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Emily of Sierra Madre, CA (01/03/08)
Aer Lingus lost my bag on route from Paris to Dublin to Gatwick Airport in London. I paid 90 euro for this bag since Aer Lingus allows only one bag /passenger. I have called the Aer Lingus LA baggage claim number four times and told that the bag arrived at gatwick airport that I would need to contact gatwick Aerport in London to solve the problem. they sent emails to gatwick and that was the extent of their responsibility to me. I called JFK baggage claim number three times and left a message. the recording said that someone would return my call. I received no calls from Aer lingus.
Eric of New York NY (10/02/07)
So I called Aer Lingus and was told I could I could fly standby on earlier flight and that the cost would just be 45 Euros if I got the flight (nothing if I didn't) well before I left for my trip. I then got to Shannon airport more than 2 hours before the flight departed (@ 6.30 am) and am told that there are no standbys for this flight (the same one I had inquired about) and that I must proceed to pay twice as much as my ticket (in addition to the original ticket) just to fly on an earlier flight which they told me had ample room. Never was I told I could check this in advance. I've been lied to by someone at this airline, and if I miss my flight from Heathrow, which they don't seem to care about as historically this airline is NEVER on time, then I'll post an additional review. I was told by Aer Lingus and another airline that 2 hrs. 30 mins., should be fine, but let's see.
None yet, but if I miss my business class ticket from Heathrow, it will be about $4,000.
Juanita of Waterford MA (03/16/07)
I was staying with friends in Boston and was due to fly back to Shannon on Friday 5th Jan. Before the leaving the house,we called Logan only to find that our flight had been delayed and a recorded message said to call back after 5. We called again and spoke to a customer service agent in New York who eventually told me that the flight was cancelled until the next morning at 8am. We never even got a call from Aer Lingus.
So we spent the extra night with our friends and got up at 3am to be at the airport at 5am the next day. We called the airport again to check the flight was going and there was no mention of it on the recording. There was no one in customer service until 8am. So on arrival at the airport, I was told our flight was once agin delayed until 12 noon. This meant that we had to go back to our friends house and wait 8 hours!! We flew home with about 300 teenagers who had been skiing. You may as well have been at a teenage disco.The air stewards took no control. We arrived back in Shannon at 11pm, 17 hours late. We missed out on a full day at home to get over jet lag. HAve sent 5 letters since 9th January. Got a response on 25th, to say someone would be in touch shortly. Well if you call 51 days shortly...
Paul of Dun Laoghaire OTHER (02/26/07)
My wife and I travelled to Brussels from Dublin in December 06. We flew Aer Lingus and enjoyed a fantastic weekend until it was time to leave on the Sunday. On arrival at Bruissels Airport we were informed our flight was cancelled due to bad weather in Dublin and they would fly us back on Thursday, a full 4 days later. I stated that this was unacceptable and what did they intend to do for us. They said nothing, no hotel, no alternative flight, nothing. I made alternative bookings with British Midlands who had no issues in flying to Dublin, but it did cost an extra 600. After that we found out you cannot contact them by telephone, they refuse to take calls and will not accept any complaints in anything but writing. We sent letters, 6 now in total, but have still had no reply.
Declan of Dublin Ireland (08/03/06)
Checked four bags in with Aer Lingus on Friday 7 July at Heathrow for a routine flight to Dublin, but only three arrived in Dublin. Usual stuff from Aer Lingus baggage clerk - will definitely be on next flight..will have it delivered to you within 24 hours etc etc blah blah. The bag never shows up. Next comes the check in with us procedure. Total nightmare. The bag had approx 1,000 euros worth of clothing and other items, but Aer Lingus, of course, won't pay. You have to wait three weeks, and keep checking in with us to see if the bag turns up.
Checking in with Aer Lingus turns out to be a nightmare. Nobody answers phones. you are directed to a website (mylostbag.com, which is totally useless. From there you can send emails but nobody answers. Eventually get through to somebody on the phone. She confesses to me that they don't actually look for missing bags, but hope that the system may find it. She sends me out a form in which I am to list the contents of the bag. It comes three days later. I fill it out and return it. A week later, while still checking in with them, they reveal to me that they don't have the completed form. Lost, perhaps ? They send me another one. I fill it in and return it. again, nothing happens.
Fortunately, I have travel insurance, but the insurance company tells me I need a letter from Aer Lingus declaring the bag has bee nlost (this can only happen after 21 days). I wait the 21 days, and send Aer Lingus a letter by fax asking for this declaration. nothing happens. I phone after three days, but get the answering machine. After a further three days, I send them a second letter by fax. Again, nothing happens. I check in mith mylostbag,com. nothing new. I send an email from the mylostbag.com site, but get no reply. This is now four weeks since I checked in my bag at Heathrow. No wonder Waiting for Godot was written by an Irishman. He mus thave worked for Aer Lingus.
Benjamin of Ketchum ID (01/17/06)
I traveled June 21st from Boston to Dublin via Shannon on Aer Lingus. My bag did not arrive. I filed the report and was told that the bag would most likely arrive within 24 hours. It did not, and repeated attempts to contact Aer Lingus in Dublin led to disconnects and voice mails that went unreturned. Six days later, I finally received word that the bag was in Milan, Italy and that it was being returned to Dublin.
As I was flying from Dublin to Edinburgh the next day I resolved to pick my bag up from Aer Lingus at the airport the next day. It was not there. In the meantime, I was informed that I might purchase up to a 60 euro per day for my lost luggage of items I needed and to save the receipts. Back in the USA my family was trying to trace my luggage through the Aer Lingus lost luggage web site. My mother emailed twice on a page that promised a reply within 24 hours (she never heard from them). Contact with the JFK airport headquarters for Aer Lingus led to voicemail and finally a reply of " we cannot find it in our system". My bag did not ever arrive while I was in Europe- though I was there until July 7th.
Aer Lingus never again told me that my bag was not anywhere in the system. Upon my return I began the process of trying to file with Aer Lingus. What a joke.....30 days after my lost luggage report I was sent a form letter stating "they could not process my claim until 15 days had elapsed". I had to purchase new clothes upon my return for work and for my running for my soccer club.
Believe it or not, the bag was returned to me 67 days later. The problem is, Aer Lingus will not pay me for anything above a 60 Euro/180max that they say is there policy. Funny that none of the Aer Lingus employees ever stated this to me. Further, the only missing item from my bag was a new digital camera which I had purchased 10 days before.
Virginia of Montauk NY (11/14/05)
During my trip to Ireland, Belgium, France, and originally Itlay, I fell and was seriously injured. Due to the injuries I was unable to proceed with my travels. Instead, I had to phone Aer Lingus, cancel 2 flights for 2 ppl and rebook a flight home to NY. I was told that I would receive a refund, but would have to pay for the new flight immediately. I sent a follow up letter to Aer Lingus regarding my refund. They would not apply the money that I had paid for the two tickets to the new ticket. I trusted that they would be true to their word. I've not received a letter, phone call, nor a refund.
Bernard of Dublin, Ireland (08/01/05)
On 13th of july, me, my partner and our 8 year old daughter took a flight from Orlando to Dublin via Shannon. It was supposed to depart 7.30 pm but was at least an hour late. As some one who I would class as an extremely nervous flier the state of the plane disturbed me. The overhead lights were broken so wouldn't turn off, there was no inflight entertainment as that too was not working and my daughter couldn't sleep as the food tray was broken and kept falling on her.
Nobody could sleep and there was nothing to do on such a long flight. There was minimal refreshments offered and what was given was warm as there was no ice. People were vomiting, probably from lack of food and dehydration. Thought nightmare would end when we got to Shannon but the pilot refused to fly the plane for undisclosed reasons so after nearly 2 hours sitting on the runway we were taken off the plane in Shannon and told a different plane would take us to Dublin at 1pm.
Aer Lingus desk in Shannon refused to take any formal complaints and gave us a voucher for 7 euro for food which was just enough for a water and bread roll. We were told our luggage was flown to Dublin without us on our plane. Why they would fly the luggage and not people was not made clear, was it a safety issue with the plane?
Anyway after more delays we eventually flew on to dublin where our luggage was delayed, despite the fact they promised it would be waiting for us. We got out of the airport about 4pm, nearly 24 hours travelling.
I was left with the impreesion that there was more to this incident that wasn't disclosed. I would like to know if our safety was at risk and am extremely angry that we were nearly 12 hours on one plane without food, drink or entertainment, or even the chance to sleep through it as the lights wouldn't go off.
Terry of Los Angeles CA (06/03/05)
I purchased tickets on Aer Lingus website because they are partnered with American Airlines and I am an AA frequent flyer member. I tried to ascertain my booking class to determine what mileage I would earn and was not able to do so. When I returned home and submitted my boarding passes to American for milege credit they told me I would get zero due to Aer Lingus' policy. I was surprised because Qantas another of AA's partners did give me 50% mileage credit even though I got a deep discount ticket to Auckland in November of 2003. An American rep told me Aer Lingus purposely does not reveal this when customers book through their website. I will not fly Aer Lingus again.
Marshall of Clermont Ferrand, France (12/28/04)
I have been travelling Aer Lingus for numerous years, only to discover that this company doesn't give a s*** about its customers. Due to bad weather conditions on the 26/12/04 (1 cm of snow, not even that!) all flights were delayed. As a consequence all flights on the 27/12/04 were also delayed, despite the fact that the weather had totally improved. But the flow of traffic had been interupted the previous day, so my 12 p.m. flight from Cork to Paris was announced an hour an a half late.
I had a connecting flight with Air France and requested a document from Aer Lingus, nothing too complicated, just a few words on official paper, which would have helped me to change my next flight. However in order to obtain this document, was inevitably too much to ask. Aer Lingus desk office member 'Hilary' was so unhelpful regarding this. I just can't believe how Aer Lingus staff can be so incompetent and unhuman. I was informed that Aer Lingus is only responsible for getting me to my contract destination, and that I should have allowed myself more time between flights. Basically, the attitude was more or less - It's your problem.
In fact I had allowed three hours between flights, which was sufficient. The hour and a half delay, turned into 1 hour 45 minutes, and the eternal wait for my luggage to arrive meant that I had missed my connecting bus hence also missed my flight. I hope that Aer Lingus is proud of the way it treats it's customers, I have contacted them by phone today and what an attitude. I just so amazed. The cabin crew were always fantastic, pity about the ground and office staff. I was informed that I needed to write a letter and wait 8 weeks for the reply, which wouldn't change anything. 8 weeks is a long time in my opinion, there must be a lot of unsatisfied customers. Next time I'll fly Ryanair!
Loss of 120 Euro - purchase a second ticket for my connecting flight. A complete day wasted hanging around an airport for my second flight at 9.35 p.m. And I was so stressed and exhausted.
Zack of Boston (5/22/03):
I have been flying for years and have been to 17 countries but I have never experienced a problem remotely close to the problem I experienced with Aer Lingus. On February 18, 2003, I flew from Amsterdam to Dublin. I arrived in Dublin; my bag did not. I reported it missing and pressed on to explore Ireland to try to enjoy my vacation without all my clothing, toiletries, and other travel necessities. I did not worry too much because I was told I would recieve the bag in the next 24 hours. I did not.
I kept calling Aer Lingus everyday to tell them where I was staying so they could send the bag when it was found. Finally, on February 21 I received my bag. If the bag would have been in the same condition, I would have only been a little annoyed. However, it was not. It was returned to my hotel when I was gone. What they dropped off was a white plastic shopping bag containing what was left. My $175 top of the line duffel bag contained a cut measuring 4 feet. It was completely destroyed. The cut was too large to be a tear. It was cut open by someone.
My books were completely beat up. Several of my shirts had new holes and tears. Most of the contents of my bag was covered with some type of black tar that I was never able to get out of my clothing. My film, gloves, long underwear set, and swimsuit were lost/stolen. When I went back to Dublin on February 23, I reported my incident and was told to contact someone about it because it was Sunday and the customer service was closed.
I have been in contact with Aer Lingus through a series of phone calls, letters, and a fax but they refuse to do anything. Often when I called they said I had to speak to a certain woman who was handling my claim who almost never seemed to be there. After my flight I mailed them a letter with a detailed account of what was destroyed and lost/stolen and all my receipts. They actually mailed me a letter back asking for receipts. They kept saying that they are not responsible for anything and if I have traveler's insurance. They say they have sent me e-mails which I have never received. Later, they told me the receipts I mailed were not good enough. Once on the phone I was told to buy a new bag, mail them the receipt, and they would pay for it. I did this and then they said that they would not pay for it.
Liam of Cork, Ireland (9/19/02):
I am writing to convey my utter disgust at what happened to me at the hands of Aer Lingus staff at Logan airport on 08-20-02. I recieved very sad news on the previous day that one of my close friends in Ireland had drowned at the weekend and I was attempting to fly home on the stand-by ticket I had bought earlier in the summer. I am fully aware of the hazards of flying on stand-by especially in this situation yet I was left shocked and angry at the way I was treated by certain members of the senior staff at Logan International.
I left for Logan at 17:00 Tuesday the 20th and got there about 17:30. I met one of my friends, Eavan, who travelled as a revenue customer on the 20:20 and we queued for about 15 minutes. The girl who checked us in was brilliant. She was Irish, had blonde hair and was most sympathetic to my plight. I had mail listed the night before for the flight but she said it was very busy. She went back to a superior lady who came out and told me the best thing I could do was to go as far as Shannon on the 19:20 flight which didn't travel on to Dublin as this was not as busy and then meet up with a flight to Dublin where the funeral was.
This sounded great so I waited at departures until 7:10 with all other passengers for that flight only to be notified by a flashing light that flight was cancelled due to the captain being sick. It took ages for anyone to tell us anything which I was very surprised at. So I ran back downstairs to check if I was still mail listed for 8:20. I was. But at that stage those people at check in didn't even know the first flight was cancelled, at 19:40, 20 minutes after the plane was due to leave. This was the first sign of terrible communication.
They didn't believe me at check in. When it was eventually acknowledged I went back up to departures and waited with Eavan who was travelling on that flight. I then approached the people at the gate who said they would do everything they could for me. I knew at this stage that my chances were quite slim. 20:20 came anyway and they were nearly finished boarding. When everyone was on they began counting. A revenue standby from the first flight offered me her seat but they wouldn't allow her as she was revenue.
I understood this but then she became angry because some other guy walked up on standby and went straight on. I think he was staff though which I assume means he has preference, however I would like this to be checked too. Thats fair enough. But none of that mattered. 3 people never showed up for that flight. I cannot remember their names, I think two of them were Pritchards, an elderly couple who had checked in but never showed at the gate. But I know that the other passenger rang in earlier and said he wasn't travelling because his partner wasn't travelling so that seat was definately free. They knew all this at 20:40 and they spoke openly to me about it at the gate and the plane was still at the terminal at 21:10. They kept calling the passengers names and in fairness to all the gate people they tried to get me on but every time they radioed downstairs their superiors said no, to wait.
They knew I was going home for a funeral, and they knew I was there because I heard everything on the radio, they even put all my bags on the plane but they shut the doors without telling anyone and when I was taken down to go on board they couldn't believe it, the doors had been shut. Their superior downstairs had given the order and he wouldn't open them again. So that was it. I was devestated as you can imagine because there was no good reason to keep me off that plane when my bags were onboard and there were three free seats.
I went down stairs then and all of the girls from check-in and the gate, gate 5, were very apolagetic and I knew they couldn't have done anymore. So I asked to see the person who was responsible for what had happened to me. I would'nt mind if this man had come out to me apolagetically but he was the opposite. He accepted no responsibility. It was then they told me my bags were on the way to Dublin and I got cross with him. I said it was ridiculous what they had done, and that it wasn't good enough. He said to me patronisingly that at the end of the day I was only a stand-by passenger so I said, so stand-by is good enough for staff but not good enough for me. I kept interrogating him and he would tell me half truths about what happened and I corrected him cause I heard him on the radio. He didn't give a hoot.
All he would say was 'we all know that sometimes these things happen'. And that only made me madder. I don't know his name, but he was about 5'7 or 5'8 with thinning grey hair, he was quite plump. but at one stage he said to me 'be very careful what you say to me now boy' pointing at me like I was a school kid. I was not being threatening to him in any way and I did not raise my voice very high, I was not in the mood. He said himself and another person, the station manager I presume had made the decision to shut the doors and he wouldn't say why they didn't let me on board. The girls tried every 2 minutes I'd say for a half hour to bump the three passengers who didn't travel and the doors were open all that time. They were sure I'd get on.
I had all my documents in order and was taken to the door of the plane. I was wearing a white addidas t-shirt tucked in to a tracksuit bottom, was clean shaven and well groomed so they couldn't have withheld entry because I was scruffy. They knew I had a friend with me too at check in as we checked in together. The girls there said they were gutted for me what had happened and they just thought it was a joke what what had happened. I don't find it one bit funny.
I would like him to get a rap on the knuckles for his attitude demeanour and incompetence.
Richard of Mantua NJ (3/26/01):
I bought an air ticket from Aer Lingus in Sept 2000 for a trip March 2001. PHL via AA to JFK then AL to DUB The AA flight service was cancelled/discontinued three months earlier and Aer Lingus never told me. I had to take an airport limo to JFK and getting the refund from Aer Lingus wasn't easy. If I had not been alert and checked my flights early departure day I would have been stranded at PHL and missed the Aer Lingus flight.
Had to leave work early to get limo and had to put up money for the cost. I would not recommend Aer Lingus to anyone but an idiot.
Tony of Laguna Hills, CA, writes:
My wife and I left on July 10th for an expensive and greatly anticipated golf vacation in Ireland. We flew on American Airlines from Los Angeles to London, and on Aer Lingus from London to Shannon, Ireland.
Upon arrival, all our luggage was there except for our golf clubs. We filed a report at the airport with the baggage claim department, and were advised that our clubs would most likely be on the next Aer Lingus flight later that evening. They asked us to call them after 9:00pm.
I called Aer Lingus that evening and received their voice mail. I left a message and never heard back.
I called in the morning, and again received voice mail. I left another message. I continued to call throughout the day, and finally someone answered and said, "No, your clubs never arrived."
At this point, we asked what we should do. The answer was that we should rent clubs, buy shoes, and save all the receipts and Aer Lingus would reimburse us. Also we were told to wait 72 hours, and fill out another report that was to be sent to Aer Lingus' main office in Dublin.
We continued contacting Aer Lingus for a few more days, until we decided the frustration of getting voice mail, rude people, and no answers as to the whereabouts of our clubs, was too discouraging, and that we should just get on with our vacation. Honestly, being in Ireland, and playing the most beautiful golf coursers they offer without our clubs was a major disappointment.
As requested by Aer Lingus, I filled out a detailed lost luggage claim, with an itemized list of what we lost. The total was $6,000. We mailed it to their corporate office in Dublin. There was no other follow-up on Aer Lingus' part. No call of apology, nothing. The only contact we had were the calls we made to them, at our expense.
Upon returning home in the USA, I called Aer Lingus. They said the lost luggage claim was never received, even though it was sent from a post office in Adare, using Aer Lingus's own prepaid envelope. I then Federal Expressed another itemized list to Aer Lingus, along with an itemized list of our related expenses, due to the lost golf clubs.
Their response finally came, three days later. When I read it, I was sick. Their offer was $1,280 based on some Warsaw Convention treeaty, and didn't evee include the amount for rental clubs, shoes, gloves, balls, and umbrellas, as promised by Aer Lingus's baggage claim employees, and Mr. Jon H. from their Customer Service Department.
But they did have the nerve to offer their services to us again, at the lowest possible price, and a promise to "take care of us".
I wrote back to Aer Lingus on Friday, August 6th, telling them how disappointed and angry they had made my wife and me.
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