Our daughter’s boyfriend was added to the trip a couple of months before we left and there was no award space or cheap economy ticket available on our flights. Because he lives and works in the DC area, it made sense for him to fly from Dulles and return there as well.
I booked him on an outbound nonstop flight on United using 20k Avianca LifeMiles. He slept through most of the flight (including dinner) as he had a whole row to himself in economy on the 767-400. The flight was on time and that was the most important thing as he arrived in Dublin a few minutes after we did.

For the return, I booked him on Aer Lingus DUB-IAD using 13k Avios plus around $150 in taxes and fees. His flight was a little delayed in landing as they flew around some bad weather near the US east coast.
He had a lot of trouble trying to check in online but thankfully the helpful agent at the customer service desk in Dublin got him checked in and put him in an exit row seat as well.

His impressions were fairly positive:
“Flight attendants were nice, lucked out with an empty seat next to me and the extra leg room, and everything else seemed pretty normal. Maybe just me but the bathroom was tiny even for an airline bathroom and landing was very bumpy.“

He grabbed some pics of the seat and the food as well.




Overall it seems not too bad if you need to get to/from Dublin and can’t find anything in business class or don’t want to spend the extra points. Aer Lingus has a terrible website and app, but the employees on the ground and in the air seem to be pretty good.

This concludes my Ireland trip report. I hope you have enjoyed reading about our trip and that it's helpful for you if you are planning a trip to the Emerald Isle.