Aer Lingus - 5
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Just had a phonecall from a raging-with-anger friend. They were due to fly Dublin to London tomorrow 6th. IAA announced that Dublin is open from 4am and he had checked on the EI website where their flight was shown to be "on time". Huge relief all round.
Then he gets a beep on his mobile. Message from EI to say his flight is cancelled due to "Operational Reasons". In others words "We don't really give a
about you. We've decided to send the plane somewhere else." His final words to me were" I hope the ba..rds go bust".
I think it is very poor form to treat customers in this fashion. If the flight had to be cancelled due to the ash then it is acceptable but to cancel it for their own sake is different. They keep on repeating over and over again telling passengers to check the website but that's no use if the news there is inaccurate.
Then he gets a beep on his mobile. Message from EI to say his flight is cancelled due to "Operational Reasons". In others words "We don't really give a
about you. We've decided to send the plane somewhere else." His final words to me were" I hope the ba..rds go bust".I think it is very poor form to treat customers in this fashion. If the flight had to be cancelled due to the ash then it is acceptable but to cancel it for their own sake is different. They keep on repeating over and over again telling passengers to check the website but that's no use if the news there is inaccurate.
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Message from EI to say his flight is cancelled due to "Operational Reasons".
The last thing Aer Lingus want to do is cancel flights.
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IAA announced that Dublin is open from 4am and he had checked on the EI website where their flight was shown to be "on time". Huge relief all round.
Then he gets a beep on his mobile. Message from EI to say his flight is cancelled due to "Operational Reasons". In others words "We don't really give a about you. We've decided to send the plane somewhere else." His final words to me were" I hope the ba..rds go bust".
Then he gets a beep on his mobile. Message from EI to say his flight is cancelled due to "Operational Reasons". In others words "We don't really give a about you. We've decided to send the plane somewhere else." His final words to me were" I hope the ba..rds go bust".
Aer Lingus have aircraft and crew stranded around Europe (as well as in Shannon and Cork). Your friend's cancellation is most likely because of the aircraft not being available, and even more importantly would there be a crew to man it?!
It's about time that people stop trying to lay the blame on someone else for what's happening at the moment. There's nothing anyone can do about it, and it's certainly no ones fault. Your friend needs to get over himself/herself, and fast.
So what now? Well he/she could try and re-book himself on another Aer Lingus flight to London tomorrow. I suspect that most flights will be pretty full tomorrow so that might be easier said than done. Alternatively your friend can just re-book for another day or get a refund, and if their desperate to get to London, there's ample space available on the ferries.
His final words to me were" I hope the ba..rds go bust".
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EI London flights
Only two flights to LHR/LGW (1 each) are cancelled. EI 156 to LHR is one of them, but the next flight, an hour later, has been changed to an A330 to help get as many people on their way as possible.
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Only two flights to LHR/LGW (1 each) are cancelled. EI 156 to LHR is one of them, but the next flight, an hour later, has been changed to an A330 to help get as many people on their way as possible.
From the DUB website EI have 8 cancellations before 9.30am. How come Ryanair have none at all tomorrow except one or two earlies to the closed Irish airports? Why couldn't EI get up a bit earlier and fly those planes the few miles up to DUB. No, my friends, sorry, but your excuses don't wash. The will just isn't there.
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EI
While DUB might reopen at 0400hrs , SNN where several EI aircraft are stranded is affected until 0830. ORK is closed until 11am and 2 DUB based aircraft are stuck there too.
The reason for not re-booking onto the later flight is because EI cannot assume that will suit everybody. Thats why passengers are directed to change their booking online, so if seats are available on an earlier LHR flight they may do so.
The reason for not re-booking onto the later flight is because EI cannot assume that will suit everybody. Thats why passengers are directed to change their booking online, so if seats are available on an earlier LHR flight they may do so.
Last edited by CallBell; 5th May 2010 at 22:07. Reason: to add ORK closure details
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All you friend has to do is contact reservations and they will re-book free of charge.
What is the point automatically transferring your friend if they don't necessary wan't to travel on that flight then they would be occupying a much needed seat.
Now placing an A330 on the route to try and get as many pax as possible to their destination is customer service.
Ryanair has about 230 aircraft in service and some of them may not be operating a full summer schedule. Plus a lot of standby crews.
Aer Lingus on the other hand has only about 40 aircraft with even less spare crews. The issue is there maybe spare crews available but the aircraft can't get into Dublin in time.
It is very complicated and i assure you they would want to get as many flights operational as possible as they face loosing money for cancelled flights due to refunds.
The more aircraft in the fleet the easier it is to try and alter schedules to minimise effect plus the more crew available.
It took over 48 hours for some airlines to get on track after the last time so what is so different now?
What you want Aer Lingus to do cancel flights before planned closures to make sure the aircraft are where they supposed to be? Then you will say why are they cancelling flights when others are operating.
It doesn't matter what they do it will never be good enough for your firend.
What is the point automatically transferring your friend if they don't necessary wan't to travel on that flight then they would be occupying a much needed seat.
Now placing an A330 on the route to try and get as many pax as possible to their destination is customer service.
Ryanair has about 230 aircraft in service and some of them may not be operating a full summer schedule. Plus a lot of standby crews.
Aer Lingus on the other hand has only about 40 aircraft with even less spare crews. The issue is there maybe spare crews available but the aircraft can't get into Dublin in time.
It is very complicated and i assure you they would want to get as many flights operational as possible as they face loosing money for cancelled flights due to refunds.
The more aircraft in the fleet the easier it is to try and alter schedules to minimise effect plus the more crew available.
It took over 48 hours for some airlines to get on track after the last time so what is so different now?
What you want Aer Lingus to do cancel flights before planned closures to make sure the aircraft are where they supposed to be? Then you will say why are they cancelling flights when others are operating.
It doesn't matter what they do it will never be good enough for your firend.
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I'm not going to tell them that. His first question would be "Why then did they not text us to say that we are transferred onto that next flight?" Now, that would be real customer service.
From the DUB website EI have 8 cancellations before 9.30am. How come Ryanair have none at all tomorrow except one or two earlies to the closed Irish airports? Why couldn't EI get up a bit earlier and fly those planes the few miles up to DUB. No, my friends, sorry, but your excuses don't wash. The will just isn't there.
From the DUB website EI have 8 cancellations before 9.30am. How come Ryanair have none at all tomorrow except one or two earlies to the closed Irish airports? Why couldn't EI get up a bit earlier and fly those planes the few miles up to DUB. No, my friends, sorry, but your excuses don't wash. The will just isn't there.
How can Aer Lingus decide for passengers as to which flight they want to be transferred onto? Are they psychic? I don't think so! Is it really that much hassle for your friend to head to the ticket counter and get re-booked onto another flight. As CallBell outlined above, Aer Lingus are doing their very best in this unprecedented situation, by adding extra capacity onto routes.
Theres something you and your friend don't seem to understand. If all aircraft are NOT available for early morning operations then the flights simply cannot operate. Aer Lingus did their very best to get pax back from European destinations yesterday and aircraft had to divert to both ORK and SNN. How do you think they were going to position aircraft from SNN to DUB when SNN did NOT open for operations until 08.00 Hours this morning? Now, some destinations like Lisbon for example are only one flight per day most days of the week, so these destinations will be given priority in terms of aircraft available. LHR has multiple daily flights and your friend could easily be accomodated onto another flight.
What would your friend do if he was stranded in Europe like on the previous occasion and had to fork out a couple of thousand euro to get back over land/ferries?
There are no excuses being offered by anyone, the situation is clear to see. Your friend obviously doesn't have a clue about anything aviation related, especially in light of his wonderful last comment.
You know, if he wishes such ill will against Aer Lingus, why is he so desparate to fly with them?
I really pity the folks in the airline industry at the moment who will have to put up with the unwarranted vitriol that we have seen on this thread.
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I had time only for a brief chat with him late yesterday evening when he had calmed down but I garnered from him these facts.
1. On the evening in question the EI website was showing his flight as "on time".
2. About 30 minutes later he got the text that it was cancelled.
3. An hour after that he checked the website again and the flight was still showing "on time"
4. Confused at this point, he tried ringing various phone numbers to find out what was the correct situation but everyone was gone home.
His argument was that passengers were repeatedly being told to check the airline's website for the "latest information". In his case the latest information on the website was that his flight was on time. You could, of course, argue that the text message was the end of it, period. But why was there conflicting information? That is incompetence. For all he knew the situation could have changed again since he got the text message. I don't think that is unreasonable.
I still believe that putting them automatically onto the next flight (the A330) would have been the right thing to do because, according to CallBell, it was only an hour later. It's not as if it was the next day or later on after that. If a passenger has originally opted for, say a 10.am flight it would be reasonable to assume that a change to 11.00am is fine. I've had that done to me on, at the very least, a dozen occasions over the last few years (more than an hour later in some cases and not EI, btw) and very much appreciated that I was not required to do anything except if the new time didn't suit me. I did tell him about the A330 in the end but he wasn't interested. It transpires that were more in his party than two and they have cancelled and plan to go by ferry instead later on in the Summer.
Your points on the closure of the airports that the planes were stranded at are valid but it could also be argued that having so many aircraft out of position was poor decision-making.
People's opinions will always be coloured by their personal experiences and EI has never been good at managing things in a crisis but, to be fair, they've had such inept management over the years, that's no suprise.
1. On the evening in question the EI website was showing his flight as "on time".
2. About 30 minutes later he got the text that it was cancelled.
3. An hour after that he checked the website again and the flight was still showing "on time"
4. Confused at this point, he tried ringing various phone numbers to find out what was the correct situation but everyone was gone home.
His argument was that passengers were repeatedly being told to check the airline's website for the "latest information". In his case the latest information on the website was that his flight was on time. You could, of course, argue that the text message was the end of it, period. But why was there conflicting information? That is incompetence. For all he knew the situation could have changed again since he got the text message. I don't think that is unreasonable.
I still believe that putting them automatically onto the next flight (the A330) would have been the right thing to do because, according to CallBell, it was only an hour later. It's not as if it was the next day or later on after that. If a passenger has originally opted for, say a 10.am flight it would be reasonable to assume that a change to 11.00am is fine. I've had that done to me on, at the very least, a dozen occasions over the last few years (more than an hour later in some cases and not EI, btw) and very much appreciated that I was not required to do anything except if the new time didn't suit me. I did tell him about the A330 in the end but he wasn't interested. It transpires that were more in his party than two and they have cancelled and plan to go by ferry instead later on in the Summer.
Your points on the closure of the airports that the planes were stranded at are valid but it could also be argued that having so many aircraft out of position was poor decision-making.
People's opinions will always be coloured by their personal experiences and EI has never been good at managing things in a crisis but, to be fair, they've had such inept management over the years, that's no suprise.
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it could also be argued that having so many aircraft out of position was poor decision-making.
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What you want Aer Lingus to do cancel flights before planned closures to make sure the aircraft are where they supposed to be?
Then you will say why are they cancelling flights when others are operating.
Then you will say why are they cancelling flights when others are operating.
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People's opinions will always be coloured by their personal experiences and EI has never been good at managing things in a crisis but, to be fair, they've had such inept management over the years, that's no suprise.
I'm beginning to think that ''your friend'' as you put it, may instead be yourself. The real case here is that you have an anti Aer Lingus agenda and you are using the volcanic ash crisis to push it..
The text message should have been more than enough evidence for him that the flight was not going ahead. The text is initiated from Ops centre immediately and provides the most up to date information. People can't sit on the Aer Lingus website and edit it every second you know. I got several of those texts a few weeks ago when my flight was cancelled - they were clear, to the point, apologetic and explained what to do next. With regard to phonecalls, what do you honestly expect here? People to work 12 hour days? Did Ryanair have a 24 hour phoneline open? Its about time you got real.
How is it reasonable to book passengers on the next available flight? If they had onward connections to SYD or somewhere like that for example then they may wish to stay in DUB overnight and go the next day, etc etc.. He wasn't interested about the extra capacity that Aer Lingus deployed on LHR or didn't want to hear because he knew he was in the wrong, 100% likely to be the latter here. So what if there were more in the party than two? Again, such comments are more vitriol. It would have taken a half an hour to get to the Port and catch a ferry to Holyhead. They could have been in London by the afternoon/early evening.
Your points on the closure of the airports that the planes were stranded at are valid but it could also be argued that having so many aircraft out of position was poor decision-making.
Your final comments show the real purpose and motivation behind your posts. What the hell does this have to do with Aer Lingus management? You may not have noticed but they have quite a solid management team at the moment. I have, been scheduled on various Aer Lingus flights over the time that were disrupted and have received nothing but helpful information and assistance.
There's no substance to anything you have posted, your comments are not only inaccurate, but are dervived from an obvious agenda to besmirch the reputation of Aer Lingus.
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Just to further strengthen my points as made above, the following is a statement issued by Christoph Mueller, this Saturday afternoon regarding the crisis. It really signifies what many of us have been stating on here for the past few days and demonstrates clearly that Aer Lingus are doing everything in their power to assist customers.
Dear Customer
The eruption of the volcano in Iceland has caused disruption on a massive scale to aviation across Europe. We know that during this time our customers have experienced all kinds of difficulties as they try to adjust their travel plans to cope with the constantly changing situation. You rely on our help and assistance in this respect and we are committed to not letting you down.
We are committed to providing you the most up to date information that we can at all times. We work very closely with our colleagues in the IAA and other aviation authorities to achieve this. We receive six hourly updates with weather charts predicting the positioning of the volcanic ash plume.
When the plume impacts on our airspace our first focus is to plot a different flight path to avoid cancelling flights, however this is often unavoidable. When airports are closed for business or flight paths are not available we must unfortunately cancel flights. At this point our key focus is to get the information to you as speedily as we can. We cancel the flights in our systems so that you can see the exact status of your flight on our website. We notify the broadcast media so customers can avoid unnecessary journeys to the airport and we send text messages to passengers for whom we have mobile phone numbers. Since this crisis began on the 15th April we have sent more than half a million messages of this nature.
This morning, 8th May, when we analysed the weather charts we saw that the ash cloud had moved over northern Spain and it became clear to us that we would not be able to operate to Spain, Portugal or the Canary Islands in the afternoon. Once these decisions to cancel services were made we immediately started communicating the unfortunate news to the affected customers through every medium possible. While we got this information to our customers as soon as it was available today's example shows that operating plans can change at short notice.
We will continue to do all in our power to get as many of our customers to their intended destinations as we possibly can and to keep all customers updated with the latest information. We thank all of our customers most sincerely for their patience and support throughout this difficult time.
Yours sincerely,
Christoph Mueller
Chief Executive
The eruption of the volcano in Iceland has caused disruption on a massive scale to aviation across Europe. We know that during this time our customers have experienced all kinds of difficulties as they try to adjust their travel plans to cope with the constantly changing situation. You rely on our help and assistance in this respect and we are committed to not letting you down.
We are committed to providing you the most up to date information that we can at all times. We work very closely with our colleagues in the IAA and other aviation authorities to achieve this. We receive six hourly updates with weather charts predicting the positioning of the volcanic ash plume.
When the plume impacts on our airspace our first focus is to plot a different flight path to avoid cancelling flights, however this is often unavoidable. When airports are closed for business or flight paths are not available we must unfortunately cancel flights. At this point our key focus is to get the information to you as speedily as we can. We cancel the flights in our systems so that you can see the exact status of your flight on our website. We notify the broadcast media so customers can avoid unnecessary journeys to the airport and we send text messages to passengers for whom we have mobile phone numbers. Since this crisis began on the 15th April we have sent more than half a million messages of this nature.
This morning, 8th May, when we analysed the weather charts we saw that the ash cloud had moved over northern Spain and it became clear to us that we would not be able to operate to Spain, Portugal or the Canary Islands in the afternoon. Once these decisions to cancel services were made we immediately started communicating the unfortunate news to the affected customers through every medium possible. While we got this information to our customers as soon as it was available today's example shows that operating plans can change at short notice.
We will continue to do all in our power to get as many of our customers to their intended destinations as we possibly can and to keep all customers updated with the latest information. We thank all of our customers most sincerely for their patience and support throughout this difficult time.
Yours sincerely,
Christoph Mueller
Chief Executive
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I agree with what EI Premier and others have said on here. I work in Ireland but live in the UK so I have to take at least three or four Aer Lingus flights per week. Every cancellation or change from timetable has been sent to me by SMS or mail and they have changed my flights without charge when needed. EI has tried its upmost to keep its passengers informed and people who say otherwise must have a hidden agenda.
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Aer Lingus refund question
I was due to fly with Aer Lingus regional last week but the flight was cancelled due to the volcanic ash. I purchased the flight by Aer Arann vouchers in January 2010 (before the Aer Arann & Aer Lingus merger) & paid the remaining balance by debit card. When the refund is processed, will they send me vouchers or will I receive a credit to my debit card? How long does the refund take? Grateful for any advice. Thanks.
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Aer Lingus refund question
To be honest i think you will either be given the full amount of money back (i.e. Voucher-Equivalant & balance paid) or a free transfer onto the next available flight, i could be wrong regarding the Voucher Terms but i dont no how else they would do it 
Hope i was of help.... 
Hope i was of help....
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TJ For Aer Lingus
The big man will be yelling heaps if that pesky volcano causes his fleet any havoc !
Trevor Jensen appointed COO at Aer Lingus
Aer Lingus has announced the appointment of Trevor Jensen as Chief Operating Officer at the airline, effective June 1 2010.
Mr Jensen, an Australian national commenced his career with Qantas where he spent over 25 years, firstly as a pilot and latterly in the position of General Manager of Operations. In addition he has held the position of Chief Operating Officer at Air New Zealand / Ansett and Jetstar and also Head of Airline Operations at Qantas.
Mr Jensen is a Fellow of the Royal Aeronautical society and the Australian Institute of Navigation. He has also been involved in the Royal Flying Doctor Service of Australia. Trevor Jensen's appointment fills the role left vacant by the sudden departure in mid January from Aer Lingus of Niall Walsh.
Trevor Jensen appointed COO at Aer Lingus
Aer Lingus has announced the appointment of Trevor Jensen as Chief Operating Officer at the airline, effective June 1 2010.
Mr Jensen, an Australian national commenced his career with Qantas where he spent over 25 years, firstly as a pilot and latterly in the position of General Manager of Operations. In addition he has held the position of Chief Operating Officer at Air New Zealand / Ansett and Jetstar and also Head of Airline Operations at Qantas.
Mr Jensen is a Fellow of the Royal Aeronautical society and the Australian Institute of Navigation. He has also been involved in the Royal Flying Doctor Service of Australia. Trevor Jensen's appointment fills the role left vacant by the sudden departure in mid January from Aer Lingus of Niall Walsh.