Review: Aer Lingus A321LR Business Class

By: Ben Schlappig

Updated: July 2, 2024
Published: August 7, 2019

41 comments

How I redeemed miles for Aer Lingus business class

I managed to find a business class award seat on the Hartford to Dublin flight just about a week before departure. There are three ways I could have redeemed miles for this flight:

I could have booked through British Airways Executive Club, at the cost of 60,000 Avios one-way (best credit cards for earning British Airways Avios)
I could have booked through Alaska Mileage Plan, at the cost of 60,000 miles one-way (best credit cards for earning Alaska miles)
I could have booked through United MileagePlus, at the cost of 70,000 miles one-way (best credit cards for earning United miles)

I decided to book through British Airways, since they had the lowest cost due to how I value Avios.

My ticket cost 60,000 Avios plus just $35.07 in taxes and fees. Talk about a steal, in particular compared to the surcharges they’d impose if you were traveling on British Airways.

Aer Lingus Lounge Bradley Airport

Aer Lingus uses the Escape Lounge at Bradley Airport, which at this point is the only lounge in the airport. Steph reviewed this lounge not too long ago, so I won’t be reviewing it again.

Bradley International Airport terminal

Escape Lounge Bradley International Airport

She was spot on with everything she said — the lounge had a surprisingly good selection of food, and I found the staff to be exceptional. When I entered the lounge the agent gave me a detailed rundown of the lounge the offerings, and even introduced herself and the two other people working in the lounge by name.

Aer Lingus business class A321LR review

My boarding pass indicated that boarding was supposed to start at 5:15PM, so I headed to the gate a bit before 5PM. Aer Lingus departs from gate 7, which is near the Escape Lounge.

Aer Lingus departure gate Bradley

There was even a banner promoting the new aircraft type. As they put it, they’re “shamrockin’ a brand new look.” Hah.

Punny, Aer Lingus!

The inbound flight was a little bit late, so I got to see it arrive at the gate. I’ve gotta say, Aer Lingus’ A321LR looks super spiffy in their new livery!

Aer Lingus A321LR

Since Aer Lingus offers US pre-clearance in Dublin, all passengers deplaned as domestic passengers. Similarly, the inbound crew got off the plane as well, and they “briefed” the outbound crew.

There were three pilots working each sector (which seems unnecessary, but maybe it’s because it’s a brand new plane) and five flight attendants. The crew basically had a 10 minute kiki.

Boarding started at 5:30PM, with those needing extra time being invited to board first, followed by business class.

Aer Lingus 130
Hartford (BDL) – Dublin (DUB)
Sunday, August 4
Depart: 6:00PM
Arrive: 5:15AM (+1 day)
Duration: 6hr15min
Aircraft: Airbus A321LR
Seat: 5A (Business Class)

Ahhhh, the new plane smell! Before I even looked into the cabin, I could smell it. A new plane smell puts a new car smell to shame, in my opinion.

Aer Lingus’ A321 business class seats are identical to the seats they have on their A330s, so it’s cool that they maintained the same product, despite this being a narrow body. In fairness, this configuration is perfectly optimized for a narrow body, and the cabin looks a whole lot like JetBlue Mint, sans doors.

Aer Lingus’ A321 has a total of 16 staggered business class seats, spread across five rows. It’s just such a cool-looking cabin, in my opinion.

Aer Lingus A321LR business class cabin

Rows two, four, and six (there’s no row one) of the plane feature seats in a 2-2 configuration, so they’re good if you’re traveling with a companion (and even if you’re not, odds are good you’ll end up in one of these, since this is how 75% of the seats are).

Aer Lingus business class seats A321LR

The really great seats are the ones in rows three and five, which are “throne” seats in a 1-1 configuration. As you can see, these seats feature a lot of privacy and personal space.

Aer Lingus business class seats A321LR

I had assigned myself seat 5A, the throne seat in the second to last row on the left.

Aer Lingus business class seats A321LR

I had a huge “counter” to the left of my seat, which was great for storing things (just not for takeoff or landing, because the space needs to be clear during that time).

Aer Lingus business class “throne” seat

Underneath that space were a couple of storage compartments.

Aer Lingus business class seat storage

Most of the other features were to the right of the seat. There was an enclosed storage compartment, seat controls, a USB and 110v outlet, headphone jacks, a reading light, and a bottle holder (with a bottle of water in it).

Aer Lingus business class seat controls & storage

Aer Lingus business class seat controls

Also to the right of the seat underneath a panel was the entertainment controller.

Aer Lingus business class seat entertainment controls

In addition to the highly customized seat controls, there were also some pre-sets to the side of the seat, should you want to put the seat all the way upright, recline it fully, etc.

Aer Lingus business class seat controls

The tray table also folded out from the right side of the seat, and was big.

Aer Lingus business class seat tray table

The one downside to these “throne” seats is that the footwell in which you have to place your feet is fairly small. That’s because the way this configuration is so efficient is because the footwell is between the seats in front, so that leaves a fairly limited space.

Aer Lingus business class seat footwell

I was happy to see that Aer Lingus had individual air nozzles at every seat, and they even customized them so that there was a single air nozzle over my center seat.

Aer Lingus A321LR individual air nozzles

I loved the intimate feel of the cabin, though I’d note the one downside of the A321 is that everyone boards through the forward door. So you have a ton of foot traffic during boarding, and it’s not as relaxing as it would be if people boarded through the door behind business class.

There also weren’t any pre-departure beverages. I’m not sure if that was specifically because of that, or for a different reason.

Also, as someone who tries to take lots of pictures, it’s much more challenging to do so on an A321 where everyone is boarding through the forward door, especially since those who need extra time usually are invited to board before business class.

On the plus side, Aer Lingus had great boarding music, and I always enjoy Irish boarding announcement, especially how they say “you are most welcome onboard this Aer Lingus flight to Dublin.”

Anyway, boarding took quite a while, though when it was finished economy was mostly full, while 10 out of the 16 business class seats were taken. As luck would have it, I was the only passenger in the last two rows, so I had that entire section of six seats to myself.

Aer Lingus business class staggered configuration

Aer Lingus A321 business class cabin

Already waiting at my seat upon boarding was the menu and wine list for the flight, as well as an invitation to visit the arrivals lounge in Dublin.

Aer Lingus business class menu

Then there was an amenity kit with Voya amenities. The amenity kit was on the basic side, though when you consider that this flight is basically as long as a transcon, that’s totally sufficient.

Aer Lingus business class amenity kit

The bedding was excellent, and included a plush pillow and blanket.

Aer Lingus business class pillow & blanket

Then there were a pair of low quality headphones.

Aer Lingus business class headphones

At 5:55PM the captain made his welcome aboard announcement, informing us that we should be pushing back shortly, and that it would be about a 10 minute taxi to the runway before our 5hr50min flight.

The crew was super friendly — there were two guys working in business class, and they genuinely seemed to enjoy their jobs. At 6PM my meal order was taken, and I was also asked if I wanted to be woken up for breakfast.

At 6:10PM the captain was back on the PA apologizing for a delay. He explained that they were sent their weight & balance details, and needed to move some cargo around so they could be within their limits. He said that shouldn’t take too long.

Sure enough, at 6:20PM the main cabin door closed, and a few minutes later we began our pushback. At that point the safety video was screened.

At 6:30PM we began our taxi, and at 6:35PM we were cleared for takeoff on runway 24.

Taking off from Bradley Airport

During takeoff I definitely noticed that the A321LR is quieter than previous versions of the A321.

We had a smooth climb out, and just five minutes after takeoff the seatbelt sign was turned off.

View after takeoff from Bradley

After takeoff codes were distributed for free Wi-Fi. Impressively these offer up to 400MB of data, even though the most expensive paid plan only offers 270MB of data. While I’m generally not a fan of Wi-Fi plans based on data usage rather than time, 400MB is a very generous allowance.

Aer Lingus business class free Wi-Fi

I immediately connected to the Wi-Fi, and was impressed by the speeds.

Aer Lingus A321LR Wi-Fi

For reference, Aer Lingus’ normal A321 Wi-Fi pricing is as follows:

6.95EUR for 50MB of data
13.95EUR for 120M of data
29.95EUR for 270MB of data

Aer Lingus A321LR Wi-Fi

They also offer free messaging to all passengers, which is a nice feature. You just need to provide an email address to sign up. While it’s technically limited to an hour, you can sign up with a new email from the same device and it keeps working (and there’s no complicated registration process, you just enter an email address).

I also checked out the entertainment selection, which was top notch. The system was highly responsive, and there was a huge selection of TV shows and movies.

Aer Lingus business class entertainment selection

The meal service was quick to get started after takeoff. As you’d expect, these crews are used to these short overnights, so serving efficiently is their specialty.

The menu read as follows:

There was also a breakfast card you could fill out, though I was never asked to do so:

The drink list read as follows:

Lastly, there was an invitation to visit the arrivals lounge:

35 minutes after takeoff the first round of drinks was served. I ordered a glass of champagne, which was the fairly good Jean Pernet Tradition Brut.

I was offered asiago & cheddar crisps and an amuse bouche to go along with the drink. I asked the flight attendant what the amuse bouche was, and in the most sincere and adorable way he stared blankly at me and said “I’m not going to lie to you, I have no clue.” LOL!

As it turned out, it was some sort of tuna and cream concoction.

Aer Lingus business class dinner — champagne and snacks

After that, warm towels were distributed.

Aer Lingus business class warm towel

50 minutes after takeoff the meal was served. Aer Lingus keeps their meal service simple, which makes sense on such a short overnight flight.

I was offered a side salad and a roll, and for my main course selected the herb-crusted cod served with baby spinach, carrots, cherry tomatoes, fingerling potatoes, and a puttanesca sauce, which was surprisingly excellent. The fish itself was reasonably good, but in particular I loved the sauce.

Aer Lingus business class dinner

After that I was asked if I wanted cheese or dessert. I asked for dessert, which was a cheesecake. That was brought to me on a separate tray, and I also ordered some chamomile tea to go along with it.

Aer Lingus business class dessert

The entire meal service was complete about an hour after takeoff, which was perfect. The food was simple but good, the crew was friendly and efficient, and most importantly, the meal didn’t cut too much into my sleep.

I also have to say that I really like flying a narrow body across the Atlantic with such an intimate cabin. You really almost feel like you’re getting a business class plus experience, given how few passengers there are. The fact that the cabin wasn’t even two thirds full probably helped as well.

At this point I had some gorgeous sunset views out the window.

Beautiful sunset enroute to Dublin

Before heading to bed I checked out the lavatory, which was at the front of the cabin. It featured Vaya toiletries.

Aer Lingus A321LR business class lavatory

At that point I reclined my seat to get some rest.

Aer Lingus business class bed

While the footwell was on the tight side, overall I found the bed to be comfortable.

Aer Lingus business class bed

When I went to sleep we had just over 4hr20min remaining to Dublin.

Moving map enroute to Dublin

I was woken up exactly one hour before landing. Getting a solid three hours of sleep on a flight this short is great, as far as I’m concerned.

Moving map enroute to Dublin

When I woke up there was already a glass of orange juice next to my seat.

Aer Lingus business class breakfast

I was asked what I wanted for breakfast, with the choice of bread, fresh fruit, a bacon roll, a smoothie, etc. I asked for a smoothie, a coffee, fresh fruit, and a croissant. I was served that a couple of minutes later.

Aer Lingus business class breakfast

This isn’t the crew’s fault, though I do have to say that I don’t love how early Aer Lingus prepares the cabin for landing. They made a loud announcement in the cabin just about an hour before landing, and then 45 minutes out the crew had to prepare the cabin for landing. On a short overnight flight that can make a difference in terms of rest.

We had a smooth approach to Dublin, and ended up landing on runway 28 at 5:15AM.

View approaching Dublin

From there we had about a 10 minute taxi to our arrival gate.

Arrival gate Dublin

Aer Lingus A321 business class bottom line

There are two aspects to this — the A321LR as such, and Aer Lingus.

I loved my first flight on the A321LR (not that it’s that different than other A321s from a passenger perspective, but still…). On balance I’d actually say I preferred this to being on a wide body, because there’s something nice about how intimate the cabin feels. The fact that the plane still smelled and looked brand new didn’t hurt either. As far as I’m concerned, the only real downside to the plane is that everyone boards through the forward door, and that isn’t great for the pre-departure experience.

As far as Aer Lingus goes, I really love the airline. In many ways they’re no frills, but they get the basics really right. The crew was friendly, meal service was efficient and tasty, Wi-Fi was free, seats are great, and bedding is good.

I love crossing the Atlantic on Aer Lingus, and I think I even prefer the A321LR to the A330.

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