Aer Lingus Business - my experience so far
Apr 6, 2017, 8:28 am
#16
Join Date: Jun 2014
Location: Currently Belfast
Programs: BAEC; IHG; Accor
Posts: 16
This happened to me on a recent BA flight from LHR to BHD as it said Domestic on it. Funny how when I complained on via twitter they were able to check the same systems and tell me that was an error! Not much good to me then as we buckled in and ready to deaprt!
Apr 6, 2017, 2:36 pm
#17
Join Date: Jul 2014
Location: BHD
Programs: BAEC Gold, Radisson VIP, Hertz Gold, Accor Plat
Posts: 162
I've had it work in reverse to me in the past too. Returning to BHD after an inbound from SFO in F, Mrs in tow, and trotted on autopilot to the Galleries Lounge in T5 with my Silver status only to be advised I should be in the CCR as I'd come in on an F ticket.
As with many things, a lot seems to depend on the staff and their competence/motivation/level of interest at the time?
Apr 6, 2017, 7:24 pm
#18
Original Poster
Join Date: Apr 2008
Location: Bridport, Dorset
Programs: Mucci, BA Bronze, Hilton Gold
Posts: 2,129
View the full trip report Look Out! It's Aer Lingus!
Apr 7, 2017, 1:33 am
#20
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Mar 2008
Location: Netherlands
Programs: KL Platinum; A3 Gold
Posts: 28,713
Apr 7, 2017, 1:35 am
#21
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Mar 2008
Location: Netherlands
Programs: KL Platinum; A3 Gold
Posts: 28,713
View the full trip report Look Out! It's Aer Lingus!
Apr 7, 2017, 6:31 am
#22
Original Poster
Join Date: Apr 2008
Location: Bridport, Dorset
Programs: Mucci, BA Bronze, Hilton Gold
Posts: 2,129
Is your title a sly nod to their 1980s "Look Up, it's Aer Lingus" ad campaign?
Aer Lingus ad look up its Aer LIngus - YouTube
Aer Lingus ad look up its Aer LIngus - YouTube
Apr 13, 2017, 8:19 am
#25
Join Date: Jun 2014
Location: Currently Belfast
Programs: BAEC; IHG; Accor
Posts: 16
How recent? Since domestic CE relaunched or did you have BAEC status for lounge access?
I've had it work in reverse to me in the past too. Returning to BHD after an inbound from SFO in F, Mrs in tow, and trotted on autopilot to the Galleries Lounge in T5 with my Silver status only to be advised I should be in the CCR as I'd come in on an F ticket.
As with many things, a lot seems to depend on the staff and their competence/motivation/level of interest at the time?
I've had it work in reverse to me in the past too. Returning to BHD after an inbound from SFO in F, Mrs in tow, and trotted on autopilot to the Galleries Lounge in T5 with my Silver status only to be advised I should be in the CCR as I'd come in on an F ticket.
As with many things, a lot seems to depend on the staff and their competence/motivation/level of interest at the time?
May 9, 2017, 11:36 am
#27
Join Date: Feb 2002
Location: DUB/ORD/SIN/PVG
Programs: EI AerClub Concierge, EK Gold, BA Gold, BD Gold (Retired), HHonors Diamond, Bonvoy Lifetime Gold
Posts: 2,923
May 11, 2017, 5:06 am
#28
Original Poster
Join Date: Apr 2008
Location: Bridport, Dorset
Programs: Mucci, BA Bronze, Hilton Gold
Posts: 2,129
Indeed - a good result although there were more inconsistencies but, as you can tell from my actual flight report, EI knocked it out the park on the transatlantic legs.
Aug 2, 2017, 7:07 pm
#29
Join Date: Mar 2003
Location: SAN
Programs: AS MVP 100K, Hyatt Globalist, Marriott Lifetime Titanium Elite, UA 1MM,
Posts: 1,707
Just returned from a trip LAX-DUB-EDI and then returning DUB-LAX on EI using United Mileage Plus miles. All I can say is never again. While the inflight experience was good on the LAX-DUB in the new business class, the logistics and ground experience were pretty bad.
Outbound flight
- Could not manage itin online other than viewing it. Likely because its a partner award.
- Called when booked to preassign seats, this was 5 months prior. Double checked said seats a week or so before. When checking in, our seats had been moved to 6HJ from the single seats on the left side of the cabin. No explanation as to why, but was told the cabin had no other seats to change us to. Plane departed with about 50% of the seats occupied.
- Menzies handles EI in LAX and they were pretty bad. I had a rollaboard with a few items in it (thank goodness...read on) a small camera bag and a backpack for each of us. Weighed every single item, even the small camera bag. Total of the KGs was announced and told carry ons were not able to go because the rollaboard was 2KG over the allowed 10KG weight. For business class. After moving some things around, getting ready to check in the rollaboard, the supervisor just said its fine.
- TSA pre-check did not transfer over even though it was on our inbound flight, which landed at another terminal. To the regular line we went.
- DL lounge in terminal 2 was good.
- Flight arrived 45 minutes late and left about 45 minutes late. Very few announcements in crowded gate area.
- Flight experience was good, the cabin staff was excellent. The food was okay, but the window seat is pretty cramped. Being in row 6 also leaves you exposed to a bit of the galley light, which is annoying. Entertainment options were good.
- Our two checked bags never made it to EDI. They stayed in DUB. The bags came in on a flight later that evening, but did not show up to us until about 36 hours later.
Return flight
- Flight was at 300pm, arrive at airport after returning car at 12p. Saw on monitors that flight was cancelled. It was still in LAX from the day before on a mechanical delay then cancellation. No call, no message, nothing to let us know even though they knew a half a day before that the flight would be delayed or cancelled. Nothing on the flight status page the evening prior.
- Everyone was told to go to customer service/ticketing to get rebooked. Three different agents were there to handle the 60+ or so people in that business and economy line. An economy line was established on the other side of the check in areas, I saw it once and it was about 150+ people deep.
- We were third in line and waited in that line for almost 2 hours. Took them at least 30 minutes to process each group. But Supervisors kept bringing various people up, which slowed the process more. Agents kept disappearing and coming back, but there was very little sense of urgency.
- The agent I ended up with was wonderful and professional. I treat everyone well, and with kindness, so I think it was a result of her being relieved to not be dealing with some of the other livid people in line.
- We were put at an airport hotel, the Carlton. The shuttle pick up process took 49 minutes. We arrived at 4pm so we are 4 hours in at this point. The hotel itself was pretty bad, I cant believe it brands itself as a "luxury" hotel. Rude restaurant staff at lunch made us want to leave and go somewhere else for dinner. So we did.
- On the outbound flight that we ended up on, we got to deal with the disorganized Dublin airport security as well as the US preclearance security area. Dublin airport security will stop the entire flow of a line while they inspect a liquids bag for 4-5 minutes before it goes through the xray. Hmmmm that doesnt make sense at all. Then the preclearance process had everyone wondering what to do, most wondered if they were in the right place since they had just gone through security, so that slowed things down. You then queue up in front of the gate for several minutes because the US CBP lanes havent opened yet...not a minute before 7am. Ive been through numerous preclearance facilities in the past and this one was pretty bad.
- Of course, one of our bags didn't make it on the rebooked flights home either.
Outbound flight
- Could not manage itin online other than viewing it. Likely because its a partner award.
- Called when booked to preassign seats, this was 5 months prior. Double checked said seats a week or so before. When checking in, our seats had been moved to 6HJ from the single seats on the left side of the cabin. No explanation as to why, but was told the cabin had no other seats to change us to. Plane departed with about 50% of the seats occupied.
- Menzies handles EI in LAX and they were pretty bad. I had a rollaboard with a few items in it (thank goodness...read on) a small camera bag and a backpack for each of us. Weighed every single item, even the small camera bag. Total of the KGs was announced and told carry ons were not able to go because the rollaboard was 2KG over the allowed 10KG weight. For business class. After moving some things around, getting ready to check in the rollaboard, the supervisor just said its fine.
- TSA pre-check did not transfer over even though it was on our inbound flight, which landed at another terminal. To the regular line we went.
- DL lounge in terminal 2 was good.
- Flight arrived 45 minutes late and left about 45 minutes late. Very few announcements in crowded gate area.
- Flight experience was good, the cabin staff was excellent. The food was okay, but the window seat is pretty cramped. Being in row 6 also leaves you exposed to a bit of the galley light, which is annoying. Entertainment options were good.
- Our two checked bags never made it to EDI. They stayed in DUB. The bags came in on a flight later that evening, but did not show up to us until about 36 hours later.
Return flight
- Flight was at 300pm, arrive at airport after returning car at 12p. Saw on monitors that flight was cancelled. It was still in LAX from the day before on a mechanical delay then cancellation. No call, no message, nothing to let us know even though they knew a half a day before that the flight would be delayed or cancelled. Nothing on the flight status page the evening prior.
- Everyone was told to go to customer service/ticketing to get rebooked. Three different agents were there to handle the 60+ or so people in that business and economy line. An economy line was established on the other side of the check in areas, I saw it once and it was about 150+ people deep.
- We were third in line and waited in that line for almost 2 hours. Took them at least 30 minutes to process each group. But Supervisors kept bringing various people up, which slowed the process more. Agents kept disappearing and coming back, but there was very little sense of urgency.
- The agent I ended up with was wonderful and professional. I treat everyone well, and with kindness, so I think it was a result of her being relieved to not be dealing with some of the other livid people in line.
- We were put at an airport hotel, the Carlton. The shuttle pick up process took 49 minutes. We arrived at 4pm so we are 4 hours in at this point. The hotel itself was pretty bad, I cant believe it brands itself as a "luxury" hotel. Rude restaurant staff at lunch made us want to leave and go somewhere else for dinner. So we did.
- On the outbound flight that we ended up on, we got to deal with the disorganized Dublin airport security as well as the US preclearance security area. Dublin airport security will stop the entire flow of a line while they inspect a liquids bag for 4-5 minutes before it goes through the xray. Hmmmm that doesnt make sense at all. Then the preclearance process had everyone wondering what to do, most wondered if they were in the right place since they had just gone through security, so that slowed things down. You then queue up in front of the gate for several minutes because the US CBP lanes havent opened yet...not a minute before 7am. Ive been through numerous preclearance facilities in the past and this one was pretty bad.
- Of course, one of our bags didn't make it on the rebooked flights home either.
Aug 6, 2017, 10:00 am
#30
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Dec 2004
Location: East Coast
Programs: AA CONCIERGE KEY & 1MM, HILTON DIAMOND
Posts: 11,970
Just returned from a trip LAX-DUB-EDI and then returning DUB-LAX on EI using United Mileage Plus miles. All I can say is never again. While the inflight experience was good on the LAX-DUB in the new business class, the logistics and ground experience were pretty bad.
Outbound flight
- Could not manage itin online other than viewing it. Likely because its a partner award.
- Called when booked to preassign seats, this was 5 months prior. Double checked said seats a week or so before. When checking in, our seats had been moved to 6HJ from the single seats on the left side of the cabin. No explanation as to why, but was told the cabin had no other seats to change us to. Plane departed with about 50% of the seats occupied.
- Menzies handles EI in LAX and they were pretty bad. I had a rollaboard with a few items in it (thank goodness...read on) a small camera bag and a backpack for each of us. Weighed every single item, even the small camera bag. Total of the KGs was announced and told carry ons were not able to go because the rollaboard was 2KG over the allowed 10KG weight. For business class. After moving some things around, getting ready to check in the rollaboard, the supervisor just said its fine.
- TSA pre-check did not transfer over even though it was on our inbound flight, which landed at another terminal. To the regular line we went.
- DL lounge in terminal 2 was good.
- Flight arrived 45 minutes late and left about 45 minutes late. Very few announcements in crowded gate area.
- Flight experience was good, the cabin staff was excellent. The food was okay, but the window seat is pretty cramped. Being in row 6 also leaves you exposed to a bit of the galley light, which is annoying. Entertainment options were good.
- Our two checked bags never made it to EDI. They stayed in DUB. The bags came in on a flight later that evening, but did not show up to us until about 36 hours later.
Return flight
- Flight was at 300pm, arrive at airport after returning car at 12p. Saw on monitors that flight was cancelled. It was still in LAX from the day before on a mechanical delay then cancellation. No call, no message, nothing to let us know even though they knew a half a day before that the flight would be delayed or cancelled. Nothing on the flight status page the evening prior.
- Everyone was told to go to customer service/ticketing to get rebooked. Three different agents were there to handle the 60+ or so people in that business and economy line. An economy line was established on the other side of the check in areas, I saw it once and it was about 150+ people deep.
- We were third in line and waited in that line for almost 2 hours. Took them at least 30 minutes to process each group. But Supervisors kept bringing various people up, which slowed the process more. Agents kept disappearing and coming back, but there was very little sense of urgency.
- The agent I ended up with was wonderful and professional. I treat everyone well, and with kindness, so I think it was a result of her being relieved to not be dealing with some of the other livid people in line.
- We were put at an airport hotel, the Carlton. The shuttle pick up process took 49 minutes. We arrived at 4pm so we are 4 hours in at this point. The hotel itself was pretty bad, I cant believe it brands itself as a "luxury" hotel. Rude restaurant staff at lunch made us want to leave and go somewhere else for dinner. So we did.
- On the outbound flight that we ended up on, we got to deal with the disorganized Dublin airport security as well as the US preclearance security area. Dublin airport security will stop the entire flow of a line while they inspect a liquids bag for 4-5 minutes before it goes through the xray. Hmmmm that doesnt make sense at all. Then the preclearance process had everyone wondering what to do, most wondered if they were in the right place since they had just gone through security, so that slowed things down. You then queue up in front of the gate for several minutes because the US CBP lanes havent opened yet...not a minute before 7am. Ive been through numerous preclearance facilities in the past and this one was pretty bad.
- Of course, one of our bags didn't make it on the rebooked flights home either.
Outbound flight
- Could not manage itin online other than viewing it. Likely because its a partner award.
- Called when booked to preassign seats, this was 5 months prior. Double checked said seats a week or so before. When checking in, our seats had been moved to 6HJ from the single seats on the left side of the cabin. No explanation as to why, but was told the cabin had no other seats to change us to. Plane departed with about 50% of the seats occupied.
- Menzies handles EI in LAX and they were pretty bad. I had a rollaboard with a few items in it (thank goodness...read on) a small camera bag and a backpack for each of us. Weighed every single item, even the small camera bag. Total of the KGs was announced and told carry ons were not able to go because the rollaboard was 2KG over the allowed 10KG weight. For business class. After moving some things around, getting ready to check in the rollaboard, the supervisor just said its fine.
- TSA pre-check did not transfer over even though it was on our inbound flight, which landed at another terminal. To the regular line we went.
- DL lounge in terminal 2 was good.
- Flight arrived 45 minutes late and left about 45 minutes late. Very few announcements in crowded gate area.
- Flight experience was good, the cabin staff was excellent. The food was okay, but the window seat is pretty cramped. Being in row 6 also leaves you exposed to a bit of the galley light, which is annoying. Entertainment options were good.
- Our two checked bags never made it to EDI. They stayed in DUB. The bags came in on a flight later that evening, but did not show up to us until about 36 hours later.
Return flight
- Flight was at 300pm, arrive at airport after returning car at 12p. Saw on monitors that flight was cancelled. It was still in LAX from the day before on a mechanical delay then cancellation. No call, no message, nothing to let us know even though they knew a half a day before that the flight would be delayed or cancelled. Nothing on the flight status page the evening prior.
- Everyone was told to go to customer service/ticketing to get rebooked. Three different agents were there to handle the 60+ or so people in that business and economy line. An economy line was established on the other side of the check in areas, I saw it once and it was about 150+ people deep.
- We were third in line and waited in that line for almost 2 hours. Took them at least 30 minutes to process each group. But Supervisors kept bringing various people up, which slowed the process more. Agents kept disappearing and coming back, but there was very little sense of urgency.
- The agent I ended up with was wonderful and professional. I treat everyone well, and with kindness, so I think it was a result of her being relieved to not be dealing with some of the other livid people in line.
- We were put at an airport hotel, the Carlton. The shuttle pick up process took 49 minutes. We arrived at 4pm so we are 4 hours in at this point. The hotel itself was pretty bad, I cant believe it brands itself as a "luxury" hotel. Rude restaurant staff at lunch made us want to leave and go somewhere else for dinner. So we did.
- On the outbound flight that we ended up on, we got to deal with the disorganized Dublin airport security as well as the US preclearance security area. Dublin airport security will stop the entire flow of a line while they inspect a liquids bag for 4-5 minutes before it goes through the xray. Hmmmm that doesnt make sense at all. Then the preclearance process had everyone wondering what to do, most wondered if they were in the right place since they had just gone through security, so that slowed things down. You then queue up in front of the gate for several minutes because the US CBP lanes havent opened yet...not a minute before 7am. Ive been through numerous preclearance facilities in the past and this one was pretty bad.
- Of course, one of our bags didn't make it on the rebooked flights home either.