Aer Lingus has just announced an interesting update to their onboard product. Aer Linugus will be introducing AerSpace as of September 1, 2019, which is the name of their new short haul business class.
Aer Lingus used to offer business class on short haul flights, though they axed it back in 2002, so it has been quite a while.
What’s included with Aer Lingus’ Aerspace business class seats?
Intra-Europe business class isn’t anything to get too excited about, but it’s better than nothing. Aer Lingus’ Aerspace product will include the following amenities:
- Middle seat free
- Private overhead storage
- Complimentary food and drink from our Bia menu
- Lounge access
- Priority boarding
- Fast Track security
- Automatic standby for earlier flights
- Free changes and refunds
As you can see, it looks like they won’t offer dedicated catering, but rather anything available for purchase in economy will be free in business class.
How much are Aer Lingus AerSpace business class tickets?
Pulling up some random pricing for a one-way Dublin to Amsterdam flight in September, it looks like the cheapest economy fare is 58.99EUR, while an AerSpace seat costs179.99EUR.
Obviously that’s a significant premium, though there’s also a huge difference as far as the terms of the tickets go, including free refunds.
Initially it looks like Aer Lingus is just allocating the first row of the plane (four seats total) to this concept. The benefit of intra-Europe business class is that airlines have a lot of flexibility, as they can easily add more rows based on demand.
This isn’t Aer Lingus’ only recent intra-Europe announcement
You might be saying to yourself “wait a minute, didn’t Aer Lingus recently announce they’d bring back intra-Europe business class?” Well, sort of.
Late last year Aer Lingus announced that they’d be offering business class on select flights within Europe. The premise was that Aer Lingus will be taking delivery of A321LR aircraft starting this summer, which will feature 186 seats, including 16 fully flat business class seats and 170 economy seats.
While these planes will primarily be used for transatlantic flights, the reality is that they have quite a bit of down time in Dublin between “turns” (most flights land in Dublin early in the morning and return to North America in the afternoons), so Aer Lingus figured they might as well fly these planes to top business markets.
That was only going to apply to very few routes, though, while now Aer Lingus is expanding business class to all routes.
Bottom line
While intra-Europe business class is rarely anything to get excited about, I’m nonetheless happy to see Aer Lingus expand this offering.
This will be great for those booking transatlantic journeys that include connections in economy. One of the major downsides of that up until now was that your connection was in economy, while you can now at least get free food and drinks and a blocked middle seat.
The thing to look forward to most, however, are those intra-Europe flights operated by the A321LR, which will feature fully flat beds.
Miles (and Avios) should be redeemable for this cabin.
Hi
Late I know but is there a business class check in?
Anne
@Gugulethu Mabuza: I doubt you´ve ever seen a plane up close, let alone flown.
Expect to see row 1 completely empty on 99% of these flights. Aerspace seats are not being sold through their codeshare partners. So if you book a long-haul flight in J with BA you won't be automatically booked through into Aerspace, so it's kind of pointless.
My thinking is that this is because AerLingus is going to use their new lay flat product on intra Europe routes. For consistency, they want to be able to have a business class product on all their Europe flights in case of equipment swap, etc.
This airline is trash. needs to improve customer service first. very very disappointed by their attitude and professionalism as a whole
Any updates on availability to book with AS? It's been a year...
Makes sense for people connecting to/from long haul flights. The fact that they didn't have any business class product on the feeder flights in Europe was a major weakness of their overall product.
@HT: Very likely the seat will just stay empty and not be removed.
@DN10: I think there are several reasons why business class in Europe is the way it is:
- Most flights in Europe are really short, only 1-2...
Makes sense for people connecting to/from long haul flights. The fact that they didn't have any business class product on the feeder flights in Europe was a major weakness of their overall product.
@HT: Very likely the seat will just stay empty and not be removed.
@DN10: I think there are several reasons why business class in Europe is the way it is:
- Most flights in Europe are really short, only 1-2 hours. The free middle seat product is quite bearable for these flights, and there is little willingness to pay for more. Frequency of flights and reliability is more important than comfort to most business travellers.
- Demand for business class is extremely variable depending on route, day and time of day. When you fly from Frankfurt to London on Monday morning, literally half the plane is marked as business class. If you install a fixed number of real business class seats, they would sometimes be far too few and sometimes too many. Airlines therefore like to have a solution where they can quickly convert economy class rows into business class and back
- Airlines shuffle planes between routes, it doesn't make financial sense to have special planes for the longer flights.
"Private overhead storage"
What's that supposed to mean?
@HT There's a seat in there...it's just white instead of blue.
@HT: i think the picture is of the A321LR configuration, which is a different beast
This is great to hear, considering my trepidation regarding my connection on a trip for the holidays. Booked through United in Polaris, with a connection in LHR to DUB; hopefully, I will be able to have a slightly more consistent experience
Wait, so does that mean that there will not be a middle seat AT ALL, or that it will merely be blocked? Based upon the picture, it looks like there may not be a middle seat at all...which would mean that middle seat in the second row would have MILES of leg room.
180EUR is less than many economy ticket prices, and while this kind of business class is pretty much the worst you can find, it’s still better than economy. If I go to Ireland at some point in the future I’ll definitely be flying business!
Couple of questions- presumably the biz cabin will earn biz class Tier points with BA?
Also, do you know what the set up would be on the Stobart Air operated aircraft that are ony 2+2 seats across? will seat next to you be blocked for example?
I've never understood why JAL thinks "BEDD" is a good name for its food and drink service onboard. To me, BEDD would be a brand name for new bedding or a turndown service or something.
"Bia" as Aer Lingus calls theirs is the Irish word for 'food.' Can't really be any clearer there.
Seriously though, I'm glad to see some sort of business class back on routes between Ireland (SNN, ORK) and the UK (BA...
I've never understood why JAL thinks "BEDD" is a good name for its food and drink service onboard. To me, BEDD would be a brand name for new bedding or a turndown service or something.
"Bia" as Aer Lingus calls theirs is the Irish word for 'food.' Can't really be any clearer there.
Seriously though, I'm glad to see some sort of business class back on routes between Ireland (SNN, ORK) and the UK (BA only operates from DUB.) It must be about 15 years since they last offered it.
When I saw the picture on the front page I hoped they were finally joining OneWorld.
Why is inter-Europe business class so bad? Surprised there isn't a market to do something like the US carriers with slightly wider seats and a bit more leg room for a good price premium.
A word of warning, the front row has a divider up in front of it, meaning you can't stretch your legs out, it doesstart to feel cramped quite quickly.