Well, on Feb 15th I flew out to Dublin with EI to accompany my sister to a Westlife concert (not my ideal choice, but I drew the short straw).
We planned to return home on Feb 17. However, shortly after arriving at our hotel at about 14:00 on the 15th a crisis arose at home, necessitating my return ASAP. So I phoned EI to get my booking change to flying back home the following day, the 16th.
All their lines were busy. Completely solid. I tried several phone numbers. Head office, reservations, Customer services, booking enquiries, any number I could find in Ireland’s equivalent of the yellow pages. Every single one of them constantly engaged and busy. For an hour I repeatedly redailed and always got the busy tone.
I left it there and went for some food, it was now 15:30 and I had been up since 04:00 with just a slice of toast for breakfast and nothing since.
At around 16:30 I tried phoning again, all numbers still busy. I must add this was all from the phone in my hotel room, as there was not one payphone to be found in Dublin after a good 2 hour drive about the place. So I suggest you make sure your mobile phone is well topped up if you ever go to Dublin.
Finaly, at around 17:00 I got through to someone. I have no idea who he was, but he certainly did sound like he often took calls for EI. After explaining my situation he set about looking at the available flights rather haphazardly. To be honest it seemed like this was someone EI had pulled from the street. He didn’t seem to know exactly what he was doing. It took 30 minute from him answering the phone to him telling me what flights were available. At this point I didn’t care, as long as I was re booked. I selected a 6am (or there abouts) flight. Then, the line went quite for a moment and after that the busy tone sounded.
I couldn’t beleive it after all that, their phone system had chucked me off the line!
I phoned the hotel’s reception, they confirmed that their phoneline was fault free, the problem could only be on EI’s side.
After all that, I was mentally exhausted and decided it was not worth while spending another 3 hours trying to get back through to Aer Lingus.
On check out of the hotel, the phone bill was £25!
The next day (feb 16) we arrived at Dublin airport at about 8am. Thankfully, getting rebooked onto an 11am flight from the ticket desk was hassle free and a very smooth affair.
Within 20 minutes of me arriving at the airport, I had tickets for an 11am flight. It cost me £80 all in all for the rebooking and paying for the difference in the fare from which I paid and the fare of the flight I was now booked on.
The flights themselves were good. On time, hassle free and comfortable. Good clean interiors and good flight crews.
I got a 737-500 outbound and a 737-400 outbound. My first time for both models but there realy is no difference from the 737-300s I’ve flown.
All in all EI’s score from me is:
All score out of 10
Flights (inc inflight service): 10
Price: 10
Customer service: 2 (its only getting a 2 because the ticket desk service was faultless, otherwise it would be nil)
By: andrewm - 4th March 2005 at 11:44
EDIT – Mouth now zipped
By: andrewm - 4th March 2005 at 11:44
EDIT – Mouth now zipped
By: SHAMROCK321 - 3rd March 2005 at 20:23
LOL theres just a little bit of a difference at Aer Lingus now compared with 1998.
Customer Service should be the priority of every airline. It costs 5 times more to attract new customers than it does to hold on to excisting one. The first step in making you external customers happy is looking after the internal ones (your staff).
Im flying with them on the 29th to LHR so it will be interesting to compare it with my last flight with them in 2003.
By: SHAMROCK321 - 3rd March 2005 at 20:23
LOL theres just a little bit of a difference at Aer Lingus now compared with 1998.
Customer Service should be the priority of every airline. It costs 5 times more to attract new customers than it does to hold on to excisting one. The first step in making you external customers happy is looking after the internal ones (your staff).
Im flying with them on the 29th to LHR so it will be interesting to compare it with my last flight with them in 2003.
By: wysiwyg - 3rd March 2005 at 19:51
I flew over to Dublin twice for Aer Lingus interviews in ’98. The whole process was just as much of a shambles as this! Not surprised! Like yours, the flights there and back were good though.
By: wysiwyg - 3rd March 2005 at 19:51
I flew over to Dublin twice for Aer Lingus interviews in ’98. The whole process was just as much of a shambles as this! Not surprised! Like yours, the flights there and back were good though.
By: LBARULES - 3rd March 2005 at 19:48
Got to agree with Shamrock – I saw more phone boxes than I care to remember in Dublin, dont really get how you couldn’t find one.
Nice report BTW – I did look for you at the baggage belt, but all the pax had already gone unfortunately.
By: LBARULES - 3rd March 2005 at 19:48
Got to agree with Shamrock – I saw more phone boxes than I care to remember in Dublin, dont really get how you couldn’t find one.
Nice report BTW – I did look for you at the baggage belt, but all the pax had already gone unfortunately.
By: T5 - 3rd March 2005 at 18:30
Service was identical to Ryanair at four times the price.
Couldn’t agree more.
By: T5 - 3rd March 2005 at 18:30
Service was identical to Ryanair at four times the price.
Couldn’t agree more.
By: martin_EGTK - 3rd March 2005 at 18:12
All I can say is if i ran an airline customer service would be no.1 on the list of priorities 😀
Flew Aer Lingus in November last year from Heathrow to Dublin and really didn’t rate them. Service was identical to Ryanair at four times the price.
By: martin_EGTK - 3rd March 2005 at 18:12
All I can say is if i ran an airline customer service would be no.1 on the list of priorities 😀
Flew Aer Lingus in November last year from Heathrow to Dublin and really didn’t rate them. Service was identical to Ryanair at four times the price.
By: SHAMROCK321 - 3rd March 2005 at 18:04
What aprt of Dublin were you staying in that you couldnt find a phone box. Dublin is full of phone boxes although they dont really look likeyour traditional phone box. If any of you are stuck and need to change an Aer Lingus flight just some and ask me as I have a relative who works in that department.
By: SHAMROCK321 - 3rd March 2005 at 18:04
What aprt of Dublin were you staying in that you couldnt find a phone box. Dublin is full of phone boxes although they dont really look likeyour traditional phone box. If any of you are stuck and need to change an Aer Lingus flight just some and ask me as I have a relative who works in that department.
By: Bmused55 - 3rd March 2005 at 17:12
Sandy that’s bad news mate. I wish the Customer Service folk who don’t take pride and help customers would take some pride and sort out a simple task like moving a flight. At least the service desk were good about it.
DME
P.S. Where abouts did you stay? One of the girls from work is going over in April and looking for some recommendations.
I stayed at the Harcourt Hotel. Recommendable. Nice place with a restaurant. Rates are good. A twin room for 2 nights only costing my £109. Though I only stayed on night so got £50 back!
By: Bmused55 - 3rd March 2005 at 17:12
Sandy that’s bad news mate. I wish the Customer Service folk who don’t take pride and help customers would take some pride and sort out a simple task like moving a flight. At least the service desk were good about it.
DME
P.S. Where abouts did you stay? One of the girls from work is going over in April and looking for some recommendations.
I stayed at the Harcourt Hotel. Recommendable. Nice place with a restaurant. Rates are good. A twin room for 2 nights only costing my £109. Though I only stayed on night so got £50 back!
By: DME - 3rd March 2005 at 16:45
Sandy that’s bad news mate. I wish the Customer Service folk who don’t take pride and help customers would take some pride and sort out a simple task like moving a flight. At least the service desk were good about it.
DME
P.S. Where abouts did you stay? One of the girls from work is going over in April and looking for some recommendations.
By: DME - 3rd March 2005 at 16:45
Sandy that’s bad news mate. I wish the Customer Service folk who don’t take pride and help customers would take some pride and sort out a simple task like moving a flight. At least the service desk were good about it.
DME
P.S. Where abouts did you stay? One of the girls from work is going over in April and looking for some recommendations.
By: T5 - 3rd March 2005 at 16:39
Shame about the telephone service, but on the other hand, its still great to see that you enjoyed the flights. I don’t know if you saw my report from an Aer Lingus flight from Heathrow and back again in December, but I didn’t rate them at all. Service on the ground and in the air was failing to impress me. I guess I should consider myself lucky that I didn’t have to ring their customer services at any point.
I can recommend bmi and their phone lines. Unfortunately, they emailed me last week to say that mine and Andy’s flight to Paris on 18th June had been affected by a schedule change. Rather than flying out at 8.10am, its now going at 6.45am! I had one or two questions about the changes – in particular, could I have a refund if these times were not convenient. Not only was my call picked up less than 20 seconds after ringing, but a free refund was also available if I wanted it. Good old bmi and the Star Alliance.
By: T5 - 3rd March 2005 at 16:39
Shame about the telephone service, but on the other hand, its still great to see that you enjoyed the flights. I don’t know if you saw my report from an Aer Lingus flight from Heathrow and back again in December, but I didn’t rate them at all. Service on the ground and in the air was failing to impress me. I guess I should consider myself lucky that I didn’t have to ring their customer services at any point.
I can recommend bmi and their phone lines. Unfortunately, they emailed me last week to say that mine and Andy’s flight to Paris on 18th June had been affected by a schedule change. Rather than flying out at 8.10am, its now going at 6.45am! I had one or two questions about the changes – in particular, could I have a refund if these times were not convenient. Not only was my call picked up less than 20 seconds after ringing, but a free refund was also available if I wanted it. Good old bmi and the Star Alliance.
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March 3, 2005 at 2:33 pm