Originally Posted by
Scissors
I have nightmares about our flight home from Ireland a couple yrs ago. AA let us book flights round trip out of ORD to DUB and then a month before we were to leave, told us our flight from DUB home was canceled because it was seasonal! We ended up booking a separate flight at our expense from DUB-LHR and then had to race through this unknown airport to make a flight home! But the icing on the cake was when the night before we left Dublin, I noticed online that our flight was canceled! They had put us on a flight the day after and this would have made us miss our flight from ORD-MCI which was also on miles with UA. Not connected! And not smart planning. I called and got the last 2 seats on an earlier flight. There for, we had terrible coach seats in the middle of 5 people across!
What flight was canceled the night before your return? the one you book separately DUB-LHR, or LHR-ORD? This is something I don't understand, if you already booked tickets ORD-DUB-ORD, AA had to accommodate you back to ORD regardless of DUB-ORD being canceled. You should get reimbursed for the DUB-LHR flight. That is part of the contract of carriage, you should not have to pay for the DUB-LHR part. AA partner with BA and they do that route, also EI too.
Ok, here is my take, skip all this connecting airport, separate tickets, complications, etc. and concentrate that the most important flight will be the transatlantic part, USA-DUB, both AA and UA offer service to DUB with "similar" type of seats that you are looking for. Once you have an idea on date then determine if AA works for you, as their flight is a seasonal route, I think its April to October, but not sure. Once you have the dates, then start accumulating the miles and book a complete ticket, meaning from your home airport MCI-ORD-DUB-ORD-MCI all under one itinerary. Do not do a separate ticket from the HUB airport to your home via train or plane, reason is that if there are any changes or delays on the international part of the ticket, you are not going to be protected on the other ticket, like you mentioned before.
I have flown the ORD-DUB route with AA a couple of times a year, and I have posted on the AA forum how the immigration process work. Overall I'm very satisfied with the service and will continue to do so.