Defecting briefly...
 

So I have a trip to BCN next month. Checked flights, and DL wants 6.4k, same as the other 'primary' carriers. End up finding Aer Lingus has a routing for less than half the price and with their new lie-flat config so end up booking on them. Can't justify spending another 3.3k for DL.

Really annoying thing is its a month out from the trip, and the DL J cabin is almost entirely empty (not just the seat map, they've only sold a handful up front). I would've booked the currently going coach fare for 1300 and used my GUCs, but no upgrade space available. Its low season, empty cabin, but no upgrade inventory. Crappy

Hoping I don't regret flying on EI...

Friend of mine has done two recent TATLs on EI in J and reports nothing but good about them.

Comfy seat/bad , good food and drink and great staff.

Thanks. Their 'new' website is quite a mess though... I think EU carriers pride themselves on making it difficult to get any info or make changes to your flight/itinerary.

Look forward to hearing your thoughts on Aer Lingus. I've flown them once on a trip to Dublin and they were fine but I don't think I could do them to continental Europe - the flights from Boston to Dublin are way too short and I can only imagine that the connection onto their all economy class short haul fleet at the crack of dawn makes the trip rather miserable. If you flew on DL/UA/AA, you would have a much longer ride in J on the TATL segment and not have to sit 2.5-3 hours in Y on a 174 seat A320 (for comparisons sake DL only has 150 seats on their A320s - soon going to 160 I believe). I'm guessing that is why Aer Lingus prices so low in business class because you can only fly it to Dublin.

EI was a client of mine in the 1990s and I had to fly them all of the time in J. It was not a pleasant experience back then.

I have flown them recently in J and it is just fine but definitely not a "great" experience. Keep in mind that East Coast to DUB is pretty much the shortest TATL flight that you can do so don't expect to sleep much. I only mention this because you may value the food/drink/(lack of)wifi tradeoffs vs DL. rather than the seat on such a short TATL flights.

When I fly TATL these from the East Coast, I try to route through ATL or ORD to get more sleep time.

I flew JFK-MUC in F on LH last month and didn't sleep for a second, which is a shame because the seat was very very comfortable!

There are a lot of good deals to BCN right now. Have you checked out IB?

TFD

Consider taking the Virgin Train + Ferry combo from Dublin. Very nice and cheap at 39 Euros. It takes all day, but is a very nice start to a trip if you're on vacation.

Its a business trip so no time for taking a trail or sightseeing unfortunately. We checked a bunch of other flight options including IB. They had poor connection options for my dates.
Rest of the group was the same 6300 +/- a couple hundred... so will see how IE is. Yeah not really looking forward to the all-Y config intra-EU flight for 2 hours after arriving in DUB at dawn.

I'll make Exec Plat on AA again next month - am hoping the EI addition to IAG opens up some opportunities. ;)

I've had a few friends fly EI and be happy with the decision.

DL is making it harder and harder to fly them as I pay for my own travel.

Agreed... in this case it is 'OPM' however I can't in good conscious justify that price differential regardless of who is paying.