After flying in Etihad’s A380 The Residence, I connected onto an Aer Lingus flight from Paris (CDG) to Dublin (DUB). I flew Aer Lingus’ AerSpace product on the A321LR, which might just be the best value premium product in Europe (since you get a flat bed, and it’s only marginally more expensive than economy).
While I’ll of course publish a full review, in this post I’d like to talk a bit about the boarding process of this flight, which was unlike anything I’ve seen before. It wasn’t a big deal at all, I’m just curious if anyone has theories as to what was going on.
In this post:
My Aer Lingus flight “boarded” 35 minutes early
I had around three hours at Paris Charles de Gaulle between my arrival from Abu Dhabi and my departure to Dublin. I had no lounge access, but I’ve gotta say, Terminal 1 is a really pleasant place to hang out. Doesn’t this look nicer than many lounges?!
Anyway, my Aer Lingus flight was scheduled to board at 9:55AM. As y’all know, I always line up and try to be among the first to board, so that I can get good cabin pictures. I’m also of course a massive airplane nerd, so I was tracking the inbound aircraft on Flightradar24, and thought I had a good sense of everything going on.
Suddenly at 9:20AM, I heard a boarding call for my Aer Lingus flight. I was genuinely confused… did I somehow totally mix this up, and the 9:55AM time was actually the departure time and not the boarding time? So I quickly threw everything in my bag and headed to the gate (and still managed to be the first person in the priority line).
The thing is, there was no plane at the gate, so I found the whole thing strange. I asked the gate agent “is the flight leaving from a remote stand?” She looked at me but didn’t seem to understand my question. “Do we have to take a bus to the plane?” She said no, the plane was leaving from the gate in front of us.
That was confusing, since there wasn’t yet a plane at the gate. So just about the whole plane worth of passengers were queued up at the gate (note that our boarding passes weren’t yet scanned, but we were just lined up). Several minutes later, the plane arrived at the gate.
However, it took around 20 minutes from the time that boarding was announced until boarding actually started. Passengers were invited onboard at around 9:40AM, and boarding wrapped up at 9:50AM, as the flight wasn’t very full.
Then we just sat on the plane for nearly 40 minutes, until the scheduled 10:30AM departure time. What’s funny is that it took roughly the same amount of time from boarding being called until the door closed, as it did to actually fly between Paris and Dublin.
I can’t really make sense of this strange boarding?
Admittedly airlines take different approaches to boarding, but I’ve never experienced anything quite like this before.
For example, I know that Ryanair has a habit of lining people up very early and already scanning boarding passes, and making passengers wait in a “holding pen.” That way the airline already knows if everyone showed up, can verify if cabin baggage is correct, and can very efficiently get everyone onboard when it’s time.
However, in this case, no boarding passes were actually scanned for the 20 minutes between when “boarding” was called, and when boarding actually started. And I’m also not sure I see the benefit of just having everyone sit on a plane for around 40 minutes until departure time, when leaving half an hour early just isn’t realistic, even if all passengers are onboard (the plane still had to be refueled, which took us most of the way to departure time).
So I’m curious… obviously this was super minor, but was this an isolated incident, is it a trend I’ve just missed, or what?
Bottom line
Boarding for my short haul Aer Lingus flight was called a full 35 minutes ahead of schedule, before the plane even arrived at the airport. I’ve never experienced a boarding process like this before, especially since we just had to stand there for around 20 minutes (before having our boarding passes scanned), and then we wrapped up boarding 40 minutes before departure.
In my millions of miles of flying, it was definitely one of the more unusual boarding processes I’ve experienced.
Does anyone have a theory as to what was going on here, or is the norm on Aer Lingus, and I’m just not familiar with it?
Sure, from the lie-flat seats it was no issue to be 40 min early, but flying coach I would have hated the extra time in the sardine can.
The Extime Lounge at CDG Terminal 1 is nice.
@ FNT Delta Diamond -- Yep, though sadly not in Priority Pass, and Aer Lingus AerSpace no longer offers lounge access at CDG, for whatever reason.
I believe Extime sells a lounge pass for 95 euros.
@ FNT Delta Diamond -- Good to know, but at that price, I'll rough it in the terminal!
You sure it wasn't just that the flight left earlier? As far as I can see, and I may well be wrong, no Aer Lingus flight departs at 10:30am from Paris... seems like it's 10:10 instead, which would make much more sense
@ James -- Great question. So six days before departure I received a schedule change notice, that the flight would depart at 10:30AM rather than 10:10AM, and my boarding pass and everything reflected that updated timing.
Oddly, my transatlantic flight also had a substantial schedule change just days before departure. I'm curious if Aer Lingus consistently has such last minute schedule changes, or what was going on here.
Actually, Groupe ADP, are responsible for airport services at Paris CDG. The boarding ‘horlicks’ which Ben ‘enjoyed’ had nothing to do with EI.
CDG generally, and Air France, specifically, (even at other airports around the world), so frequently do this 'dance,' of 'boarding' on-time or early, but then having everyone wait in the jet bridge (or elsewhere) for sometimes what feels like an hour. It's frustrating. It must be a French-thing.
How do you get early boarding to take pics for airlines you don’t fly frequently? In this case was it priority boarding thru your AA status?
@ Dn10 -- Priority boarding was because I was traveling in AerSpace, which is Group 1.
I am perplexed by this too. Can only think Aer Lingus contracts their gate agents from another carrier or third party and they had to get somewhere else.
How did you book the flat bed seat on this flight? They don’t market business class within Europe (wish they did…I’d fly them a lot more often)
@ PJOC -- On the standard A320s, AerSpace is just the first row of economy. However, on the A321s (which often fly Europe rotations between transatlantic flights), the entire business class cabin is sold as AerSpace, so that's pretty awesome.
This is completely normal. My most convenient AF flight leaves from my airport at 12:20 but it has a long layover here to fit the banks so usually when I get to the gate at 11:30 it's already empty because almost everyone has boarded already. It doesn't matter. As long as you get to the gate before the "gate closes" time, you're covered and it's actually a good thing that there's no queue.
Exactly. It must be a French thing. AF has done this to us at MIA, too, a few times. But, nearly always, at CDG. Lots of lining up and waiting for no real reason.
Leprechauns are playing tricks with your mind.