Update: I finally had a chance to experience Aer Lingus new business class on the A330 in 2018. See here for my full review.
Aer Lingus unveiled their new business class product today, which they’ll begin offering on A330 flights starting in March 2015.
Aer Lingus’s new business class seat
They are going with the Thompson Vantage seat, which is virtually the same product that JetBlue has in their Mint Class on transcon flights. 90% of the seats will have direct aisle access (so only the window seats in the set of two seats won’t). The seats will of course be fully flat, with a bed that’s 6.5 feet long.
Given that a majority of Aer Lingus’ longhaul flights aren’t actually that long (Boston, Chicago, and New York to Dublin/Shannon aren’t that far), I’d say this is a phenomenal product.
Here’s a video of the new product:
Usually when airlines install a new business class product it leads to a net reduction in the number of seats, though unless I’m mistaken they’re actually increasing the number of business class seats. Presently they have four rows of angled flat business class in a 2-2-2 configuration, for a total of 24 seats.
Aer Lingus current business class
If I counted correctly, the new configuration consists of seven rows, alternating between four and five seats per row, for a total of 32 business class seats.
It seems Aer Lingus is also sprucing up other aspects of their product, including:
Business class on demand dining service:
With food offerings appropriate to the time of day, and an on-demand service, we’ll make sure that you never go hungry. And more importantly, that you eat when you want to eat. Our wines will be specially selected to complement our gourmet food offering, enhancing the taste and giving you a truly top restaurant experience.
When I flew them a couple of years back they didn’t have an on demand dining service, so this is a nice addition.
Complimentary Wi-Fi for business class passengers:
With complimentary Wi-Fi available in our Business Cabin it’s your office when you have work to do, or your chill out zone when you want to surf the Internet or simply recline to watch a latest release movie.
Not only does Aer Lingus have Wi-Fi on their A330s already, but it’s complimentary for business class passengers. It’s amazing how few airlines offer that.
Pre-flight dining for business class passengers:
On flights departing from New York JFK and Boston, we are pleased to announce the option to dine before you fly. Eat your fill before you fly, and then all you have to do is to sleep the night away in your comfy bed. You will arrive relaxed and ready to go with a full nights sleep.
This is extremely valuable for such a short transatlantic flight. Not only will it be possible to have dinner in the lounge before your flight, but Aer Lingus is sprucing up their lounge in Boston and opening a new one in New York, rather than using the current contract lounge.
Aer Lingus business class is an amazing use of British Airways Avios
Quite possibly the best part of this is that Aer Lingus business class is already an amazing use of miles. British Airways Executive Club has a distance based award chart, and flights to Aer Lingus’s destinations in the northeast including Boston, New York, Newark, Philadelphia, Chicago, Washington, DC, and Toronto are just 13,000 Avios in economy and 50,000 Avios in business on off-peak dates.
British Airways Executive Club partners with both American Express and Chase, so there are many ways to earn these points, including:
They also have a fairly lucrative co-branded card in the US, the British Airways Visa Signature® Card.
I expect award availability won’t change drastically even with the new product, since there’s not some massive capacity reduction.
This product looks really solid, between the seat itself, on demand dining, entertainment, complimentary Wi-Fi, and ground services.
Can’t wait to try it out! While they’ve said the product will start to be available in March 2015, they haven’t yet published a route or roll out schedule.
Aer Lingus from Chi to Dublin in August 2015. I would like to get the upgrade to business class. Ideas on when would be the best time to put in my bid? I get only one chance to bid on the upgrade.
The pre-flight dinner is a great move as from BOS that flight, especially going east, can be really short if you catch a good tailwind. In the past, I have booked business westbound but coach eastbound from BOS due to the length of the flight. I also agree with @philatravelgirl that the international terminal at Logan is lacking in food options. For an airport that has added non-stop flights to Tokyo, Bejing, Dubai, Istanbul and...
The pre-flight dinner is a great move as from BOS that flight, especially going east, can be really short if you catch a good tailwind. In the past, I have booked business westbound but coach eastbound from BOS due to the length of the flight. I also agree with @philatravelgirl that the international terminal at Logan is lacking in food options. For an airport that has added non-stop flights to Tokyo, Bejing, Dubai, Istanbul and soon Hong Kong, I would think the international terminal should have more than 2-3 food places. As it is now, most of the food options in that termianl are in the connected Southwest gates on the lower level.
Any word on the upgrade schedule? I'd like to go in April from Boston but really would like to score the new product :)
@ Jay -- They haven't published a schedule yet, unfortunately.
This looks very, very good. When it comes to a Texas route, I do hope they pick Houston over Dallas though :D
Great upgrade looks like another trip BOS-DUB will be in the future for me! I really enjoyed my first flight last year with them using 50k Avios and a $150 US ticket from Philly to reposition - the angled seat didn't bother me as it has on other airlines. The service was phenomenal and the free wifi back then was good as I streamed my local radio morning show on the flight home. The lounge...
Great upgrade looks like another trip BOS-DUB will be in the future for me! I really enjoyed my first flight last year with them using 50k Avios and a $150 US ticket from Philly to reposition - the angled seat didn't bother me as it has on other airlines. The service was phenomenal and the free wifi back then was good as I streamed my local radio morning show on the flight home. The lounge was good and having a pre-flight dinner is a nice option as the BOS terminal was a bit sad in terms of offerings during my visit.
Lucky, does BA availability have any pattern re: what United/EF show? IE, does it show more or less? Is it a false positive (ie, if I see it on United/EF, it MAY be on BA) or false negative (ie, if I don't see it on United/EF, I may still find it on BA)?
@ Amol -- Nope, haven't found correlation. I've seen BA have space while UA doesn't, and vice versa. Quite odd/unique for the industry.
SFO is first. JFK prob next followed by ORD, BOS and lastly MCO
Maybe it's just that I'm looking for popular times, but I find that Aer Lingus award space in business has really dried up lately, at least as compared to last year. I find it very hard to find a seat, let alone more than one. I'm using expert flyer.
@ Larry -- Don't use ExpertFlyer. You have to call BA.
Again, know that they haven't released the route schedule yet, but would you think they'll upgauge their SFO route to the a330 with this product next year? Obviously BOS and NYC are priorities.
The dine before flying option is a great add for them as I'm based in Boston and that flight is so short for a transatlantic route. While their hard product now isn't great, I flew them in March from Boston to Dublin and I had some of the best service in a while for business class. Great crew and decent food (which has looked not so great in the past). And for how bad angled...
The dine before flying option is a great add for them as I'm based in Boston and that flight is so short for a transatlantic route. While their hard product now isn't great, I flew them in March from Boston to Dublin and I had some of the best service in a while for business class. Great crew and decent food (which has looked not so great in the past). And for how bad angled flat is - for whatever reason I found it more comfortable than Lufthansa's awful old angled flat business class seats.
does aer lingus show up on ba.com ?
@ anon -- Nope, you have to call to book and search space.
Hi Ben,
Somewhere I read SFO-DUB would get the first new biz seats, about a week or two I was checking that route for next year and 2 biz seats were wide open on the schedule (UA site), now only Y, would love to try it someday.
@ Dan -- Keep in mind that BA has access to different space than what United shows. For what it's worth, the new seatmap isn't loaded for the flight for next year.
Another very good write up, Lucky. In searching for other N America routes flown by Aer Lingus, I came across an article on Aer Lingus' announcement of more N America routes due to a boost in profits. (http://bit.ly/1ptK6u4)
This is very good news, as I had gone out of my way to avoid them in the past because of their hard product. I only flew their 332 once (on the IAD-MAD wet lease to United) and spent the entire flight sliding under the seat in front of me on their angled seat. I'm also glad to see that dine-on-demand is becoming more of a thing. Already looking forward to your trip report, Lucky!