Return to London during Storm Franklin

After a nice weekend in Dublin, where I saw some friends, stayed at the Aloft Dublin City, went on the Guinness tour, and went shopping, it was time to return to London.  I flew from Dublin to London Gatwick on an Aer Lingus A320 (EI-GAM). At the time of booking this ticket, Aer Lingus flights were not bookable on the BA website (but now they are).  Instead, I transferred 4 000 Avios from BA to Avios.com (for free) and booked the Aer Lingus ticket that way (plus €6.50 in taxes/fees). A paid ticket would’ve cost €62, been unchangeable, and not come with a checked bag. 

The weather hadn’t been particularly great over the weekend because of Storm Eunice on the Friday and Storm Franklin coming in on Sunday.  Travelling from Ireland to the UK is interesting because there is 0 paperwork/COVID-testing required and almost 0 border control.  They check your passport to get on the plane and then waive you through. 

One of the fun parts of this trip was checking out the different London Airports.  I hadn’t previously used City Airport and I hadn’t used Gatwick since 2017.  I actually haven’t flown out of Gatwick since 2014.  Gatwick is probably my most convenient airport from London Bridge, even though it’s a bit farther mileage-wise than City because there’s a Thameslink train that only stops once between London Bridge and Gatwick. 

Upon arrival at the airport, I checked in my small duffel bag (which was not full of Guinness, despite popular belief), cleared security, and made my way to the Aer Lingus lounge.  This was my third time in Dublin Airport, and it was only this time that I was properly prepared for how small it is.  That is to say, I came prepared with the ability to access to both the Aer Lingus lounge (BA Gold status) and Terminal 1 lounge (Priority Pass) and chill out.

British Airways and Aer Lingus are both owned by a parent company called IAG (which also owns Iberia), but in true British/Irish relations fashion, there is some reciprocity, but there are a lot of asterisks to be noted. For starters, Aer Lingus isn’t in Oneworld but has recently joined the Trans-Atlantic Joint Venture with Finnair, BA, AA, and Iberia.  Second, BA elites get lounge access when flying Aer Lingus, but only sometimes.  My understanding of the rules is that BA Silver/Gold members get access to the Aer Lingus lounge when flying Aer Lingus from Dublin to London (both Heathrow and Gatwick) but not from Dublin to other UK destinations. 

Since I was flying to Gatwick, I decided to use the Aer Lingus lounge.  I had about an hour to pass before the flight would start boarding, so I decided to sample the food on offer.  I tried out their salad of ‘ancient grains’ and roasted vegetables, which wasn’t bad.  I also tried out their small sandwiches, which included a spicy chicken and a vegetarian option, and had a bit of soda bread with smoked cheese.  I tried out the other salad option as well, but I was not a fan and failed to even manage a picture of it. 

The lounge also had pour-your-own mixed drinks, so I had a small gin & tonic.

The flight itself would’ve been totally fine, except we were landing into the beginnings of storm Franklin and spent the second half of the flight battling the clouds.  It was one of the rougher flights I’ve been on in a while, and multiple people on the flight got sick.  After the roller coaster landing, no one was happy when we saw the buses to get us from the plane to baggage claim.  I was confused why we needed buses because we actually exited onto the jet bridge and then went outside, but it was because we were bypassing passport control.

In summary, I did not particularly enjoy this flight, but, of course, there was no way to avoid the horrible landing.  Since Aer Lingus acts like a low-cost carrier on short-haul flights, everything was minimal.  The ground experience for Aer Lingus, however, is noticeably better than what Ryanair would have offered me, for example.  The lounge was solid, with a good selection of light refreshments and drinks.  The food/drink availability is better than a typical i.e., non-Heathrow United Club or an Admirals Club, but before an international business class flight, it would’ve been a bit underwhelming (3/5).  The seat was actually pretty good, offering more legroom that the equivalent BA or Ryanair flight, for about the same price (4/5).  The in-flight service all required paying, and, given the turbulence and the free food in the lounge, I did not partake (1/5). As a result, I didn’t actually interact with the crew at all, but I similarly have no complaints (4/5).  The flight also didn’t have any IFE to speak of either (0/5).  Overall, the flight gets a 12/25, which is relatively low, but the scoring system isn’t designed for low-cost carriers.  One doesn’t select a low-cost carrier for the great flight, just for the low fare, which is what mattered more in this case.

In terms of points, since this was an award ticket, the only points I earned were Amex Membership Rewards off my Green card (23 points).  The 4 000 Avios I used for the flight saved me £50, which gave me a value of 1.25 p/point (1.7¢/point). I value Avios at around 1 p/point (1.35 ¢/point), so this was a solid use of Avios.