emulates the true low-cost carriers in some respects (charging for luggage on short-haul, pay-on board food etc) while also being a legacy carrier (codeshare agreements, meals on long-haul, frequent flier mile earning etc). I've had to do quite a few flights with them lately (since moving back to Ireland, choice is somewhat limited), but I've also managed to snap up some real bargains (€250 return to IAD recently, and got pretty similar deal to ORD for April) which have left me somewhat happier with them :-)

I'd booked this trip to Las Vegas as a vacation, as I had been working over the Christmas period - and well, some sunshine, relaxation and gambling seemed like a good idea all in all!

As part of the booking I'd booked a connecting flight with JetBlue from JFK to Las Vegas as part of the Aer Lingus intinery. It's the first time I've took advantage of this "partnership" they now offer, so I was interested to see how it would play out. I'd checked in online for the flight the day before, and selected 14D. As boarding and unloading generally takes place through door 2L on Aer Lingus, it does make it a good choice for getting out of there at the end of the flight! It's also unreleased until check in opens (possibly due to it also being the row behind the bulkhead, which does mean some child noise possibility, but I've got used to that over time!). However, this is problem number 1 with this EI-B6 partnership - you have to check in for the segments seperately, and due to the time different, B6's web check-in didn't open for hours. This wasn't ideal as I was overnighting at a hotel near Dublin Airport, and not near my printer. Just a small inconvenience (the hotel had a business centre), but a niggle none the less. Of course, you can always opt to not check-in online for the B6 segment.

Flight day arrived and I arrived at DUB. Aer Lingus's check-in area had no queues and I was able to get my bag tagged to LAS without a problem. No lounge access on this budget trip, so I spent my time eating some breakfast in the foodcourt upstairs and filling in my I94-W. As this flight pre-clears U.S. Immigration in Dublin, you have to be down at the gate somewhat early (Gate Closes time is listed on the boarding pass as 09.00 for a 10.30am departure). There are security staff employed to pre-check the immigration forms are filled in correctly and one was patrolling the line due to a couple of people not having completed theirs correctly ahead of me. She spotted mine, checked it and brought me out of the queue and let me proceed downstairs. I thought it was nice that they were being pro-active in this regard. The U.S. Immigration area was actually quiet, and as such I was being processed in no time. Alas, unlike my previous trips, the agent in question seemed to be having "a day" and was not the most pleasant to deal with. It's a shame - so far my experiences with the other Customs and Border Protection stationed at Dublin have been quite good. I took my place at gate B31 and waited..and waited! However, the boarding started a short while after the crew boarded. I suspect it started a little too soon as when people got down to the jetbridge, they were stopped from boarding the aircraft and a large backlog ensued. Bit of a mess, but after 5 minutes boarding commenced and (almost) everyone was seated quickly. It always amazes me how many stragglers there are at airports though. One guy that I saw earlier in the main terminal (so obviously there at the same time as I was) barely made it on to the plane. One wonders exactly what he was doing in the intervening time!

When I got to board - I went straight for 14D. Except it wasn't 14D. It just goes to show that I've been travelling with Aer Lingus too regularly, as auto-pilot put me in the wrong seat. As luck would have it, The flight ended up being EI's newest A330-300, which has new Recaro seats and more importantly - AVOD. These new seats are slimmer than the older seats, meaning extra rows. Not that it mattered all that much, as that row was actually empty in the end. I suspect it was an aircraft switch as the folks with babies had been assigned row 13 and were a little confused when they boarded! Soon the doors were closed, and we were underway.

A smooth enough take off followed, but we hit some turbulence as we got higher (which I don't find, but I think one or two people found it a bit more than they desired!). Inflight service began quite soon after things had levelled out though, kicking off with bar service. Recently they've gone for the "big box" approach with soft drinks I'm no fan of them using large bottles of soft drinks for service (as they go dead quite quickly), but if you're up front at least you know it's just been opened ;-). However, if you want some later, it could have been standing for hours depending on the demand. Alcohol is charged for in economy, but that doesn't bother me overly as I don't tend to drink when flying. Standard pretzels and drinks run but went down nicely with the AVOD. I was quite impressed with their AVOD offering. The library of offerings is nowhere near as extensive as some other airlines - which is a shame, but not unexpected from a loco. However, it's a massive upgrade from the shared screens that are fitted on most of their fleet, and I look forward to it being rolled out on the refurbished aircraft. There certainly was enough to keep me entertained for the short flight! Seat pitch seemed to be pretty generous despite EI putting an extra row or two in. I guess these Recaro seats do work quite well after all!

After drinks service was completed, dinner began. Standard chicken or beef style options (chicken in black bean sauce vs beef stew). The chicken in black bean sauce seems to be a constant option of late on EI, and it's far from my favourite. All my recent flights seem to have had it offered though - it's following me! I chose the beef stew - and it was quite tasty for economy food. No gristle found at all . Desert was two orange/chocolate chip cookies (better than the frozen hockey puck Lily O'Briens Rice Krispie treat they normally dish out - but I'm not sure I'd call cookies desert!). The starter was a rather unappealing pasta salad with pineapple. Pineapple and pasta...interesting choice, if nothing else. Still, the food turned out quite well for an economy class meal so I can't fault them there.

I settled down to watch some movies and TV, and the AVOD made the trip fly. Spoke to a crew member in the galley half way during the flight, and she agreed that the new interiors/seating really did make a difference. I have to agree - it almost seemed like a different airline!

All in all the crew were nice - but not the friendliest or one that went particularly out of their way to shine. I guess functional is the term I'm looking for! No one this time around really stood out, and in fact one of the crew was so busy being hilarious with the people seated in the rows behind me, he completely passed me over when serving the pre-arrival snack. Not that I was complaining overly - it's a scone. The same scone they've been serving since 2006. I suspect it's probably the same *batch* of scones they've had since 2006, it was that hard. EI need to rotate their pre-arrival snacks on the JFK route. Even a sandwich would make a nice change. Or a cake slice. Or a raw carrot - anything except another damn scone! If I see another scone, I think I may burst into tears. Never an attractive proposition!

Landing was smooth, and not having to do immigration makes life so much easier at JFK. Being at the front of Economy meant that I got out quickly, even before some of the Premier passengers. Of course, baggage delivery was slow. Very slow in fact, not that JFK T4 has ever been fantastic for me in terms of speed of delivery. Still about 20-25 minutes later my bag arrived and I queued for Customs. Unfortunately, we had just arrived behind an Air Jamaica flight, and their passengers were getting some extra attention. With limited staff on duty, this didn't help with getting out on time. Eventually I was cleared and went to the Transfer Desk to drop my bag off for my JetBlue flight. Turns out I didn't need to print my boarding pass for JetBlue - the agents there had all boarding passes for connecting passengers from EI105 printed out - so I was given a new pass, and my bag taken. I made my way towards the train to transfer to Terminal 5 at JFK.

Pros: Good plane, good AVOD, great price and decent main course food.
Cons: The odd food offerings apart from the main lunch course (including that damned scone!), so/so crew and slow baggage handing at JFK and
Score: A middling 7/10 for this flight, mostly because of the new aircraft.

colmc

This was my first time travelling with JetBlue, and I was looking forward to it. I'd called reservations previously and paid for extra leg room seats, as it was a long transcon flight and seemed like a worthwhile investment of $50. The Airtrain got me to T5 in no time, and I began the long trek to the terminal. OK - it's not a long trek as such, but it does seem like it! Was nice to see the old Saarinen terminal nestled there as you go by, and I hope to see it opened sometime. Due to the baggage delivery delay at T4, my time was short so I went straight to security, which was extremely quick, and soon I was in the main concourse. I didn't have a lot of time to explore - but I liked what I saw. T5 is airy, bright and well laid out with a lot of great shops and concessions. I stopped off at one to buy a sandwich to bring on board and went straight to the gate. Again, lots of seating areas and natural light made it a nice place to be. I can definitely see it being easier to spend some extra time there compared to some of the other terminals. Free wi-fi is also a big bonus, considering what one must pay to Boingo in the other parts of the airport. I caught up with a few text messages and emails before boarding commenced. Orderly was the word of the day as the automated system boarded people from the back. Soon the last remaining rows were called and I settled into 3C. You really do notice the extra leg room, and I wish more airlines offered it. I'd certainly pay for the benefit! I'm also a fan for the Airbus family - and the extra seat width. It may only be a fraction in some cases, but it does make things a little more comfortable! My row 3 seat mates (3A, 3B, 3D and 3E - all one party) were the most annoying thing about the flight. From sharing out their sleeping pills before take off to conversing across me at various points during the flight they were but minor irritants.

The 3 person crew were friendly, but not overly so (and I mean that in the nicest way possible - if you wanted something, they responded). We took off a few minutes ahead of time and the captain predicted an early arrival in LAS. After travelling for hours already, this is the kind of news I liked to hear! Take off was smooth, and before long drinks and snacks were served. I must say - it's great to see one of the domestic airlines still committed to doing this much (take note US). I was quite happy with the JetBlue approach and thought the snack selection covered most of the bases. I settled down and watched the live TV and enjoyed the flight. As predicted, we approach LAS early and touched down 40 minutes before our scheduled time. We were off the aircraft in a matter of minutes, and at the baggage belts. Baggage was due to come off on one belt, which was then changed to another - so all the passengers trundled off to the new location. I waited, waited and waited - and of course, I was the last one left. My bag hadn't made the flight. Funnily enough, I suspected as much even before the flight due to the tight connection at JFK. Great - just how I wanted to start my vacation in Vegas - in my travel clothes! Went to the JetBlue baggage office, where the staff member was very helpful. He said it's far from the first time this has happened and that EI tend to be slow about getting bags from T4 to JetBlue at JFK T5. He was confident they would come in on the next flight, and of not that the first flight the next day. I wish I was as confident! Still - credit to the employee of JetBlue. He was knowledgable, understanding and very efficient. He took the details and promised to call me at the hotel after the next flight landed to let me know if my bag had arrived or not. True to his word - I got a phone call that evening, and he had my bag delivered to the hotel. So despite the not to great experience with my bags - JetBlue still get's credit for recovering the situation!

Pros: Great plane, good entertainment, good snack/drink policy, excellent on-board comfort
Cons: None really
Score: A pretty good 9/10 for this flight as it did exactly what it was meant to do - with excellent service tacked on to the end. I was impressed with JetBlue and would definitely have no problem using them again. Maybe I'll just bring carry-on however ;-)

colmc

After having an excellent stay in Las Vegas, it came time to leave :/

I checked in online for my VX flight, and selected my pre-booked seat 2D. A "lo-co" with First Class isn't something we generally get in Europe, so it was certainly an interesting experience! I'd actually booked a First Class ticket with Virgin America as a bit of an experiment. Having flown them once more, I wanted to see would the service still be up to the hype. Unlike JetBlue, they don't have extra leg room seats, as such - and certainly not at the price JetBlue offer. Virgin America offer a "Main Cabin Select" offering instead which consists of the first row in economy (3) and exit rows. You get more room, sure - and free food from the inflight menu - but for the price they were seeking, it didn't really cut it for me.

First seemed a much better proposition, especially for a transcon flight - so that's what I booked. I've only travelled on Virgin America once before, doing a JFK - SFO flight, which was pretty impressive all round. A trip report on that flight is here. Check-in at LAS was almost instant, with the agent dealing with another passenger before taking my bag. LAS has a some entertainment, if gambling is your sort of thing, pre-security - but I didn't dawdle all that much! Security was busy - even in the First Class line, which moved as slowly as I've seen any priority line move for quite a while. In fact, it came to a full stop for 5 minutes due to a TSA staff changeover. Eventually though, security was cleared and I headed to the train for the D gates.
Made use of the free wi-fi at the gate, and settled back for the flight to be called. Departure time approached and boarding started - with First Class going first. That's always a good start.

I do quite like the VX First seat. It's better than anything in the standard "First Class" products flying domestically (not counting United's PS or international planes that sometimes do domestics etc). Boarding was finished quickly and soon we were ready to depart. No pre-take off drinks offered (or water) - so I don't know if that has stopped, or I was just lucky on my previous flight. VX's aircraft are equipped with excellent mood lighting (well, I like it - it's so much less harsh that flourescant lights all the time!) and I find it quite calming. As soon as I could, I took out the IFE monitor and started to use Virgin's inflight entertainment system, RED. For passengers in First Class, all of RED's content (including movies and on demand TV) is free to use, where passengers in coach have to pay for some content other than the live TV. I settled back and started watching some movies and TV shows and waited for lunch to be served.

Lunch was probably the most disappointing aspect of the flight. I chose a pasta dish which was presented nicely, but still was just soggy airline pasta with a not overly flavourful sauce. Desert was two small cubes of pineapple upside-down cake. All courses were served on one tray. Seems a bit of a downgrade from the JFK - SFO leg I did just a couple of months ago. Granted at least the main course was a hot dish, and not salad (after a salad starter). It wasn't inedible, but it didn't wow me either. Otherwise it was an uneventful flight. The cabin crew member serving First Class was attentive and responsive to any requests that were made. I haven't been called "hon" or "babe" in a while. Perhaps the hot blonde cabin crew member secretly likes pudgy, baldy nerds :P

I even nodded off for an 30-40 minutes or so, which is something I rarely do on aircraft - so thumbs up to Virgin's seat which I'm sure contributed to that. Touch down at JFK was smooth, and after a long taxi, we were at the gate. Luggage delivery followed about 10 - 15 minutes later.

Pros: Great plane, great entertainment, excellent seat and friendly crew
Cons: I thought the food was a little bit disappointing.
Score: 8/10. A good flight all round, though for the price I thought the food was lacklustre. The rest of the service somewhat compensates for it, but you feel a little let down that it's not quite up to the hype!

aviators99

I hope you will give the airline feedback with your opinion on the food.

MatthewLAX

Do you have any photos of the "hot blonde" VX FA?



Thanks for your report. Nicely done.

colmc

Well, it was time to return to Ireland after an excellent break. It was a bit of a contrast from my inbound flight the week before, however.

Check-in at JFK was ok. Tried to use self-check-in but it wouldn't play ball and advised me to go to the desk. Tried to go the desk, and was directed back to self check-in kiosks by queue dragon. Had to demonstrate to her that it wouldn't work for me before being admitted to the completely empty (apart from one other person) check-in desk area. *sigh* I do wish they'd learn not to treat us all like dumb-asses who haven't touched a machine before! Bag was taken and BP printed out by agent who was friendly and also offered a lounge access pass if I wanted it. I was tempted, but decided not to take it considering I'd blown my trip budget already!

Boarding was timely, and I was surprised to find the plane was an Airbus A330-200 (not often found on the JFK route!). I have a sneaking suspicion that one of the larger -300's was doing the IAD route at the time, being so close to the inauguration of Barack Obama. It was, however, EI-DAA, Aer Lingus' -200 with seatback entertainment. Not AVOD, but still multi-channel which makes the flight a little more bearable.

Crew seemed a little disorganised. Lead flight attendant seemed a little stuck in 2006. Being an aviation nerd, I did crack a smile when she greeted passengers and advised us all that the flight was operated in conjunction with American Airlines and was in conjunction with Aer Lingus's Oneworld alliance partners. Spot the glaring errors :P

We pushed back relatively on-time and taxied out to the runway. Drinks service and unspecified "chicken or beef" meals were distributed. Personally I'd prefer to know what's actually in the "chicken or beef" before being made to make a choice. Chicken turned out to be some kind of asian-style sauce and vegetables concoction with rice (not awful) with a green salad starter, generic vanilla cheesecake desert and cheese/crackers. Was impressed that it was actually a desert, and not cookies this time though!

Flight was short due to favourable tail winds. No pre-arrival snack served. Can't say I was disappointed - it's generally a tub of orange juice! My advice is to bring your own snack from the terminal, or hoard some of dinner! The old seats do get really uncomfortable after a while though - and even the economy pillow doesn't do much to help.

We touched down over an hour ahead of schedule (which was pretty good!) at the furthest end of Dublin's D-pier, which meant a VERY long walk to immigration. Baggage delivery was unbelievably slow. Over a hour and a quarter after touch-down before the first bags came through, which was making a lot of the tired and weary passengers very annoyed. Baggage delivery at Dublin seems to be a big issue for EI, and this was one of the worst waits I've had in a long time. The announcements (all 3 over the space of 75 minutes) were as vague and non-committal as Aer Lingus could possibly be. I suspect the early arrival meant that they didn't have the ground resources available to offload the bags - but they'd never admit that, I'm sure!

All in all, a not so impressive leg.

Pros: Not many this time around. Food was ok-ish.
Cons: Not so great/visible cabin crew. Uncomfortable seats. Terrible baggage delivery at Dublin. Being deposited at the furthest end of Dublin Airport.
Score: 4/10 for this flight. Quick flight time was the only bonus - but that wasn't EI's creation. Saving grace was seat-back screens which gave some choice in what to watch. Rest of the flight/service was mediocre to say the least.

colmc

LOL, I decided not to look *that* needy

colmc

Decided to combine these two flights together for the sake of brevity

My first flights on Ryanair for a while, and as we all know Ryanair are EVIL! Well, ok, they're not (despite what some on FT might have you believe!). I think the only way to approach Ryanair is to treat it like a flying bus service. Don't expect too much, don't be surprised if things go a little askew and don't spend too much time wondering why no one is listening to you when things go wrong. Actually - that's not much different than quite a few airlines these days.

I checked in for both flights in advance using Ryanair's online check-in service. As I only had hand luggage I didn't have to be at Dublin too early - no bad thing as I ended up being delayed by traffic! Security was pretty quite and soon I was heading to the Dublin airport's D gates - where I'd been just days before! Flight hadn't arrived yet, and a small crowd was forming - but I could see that there was no way the 189 seat 737-800 was going to be fully loaded. Soon the aircraft arrived, taxied to the gate and the passengers disembarked. It's easy to see why the 737-800 is their choice - the integral air stairs mean that disembarkation and loading become much quicker. In just a few minutes, boarding was called. Those who paid for priority boarding were allowed to go first. I had paid (it's a gamble, really - this flight was quiet enough, it probably wasn't necessary) and was first in the short priority queue.

Greeted with a smile from the crew, and took the first available seat, which was 7C. Due to the light loading of the flight, Ryanair had closed off the first 6 rows of seats, with a similar number down the back. I found their seats comfortable and quite nice, and the yellow/blue cabin decor isn't as harsh as I thought). Lack of seat pockets is a pain (if you have book/iPod/bottled water etc) but I can live with that. Seat pitch is tight (no surprise) and on a longer flight it might be a pain, but again - it was survivable. The good part of the tight seat pitch is that Ryanair's seats don't recline! Praise the lord! I *hate* people who recline, especially on short-haul flights. Bonus points to Ryanair ^^

Cabin announcements could be a little muddled - I believe the head cabin crew member was from Eastern Europe. However, safety demonstration was a pre-recorded, crystal clear announcement. Turned out that 7B was free so gave a bit more room to manoeuvre. Doors closed, and we were soon taxiing and in the air. In flight service commenced and was quite unobtrusive in my opinion - certainly no worse than I've experienced on any other airline (even with the lottery ticket sales!). Before long we were on landing approach and had touched down in Manchester. We were at a remote stand, but the ground handling agents had buses waiting for the passengers. I was heading for Manchester Airport station less than 10 minutes after touching down. I was impressed!

The return flight that evening was much the same. Manchester Terminal 1 is a depressing place at the moment during extensive renovations. Gates are not displayed until boarding time, so you have no real choice except to sit in the main area and wait. Eventually the flight appeared on the board and I made my way to the gate. No separate queues for priority boarding at MAN - just one big clump of people around the gate. However, when boarding commenced the gate agents did ask for priority boarders to come forward first, and allowed them in. Unfortunately, they hadn't quite finished on-board before the gate staff started calling passengers forward - so we spent 5 minutes queuing on the gate stairwell before we were allowed to proceed. Again, identical plane with different crew. Put myself in 3D and settled in as the boarding began. It was a full flight so it took some time to board everyone. It was also raining quite heavily outside, and the cabin crew made a point of making regular PA's asking passengers to be considerate to those behind them by making their way down the plane and stowing luggage quickly. I thought that was a nice touch.

We were ready to depart, and we taxied out. Again, after we were at appropriate height, in flight service began. No hard sell either - so much so, I didn't even manage to get their attention to buy a hot chocolate! I was bypassed

We touched down on time in Dublin, and again from plane to arrivals hall door took very little time.


Pros: Efficient, quick and no fuss. Good friendly crews, on-time performance and no recliners
Cons: Didn't take my drink order . Seat pitch - ok for short hops, but on longer ones anyone taller than 5'8" might find it an issue!
Score: 9/10 - Yup, I didn't die or nuthin'. Despite what you read, Ryanair aren't (in my opinion) all that bad. In fact, on both these flights it all worked out pretty much perfectly. I didn't see all that much of a difference in standards or service than I've had from "proper" airlines over the last few years. I can see myself using them again in the near future without reservations.

colmc

..and that's it (finally). Hope this comes in useful to someone in the future and/or provided some interesting reading.

4 different airlines, two different continents and vastly different experiences!