On arrival into the new T2 home of AE in Dublin, as transfer pax we followed the signs for transfer & customs pre-clearance. What we didn’t realise was that this meant we bypassed the whole departure lounge area & ended up straight at the gate area. The pre-clearance worked well although a full security screening both before and after the customs point seemed a little excessive, especially as we had remained airside the whole time.
Boarding was slightly delayed due to ‘operational reasons’ – which became clear 10 minutes later when one of the cabin crew ran through the gate area to get on board! This was a 3-class A330 with only 4 rows of business class, then premium followed by coach. The seat was very much like what I’ve experienced AA previously – a not-quite-flat but without the manual adjustment on the AA seat, just 3 or 4 pre-set positions which then had to be fiddled with to get any other in between settings. In fact the whole offering was very similar to the AA business class, but with friendlier crew.
2 glasses of champers pre-push back and we were out on time. The cabin service seemed to be a long time getting started; in fact the whole meal service took well over an hour. I only had the canapés, which was a slightly odd mix of 3 cold items followed by a hot samosa served separately, & smoked fish starter before I was full & feeling sleepy. I declined the main course but my tray sat until I finally used the call bell to ask for it to be cleared, well after my neighbour had finished his main. This slow service was my only gripe of the overall service.
The entertainment system was an old VOD operated thru the handset with a very limited number of new release movies, and as I was in row 1 the small screen was attached to the bulkhead which was just about a useable distance away.
After a couple of hours kip the afternoon tea was served which was a rather nice open sandwich of cold roast beef on a rye bread with an onion relish & horseradish dip followed by a selection of warm scones.
We landed 40 minutes early into a domestic terminal which feels odd but is the bonus of pre-clearance & within minutes we were on the Avis bus.
In summary the overall package compared well to a US business class, but I think it fell short of the premium EU carriers. The price and the US border pre-clearance mean it’s well worth considering again.
