Aer Lingus - Difficult to make a complaint.
 

If you are travelling with Aer Lingus and you need to make a complaint about anything be sure to be prepared to go through this. Keep dates of correspondence because it is an online form that you are completing.

http://www.askaboutmoney.com/threads...-laugh.198940/

Firstly, FT has an Aer Lingus forum where you can read all about the experiences of people and their interactions with EI.
Secondly, this sounds pretty standard not only in the Airline industry but with many global organizations. Have you even tried complaining to Dell computers? It'll make you want to send Christmas Cards to EI.

Do you have a specific issue you'd like advice on addressing with EI or did you just find this link interesting?

Seems pretty standard to me. Doesn't mean it's good, but EI is no different from any other airline. Meh.

Seems very normal to me.

Last month, I filed a complaint with A5 (Hop!). They used an online form as well. I got a response from them after 5 working days, telling me point black, that the EU regulation 261/04 did not stipulate any form of monetary compensation in case of a flight annulation. :confused:

Having complaints with airlines (especially if they are legally founded) are always a pain in the a.. . Usually you get a standard answer from a basic employee, who has absolutely no idea how the legal situation is and what exactly the ECJ ruled in the past. That is why I hate writing to the airlines.

So nothing, that is exclusive to Aer Lingus.

I sent a complaint and claim for compensation to them about a significant delay caused by a plane going MX a few weeks ago and I have yet to hear *any* response other than being assigned a case reference. I already know I'll probably have to go to the regulator because I know many airlines' first response to compensation claims is to hope the customer simply goes away.

Given that customer service really should be one of the main priorities of an airline it's astounding how far the industry lags behind other industries in terms of it. I honestly think the way airlines maintain an adversarial attitude toward their customers is almost unique in business and probably a legacy from when many of these airlines were state-owned and run like public bureaucracies. However that also applies to many of the European telecom companies and even they tend to be far more responsive than airlines now.

Took LH 121 days to respond to my complaint and request for compensation. They blamed strikes in Germany...but are US based.

I agree that Aer Lingus makes it difficult to complain. I have been flying with them for well over 20 years and they have never once given me cause for complaint! They have gone the extra mile for me many times, though!

Well you're pretty lucky then (or maybe like many people here you will defend the 'local' company as some sort of matter of Irish pride). I've had two major delays caused by technical issues with their still fairly new Airbus planes in the last 16 months. Not saying EI are terrible but they're also nothing special really (especially considering that they're running a Ryanair-style operation in SH).

My only major delay on an Aer Lingus flight was a flight home from Amsterdam one Christmas several years ago when Schiphol was snowbound; my Cork flight was cancelled while I was waiting in the lounge, but they put me on a much-delayed Dublin flight which had been supposed to leave hours before I even got to the airport, and which finally touched down in Dublin after 3am the next morning.

I guess every airline has to contend with the occasional technical delay. How did EI do?

My first ever KLM flight was a Cityhopper flight to Vienna from Amsterdam, many years ago; we were bussed out to the Fokker farm and boarded, only to be bussed back to the terminal some time later, after the captain realised we wouldn't be going anywhere on that particular plane. Despite this being KL's home-base no replacement aircraft was forthcoming; I was rebooked to travel the next day, with no mention of compensation or EC261/2004 (which, at the time, I did not know about).

Well they didn't really do much to be honest. There was no mention of compensation, didn't provide food or drink (or vouchers) and pretty much left people to their own devices. In both cases the information policy was pretty bad with new departure times being posted and discarded again several times.