VG31

I don't agree with that at all. The longest I had to wait at security this year was about 15 minutes in T2. T1 I've never waited more than 10 minutes at T1 but I'm usually through in < 5. T1 is busier but they tend to have a lot more lanes open so it's usually quicker in my experience. In general T1 is much busier post-security but T1 security itself is good.

EuropeanPete

Just to follow up on this, a standard size Rimowa Cabin Bag does fit pretty comfortably on an Emerald ATR-72. The bins appear to be similar in size to the large format bins on an Embrauer. Clearly the bag is over the official allowance and so you risk being told off, but nobody seemed particularly bothered about bag size in BRS at least.

I suspect a Cabin Plus would be a tight fit, so I wouldn't recommend trying.

zkzkz

For Warsaw I would fly Aer Lingus. Ryanair flies to Modlin which I would pay a lot to never have to fly to (or more importantly *from*) again.

For the other Polish cities you're going to be stuck flying Ryanair. For Ryanair if you just assume you're paying for their priority package and include that in the price they're not too bad. Alternately if you're flying alone with only a personal item sized backpack and don't care what seat you're in then they're not too bad. But if you're flying as a group and on a budget then the extra fees just to receive basic services are just infuriating.

It's not easy to earn status from Dublin because all your European flights will be EI or FR and all your US flights will have a compelling reason to book a US connection to avoid immigration on arrival (and avoid LHR connections to avoid the awful redundant security). You'll have a direct flight to every major US hub and direct flights are almost always worth it. Some of those hubs (PHL, CLT, possibly ORD or EWR) have super easy gate-to-gate connections to wherever you want to go with no security or immigration. So unless you regularly travel to the same place you probably end up splitting your travel across alliances.

The other thing to say is do not fall into the trap of thinking Dublin is all of Ireland or drinking is the only entertainment. Visit Arklow, Wexford, Cork, Valentia Island, Tralee, Donnegal. Hike in the Wicklow mountains, Howth. Go up to Skerries (there's a really good ice cream place there). Go geocaching, go to a hurling match, take sailing lessons at Dun Laoghaire.

zkzkz

Btw there are some aviation-specific tourist stops in Ireland. There's the Flying Boat Museum in Foyne's:
https://flyingboatmuseum.com/

There's a memorial for the first transatlantic non-stop flight:
https://www.visitgalway.ie/explore/h...-landing-site/

When you head out to catch a Ryanair flight look to your left and you can see the original Dublin terminal building too
https://www.dublinairport.com/corpor...senger-profile

And there's the Bray Airshow in every year in summer which is often quite a pleasant day out