To whom it may concern,

On Saturday 3042011 i was booked on the 7.15 am Cork to Heathrow flight with my wife & two children. We arrived at the check in desk at 6.40am to be told that the gate was closed but the member of Aer Lingus Staff asked what luggage we had and as we had only one small shoulder bag each (as it was only an over night stay in London) that they should be able to let us on. She tried telephoning the person on the gate and eventually got through to be told that the captain had all his paper work done and would not allow us to board. She insisted again and again that it was a family with two young children and pleaded with the person on the other end of the phone but to no avail. She was annoyed with the situation big time which led me to believe that it was normal practice to rush someone through especially when only carrying very light hand luggage.

She then suggested we book a later flight which would leave at 11.45 am at a cost of 298.10 euros. As we had an important engagement and people waiting on us in London we were given no choice but to go on the later flight. As we had parked in the long term car park we were stuck at the airport and went back to the car with the children to get a bit of rest. As we reached the car which was almost 7.30am we witnessed the 7.15am flight take off.

Later that morning after a meal in the restaurant we waited to board the 11.45am flight. The gate did not open until 11.33am... we all boarded the full flight in 12 mins and we took off on time!!! Therefore when we were at the airport 35 mins before the 7.15am flight was supposed to take off and subsequently took off at 7.27am I could then fully understand why the Aer Lingus check in staff member thought it possible to get myself and my family on the earlier flight.

Aer Lingus state that their customer service is so good so I cannot understand why one staff member couldn't make an exception to change a small bit of paper work which I believe was well within his or her control. This would have saved us the financial burden and unnecessary stress to my family who were very upset by the whole experience.

I would appreciate some attention given to this matter and convince me why I should use Aer Lingus again having always been my first choice when travelling. Many people have pointed out the fact that Ryanair would not have left us stranded and could not believe that Aer Lingus would treat a family in such a manner.

I await your reply.


Yours faithfully,


David O'Brien.

Tel - 021 4307098 0868222524

My Aer Lingus flight from Dublin to Boston was cancelled due to weather on 23 December 2010. Since the entire airport was closed down, Aer Lingus was perhaps understandably overwhelmed and told customers to find our own hotels and flights and we would be reimbursed. We hired a car, drove through a snowstorm to Limerick, spent the night in a hotel, and flew to the US the next day on Delta Airlines. So far we have not gotten any response from Aer Lingus when we have phoned and emailed them to get some compensation--no one has answered our email in almost a month's time, no one picks up on the phone, no one calls back when after an hour we leave a message. How should we proceed when Aer Lingus won't respond at all?

Terrible customer service both over the phone and in person in London Heathrow during the Christmas season of 08'. Wrote two long letters of complaint to the airline. They don't care. Responded once and never again. After my experience which was horrid and too long to go into any real detail they should have at the very least credited me for the change fee's I was charged when changing my flight to return to the US. They didn't. They didn't care what I said and how serious the complaint . No offer of that. Nasty employees in London who almost made us miss our flight out with their incompetence. Horrible airline. I would never give them a dime again. The only reason why I used them for London was because our tickets were a gift from a relative who had us originally booked to terminate in Ireland and then changed his plans for Christmas at the last minute and decided to remain in London. Long story but after, double -connections which never should have happened in the first place I experienced the horror of very bad customer service. Avoid this airline. Fly BA or Virgin or Delta even. We flew First Class too!!!

On January 6th 2009, my husband and two children (7 years old) sat on Aer Lingus EI136 plane to Boston for six hours before they cancelled our flight, due to poor weather. Living in New Hampshire I am use to bad weather and could understand why Dublin Airport was shut down and flights cancelled (of course I think the plane could of taken off at 2pm)
My issue occured AFTER we got off the plane. First we were told to REBOOK our flights ONLINE since Aer Lingus reps were not available. Like I and 80% of the passengers on that flight can pull out a laptop and rebook a flight! I called my family and asked them to rebook for me, but the website would could not process the change and eventually crashed.
THEN Aer Linugus announced that they could not help anyone and we should LEAVE the airport.
So here I am tired and hungry (they gave us coffee and a cookie on the plane) and we have to leave!
We returned to the airport the following day, I went to Aer Lingus because they had added an extra flight to Boston due to the cancelled flight the day before. Do you think we were on it. NO we were not. After much pleading they put me on STAND BY...which we managed to get on (thank goodness) but then the flight was DELAYED for 4 hours!!!
When we got to SHANNON to pick up passengers the informed us that Aer Lingus gave them all a hotel room, dinner, breakfast and coupouns!!! All of this we were asked to LEAVE the airport and figure this stuff on our own ONLINE.
I know it was an act of god and Aer Lingus can hide under this clause but doing good business requires some TLC especailly considering the price I pay for these tickets.
If Aer Lingus was not the only airline who flew into Ireland I would off dropped them a lomg time ago.

We travelled with Aer Lingus to italy this year but our luggage was left behind. We had three days in the swelthering heat in jeans and boots. We had to rent towels and buy essentials. I have sent in a letter with my receipts which I was told would be credited back to me, but I have had no reply. Where do I go from here??? They will not take phone calls