Aer Lingus: anti-technology but friendly all the same

As I write, I am somewhere over northern Canada on my way to San Francisco. Salt Lake City in Utah is my final destination, but as this first leg to San Francisco is an 11-hour flight in itself, I thought I‘d share a few points about what is good and bad about travelling long-haul with Aer Lingus.

In summary, Aer Lingus is a luddite airline. Here’s why.

No personal screen: unlike most other long-haul airlines, most of Aer Lingus’s current fleet do not have a personal video screen on the back of the seat in front. Instead, they have the dreaded communal 14-inch CRT screen which many passengers have to strain to see.

No power points: the lack of a personal screen wouldn’t be so bad if you could rely on your own laptop and a few DVDs. But you can’t, because there are no personal power points on the seats. Is it such a fancy shmancy idea that passengers on a 10-hour flight might regard their laptop a handy resource? I have a feeling that Aer Lingus regards this as being a huge luxury. The same way they regarded the use of iPods to be an aviation threat years after other airlines had given them the all-clear. And I suppose that this is no more than just a part of the Irish slow adopter culture when it comes to incorporating IT into everyday life. But while this may be fine for the over 45s, us young folk don’t regard laptops as fancy, yuppie luxuries. They’re normal everyday things. And we should have power points.

Okay, so much for the moan. Even if it is old-fashioned and tech-blind, it does have some positive points. Such as:

No hidden charges: unlike a certain rat-bastard airline (which begins with R, ends with R and has yanai in the middle), you’re not gouged for baggage, check-in or boarding passes
Choosing your own seat: I like that you can pick your own cabin seat online prior to the flight
Stewards: there is no doubt that Aer Lingus stewards are a lot friendlier and more helpful than a certain other Irish bastard-airline.
Moderation of cabin announcements: you can generally get on with snoozing, chatting or whatever you wish without constant intercom interruptions trying to sell you something, as opposed to the practice of another bum-faced airline.
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Comments

[Orlaith]

I have twice flown with Aer Lingus on its Dublin to Dubai route, which they scrapped last year. It's about a 7 hour trip so hardly the same as flying to San Francisco. They had personal video screens which I imagine would come in very useful on an 11 hour journey to SF. They definitely did not have any power points though, my battery died after 4 hours.

[Cronan]

Last night, I got gouged for 18 Euro by AerLingus coming back from Milan Malpensa to Dublin. Under their rules you can only carry on one bag of less than 6kg. When I put my small laptop bag into my small rolling bag it was 3kg over the limit. There is no web check in for this flight, so unfortunately you have to deal with these check-in people.

I asked them to be flexible but they said they could not be flexible and had to strictly enforce the rules: one bag and 6kg limit.

When I boarded the flight, I wasn't too impressed to find that there were a number of people boarding the flight with two bags and bags that were clearly heavier than 6kgs.

It seems that the company charged with operating the AerLingus check-ins were only strictly enforcing these rules for Irish people and not Italians.

I wasn't the only person who reported this because as I discussed it with the head flight attendant she told me that there had already been one complaint on the exact same issue and that she that she had noted it in her official flight report and had already made a complaint to the gate handling people.

At least with the other Irish airline (starting with R) you can always use web check-in and not have to queue up to check in and then have to deal with check in service like this.