Review: Aer Lingus Business Class A330 Dublin To New York

No surprises in either the exceptionally friendly Irish crew or the bland Irish food!

I remember when you posted your previous trip on Aer Lingus. To realize it was 5 years ago shocked me. So many flight reviews over the years and still entertaining/informative. Keep up the good work Ben!

@Lucky Two questions:
1) For people traveling with partner, any discernable difference in non-throne seats (middle vs left side). Guessing I'd want to avoid right side in even rows.

2) Does Lingus increase Biz availability close to time of booking (or do massive award dumps like AA does?) I have one seat booked for JFK-Dub in June and need a second seat.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=tJIz-XNLEn8

I flew Aer Lingus Business Class earlier this year. I liked the beef well enough, though I think we only had ice cream for dessert, and I don't remember the service from EWR taking quite that long. Solid product overall, wouldn't mind flying it again.

Re service being slow- As takeoff was 4:15 local, perhaps they deliberately waited until after 5pm to then serve a full dinner?

Funny, looks like they're cribbing American Airlines' font for printed materials.

Thanks for yet another detailed and interesting review.

Aer Lingus seems good overall, but living in Europe, one thing that find difficult on east coast - Europe flights is that they are too short to get decent sleep even in a good seat. E.g. from BOS I'd rather backtrack to IAD or better yet ORD first so that on the TATL segment there is enough time to get a decent amount of sleep. Is that something that you consider as well or am I a bit crazy here?

on this A330 config, I prefer the window seats on the A side since they're true window seats, have direct aisle access, and have a much bigger foot cubby than the throne seats. lucky, were those seats taken on this flight?

I tried the throne seats once on OS. 777..never again. Foot cubbys are too tight and the fixed arms rests make things feel to tight in bed mode.

I was on that exact flight in 3K, which is a pretty funny coincidence.

I largely agree with the review. I had the beef for dinner, and enjoyed it (at least for a business class beef fillet that is pre-cooked).
I definitely noticed that service was slow to start, but as I had been fully acclimated to Irish time, it didn't feel out of place to wait until after 5 to eat.

The service was very quick with drink orders once it began though. I had a few g&ts, and they were quick to notice an empty glass and offer another. They also interestingly didn't mix it for me -- but instead gave me a can of schweppes tonic and a little bottle of gin.

Seat was very comfortable and flight was pleasant, and they were very quick with my checked bag on arrival. I was in a taxi in minutes, and was in midtown before 7pm when the flight was scheduled to land.
I also managed to book this for 50k Avios back over the summer, taking advantage of Amex's Avios 40% transfer bonus for a total of just 35,750 MR for the one-way flight.

Lucky, you often say that you enjoyed some champagne or wine inspite of the price point. Do you firmly believe that everything more expensive is necessarily better? Alcoholic beverages, especially wine & champagne are quite subjective. What you may like may not necessarily be someone elses choice. You might find that you enjoy the beverage more if you dont get stuck on the price point.

@Hermann, I agree. We fly out of Boston to Ireland and the overnight 4.5-5 hour flight is nonsensical to us. You're absolutely right--too short of a flight for any decent amount of sleep, yet the schedule (overnight flights only) means you're up all night...Why? I'd be very willing to "lose" the day to travel than lose a night's sleep to arrive at 4:30/5:00 a.m. I understand how this may be a boon to business travelers, but having the option to leave early a.m. Eastern time and arrive early evening Ireland time I'd choose in a heartbeat.

"Short Transatlantic flight", the flight takes 8 hours and is crossing half the world. I consider 3 hours already as a long-haul flight :p

I don't agree about your dinner service being slow. I usually fly home on an evening flight from Europe and I like a slow, drawn out dinner service. I find it adds something to do as I feel that sleeping on a flight at this time is terrible for jet lag. And what a view to enjoy your meal!

Lucky, never forget to mention the pre-clearance facility in Dublin (and Shannon). Personally speaking, it's worth $100 more in economy and $500 more in business. To step off the plane from Europe and walk straight to the taxi rank is sheer heaven!

I have flown on this route several times in the last two years, most recently in November 2017 also. I'm surprised that you found the service slow. In my experience the cabin crew are very quick to offer a PDB and hang up your coat (and yes, the repetitive boarding announcements quickly become rather annoying). I do agree that the meal service can be slow to start but I have sometimes found it a little rushed once it does get underway. I also got one of the comment cards and appreciated the personal approach by the cabin manager who asked me to fill it in - I did wonder though why only a few of us were asked to fill it in!
All in all, I think EI offer a solid, reliable TATL business class product.

Flew out from Dublin to LAX 17th January 2018 & my experience was good had seat 3A. 4 Crew were very attentive looking after 9 passengers & enjoyed flight very much. My return flight LAX to Dublin 29th Jan was a whole different experience, boarding was like a scrum all passengers asked to board at same time & was greeted by a female crew member who didn't seem too pleased to see anyone boarding. Seated in 5K which I liked, had to ask for headphones + amenity bag which is not worth having but I needed toothpaste. Crew very slow to offer drinks & came around asking for our choice of meal but they had not given out any menus & Canapés were hit & miss, I along with other passenger had to ask for them. I think there were only 3 crew so maybe they felt under pressure, but there were only about 12 passengers in business class. I fly Aer Lingus as it is direct but outgoing flights from Dublin are always better than those leaving LAX

We flew Aer Lingus Economy Class recently and had a very comfortable flight, appreciated that we could set a family of 4 together in the center aisle!

Great report. Aer Lingus looks like they offer a really nice Business Class product. Thank you for sharing!

I think there's a cultural difference at work here re. the time dinner was served. I tend to agree with other commentators that waiting till 5pm is more appropriate. One thing that drives me crazy about US carriers is the speed of the service, for example, UA serving lunch at 11am on a flight from Berlin to Newark. It feels like the passengers are an inconvenience and the crew just wants to rush through the service. I find this on pretty much all long haul flights on US carriers.

Much prefer the slower, more gracious service on European carriers. But then again, I am European!

Flew from shannon to jfk waited forever for a drink and food one hostess .she was ran off her feet.doing everything. So to me it was a joke first class. Never again. Food terrible.irish accent was still beautiful..

as for the wine, is that complimentary as well? All the food and beverage options actually ?

I have flown round trip between NJ and Dublin on Aer Lingus Business Class on two separate occasions recently. Loved it. Great seats; food was good; free cocktails very welcome. Flight Attendants absolutely charming and very efficient. Take off and Arrival punctual except on one return flight because of a little problem on the runway caused by a different aircraft.
I flew from Dublin to Birmingham, UK twice and that was pleasant, but not a thrill. My final destination was Birmingham on both trips. Am planning another trip soon and will be going Aer Lingus Business Class.