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Travel with BA from Cork, Shannon and Knock - a pictorial guide


The above photo, taken at Shannon in July 2013 was part of the publicity and training tour for the A380 launch. The other aircraft is the A318 used on the LCY-SNN-JFK service.

It is often advantageous for BAEC members to begin and end their travels in Dublin - fares are often much lower than starting from London, particularly - but not only - for Club World travel. The BA forum has many threads on this. What is less well known is that these fares are also available from other airports in the Irish Republic, and can be combined via the recently restructured codeshares, now offered by BA on Aer Lingus services from Cork and Shannon to London Heathrow Terminal 2. From May 2016 Norwegian is running direct services from Cork to Boston, and has announced plans to expand to JFK in 2017: in the past this sort of activity has led to price wars between BA and Norwegian.



Other oneworld competitively priced longhaul travel with IB, Finnair and AA is also possible from ORK and SNN.

Advantages and Disadvantages of using Cork and Shannon
There are several advantages to using Cork or Shannon:
- Much smaller airports, doing a back to back is a lot easier and faster than Dublin
- Less congested airports compared to Dublin, in terms of air traffic delays
- Direct USA services from Shannon with preclearance - and these can be the lowest fares available in Ireland
- The timings may work better than Dublin
- If staying the night, the hotels are cheaper, of good quality and closer to the airport than DUB
- There is lounge access for BAEC Silver and Gold members on Aer Lingus (but not for other oneworld Sapphires/Emeralds).
- Occasionally there is availability on DUB services, particularly close to departure.
- Depending on your start point, other airlines' services to SNN or ORK can be cost or time effective as your bridging point for the exIreland fare.
- Maybe you've done DUB a few times and you want a change of scene.

Some disadvantages of going via ORK or SNN:
- DUB is generally still cheaper by Ł30 or so, when there is availability - which is most of the time.
- There are a lot more services to/from DUB.
- Not all ORK services can be done back to back
- Aer Lingus operate via LHR T2 rather than T5 (in the case of BA's own DUB service). If your longhaul is from LHR T3 then T2 is better placed.
- Aer Lingus currently only offers economy class on all its Irish services, so you will typically earn 20 TPs on that leg rather than 40 TPs in Club Europe from DUB. You will also earn slightly fewer Avios too.
- The direct Shannon services are cheap for a reason: they use some of the airlines' more elderly equipment.

About this guide
The purpose of this guide is partly to help introduce the Cork and Shannon option to forum members who haven't considered this before. This thread will hopefully give useful information for those looking for an alternative to Dublin. We will look at back to back arrangements, as well as longer connection options.

It's also partly to help anyone thinking of using the BA codeshares to visit Ireland. BA sell tickets from London to Dublin, Shannon, Cork and Knock as BA codeshares on Aer Lingus, so earning Tier Points and Avios in line with BA's own offering. However it will almost always be cheaper to buy direct from Aer Lingus - you won't get TPs, and the Avios earn will be low, however. On the other hand, if starting somewhere outside London, including UK domestic locations, using these codeshares can be reasonable value for money - for example JER-LGW-NOC is Ł95 single, GLA is Ł109.

I have added Knock West Ireland to this guide for completeness and frankly novelty value. It is available as a BA codeshare but I haven't found any reason for using this airport. I don't think anyone else has either.

Finally I've added a section about travel on Aer Lingus, including baggage and check in issues - this would also be relevant to anyone travelling out of Dublin too. However there is also a "clinic" thread for Dublin travel logistics here:
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/briti...ic-thread.html

Where to get quotes and buy tickets
To begin, a much abbreviated paragraph on how to get a cheap flight, many FTers can skip this bit: Say you want to go to Las Vegas. You find a service from LHR to LAS, but it seems rather expensive. You then change the BA.com query to (say) Ireland/ ORK to LAS and though it's in Euros you can immediately see it's a lot cheaper, even though it could be on the same LHR-LAS service as your first query. So you book ORK-LHR-LAS. Then you book a separate return from LHR to ORK and back to wrap around the trip. If not starting at LHR there could be even better bargains bearing in mind the other ways to get to Cork, see the other services mentioned under each airport.

One of the best places to start is the BA.com, it is able to quote for flights from Cork and Shannon. It can also do so for Knock, but that's unlikely to be cost effective except within Europe. If you are doing a Ireland - UK - North America trip of 2 flights each way then this is a perfectly reasonable way forward. As shown here, the price below is in Euros, but you can call BAEC to get a GBP price instead, this may save you money on exchange rates, indeed the BA internal exchange rate is about the best you can get.



If you are doing something more complicated, specifically domestic flights within the USA, you may want to call BAEC or use AA.com (which can quote in sterling if you make the UK your location). This is because BA.com will bias towards BA codeshares within the USA and treat domestic flights as business class even when flying AA First. By asking for AA prime flight numbers instead you should be able to get First Tier Points and Avios for the same fare.

For more complexity you may want to play with ITA Matrix or Google Flights to see if you can up with quotes for your particular scenario. The BA Tier Point run thread (available via the Forum Dashboard) often has information on Dublin fares - broadly speaking these fares will also be available from Cork and Shannon, with Shannon possibly having cheaper fares than Dublin in some circumstances.

You can also use travel agents to make these bookings, including online travel agents, but for the latter in particular they have a poor track record when things go wrong.

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Cork Airport - ORK



You can see from this picture that this is not a big airport - and what you see here is the entire passenger terminal. It's about half the size of Newcastle or Leeds Bradford, for example. It has just 8 gates, though rarely more than 2 are in use at any one time.



Services to and from LHR:


There are generally 4 services a day - spread around the day. A fifth service in the morning runs at peak times. The service is operated by A320s, fairly similar to BA configuration, but there's an extra row on Aer Lingus by not having the front cupboard.

Back to back potential:
Cork is a good place to consider a back to back, with one caveat. The aircraft are effectively dedicated to the ORK service, with the late service LHR-ORK night-stopping in Cork for the early morning ORK-LHR. However note that the afternoon service, EI722 ORK-LHR doesn't always run off the LHR-ORK service EI715. Usually that connection would be fine, but it is not protected by the aircrafts' movements. The more useful service is the first service LHR-ORK, EI711, which runs back to LHR on the same aircraft as EI712.

Back to back process and timings
I timed a potential back to back, admittedly over 2 trips but I believe these timings are realistic. Total time from doors open at gate 4 to reaching the same gate airside again was 8 minutes 58 seconds. I was in row 4, getting off wasn't quick due to some mobility issues with other passengers, I walked briskly throughout but didn't run. There was a short queue at security and I exchanged some rugby chitchat with the security guard. So there's probably scope to get another minute off that time. Gate to landside was 3 minutes 45 seconds, landside to security 45 seconds, security took 3 minutes, duty free to gate 1 minute 28 seconds.



The process is - doors open - airbridge - passports (as minimalistic as it could possibly be) - baggage reclaim - landside. Turn right towards main check-in, walk 50 metres, then up the escalator - the only one in the airport - to first floor security - duty free shop meander - gate. The entire distance I measured at 190 metres. Boarding at Cork starts 30 to 25 minutes before departure. It's not unusual to leave 10 minutes early. If you are at the front of the aircraft, you'll almost certainly get back to the gate before the final passengers have walked off. The first photo below shows where you exit from arrivals, the second photo shows the escalator to security, and if you cross reference both photos you will see the join.





Overnight potential:
For those wanting to take a more gradual pace, then an overnight stay in Cork is definitely worthy of consideration, and probably inevitable if you are taking checked luggage. Cork is easier to get around, the distance from the airport is short and the hotels are cost effective compared to Dublin. If you haven't been to Cork this is one way to turn the logistical complexities of an ex-Ireland fare into an added bonus to your travel.

Lounge access for BAEC members:



Full details in the Aer Lingus forum, but the Jack Lynch lounge is by gate 8, just past and around the corner from gate 4 or 6, the usual gates for the LHR service - see map above. It's a very small lounge, it can only seat about 30 people and the refreshment provision is fairly modest. Breakfast pastries, biscuits, a reasonably impressive cheese board, coffee machine, Barry's tea (their HQ is 2 miles from the airport), Guinness in cans, lager and some lower cost wine mini bottles. See post number 6 for lounge access details for BAEC members, but in summary BAEC Silver and above gets access on both BA and EI flights to London, but have no guesting rights. Lounge access can be purchased and they accept Priority Pass.

Hotel options:
There are two hotels within walking distance of the airport. The nearest, 150 metres from the airport, is the Cork Airport hotel, which used to be the Park Inn Radisson. As you come out of the airport you will notice a grass slope in front, the hotel is on top of this slope on the right side. The other hotel, which is 300 metres away is the Cork International Hotel as the crow flies on the left side, but the layout of carparks makes it a longer walk. They have a half hourly shuttle as an alternative to the 5 minute walk. I haven't stayed at either hotel, preferring the Jury's Inn in central Cork, which I can recommend as a mid-priced hotel.

Travel to central Cork:
The impressive city of Cork is only 5 miles from the airport. There is a ready supply of taxis from the front door that will take you to central Cork for around 20€ and takes around 10-15 minutes. There is the 226 bus service that runs from the airport front door every 30-60 minutes (the information desk in the airport will have timetable details) to the Parnell Place bus station close to the main hotels. It cost 5.60€ and takes up to 30 minutes. It's a coach service and is suitable for those with luggage.

What to see in Cork
This is beyond the scope of this guide but to pick a few highlights for further research: The English Market (where the Queen made a notable visit), St Fin Barre's Cathedral, Elizabeth Fort, the shopping streets of St Patrick's Street, Merchant Quay and Opera Lane. Cork is also notable for its varied food and drinking opportunities.

Airport services:
ATM machines, WH Smith, Spar mini mart (open extended hours), several food and drink options both landside and airside. The airport has a free wifi service throughout.

Other links from Cork
- Aer Lingus Regional / Stobart - Birmingham (year round), Bristol (year round), Southampton (from March 2016), Leeds-Bradford (from March 2016), Manchester (year round), Newcastle (year round), Glasgow (year round), Edinburgh (year round). These are not codeshared with BA, but can earn a low number of Avios when bought via Aer Lingus.
- Aer Lingus mainline flights to AMS, CDG, GVA, MUC, ACE, AGP, TFS. These are also not codeshared with BA at the moment, but it's possible this will change at some point. In the mean time they do earn a limited number of Avios, but no TPs, under Aer Lingus prime bookings.
- Ryanair, Cityjet to STN, LCY, LPL.

Future developments
As mentioned in the introduction, Norwegian have announced they will be running their first venture into longhaul services from Ireland out of Cork, with a service to Boston starting in May 2016, with plans to add JFK in 2017. They will also run a BCN-ORK service from May 2016. In the past, BA haven't taken kindly to competition from NO across the Atlantic, and have been willing to sell World Traveller seats at low prices to compete with them. So watch this space.

Miscellaneous

• LHR-ORK and back is fairly exposed in terms of winds and the jetstream coming off the Atlantic, so it's not unusual for the "fasten seatbelts" sign to be on for the entire journey. Landings can be heavy too.
• The typical route to ORK will take you over Bristol, Swansea, over Pembrokeshire, with views on both sides of the aircraft, perhaps slightly better on the starboard (right) side. In the ORK - LHR direction, you probably want to be on the port (left) side for potential views of Cork and South Wales.
• BA used to run services to Cork from LGW, in the form of a franchise arrangement with CityFlyer Express, subsidiary Brymon Airways, and under BA Connect. BA services stopped in 2006 when BA Connect was folded into Flybe.
• The airport opened in 1957, but it wasn't until 1964 that a jet engine aircraft landed there, and this was the BOAC Comet G-APDI, a charter flight. BEA also ran services to Cork. This photo of the event comes with the kind permission of Gabriel Desmond of Cork, who has other photos of BA / BEA / BOAC in Ireland here on airliners.net. Note the hay bales!

Website links:
Cork Airport
Cork tourism - operated by Cork City Council.
English Market

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Shannon Airport - SNN



This airport will be familiar with many people on this forum as the airport used on LCY-SNN-JFK services using the all Club World Airbus 318 "baby-bus" aircraft. This is actually an interesting airport, but it will never win prizes for looking good, it's a bit of a 1970s dinosaur compared to the glitz of ORK or DUB T2. The current airport largely owes itself to 1947, but the site was originally chosen for the Foynes seaplane airport, on the other side of the Shannon Estuary. BA - in its predecessor companies BOAC and Imperial Airways - had a big role in shaping Shannon's history. This is well documented on the web (including the airport's website, see below), I've included some snippets below, and makes fascinating reading.



The main departure check-in area is dominated by a huge sculpture of a rugby lineout, called The Day That Changed Ireland:



This commemorates a particular moment in the 1997 Ireland v England game in Croke Park, which was hugely symbolic step in the Irish peace process.

BA's CWLCY services
BA1 and BA3 visit Shannon Mondays through to Fridays, for refuelling and in the case of BA1, USA pre-clearance. For BA1, passengers get to walk around one section of SNN, the gates are arranged so that passengers from LCY are outside preclearance but then pass through the CBP operated hall and back to the same departure gate, cleared for entry into the USA. A ground agent walks the first passenger through the system, with rest following, starting with a security check (shoes off, but nothing else needs to come out of the bag) and then on to the CBP agents or Global Entry machines. The process should take under 10 minutes in normal circumstances, there is a dedicated seating area by the gate and in due course passengers are summoned back on board to continue their trip to JFK. There is no stop on the return leg, and for BA3 passengers remain on board during refuelling. It isn't possible to buy a ticket for just the LCY-SNN leg, or, for that matter, to join the service at SNN. I guess it is possible to buy a ticket to JFK and then offload yourself in Shannon, but there are probably more cost effective ways to get to SNN, as illustrated below. This video, of Richard Quest visiting Shannon on British Airways in his CNN documentary of the NYLON route, may bring back happy memories. It also provides some insight to Shannon's history.
(There are quite a lot of Youtube videos about Shannon, many relating to BA1, also the A380 visit, but there are some of Concorde landing there).

Services to and from LHR:

There are normally 3 flights a day between LHR T2 and SNN on Aer Lingus mainline. These are available as BA codeshares and can be booked via BA.com and other channels. The aircraft used in an Airbus A320.

Back to back potential:
The potential for a back to back is good, but there are some caveats. The LHR-SNN flight appear to be all run back to back, but with the aircraft based in SNN. So the last flight out of London stays overnight in SNN, the other two flights can be done back to back on the same day. I did time a potential back to back, and it took 14 minutes 30 seconds! The reason it took so long was that when I got to security there were 20 people in the queue from a church group, 2 operating channels, and some of them were fairly slow in getting jackets off and what not. Still it would have made the back to back perfectly viable since the return flight was still some time off being ready to board. Also I didn't try to speed it up, e.g. by asking to jump the queue. There is also a transfer route (with a BA sign by it, it's used during the BA1 shuffle) which would have avoided security altogether and made a back to back pretty much foolproof, but it was boarded off at the time I went through on a bank holiday (when BA1 wasn't operating).


Back to back process and timings


I timed a potential back to back at 14 minutes 30 seconds, with a bit of a queue in security. The process involved: airbridge off aircraft - short corridor to the exit stairwell, down to ground level, passport check (barely a glance), baggage reclaim, landside. Then turn right towards the centre of the airport, you'll see the rugby players, up the escalators and straight in front is security. Boarding pass check, security itself, duty free shop and then you are in the hall photographed below. Without the group in security this would have well under 10 minutes, possibly under 5 minutes.



Overnight potential:
As with Cork it's always worth considering staying overnight rather than going back to back, particularly if you have checked luggage. However not that the relatively low number of flights means that it's not necessarily as much a backup as Cork or certainly Dublin. The other downside that I can point to is that there really isn't much to look at or do in Shannon or a 10 mile radius, apart perhaps from a bit of plane-spotting, unlike Cork or Dublin which have large city on the doorstep. Nevertheless, if new to non-London ("ex-EU") fares, then staying the night may be a more gentle introduction to the game.


(This photo shows both the route to the lounge, and at the back of the photo, the entrance to US Preclearance. You can just make out the blue BA sign for BA1 passengers).

Lounge access for BAEC members:
BAEC Silver and above can use the Aer Lingus lounge in Shannon. It's called the The Rineanna Suite, named after the township that served the Foynes seaplane service. Full details in the Aer Lingus forum, well I'm putting the photos here since there aren't many in their forum yet! It strikes me as being the biggest (relative to the number of passengers), most comfortable lounge in Ireland, though it still isn't worth a long visit! There isn't a lounge after US preclearance, so it presumably gets bypassed by most potential users, keen to get the preclearance over with. It's also open to Priority Pass cardholders. It's clearly signposted from the main departure hall, by the corridor leading to gate 7 - and it is permanently staffed.







Hotel options:
There is one obvious hotel, the Park Inn by Radisson, which is right in front of the airport, and impossible to miss, just over the short term car park, following an extended zebra crossing style path. The rates are quite reasonable, I have stayed there 3 times in recent years, and whilst it's still ultimately an airport hotel, it's quite quiet, cosy, recently refitted and does a good breakfast. It is nevertheless an older hotel. There are 2 hotels in the vicinity of Shannon Town, the Oakwood Arms and Shannon Court hotel. BA, on a recent irrop to the LCY-JFK service, put stranded Flyertalk passengers at the rather upscale Dromoland Castle, 6 miles north.


Public transport options:
This is quite good. There is a public bus service from the front door of SNN airport to Shannon town centre, which runs every hour. €2 each way. The service runs on to Limerick in one direction, Ennis in the other. Other operators also have service to both Limerick and Ennis, so the service frequency is good enough to turn up on spec. There are also quite a range of towns connected by regular long distance coach services there, notably Cork and Galway.


What to see in Shannon
A bit awkward this one. Shannon is a New Town built to house the people working at the airport and the businesses it was expected to pull in. It's difficult to say it's has much to offer the visiting tourist, any more than (e.g.) Crawley. Limerick, a bustling riverside city, is 15 miles away up the River Shannon. It's the third largest city in the Republic, home to about 100,000 souls, Munster Rugby and several important educational establishments, students making up nearly a quarter of the city. Galway is also accessible by public transport and is a more popular tourist resort. More relevant to some in this forum is the Foynes Flying Boat and Maritime Museum. I've not been but I have read good reports about it. Shannon owes its existence to the seaplane and airstrip built at near by Rineanna, in the 1930s, when the thinking at that stage was that air travel across the Atlantic would involve seaplanes going to Newfoundland (Botwood) and then on to New York. The museum website is http://www.flyingboatmuseum.com/. This museum is on the other side of the Shannon Estuary, you need to go into Limerick and out again to get there, not too difficult on public transport.

Airport services:
ATM machines, WH Smith, several food and drink options both landside and airside. The airport has a free wifi service throughout.


Other services from SNN
Shannon is different from Cork in one very notable respect: it has a number of direct flights to North America, complete with pre-clearance. Furthermore one of the routes, SNN-PHL, is with American, so valid for TP and Avios, and also has BA codeshares on them (for slightly higher Avios earning). It doesn't have the latest cabin refit, however. These are some of the other routes from SNN, I'm excluding BA's JFK service since you can't start your trip in SNN.

SNN-PHL - AA with BA codeshares, also IB and AY codeshares.
SNN-BOS - Aer Lingus using ASL Air Contractors - see below
SNN-JFK - Aer Lingus using ASL Air Contractors - see below
SNN-EDI and SNN-BHX - Aer Lingus Regional / Stobart (summer only)
SNN-AGP, FAO, ACE - summer service by Aer Lingus mainline.

The ASL services use rather elderly 757, the business class certainly isn't flat bed, it's probably more akin to WTP. Now it's can be cheap for business class but you kind of get what you pay for. On the other hand it is potentially useful for Avios redemptions, in that the number of Avios needed is relatively small, and the surcharges are low, potentially around Ł70 plus 25k Avios in economy, 70K in Business, both return, which is a lot lower than doing it on BA or AA. It's the same from Dublin too, but there you'll get proper Aer Lingus equipment and it's much more modern. Currently you can only book these flights on the telephone, neither availability checking nor booking can be done online.

The European and UK Aer Lingus flights are not currently showing as codeshares, but will earn a few Avios if booked with Aer Lingus.

Shannon Airport Aviation Gallery
This may be of interest to passengers using BA1 as well as the Aer Lingus flights. It's just a bit back from the seating area before USA Pre Clearance. HBO passengers can go straight through to Pre Clearance, those with bags wait until the announcement that bags have been digitally loaded into the CBP officers' systems. If you go a very short distance away from the CBP entrance towards gate 7 you will come across the Gallery. More details in a post below, but worth a flying visit!

Miscellaneous

• The weather in Shannon in winter is renown for being quite grim. Lots of wind and rain. Summer there's also lots of wind, and slightly less rain.
• Both Air France and British Airways made frequent use of Shannon Airport for Concorde training.
• The world's first airport duty free shop was opened in Shannon in 1947. And it's still trading! Has a rugby section.
• Shannon holds an important milestone in BA's history. In July 1946 BOAC started a regular service from LHR-SNN-YQX (Gander)-LGA (LaGuardia), using a fleet of 5 Lockheed Constellations. These took 40 passengers, who paid Ł168 for the return journey (now about Ł4900 adjusted for inflation) and which took 19 hours westbound. Until the mid 1960s, Shannon and/or Gander were necessary refuelling locations for trans Atlantic services, so to some extent the LCY service upholds the tradition. Shannon is also remains the communication home of Shanwick, the ATC centres for the Eastern Approaches shared between the UK and Ireland.
  

Website links:
Airport website: http://www.shannonairport.ie/gns/Passengers/Home.aspx

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Ireland West Airport Knock



This airport is an oddity in so many ways. IWAK, to give its rather unlovely local abbreviation, serves the village of Knock (population: 811) and its hinterland (population: not a lot more). It was built at the behest of the late Mgr. James Horan, who while he was priest at Knock also built a new basilica for the Knock Shrine, a place of pilgrimage. Mgr. Horan got the money for the airport via a lottery called the Jumbo Draw. The airport opened in October 1985, and though the number of flights remains very modest (the flight information display screens show flights 2 days off), it nevertheless handles about 700,000 passengers a year, similar to Inverness. The airport, once described as "the white elephant on a foggy, boggy hillside in Mayo" takes quite a battering from the weather, the exterior already looks dated. Inside is smarter, but basic comfort rather than shiny.






Services to and from LGW:
There is a daily Aer Lingus flight, EI911/912 with British Airways codeshare numbers BA2071 and BA2070, from and to LGW. The aircraft does a back to back at Knock. The aircraft serves Dublin before and after the LGW-NOC-LGW services. However as far as I can tell, there are no interesting fares available out of NOC, certainly compared to ORK, SNN and DUB. The inclusion of this airport here is just for completeness since there are 4 Aer Lingus mainline services to/from Ireland and the UK.

Back to back potential:
Well the potential and process is superb, but I just can't see the point of it since NOC fares are not competitive compared to ORK or SNN, let alone DUB. But the single flight requires at least 40 minutes to turn round at NOC, it takes 3 minutes to get back to the gate and it is guaranteed to be the same aircraft in as well as out.



Back to back process and timings
I timed a potential back to back in 3 minutes (I was actually going on to a Flybe service). There is almost impossible to miss your return flight give the turnaround time. The one caveat would be difficulties getting a boarding pass (see post 6), however if you can't get it via BA.com or aerlingus.com, it should be possible to get it at LGW before departure. The process is: walk off aircraft via apron, passport control (very quick), through to baggage reclaim, out to landside, then turn right towards the check-in desks, security is on the far side. The first thing you do on entering the security check entrance is pay your Airport Development Fee of 10€, see below. Then around the corner for a boarding pass check, security, the Shop West emporium and then the small seating area by the departure gate. This will then lead to a walk back across the apron.


Overnight potential:
There's no obvious reason for doing an overnight here. There aren't many hotel options locally either.

Airport Development Fee.

As stifle put it on the Aer Lingus forum: don't forget to put 10€ into the collection plate as you leave. In reality there isn't any optionality about it, a Development Fee of 10€ is charged to all departing passengers from Ireland West Airport Knock aged 12 years and over. You can pay with cash or credit card at the booth just before security, or at the landside shops / café when making other purchases. This seems to be a feature of small airports trying/hoping to get bigger, similar (but lower) fees are charged at Newquay and Durham Tees Valley, which strike me as a way of allowing low cost carriers to keep their headline fares down and then using the money to subsidise services which wouldn't otherwise run.

Lounge access for BAEC members:
Despite being one of the smallest airports I've ever used, I couldn't initially find the lounge! It's by gate 3 (and there are only 3 gates). This lounge is open to Aer Lingus Gold Circle members. But it is not available to BA cardholders, which I suspect is an oversight somewhere down the line. At some point I expect this to be corrected if Aer Lingus joins oneworld. Priority Pass is accepted as is cash. Important: the lounge is not staffed, entry is through a code number pad. You best get the code from the information desk landside. They can do it from the shop airside, but it's not the preferred way of doing it. It's not a big lounge, the middle photo was taken at the far end.







There is also no lounge for BAEC members at LGW South - this stopped when the Aspire lounge in LGW South was closed in May 2015. Aer Lingus now uses No. 1 Traveller there, but the arrangement only extends to Gold Circle members. Priority Pass is accepted there, however.


Hotel options:
There are no hotels within reasonable walking distance of the airport. There are a few hotels in Swinford and Charlestown, both about 15 minutes drive away. There is one hotel in Knock.

Travel to central Knock:
There are bus services from the airport to Knock, Ballina, Castlebar, Westport, Swinford, Charlestown - with onward connections to Belfast and Dublin. There are less frequent services from the airport to Galway, Sligo, Londonderry/Derry, In all cases the service frequency isn't good so best to research before travel.

What to see in Knock
The Knock Shrine is the obvious entry for this paragraph. Outdoor types will also have plenty to do locally, and there is also access to the Wild Atlantic Way, a long distance driving route along the rugged coastline.

Other services from Knock
There are other services from NOC with Ryanair to Stansted, Luton, East Midlands and Liverpool, and Flybe to Manchester, Edinburgh and Birmingham (last two are seasonal). In addition there are some European summer sunshine destinations, typically running once a week.

Airport services:
ATM machine, Knock Shrine Shop, XL News Agent, Hertz, Europcar, Budget and Avis car hire (all landside), duty free shop, several food and drink options both landside and airside. The airport has a free wifi service throughout.

Miscellaneous

• One 747 aircraft has visited the airport - this was a charter flight, carrying 500 passengers to/from Lourdes. Photos of this event are available online.

Website links:
Airport website: http://www.irelandwestairport.com/
On A Wing and A Prayer: Musical based on the story behind Knock Airport: http://wingandprayermusical.com/

corporate-wage-slave

Using LHR Terminal 2 - connections to T5 and T3 and BAEC lounge access



Connecting to T2 from T5 or T3

For information on connections from T5 you best look at KARFA's connection guide, available from the Forum Dashboard. In essence, if connecting from T5 or T3 you best take the airside bus service and then use Flight Connections at T2. There is a landside option, where you take the Tube or Heathrow Express from T5, or walk from T3, but both are slower. The landside walk from T3 is quite long and not terribly attractive but there probably isn't a lot in it time wise. From T5 the landside route could easily take you 30 minutes to do, whereas it shouldn't take 20 minutes airside. I've timed T5 domestic gate to Gold Circle lounge in T2 at 25 minutes. Note, if going airside from T5 Domestic arrivals, you will need to show your passport in T2 even though you've not left the country. You will also need to show a boarding pass or itinerary in T5 from Domestic, this doesn't apply for international transfers.

The basic process from T5 or T3 airside is: Follow signs for Flight Connections T2, take the bus to T2. Up the stairs, to the arrivals level, around the corner and a short moving walkway. Then straight on to Flight Connections T2 (the UK Border for T2 is left at the end of the passageway). This looks like this, with security at the back of the photo:



Then continue on and turn left into security - you don't need a boarding pass for this - up the escalators to the departures level, biometrics (see below), immediately next to that is the UK Border, transfer desk (if a boarding pass is needed) and then you are through to the main departure hall of T2. There is a Fast Track for Security but I can't see how BAEC members would be eligible for it when travelling EI.




Doubtless many in this forum will want to make a bee-line to the Aer Lingus lounge, which is open to BAEC Silver cardholders and above. The above photo show the main seating and shopping area after emerging from Flight Connections, the lounge escalator is in the middle of this photo, at the back of the seating, furthest end from World Duty Free.

Biometrics at T2
Similar to T5, as you enter T2 from either landside or Flight Connections, they will take a photograph of you and attach it electronically to your boarding pass. This is to ensure you leave via the Common Travel Area, whilst allowing you to mingle with passengers and facilities for international travel. It will be checked when passing through the departure gate, and the photo will be erased from the system after 24 hours. If you arrive at Flight Connections without your onward boarding pass then they'll print out a barcode, put it on these stickers (which finally explains the mystery of the same stickers in T5 incidentally). Then when you get your boarding pass from the transfer desk or Gold Circle lounge, they can then transfer your biometrics to the new boarding pass.


Travel documents
The Aer Lingus website gives the list of documents they accept for travel to Ireland. For UK and Irish citizens born in either country, then photographic ID is sufficient for Aer Lingus, they even mention a photographic bus pass, though I have my doubts about the wisdom of that. Driving licence photocards are OK, along with passports. Note that if transferring airside from T3 or T5 you will need a passport at T2 Flight Connections, even if transferring within the UK or Ireland. If transferring landside from T5 Domestic then you won't pass the UK Border and you'll only be asked for (e.g.) a driving licence by the Aer Lingus staff at the boarding gate.

Gold Circle Lounge LHR T2
For the full BAEC access restrictions, see below, but in essence all BAEC Silver cardholders and above get access to this lounge in T2 when flying Aer Lingus, whether as BA codeshare / Sold As or as a straightforward Aer Lingus prime booking. The Gold Circle lounge is indicated in T2 as "Lounge A2" and it's on Level 5, one up from the main departure level 4. From the main shopping and seating area of T2, Level 4, use the escalators going upwards from Smythson, at the other side from World Duty Free. The lounge is at the top of the escalators, to the left of the rather larger Lufthansa lounge.







This is quite a nice lounge, in terms of comfort and design, though the spotlights run rather hot. Not as good as the BA lounges on the food and drink side, the range is quite limited in comparison - soup, rolls, Walkers mini cake slices and biscuits, crisps, savoury snacks, Guinness, wine (white is in the fridge).



Aer Lingus gates
Though T2 is quite spread out, the Aer Lingus service is just underneath the Gold Circle lounge, at the opposite end from World Duty Free (gates 21 and thereabouts).

Arriving into T2 from Ireland



This is really quick and easy. There are are no passport controls, just baggage and customs (you can use the Blue channel), and it's even quicker than the T5 version. You can get to the tube station in 6 minutes. Just follow the signs to arrivals, on the left of the photo above, this will take you directly into the baggage hall (no passports), customs and then landside into the main arrival hall. Just cross to the other side, following the large overhead sign, thereby leaving the building into an atrium like area, then over a bridge to the lifts. Take this to the lowest level to the floor for the Central Heathrow T2, T3 Tube station and Central Heathrow Bus station - these are both a very short walk away. The Heathrow Express is slightly further on.

corporate-wage-slave

Other BA codeshares on Aer Lingus
There are other codeshares on Aer Lingus - not on the Stobart / Aer Lingus Regional routes however. So Manchester, Liverpool and Birmingham all have mainline flights and with them BA codeshares. These can be bought standalone (probably not cost effective) or in conjunction with other flights (possibly cost effective).

Tier Points and Avios
If booked under BA flight numbers (so "Marketed by BA", or "codeshare" or "sold as BAnnnn") then you will get TPs and Avios in line with the usual BA policies. For longhaul tickets this will typically give 20 TPs in Economy and a generous amount of Avios, relatively speaking. For shorthaul tickets - well there are some odd earnings out there. My NCL-LHR/LGW-NOC was Ł113 and offered 25 TPs and 1625 Avios for Emerald. Whilst not in TP run land by any means, this is nevertheless a relatively generous allocation for the fare. This was because the NCL-LHR sector was booked into H class - a simple standalone NCL-LHR in H is usually Ł144 approx, and that would be HBO, so Ł154 non HBO fare is the better comparison. Which rather suggests these fares can be used for Hidden City pricing in some situations.

If booked under Aer Lingus flight numbers (so typically via aerlingus.com) then you will still earn some Avios, but not many, and no TPs would be awarded.

BA and Aer Lingus PNRs
If you book a BA flight through to Ireland, the Aer Lingus section can be see on Aerlingus.com but you can't do much with it there, other than see a limited amount of information. If you try to check-in, after a promising series of screens it comes back with a message to indicate that check-in is not available on the booking.

Seat Reservation
This is not one of Aer Lingus' strengths. If booked on a BA ticket, I have not yet managed to find an online way to get seats allocated, even though the fare basis will almost certainly allow it free of charge. That includes at online check in (OLCI) - the BA metal will allow seat selection in the usual way but the Aer Lingus seat will just be automatically booked for you without any online way of changing it. So best to call up if you have a preference here. Alternatively you can accept the seat offered in OLCI, and change it at the airport, or perhaps more conveniently at the LHR T2 Gold Circle lounge if you have access. That lounge agent will also be able to change the return leg if back to back or staying one night. You can see the available seats using ExpertFlyer, with either the BA or EI code, and assume that any seat marked "blocked" is available for seat selection.

Online Checkin via BA.com
You can check in online and extract a boarding pass from BA.com but proceed carefully! You can't get a boarding pass for the Aer Lingus sector via the App, but you can by printing a copy via the full BA.com site. For some reason you only get one shot at it, so my advice is to choose the Save or Email option, just in case you have printer problems. If you check in via the App you can't then print the Irish sector on the main site. However it should not be difficult to get both boarding passes before your initial BA flight at check in or the lounge (not LBA or IOM however). The BA metal sectors should check in and issue boarding passes in the usual way.

Lounge Access
The lounges in Shannon and Cork are open to BA Silver members and above, when flying Aer Lingus, with the exception of the Regional flights on Stobart. It makes no difference if you are flying on a BA or EI marketed ticket. No guests are allowed. To quote the official guidance issued to the lounges (and apologies for the incorrect terminology):
I presume the reference to Qantas and AA (etc) relates to their FF schemes and codeshares.

There is no lounge access for BAEC members at Knock or London Gatwick No. 1 Lounge South. There was previously lounge access in LGW South when Aer Lingus used the Aspire lounge, but when that was closed the new arrangement - at No. 1 Lounge South - was not extended to BAEC members. Priority Pass cardholder can use both Knock and No. 1 LGW South as well as pay at the gate.

Priority Boarding
You won't get Priority Boarding via your BAEC membership direcly, but it may show on your Aer Lingus issued boarding pass if you select a front or emergency exit seat.

Baggage Allowance
One feature of codeshares generally is that you don't get the marketing airline's baggage allowance, instead you get that of the operating airline (or metal). It isn't at all unknown for people to turn up for flights completely unaware that (a) they are not flying on the airline they thought they were using and (b) when it comes to baggage, the rules belong to the possibly unknown airline.

Aer Lingus is not as generous as BA. Moreover baggage income seems to be a key priority for EI such that if a bag comes through on a flight connection which needs to be paid for, they have been known to hunt you down at the gate to extract payment! Furthermore your BAEC privileges for extra baggage do not (yet) extend to EI, on BA codeshared flights, you get one checked bag of 20 kgs. Just to make it even more irksome, though can pre-pay for extra baggage in advance to reduce the cost, the online facility does not work on BA bookings, you have to ring the call centre (same cost as online, but for the "extra piece" allowance you need to explain the online block). If you want 2 bags totaling 40 kgs that is 35€. The "extra piece" allowance of 2 bags but still totaling 20 kgs is 10€, alternatively one bag of 25 kgs is also 10€. As indicated in Note 2, this issue is less likely to arise on your longhaul trip ticket, it's more on shorthaul tickets.

NOTE 1: if paying at the airport they charge 40€ for an "extra piece" for the second bag, but it doesn't increase your allowance beyond the original 20 kgs, there is an extra charge of 15€ per kg for that. So taking 2 bags, one of 20 kgs, the other bag at 15 kgs, will set you back an astonishing 265€! So ring up, it would only be 35€ if booked in advance.

NOTE 2: for a trip such as ORK-LHR-BOS, then BA's allowance on the longhaul will apply throughout, under the Most Significant Carrier rule, if it is the marketing airline (in other words, ORK-LHR is a BA codeshare).

Cabin baggage:
Aer Lingus' cabin size restriction is: 55cm x 40cm x 24cm at 10kgs, compared to BA's 56cm x 45cm x 25cm and 23 kgs. Aer Lingus also allow "one small personal item: Small handbag, laptop, duty free or baby changing bag", no precise sizes specified, for BA it is: 40cm x 30cm x 15cm. Like BA, the enforcement is fairly relaxed unless you really take the mick. Note that if your flight has a Stobart / Aer Lingus Regional segment, the baggage allowance for that section of the trip is lower: 48cm x 33cm x 20cm / 7kgs and enforcement there can be tougher, simply because the overhead bins are very small. There is generally a facility to gate check larger wheelies on Stobart.

A320 seating on Aer Lingus
Most shorthaul on Aer Lingus mainline is the A320, of which the company has 33 - they also have 3 x A321 and 2 x A319s. As the photos below indicate, the seating on Aer Lingus is different to what you may be used to on BA shorthaul. There are more seats fitted on the Aer Lingus A320s - 174 compared to 168 to 171 seats on BA. There isn't a wardrobe in front, merely a thin bulkhead. Row 1 does not give the same knee room as BA: it's 42 cm compared to BA's 58cm on A320 (63 cm on the G-GATx series). The rest of the seating is fairly similar to the BA set-up in terms of knee and leg room, but Aer Lingus' seats are slightly wider, by about 1cm, and the aisle somewhat narrower. The seat itself is thicker than BA. Emergency exit rows are more comfortable, you want row 13 preferably, if not row 12 (in photo). Seat maps are to be found at the end of this page:
http://corporate.aerlingus.com/companyprofile/fleet/




Inflight service
Compared to BA, this isn't Aer Lingus' strongest card. If you want water or tea, you'll have to pay, no matter how much you spent on the ticket. Soft drinks, tea, coffee are in the Ł2 region, lager Ł3.50 330ml, wine Ł4.50 200ml, Bottega Gold Prosecco Ł5.30. Cheese toastie: Ł3.80, Irish hot breakfast Ł7.50. Aer Lingus' website has full information in the Experience Aer Lingus section. For our exBMI refugees, the cheese toastie continues on Aer Lingus, for a price of Ł3.80. Both Sterling and Euros are accepted, exact change greatly appreciated since the staff carry no float. Gratuitous Ł3.80 cheese toastie photo for anyone with BMI withdrawal symptoms:



My Flightpath
BA codeshares on Aer Lingus will show up as a blob on the map, and get added to Cities Visited total, but won't show in the detailed flight listing on the front page. LCY-SNN-JFK flights do not show the SNN stop.

corporate-wage-slave

Shannon Airport Aviation Gallery

This is a small exhibit area in the main Shannon airport, close to the seating area for USA Preclearance. A lot of BA, BOAC and Imperial Airways memorabilia is to be found there, and as mentioned above, BA1 users may be able to do a whistlestop tour of it before preclearance. If you are HBO in particular you should have no trouble having a quick peek. The Gallery is just back from the seating for US Pre-clearance, towards the sign for gate 7. I am awarded it a post in its own right, so I can give more details about it without cluttering up the main Shannon entry.



The visits of both Concorde and the BA A380 feature prominently with several photos of them at Shannon. There are also photos of the many strange and unusual flight movements that Shannon has witnessed over its long history.





The airport's guestbook shows the arrival of in 1967 of Jacqueline (Jackie) Kennedy Onassis, with JFK's only surviving child, Caroline Kennedy, who is currently the USA's ambassador to Japan - and JFK's son, who was killed in the Martha's Vineyard air crash in 1999.



There are also pictures of famous visitors to Shannon Airport, including the Duke of Edinburgh, many of the stars of the 1950s and 1960s, and this rather startling image of Diana Dors:

corporate-wage-slave

And that concludes my input for now. Any corrections or queries? Post away!

our_kid

Wonderful to read cws thank you for this

Ldnn1

Another outstanding guide, thanks c-w-s.

One question - although you note (with some exceptions) that the same aircraft turn round at ORK/SNN for the LHR runs making back-to-backs doable, is it not possible that if an LHR-ORK/SNN flight is cancelled say due to weather, EI may still run the following ORK/SIN-LHR service using a spare aircraft at the base? If so would this not add some extra risk compared to using BA to DUB?

corporate-wage-slave

That's always possible, but as far as I can tell Aer Lingus don't maintain a full base at either airport, they would almost certainly need to run an aircraft down from DUB or change another flight (and I guess BA could do the same at DUB too, though just as unlikely). But you are right to illustrate the risk.

Ber2dca

ORK is the airport I most commonly use and it does have the vibe of a large bus terminal but because it was built with *potential* in mind (and is thus oversized for its actual use) it is also a very peaceful airport that is a long way removed from the hectic environment you get at LHR or even DUB. I like using it because it's the closest airport and I typically connect in LHR or AMS anyway so if I connect there from ORK or DUB doesn't really matter.

I can add two things: In spite of it being typically quiet, it's possible to have a bit of a wait at security as the security checkpoint is small so if you have two flights departing at around the same time and they're both full there can be a bit of a logjam. I'm talking about maybe 20 minutes wait though so not too dramatic.

Secondly, one thing to note about ORK is that it's located in a hilly landscape a few miles south of the city. It's fair to call the area "windswept" and go-arounds and weather-related issues cannot be ruled out at any time of the year - though snow and ice fortunately are typically not really an issue.

Speedbird876

Wow, what a great report!

CWS, one question re online check-in on BA codeshares. Do you know if there's a difference checking in using the BA website/app on a standalone flight compared to when the EI flight was part of a longer journey?

As for Ldnn1's question, it's made me think that in some ways LHR is more of an EI base than some of Ireland's smaller airports. I'm pretty sure that some 'spare' crew are kept at LHR. In IRROPs it might be easier to get spare aircraft for, say, a LHR-ORK-LHR run from London rather than DUB.

madfish

An excellent guide, and worth a read even if not planning on flying from Ireland.

My first ex-EU was actually from ORK via MAN with VS. This was a great experience and we all found ORK to be a great little airport. There is not much after security so we used the cafe/restaurant upstairs before security to grab some breakfast. This was the first Sunday of the summer holidays and the airport felt quite busy - there was certainly a queue at security but progressed. Once airside it seemed fairly quite however and there was ample seating. We stayed overnight at the Park Inn. The accommodation was nothing special and we did use the shuttle bus in the morning but only because we had luggage and a five year old in tow. Otherwise I would just walk across to the airport as it is so close. Would not hesitate to return to Cork - a great little city despite being rained on throughout our day there, and worth a visit in its own right.

At the time of our visit the old airport terminal was still standing, which makes the new terminal look so much more appealing. I assume it is still there.

Getting back to the guide, the only additional point that I can make that you may wish to add, is some aerial views/maps of the airport showing the exactly location of the hotels, car park etc.

obduro

Great effort CWS and very much appreciated.

I've travelled to Shannon a fair few times to visit family in Kerry when Ryanair direct has sold out. One thing I can 100% agree on is the weather, beginning to think the sun never shines on SNN...!