During my trip across the Atlantic on the Airbus A321XLR, I had the chance to check out the Aer Lingus Arrivals Lounge Dublin Airport (DUB), after the arrival of my Aer Lingus A321XLR business class flight. I hadn’t checked out this lounge in many years, so was curious to see how it’s holding up. For…
Continue reading: Review: Aer Lingus Arrivals Lounge Dublin Airport (DUB)
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@Ben, there's a little card with a QR code next to the pastries. Was that for an extended menu of some sorts?
“The food selection was limited to pastries and cookies”
Hey, they have fruit as well!
Given how tiny it is, I can see why they have a time limit for guests.
@ hbilbao -- Sharp eye, but nope. It just had allergen information for the (limited) options.
The arrivals lounge is the best thing about Aer Lingus transatlantic business flights.
When you have an immediate meeting, the day you arrive, the shower is unbelievable benefit that makes this so valuable.
The Aer Lingus customer service response for complaints on terrible service on the flight, inedible food, have been to send emails that they will respond have resulted in never investigating or responding.
If your goal is a shower, it does the job. Little more. Voya is an excellent Irish brand. Great gift items.
If this is 3.5 stars, which it isn’t really, I’d hate to see anything less. 3.5 means top third. Compared to other arrival lounges, what is a worse option? Even for normal lounges, this is quite abysmal. Closer to 2.0 IMO.
3.5 doesn’t give much space before you get to perfect so definitely move that star count down.
Attempted to use arrivals lounge after arring at 10am and traveling in business class. Lounge was overcrowded with a 30 minute wait for a shower. Unfortunately I needed to leave. The lounge is too small considering the number of flights arriving with 17-30 business class passengers each morning. Aer Lingus needs to rethink its commitment to this amenity.
Have to say it was a little welcome surprise to be able to shower & have a coffee before pickup a car rental. And absolutely loving the AerLingus crews in general , a breath of fresh air in how they always manage to make my flights to date feel special. It a thought profession for sure , Keep you the good work and thank you.
David ModMansions
Ben - you interaction with the Lounge Warden seems typical of most Aer Lingus ground staff in Dublin.
Bunch of sourpusses who obviously hate their jobs.
Nothing like a Full Irish Breakfast (the various London arrivals lounges generally have the English version thereof), and sad they waste an opportunity to serve that as a welcome
Aer Lingus isn't a premium airline and they don't try to brand themselves as such. This is honestly good enough.
In fact, it's quite surprising that they even still operate an arrivals lounge, when the likes of Air France have closed their CDG one.
Not sure what the point really of such arrival lounges are. In some way I guess they are not used as much as you might think considering just a handful of airlines have it. If it was really in demand then more would have them, especially at their hub cities and there would be partners such as SkyTeam arrival lounges, contract lounges, priority pass, etc. Generally this is not the case though.
We were there in May. Unimpressed. Aer Lingus is a cheap airline. Business Class from SFO; underwhelming, and that’s being kind.
Arrivals lounge was as described, a shower, and a coffee.
Would fly a different airline next time to Ireland.
3.5 doesn't mean top third, it means that it's not perfect, not quite good, but it has its benefits - showers, coffee, sugary snacks.
As to the 3:30 a.m. opening time, the first Aer Lingus flight has a 4:25 STA and has actually arrived as early as 3:39 a.m. in the last few days.
Next time which airline are you going to fly to Ireland that has a +better+ arrivals lounge, then?
The main reason I've used arrivals lounges is after an overnight flight and needing to go straight into work. This is especially important for London flights, many of which operate overnight from the US east coast. You fly overnight, getting a decent sleep on a lie-flat bed in business class, land in London early in the morning, the arrivals lounge enables you to shower and change into fresh clothes, you head into central London to the office and are able to work/start your meetings immediately. This is a big productivity booster for the business travelers that are the bread and butter of premium classes on these trans-Atlantic routes.
Even for leisure travelers, you often can't get into your hotel room immediately when you arrive in the morning, so an arrivals lounge enables you to clean yourself up, have breakfast and begin sightseeing right away.
I wouldn't ever use an arrivals lounge if I were arriving in the afternoon or evening after a day-time flight though.
Ah, that makes more sense, then. That jet stream over the North Atlantic can indeed lead to arrivals being significantly ahead of schedule on days when it's particularly strong. Probably even more true for the 321XLRs, where the ground speed added by the jet stream is a higher percentage increase, due to their lower airspeed compared to most widebodies.
The vast majority of trans-Atlantic flights to Europe are overnight, not just to London. Indeed, London is one of the few places in Europe that does have daytime flights from North America (and then usually only from NYC or Boston.) It's tough to make the hours work for anything other than an overnight flight from anywhere further West or South in North America or further East or South in Europe.