Aer Lingus Fleet/ Routes Discussion Pt 2 (ALL possible routes included)

what does it do in Bordeaux?

Flight time 1.10 but didn't exceed 14,000ft. Wonder if there's something up with it. Landing gear perhaps ? LH first reactivated A380 had a similar type of flight with landing gear down all the way home.....

I see you can book DUB - London City on the Aer LIngis website now.

Anyone know if you get tier points on those flights. They are on BA metal but the website does not clearly distinguish them from the standard green birds to Heathrow and Gatwick. Website says you only earn tier points on fights operated by E.. I'd be annoyed if I booked to London City and did not get them.

The BA logo and flight details give it away, its not Aer Lingus, it doesn't earn tier

It sure wouldn't kill them to add "operated by British Airways" now would it?

It sure wouldn't kill them to add "operated by BA CityFlyer" now would it? 🙄

I forget which airline it was, but I saw a booking system recently that let you choose the fare you paid with an explicit reference to how many miles/tier points you were eligible for. Nice system.

Got the post flight survey today and they actually let you be quite critical now. May have gone in two footed on the food provision....

Are there really that many people that would be bothered (in terms of overall passenger numbers)?

I doubt it to be honest!

I would. If I knew I earned no tier points for LCY I wouldnt book it.

If Aerclub is to be promoted it should be clear. You shouldnt have to dig around the website and look at fair codes to find out.

AL is going downhill. We know that, but

• For European leisure economy travel it is still a better product than Ryanair and price will depend.
• for European business travel - depends on destination but where economy is available it is still a better product than Ryanair. On par in economy with Air France, KLM, LH etc - obviously business class in these routes is better.
• for TATL economy, it will remain price driven and AL is usually competitive although DL, AA and United can offer good prices plus they have better loyalty rewards.
• for AL business, price will be remain a factor but you will have regular travellers shifting to other airlines. Sky team for instance has good loyalty rewards - earning in Europe and on US TATL and farther afield.

Bottom line is that they will still do ok but the premium aspect is probably most elastic in respect to a poor product. They know this and that is why the Business product remains good - but it is crew dependent.

EI J is solidly mediocre.

Its priced well from Ireland but its not competitive ex USA.

You might not get your choice of main. They might run out of your chosen drink. The seat might be inoperable. The service cadence might be sporadic at best. Your plane might have WiFi, it might not. You might have to wait hours for your bags at either end despite priority tags. These are all things I've experienced on 6 different EI J segments in the past 8 months. You raise this with them, that you were sold a different product, they'll email you back & tell you tough luck, thems the breaks. They should shut down the Twitter social team, they don't do anything except aggravate people & throw others under the bus for service interruptions.

It's just not buttoned up enough tbh, and that falls upon Embleton. She's overseeing a notable degradation in the product and just doesn't seem to give a rats - Mueller wasn't from Ireland either but he got it.

Its first world problems, but damn it people are paying enough of money & EI are happy to shout about all the different benefits of J on the marketing materials, I think I've 1/6 flights where they've delivered everything as it says on the tin. That's going to end up hurting the business if it keeps up, penny wise, pound foolish. This classic Irish 'it'll be grand' mentality.

The front line staff are carrying the product at the moment, they're the only aspect bringing the level up to mediocre and they have a hard job. Mis-catering, broken seats, ACF layouts... they're not being set up to succeed.

Actual engagement is more beneficial to the thread rather than smart-arsed comments.

I'd be fully inclined to agree with your comments. The non wi-fi, seats comments etc is time limited for its fix, its not going to change for some months so I'm not going to add any more volume to it.

The EI consistency in product fell apart when a certain COO took over actually under Mueller - The subsequent CEO an accountant essentially aloud the product to disintegrate under same COO. The same COO nearly disengaged staff when he blanketly accused them of theft. ACF config was a wet dream for them both, they only recently had a pat the back fest on Linkedin about said aircraft (ex Exec Management). It's a horrendous Y product in it's current configuration for pax and for crew.

My biggest annoyances are very much ironed out by you in your detailed post, cleaning is another one that infuriates me - But its unfortunately uphill to get it back as its seen as more cost now. A lot of these issues can be fixed for example meal ordering for J Pax 24hrs prior to departure (in time this could include Y), you can cut out waste and add a few buffers.

Is it still going downhill now? personally I don't believe so. There are material improvements on the way, but there's an uphill battle to fix it and I do believe the likes of JetBlue arriving would accelerate it, all of it is more cost and its IAG approves any of that. A huge amount of the pax experience could be enhanced with technological investment.

This is it exactly - allowing pre-ordered meals (as the vast majority of full service airlines do) is such low hanging fruit and easy to get right. It's mind blowing how blase management are about things like that - those details matter!