I recently flew Aer Lingus for the first time in 16 years! My first flight with them had been as a small child travelling on a family holiday to the USA. We had to go from Heathrow to Dublin, then onto Shannon and finally to Orlando. They used to be a full service airline but now are less so. They have cut back on a lot of routes but still fly extensively in Europe and a few flights to the USA via Dublin/Shannon. On the European flights there is no business class and there is a buy on board product. On long haul flights they do have Business Class and charge for alcoholic drinks in Economy.

They have dramatically changed business model since my last trip with them and I was eager to see how this reflected in cost and service standards. Last year Aer Lingus opened a crew base at London Gatwick so I took the opportunity to book flights to Malaga with them. Aer Lings are the Irish flag carrier, have just over 40 planes, fly to 70 airports and employ 4000 staff-if you think that BA employs 14,000 cabin crew alone it gives you some idea as to the airlines size!

Why did I book?
It would have a been a lot easier to fly from my local airport at Bristol or even fly from Heathrow using staff travel tickets at the airline that I had previously worked at as cabin crew. I was swayed to use Aer Lingus, even if Gatwick was a bit further out because their flight departure times late morning and early afternoon-as opposed to other airlines who seem to think you want to fly at 06:00 with a check in time of 04:00-no thanks! They were also cheap-I paid £90 rather than the £160 that BA wanted for a free drink and a cereal bar or a packet of pretzels. I also liked the fact that unlike almost all the other low-cost airlines there is pre assigned seating so no pushing and shoving! They are also a well established airline having been operating since 1936. Oh and they have a good safety reputation.

Booking:
Booking online is simple and quick. You do need to pay extra for checking in bags and also for seats in the exit row or front of the plane. I did this as I wanted more legroom. The prices are transparent and you aren’t hit with a load of airport taxes right at the end to hike the price up. You then get sent an email confirmation. Remember if you are flying to Spain you need to fill in your passport details before hand-they send me an email to remind me too.

Checking In:
I loathe the chaos of Gatwick and walked past the seething mass of humanity waiting to check in for the dozens of easyJet flights-the queue looked like it would easily take an hour of waiting to check in. Not good. I was a bit worried at this point but remembered that Aer Lingus only have a handful of flights from Gatwick. Thankfully the check in area is Zone B which is a downstairs (accessed by a ramp) and away from the crowds of the main area. I was greeted by a friendly ground agent who showed me how to check in via machine and then drop my bag off. There was 3 agents on the desks and I only waited 2 minutes to be checked in. I am guessing the ground staff are employed by Aer Lingus rather than a ground handling agency as they were wearing the airline uniform. The agent wasn’t particularly friendly but was polite and efficient.

Security:
Being off peak and during school term term so very few little horrors around this was very quick and took 10 minutes but was still pretty busy. The security staff were actually almost friendly! I hate to imagine this at peak time though.

The Departures Lounge:
Not my favourite. Busy and cluttered so I took myself to a crowded Café Rouge for breakfast.

Boarding:
The Gate was announced on time and boarding was quick. I presume that the Aer Lingus crew have a quick turnaround and like most low-cost airline crew have to tidy the cabin between flights.

Onboard:
The two cabin crew at the door greeted me in a pleasant manner and I had a whole exit row to myself and the plane was about half full. The extra legroom was great and the leather seats were comfortable. The cabin was fairly tidy but as I have noted above the crew are under pressure to clean and do security checks so there were a few crumbs and litter but nothing major. Being former crew myself I was always shocked at how much mess passengers can make and felt sorry for our cleaners having to clean up. I also feel great empathy for crew so made sure that I handed them any rubbish and also some magazines that I had finished with, which seemed to make their day! I was a little surprised when one of the friendly flight attendants offered to lift the suitcase of the passengers opposite me. As crew I was always told to never lift bags as if we injured ourselves it was our own fault for not following the non lifting rules and the airline would not cover us. My rule was “You pack it, you stack it!” These passengers were sat by the emergency exits and in an emergency would be expected to open the hatch. These are heavy and you need to throw them outside the plane-believe me, I have done it and it’s not easy!

The Flight
We left early and service began 20 minutes into the flight. Two cabin crew on a trolley from the front and the two cabin crew at the back starting from there. It was a little slow (but we weren’t going anywhere so no problem) as there seemed to be only one handheld computer so one of the crew did the order taking whilst the other one used the computer. There was a fine selection of food and drink in the brochure, not too expensive either but I just had a coffee and some Pringles. They accept Stirling or Euro and ask for correct change where possible. The flight passed quite quickly and there is an Aer Lingus magazine to read if you get bored. The loos were also clean and there were 3 onboard.

Food and Drink Offered:
Tea, coffee, hot chocolate, wine, beer, spirits, soft drinks. There is quite a decent selection. Food wise isn’t as good. There are two sandwich choices-cheese or chicken which looked a bit stodgy and a hot cheese and ham Panini or a hot bacon roll. Then basically just chocolate or crisps.

Duty Free:
Thankfully they aren’t pushy with the sales and there are no stupid scratch cards like on other airlines! You can pay by cash or credit card and the brochure showed some good deals.

Clearing In:
Unlike on some airlines where you sit with your rubbish on your tray for ages the crew came through once with a big rubbish trolley to clear in and after that they used trays. This looked a lot more professional than big orange bin liners and screeching “any rubbish or trash?” like on other low-cost airlines. The crew wandered through the cabin at regular intervals rather than hiding in the rear galley which gave a good impression.

The Cabin Crew:
The crew were all young but professional, polite and friendly. There were four onboard and they were led by a good senior flight attendant which set the tone for the flight. They were a lot better than many of the ‘wagon dragons’ seen on full service airlines who scowl at you and disappear after the service. It was also noted that they took their safety and security duties seriously which is after all the main reason they are onboard. They were a slightly old fashioned green uniform that has been around since the early 1990’s but this looks smart and professional anyway unlike the old easyJet orange uniform!

Disembarking:
The crew said goodbye (it’s always a bit awful when they are not seen on disembarkation) and I had the long walk through to get my suitcase-luckily I only waited 10 minutes for it.

The Return:
The return flight went a little less to plan at first. Check-in didn’t open until less than two hours before departure and there were only 2 airport agents on the desks. For some reason the queue was very long and I waited 25 minutes. The passengers in front were moaning to each other about the staff and how long it was taking and how hopeless they were but it took me under a minute to check in. Interesting.

The flight was 30 minutes late however and Malaga airport is pretty dull. There was only one gate agent to board the flight which took a long time and the flight was about 3 quarters full. I was sat in seat 1C and had a spare seat between myself and the man sat in the window seat which was nice. Legroom was good again.

The Captain apologised for the delay and explained that this was due to a problem with a computer in the flight deck at Heathrow which was fixed before they got underway. By the time we got in the air I was rather hungry as the food at Malaga airport is not very good. I had a Panini, a tea and a Seeds of Change Dark Chocolate and Fig organic chocolate bar which seemed a rather unusual choice to stock! The Panini was ok, very hot and the cheese was nice but was a big soggy and bland. It filled a gap though! The cabin crew on this flight were excellent, very friendly and polite. They seemed to be constantly on the go throughout the flight. The plane encountered moderate turbulence but the Captain kept us informed and the crew were very calm. There was the usual long walk to baggage reclaim but hardly any queue at passport control (with a very friendly immigration officer too) and my bag arrived within 5 minutes.

All in all, a good experience and I would be happy to fly Aer Lingus again.