corporate-wage-slave

Ah, many sapphires and other precious metals can be found on the island of Ireland.

Overnight is a good idea to start with, and I would encourage you to do something in Dublin in the evening to add value to the exercise. And for the return, you say risk adverse but if you imagine the amount of flights between Dublin and assorted UK airports you're not really going to end up stranded, even if you need to use one of Mr. o'Leary's finest. A healthy Avios balance and a working pair of BA/FR Apps on your phone will get you out of any problem provided it's not something like the first day of school holiday or a rugby international. I can't see the flights you have in mind, that seems a long B2B time wise, but they do sometimes happen there, and to reiterate, if your return leg it's so easy to get out of trouble there anyway. There is a thread in the Dashboard giving other options for Cork, Shannon and Knock - usually the fares are the same but the airports are somewhat less congested, to say the least. I need to add Kerry County and Donegal / Carrickfergus when I get a moment.

Yes you would have lounge access in Dublin if departing in CE regardless of status. I wouldn't plan on a long visit, but 30 minutes there would be grand.

BingBongBoy

Sorry, that was my bad explanation... I have booked the next flight back, not the immediate B2B, but the next full rotation out of LHR. Hence having the 2.5 hours to kill before the return flight.

Thanks for all your advice... I will be staying in the city, its not that far and I see enough airport hotels at work. So, city hotel and something in the evening before the early flight back to LHR.

corporate-wage-slave

That is obviously riskier than a true back to back, so I would never recommend this, but I imagine BBB isn't going to go HBO anytime soon! Yes, that's OK I guess, if a bit risky, there is the chance of bad weather at either end which then puts flights out of sync but so long as you have a few thousand Avios in your account and a few Euro in your wallet it's almost certain there will be multiplel Plan Bs available. Even more so if you add in trains via Belfast and ferries to Holyhead

Enjoy Dublin fair city (though the next line won't cut much ice!).

BingBongBoy

HBO? Don't be silly...

bd95

corporate-wage-slave

Sorry yes, not sure how I got that wrong since I know both places quite well. Donegal Airport is its official name but it's nowhere near Donegal. Or anywhere else for that matter.

Arnie_b

nancypants

Kgmm77

dca100

Nice! Meanwhile, thanks to all the positive reports recently I've hopped back onto the horse and booked a DUB B2B & onward to NYC. My first in a couple years since a previously stressful experience.

BingBongBoy

I have one booked for end of March, looking forward to it again!

dca100

Ex-DUB B2B safely accomplished last week. In summary - thanks to following the collective wisdom here - it was a straightforward experience this time. Here's some datapoints:

• LHR>DUB: 10:35am scheduled departure. Boarding started late and was slow
• 10:45am doors closed
• 11:17am wheels up
• 12:32pm touchdown at DUB. Pilot had previously optimistically announced a 12:15 arrival time but had to do some additional circling north of the city
• 12:35pm arrived at gate: (scheduled: 12:10pm)
• BA app was now showing a delayed 13:23pm departure for the return leg vs 13:00 scheduled
• 12:38pm doors open. Disembarked via the front. (Row 12 ET, CW back to 10)
• 12:48pm through immigration e-gates (5 min wait in 5-deep queue)
• Out through arrivals, up the escalator to FT security
• 12:52pm arrived at fast track security. Took 4 minutes including a secondary swab check of my jacket
• 12:59 back at gate for DUB>LHR
• 13:12 boarding commenced
• 13:57 wheels up
• 15:02 arrival at gate at T5, 30 mins late despite the same very optimistic pilot saying he expected to make up the time and arrive on or close to schedule
• 15:17 back through First Wing and in the lounge

Verdict: while not totally comfortable due to the in-bound delay, the circuit through DUB was smooth and quick. 20 mins from seat on the first leg to the gate for the return.
It would appear that delayed arrival does indeed = delayed departure (thankfully).
If the outward leg were to land on time or even early I’d go so far as saying it would be comfortable.

corporate-wage-slave

That's actually quite a sticky - though not unusual - set of delays, and by the looks of it you had a good 15-30 minutes in hand even with that. I normally assume about 30 minutes from official departure time to being airborne, but also being able to recover 15 minutes on shorter services through schedule padding, and you were way over that. Thanks for the specific timings (it reminds me of someone else's posts) which makes it easy for those not used to this to see how it would all work out for their own B2B.

T8191

I defer completely to C-W-S’ expertise, of course. But from my former ATCO POV, and having used DUB a few times (TATL and ‘Domestic’) I see a big problem with taxying and stands. Ground congestion can be a PITA, due to single runway operation and convoluted taxy routes and difficult stand access.

e.g.
(1) ex-TATL and sat in a ‘quiet corner’ waiting for 15+ minutes for ‘our’ stand to become free.
(2) ex-UK, remote stand and prolonged wait for bus to Terminal.
(3j departure queue behind 6-8 other aircraft for almost 30 minutes [OK, not really relevant to B2B, but indicative of congestion].

standbyalldtime

I'm doing a direct turnaround at Dublin to catch the inaugural DFW-DUB flight today. There's two hours before arrival and landing. I can't get a mobile boarding pass to show up on my phone, will I have any issues if I try to use one printed at home? I know some airports don't recognize boarding passes printed at home as "real"