Two weeks before our flights back to the United States, United Airlines sent me an e-mail saying that they had made a change to the reservation. They changed our first flight (on Aer Lingus) from noon to 6:00 A.M., so that we would have seven hours in Heathrow before the second flight. Damn it – could they make a change like that without my permission? Seriously!
I called United Airlines, and an agent came on the line quickly. She was helpful, and made another reservation for us with no issue – the first flight to Chicago (on United) at noon, and an hour later the second flight (on United) to Los Angeles. We preferred the new arrangements, for two reasons. In the first place, we would avoid Heathrow airport. Second, our luggage would have a better chance of arrival with only one airline (United) involved.
We and our luggage reached our destination without a problem, and we were happy with United Airlines because, although we had a small problem at first, they quickly put everything right for us.
Liveline
A few days later, I was listening to Joe Duffy’s ‘Liveline’, and I was stunned when I heard about up to 9,000 passengers across Europe stranded by Aer Lingus!
The callers said Aer Lingus was nowhere to be found, to help them in their time of need. RTE itself was unable to get an Aer Lingus spokesperson as a special guest on the programme. There were a few shocking stories to hear on ‘Liveline’.
Emmett’s story
Emmet and his wife were all set to go to America on their honeymoon. They were going to fly to Heathrow first, and then from Heathrow to Miami. They had booked a cruise for the subsequent day.
They checked in without any problem, went through security and then on to the gate. At 10 A.M., a quarter of an hour before their departure time, Aer Lingus informed passengers that they were experiencing an IT( information technology) problem. Emmet heard nothing more until 4 P.M. when Aer Lingus announced that their flight had been cancelled. As a result, they missed not only their flight from Heathrow to Miami, but also their cruise. The couple had spent almost €5,000 on their travel arrangements, and were now out of pocket because of it, with no information about a refund.
The couple believe that Aer Lingus was responsible for the money they had paid, as they were the cause of the problem in the first place.
Michelle’s story
Michelle didn’t hear anything from the airline, but when she saw on social media that there were major problems with Aer Lingus flights, she immediately knew she was in trouble. Then she contacted her family and friends. When she found out that there were only three flights a week leaving Corfu, where she was staying, she knew she would have to act quickly to get home as soon as possible.
She had to book new flights with Eurowings, in order to avoid staying in Corfu for three additional days. She had to spend €850 on two tickets on Eurowings. Even when they arrived at Dublin airport, the airport was a complete mess. They were waiting almost half an hour in the plane for the boarding stairs to arrive. Then they had to sit around waiting for their luggage, as there were no baggage handlers available. The terminal was crowded with people and luggage. But they were happy and relieved to be back in Dublin.
Excuse?
Aer Lingus has finally apologized to customers who were affected when 51 flights were canceled on the weekend of 10-9-2022. A spokesman for the airline said: “We sincerely apologize to customers for the major disruption caused by problems with our computer system. Those problems have been resolved and our normal schedule is back in place”.
The airline also said that affected customers will be able to change their travel plans for free.
I hope that Aer Lingus has learned a lesson, and will be in touch with their customers to help them whenever something like this happens in the future. If Aer Lingus ignores their customers like that again, they will lose them forever!
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