Aer Lingus questions

[niflyer]

Looking for a flight to NYC this summer ex Dub, I noticed that UA are offering code-share Y seat tickets on EI105/EI108 to/from JFK for just less than £400 where exactly the same flight booked through EI is about £500.

Is this normal or an oversight?

Don't know if I could do without IFE (I understand that this isn't offered on EI105/EI108) but any others reasons not to go with the UA booking route?

Thanks.

NIF

[CallBell]

niflyer,
Depemding on the codeshare agreements between airlines, yes sometimes there will be a price difference between the operating airline and the codesharing one, and it can happen that the operating airline is more expensive.

All EI long-haul aircraft do have IFE, just not all of them have personal tv screens in each seat. But with the arrival of new aircraft and the refit/departure of older aircraft chances are that by the time you are travelling to JFK the aircraft you fly on will have PTV's with AVOD.

[niflyer]

Thanks, CallBell, very helpful :)

" .. chances are that by the time you are travelling to JFK the aircraft you fly on will have PTV's with AVOD. "

I'm planning to fly at the end of June - do think personal tv screens should be in place for then?

NIF

[CallBell]

At that stage it is planned that all but 2 of the longhaul aircraft will have AVOD/PTV's. The 2 that will have the older IFE, will leave the fleet within 2 years. So the chances that you will have an AVOD equipped aircraft will be 7 out of 9. If you have any more questions feel free to ask or PM me.

[niflyer]

Great, thanks CB :ok:

Do you happen to know if there's any likelyhood of any IE promotional offers coming up on summer transatlantic flights? I'm already signed up to their Offers emails but they only seem to offers deals to American's coming here!

Cheers,

NIF

[CallBell]

That's beyond my area of expertise to be honest. As summer is "high" season i wouldn't expect too many special deals to be honest, especially in 2009 when all airlines will be looking to maximise yield. But that is all up to revenue/yield managment.

[gavin360]

hi cb just wondering will the two a/c with the old ife be on the mco route? i had one trip with new biz seats and ife and it kinda spoils ya any info would be great i be over an back quite a lot tata for now

[CallBell]

To be honest the aircraft get cycled through all routes with the exception of SFO which is always a -200 series. As MCO is sold as all Y class (extra charge for the use of the C class seats) I would imagine that they will TRY to keep the newer a/c for the other routes. But like most things in aviation, changes happen on a daily basis.

[gavin360]

Thanks cb i guess when all the a/c are updated we will get the good stuff all the time !!the prem seats are great though and pretty well booked up the times i have been on board it was fairly empty before when ei were selling it as a premier seat and service

[CallBell]

Yes, when Premier was offered on the MCO route it was rare to see more than 2 people booked. Now it is rare to see an empty seat up there albeit with the Y class service.