Aer Lingus? Comments Please

[wackywexler]

Hello Everyone,

I hope to be visiting your side of the pond for the first time very soon. We are hoping to be able to book the Westbound Transatlantic Repo Cruise next August. In working on our budget we found that Aer Lingus flies out of Los Angeles at substantially cheaper rates than most other airlines. It could save our family of four close to two thousand dollars.

Our dream would be to fly into London or Manchester and stay a week hopefully be trading our Marriott Timeshare Resort here in Palm Springs for any timeshare resort anywhere in England. There do not seem to be many timeshare resorts in Ireland that are affiliated with my Interval Internationl trading agency, or Dublin would be an option too.

After a week we would then fly into Barcelona for the cruise. I have always heard that you get what you pay for so I am wondering why Aer Lingus is so much less?

Please tell me your experiences, thoughts and comments. Thank you so very much.

 

[Miffy2003]

Just popping this across to Community for you

I have never travelled with Aer Lingus before myself, but that is a big saving!!

 

[wackywexler]

Thank you, I had originally posted on the transportation board with no response other than to suggest that I post on the UK boards so I thought I would give that a go but was unsure quite where to post so thank you very much.

 

[jns]

i have travelled with them lots of time , no problems
you can get them to tranfer you to London as well , if you do not want to spent time here

 

[wackywexler]

Have you done mostly short hops or have you done a long flight with them as well?

 

[jns]

we have done both

 

[wackywexler]

Thats great to hear, thank you very much!!

 

[TinkTatoo]

I've flown with them on the Dublin / JFK route and they are fine - well worth using if you are making a saving of $2000. One thing I noticed was the cabin crew on Continental and Delta seemed more professional but we might have just been unlucky with our Aer Lingus crew

 

[DebIreland]

Aer Lingus are fine and I've used them many times, most recently flying to New York from Shannon and then from Orlando to Shannon (they no longer fly that route). The Shannon to NY trip was okay, smooth ride all the way. The staff were not overly friendly but weren't bad either if you know what I mean - you kinda had to ask for everything, rather than being offered anything, but if you know that upfront you'll be prepared. We had a nice meal too and they remembered our vegetarian order which was a nice pasta dish. The decor inside the planes was once lovely but is looking a little bit faded, not dirty mind you, but just not as fresh as it once was.

Now our trip from Orlando to Shannon was superb - same airline but far superior service which is strange. I guess it just depends on the staff who are on duty at the time. We had a couple of extremely nice air stewards who gave the children lots of extra little treats (like they weren't hyper enough, lol!). That was a great flight.

I would definitely recommend them! More info here at this site if you're interested:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aer_Lingus

As for why they are so much cheaper, I honestly don't know why but I can tell you this - when I book with them from Ireland, I never book the return leg from the Irish site, I always book that part on the U.S. site because it's always cheaper. For example last year the Orlando to Shannon leg of our trip was 220 euro each on the Irish site but it was 220 dollars each on the U.S. site which is obviously much cheaper considering the exchange rate! I've checked on this numerous times and it's always the case! So make sure you book *both* legs of your trip on the U.S. site www.aerlingus.com and not www.aerlingus.ie - I hope that makes sense.

They will fly you from L.A. to either Shannon or Dublin, not direct to London but there are numerous airlines flying Shannon/Dublin/Cork to London a few times a day so you'll have no problem getting a connecting flight. Just remember that the luggage allowance will be much less on an Ireland to U.K. flight than on an international flight. www.Ryanair.ie and www.easijet.co.uk are two airlines I can recommend for the Ireland/England flight. Good luck!

 

[wackywexler]

Thank you DebIreland for all of that wonderful information, just the kind of info that I was looking for. Thank you!