V-Flyer

This trip was organised to take in a visit to some friends of ours in Conneticut and to take in the Script concert in the Radio City Music Hall. .

We took the 8am flight from Manchester to Dublin to connect with the 10:45 Ei105. We decided to stay in the Hilton in Manchester rand I must say I was impressed so I am sure the V- Flyer met in March is onto a winner there.

The Manchester - Dublin flight was uneventful but was on time and landed 10 mins early ,great start. Now this was my first Aer Lingus business flight and I have to admit I was impressed in most things and I will get to that later but a great advantage of taking the 105 flight is that you clear US immigration in Dublin and land the domestic terminal in JFK .

The flight was 7 hours and 5 mins so a little headwind but the service was excellent and in particular the FSM sorry no name taken however as luck would have it he is on our returning flight

The food consisted of an small appetiser of 3 pâté ,cheese things which was lovely followed by hot chicken skewers (divine) and a salad . I took the lamb encrusted with herbs and root mash and again very lovely. I finished off with a lovely rhubarb an crumble pie with custard.

The seat although only a sleeper seat I found comfortable but not in the league of a lie down bed ( I did miss upper class here) this being said the only issue I would say is the tv screen does not move so you feel you are sitting a long way from the screen .

Lastly a big up to the FSM he personally went to each individual in business and thanked them for their custom and he also kept me plied with drinks always a bonus with me .

Overall I feel it was a worthwhile flight and I would do the route again if only for the pre customs .

Thanks for TR,how much was the fare and what did you fly on?
Blacky

It would've been an A330, either -200 or -300.

Would love to try EI Business Class. Did you have time to use the lounge at DUB?

We flew on the A330-300 and with regards to the lounge no due to time landing at 9.00 then transisting through the terminal then you have to get through US customs there are a few flights that do pre immigrate at that time so I personally would get through early only point is not many shopping areas once you clear US immigration. The costs of ticket was around £440 for econ but we upgraded early and paid another £380 each way . I did notice it was cheaper to buy econ first before upgrading. Hope this helps

Jurgen

As a matter of interest EI's catering is in-house. I was surprised to learn that as I assumed that they would use some in-flight catering company but Aer John informed me otherwise and in fact staff at head office in Dublin enjoy tasting sessions

Great TR! The ability to clear US immigration in DUB sounds like a huge bonus to me...

Here's another EI trip report, sounds very good.

http://www.businesstraveller.com/discus ... 00-Premier

stevop21 wrote:Great TR! The ability to clear US immigration in DUB sounds like a huge bonus to me...

This is a fabulous benefit of Aer Lingus flights from Dublin to the US but is not available on all Aer Lingus USA flights.
Other carriers from DUB to US Airports (AA, United, Delta etc) also pre-clear immigration and customs in Dublin. I think I remember hearing somewhere US Pre-Clearance may be coming to the UK sometime soon.
On a recent DUB-BOS trip I was in my Tremont Street hotel less than 45 mins after the wheels hit the ground. Don't think I will manage that next week using VS to MIA .

great timing, i'm also travelling MAN-DUB-ORD in a couple of weeks, business class. I'm hoping to try the lounge but two of us are travelling business & one colleauge who we're meeting at Dublin is travelling economy. From what i've read they don't allow guests unless you have gold status with EI

hat wrote:great timing, i'm also travelling MAN-DUB-ORD in a couple of weeks, business class. I'm hoping to try the lounge but two of us are travelling business & one colleauge who we're meeting at Dublin is travelling economy. From what i've read they don't allow guests unless you have gold status with EI

I think you can buy entry to the lounge. EI offers it on the website when there is a lounge available

Edited to add this link