As a fortnightly commuter on the LON-DUB route and a BA silver, I was naturally delighted with the prospect of BA returning to the Irish market. Below is a brief summary of BA 8127 (DUB-LHR), from July 5th 2012, followed by a brief comparison of my opinions on the various options to get between Dublin and London by aircraft.

Booking: Booked on BA.com for just under GBP80 which I considered good value. I was automatically assigned seat 11A, but a seat map was unavailable to self-select or change seats. Still 11A on the BMI A320 was an excellent seat, both from my past experience and from seatguru.com.

Check-in: ba.com seemed to indicated that on-line check-in was possible, even providing a countdown clock. But it was not to be. So I arrived at Dublin Terminal 1 two hours before the flight. The BA checkin area was a mess, with the queue meandering around the concourse. It was not even possible to get to the Club Europe desk despite a significant attempt on my part. Eventually after 40 minutes I came to the top of the 'queue to join the queue' I was able to skip to the club desk. Two BA flights were leaving within 10 minutes with what looked like no extra provision of check-in staff. Finally, was checked in by friendly agent with no problem.

Lounge: The BA Lounge (ex BMI Lounge) is a pretty weak affair at Dublin. Not really worth the trek. Dark and in need of refurbishment. Toilet is outside the lounge but requires a door code to use!

Flight: Delayed by an hour due to a late incoming aircraft. Aircraft was really clean and the new interiors were very nice. Much nicer than BAs European aircraft. We were served a hot pizza roll in a box followed shortly by a complimentary bar. I had a glass of wine, served from a regular wine bottle. It was OK but not cold.

Arrival was into the Irish section in T1. It took 5 minutes for the door to be opened. Bags arrived relatively quickly and I was out into a taxi within minutes.

Overall though, I am not sure I will be flying BA until they sort the ground product out. A quick comparative analysis follows, but Aer Lingus still seems the best bet on the LON-DUB-LON route, when comparing EI (LHR, LGW), BA (LHR), WX (LCY) or FR(LGW), given how their products differ and waht matters to me.

Airport: EI use Terminal 2 at DUB which is far superior to Terminal 1 (BA,WX and FR). The Aer Lingus Gold Circle Lounge at DUB is pretty good as is the LHR Lounge and the No 1 contract lounge at LGW. WX uses the DAA Terminal 1 Lounge at DUB which is pretty weak (not even bottled still water is available). The BA/ex-BMI lounge at DUB is equally poor. EI wins by a wide margin.

Punctuality: Strangely, FR tend to be the best. EI are typically good despite LHR delays. Not impressed so far with BA, with both flights delayed by longer than the flight time! London City is a great airport but between fog issues and my experiences of Cityjet's mechanical delays/cancellations, if you have to be somewhere, WX is not the best airline. Overall: FR wins!

On-board service: WX gives a free drink and nice mini-sandwich. BA had free bar and snack. EI and FR have buy on board service. BA wins, with WX a close second.

Seating: Without a doubt, WX is the worst, with a very cramped 6 abreast on the Avro RJ. FR interiors are pretty poor. BA/BMI is fine. EI have nice new A320s on the route and seat width is good but legroom is not great. Overall: EI wins, but ex BMI aircraft are also very good.

Miles/FF benefits. Non-existent at FR and the EI programme is worse than a joke (but they sell gold circle membership via a credit card scheme and BA elites get lounge access when flying DUB-LHR-DUB). WX gives points and miles on the Flying Blue Programme which is almost as big a joke. But I have use it for lounge access in DUB and the extra bag allowance can be cool. Meaningless at LCY. Silver status on BA is nice, except when it comes to redeeming! Overall: BA wins, by a significant margin.

Overall: Aside from a lack of on-board catering, and lack of mileage collection opportunities, EI is the clear winner for a consistent product, great lounges and good frequency (the latter was not mentioned above).