V-Flyer

Well took the plunge and opted for the Air Lingus flight to New York, however noticed at checkout they wanted £495 to upgrade to business class. Once booked I went into my manage booking within 5 mins and saw I can now upgrade for £350 each way.


Firstly has any V-Flyer used this route and how is the product? I may just have to part with some more money.(the turn left bug is hitting again)

I personally haven't flown Aer Lingus transatlantically but those who have say that it's not a bad product in business class. Aer Lingus has some good deals on at the moment on that route.

BTW, it's Aer Lingus, not Air Lingus. Its name is a contraction of the Irish Aer Loingeas and therefore not an English word v(

honey lamb wrote:I personally haven't flown Aer Lingus transatlantically but those who have say that it's not a bad product in business class. Aer Lingus has some good deals on at the moment on that route.

BTW, it's Aer Lingus, not Air Lingus. Its name is a contraction of the Irish Aer Loingeas and therefore not an English word v(

My apologies Honey Lamb ii)

The seats are wedgie lie flats, not horizontal like on VS or BA.

jfenney wrote:Well took the plunge and opted for the Air Lingus flight to New York, however noticed at checkout they wanted £495 to upgrade to business class. Once booked I went into my manage booking within 5 mins and saw I can now upgrade for £350 each way.


Firstly has any V-Flyer used this route and how is the product? I may just have to part with some more money.(the turn left bug is hitting again)

If you're willing to make a stop, there's some great deals for biz across the pond at present...basically, cutting a long story short in a battle to prove that my flights (domestic in the US) were not exorbitant (our stupid corp booking system flagged me for booking a fare $100 higher which was with VX rather than US Airways), I started looking at fares from LHR to JFK knowing many of my colleagues deliberately drop a Sat night stay to get more flex ticket conditions....in short, you can fly in biz with either Aer Lingus or Icelandair for about $100 less than the econ fare with BA, VS and Delta.

The huge advantage on most Aer Lingus flights stopping at Dublin is getting through US immigration in Dublin Airport. In the US, you land as a domestic flight. Much faster and less stressful when arriving after a flight across the pond.

Spill wrote:The huge advantage on most Aer Lingus flights stopping at Dublin is getting through US immigration in Dublin Airport. In the US, you land as a domestic flight. Much faster and less stressful when arriving after a flight across the pond.

He knows that. It was discussed in another thread and it's not all EI flights that pre-clear custom and immigration

The Aer Lingus J product is nice, not great, but for 350 quid it is certainly worth the upgrade.

They also have a kinda PE cabin, the seats are the same, the food is the same, but you get more legroom and first service for food and drinks, from memory it was 30 quid more.

Spill wrote:The huge advantage on most Aer Lingus flights stopping at Dublin is getting through US immigration in Dublin Airport. In the US, you land as a domestic flight. Much faster and less stressful when arriving after a flight across the pond.

Actually, while it is easier and certainly quicker, I have found the Dublin agents to be the biggest a*****es in the US immigration system. When I last went through it seemed like every other passenger was getting pulled out of line for secondary screening, including myself, sit around for 30 minutes, get called up to a desk, I was asked if I knew why I was there, I said no, the lady said neither do I..... I saw this going on the whole 30 minutes I had to wait.

I'm not sure that the Aer Lingus list on the website of flights that pre-clear is up to date for the summer schedule, as I think but am not sure, that there are few others that will pre clear. For example we are on EI133, which is now direct rather than via Shannon and I am pretty sure we will pre-clear. I have found it very useful in the past - last year we were in our hotel at Boston Common about 45 mins after the wheels hit the ground in BOS.

As for 'premium' - I think this refers to a 2 row mini-cabin that lies between business and economy. It is definitely an economy product but as stated there is more legroom, in particular the second row centre section aisle seats allow you to stretch out almost fully as the configuration is 4 behind 3. The seat back video is offset for the same reason. These can be reserved at booking. This config is not present in all the aircraft but is easily identified on the seat map.

I haven't flown EI business as it stretches the budget a bit far for a family of five and I prefer to use VS UC when flying alone.