sethMCOflyer

Recently I flew Aer Lingus for the first time and it felt like a time warp to the early 90s. Flight attendants running around with huge stacks of paper, having to rearrange everyone so that families can sit next to each other because seating arrangements were all messed up, huge call centers to handle issues that almost every other airline has automated, etc. The amount of additional labor cost and inefficiency incurred because the C-Suite evidently believes the internet is a fad has to be astronomical. I’m convinced the corporate offices don’t have computers, everything is done via paper and in person meetings.

trustno1

Is this an early April fools thread?

ChurnieEls

OP must be new around these parts!

ROKNA

All international flights must carry a mainfest

And credit to a crew who are trying to keep passengers happy

aaronirsh

this regular through MCO on EI is very happy they are there (assuming that was the airport). Friday I'll be via BOS to DUB as a reminder of indirect days. As a business person I can see the trap of being caught between Ryanair and airlines that are invested in the customers in a different way from Ryanair.

sethMCOflyer

No, I’m serious.

Easy example, I can’t remember the last airline I flew where it was impossible to select/buy a seat via their website. How much money are they losing not having this functionality? And then how much additional labor cost is spent rearranging everyone so families can sit next to each other because they didn’t call to select seats?

I assume they don’t participate in TSA Precheck because they’d have no way to integrate the TSA system with their system to complete the automatic verification.

ChurnieEls

I'm assuming you didn't buy direct in that case?

The lack of integration of ASTRAL (EI's proprietary software) with the other IAG/AA JV suite is well documented, while if it was an Avios booking that lack of investment is the parent company's doing (and I'd argue making it hard-ish to use Avios is a feature not a bug in their eyes). You can call for seat assignment on Avios bookings (as I believe you can for EI ticketed AA flights).

TSA Precheck is likely because (1) they don't want to make the investment necessary to comply with EU data protection laws because (2) they don't see it impacting bookings in a meaningful way.

That's not to say what you've raised are not valid points - they indeed are areas that EI is leaving money on the table & lagging competitors. However they're quite far down the list of things that are priority for change in my opinion, harmonizing the J fleet and improving the catering are top of the list for me.

sethMCOflyer

You outline it all pretty well, I just think the IT investments would have a fairly quick payoff and they’re going to have to make them at some point regardless so why wait. The current state of the infrastructure is embarrassing for those in charge.

It was a point booking through BA, I was happy to sit in economy and thought the meal provided was one of the better economy meals I’ve had. I checked a bag and the desk agent was happy to move me to row 12 for which I was thankful. Really every front line employee I dealt with was very nice. If the IT infrastructure was modernized it’d probably be a pretty decent airline.

ChurnieEls

Yeah for Avios bookings you have to call for seat assignment.

It's pretty easy to navigate once you're familiar with the plumbing, but it would be very confusing for a first timer.

EI leadership are very pennywise, pound foolish in their approach - they'll ride the legacy IT until it fully breaks as it costs them nothing.

FlightDetective

That's due to change, as is the current inability to change a seat after you've selected one.