Spring Break to Europe Part 2B: Aer Lingus to SFO!

After my short flight from Manchester, I headed for passport control.  Unfortunately, my flight arrived at about the same time as flights from the United States, so the “other” passport line was extremely long and slow.  I explained to the agent that I had come in from Manchester and was on my way to the United States, but Aer Lingus didn’t let me check my bag through to San Francisco.  It took a couple tries to get her on board with the weirdness of the situation, but I basically said, “I’m literally going to go get my bag from baggage claim, recheck my bag, and then go back through security and leave for the US”.  She agreed the whole situation was silly and stamped my passport.

On the plus side, having to exit airside means that I can document the full Aer Lingus Business Class experience.  At check-in, I headed for the dedicated Business Class line.  

The check-in area was marginally closed off from the rest of the check-in area, but that’s about the only thing about it that felt exclusive.

It was efficient, but the check-in agent was remarkably indifferent.  Indifference is becoming the theme of my Aer Lingus experience.  

After clearing security again, I headed for the pre-clearance area.  Because US pre-clearance can sometimes take a long time, they try to get everyone to go there immediately after clearing security.  I followed the recommendation, but it took me no time to get through.  That wasn’t a problem though because it meant I had plenty of time to get brunch at the 51^st and Green lounge.

All passengers from Dublin to the US go through pre-clearance before they board their flight, and since all the US-bound passengers are all in the same spot, this area is really only used by the US carriers and Aer Lingus.  The only lounge in this area is the 51^st and Green Lounge, which means that it’s shared by all premium (or status holding) passengers to the US.

The space is one giant circle.  It’s decently sized and did not get particularly crowded (it was easy to find a seat) during this late morning time period, which seemed to be a common departure time for US flights.

Upon entry to the lounge, there was a single buffet area to my left, with the rest of the seating ahead and to the right.

The buffet was similar to Manchester Airport’s Aspire Lounge offering, but looked and tasted fresher.  There was also a bigger continental offering, with more choices of cold cuts and small sandwiches. 

But the full Irish breakfast bar was standard for this region of the world.

I made myself a second full (hot) breakfast and made myself a water, while watching the airport activities.

At around 11 am, I went back for some fruit, yogurt, a pastry, and a Guinness.  It would be rude to go to Ireland and not have a Guinness at least once.

Soon enough, it was time for my flight.  The lounge had boarding announcements for all flights to the US, but since there weren’t really that many in total, it wasn’t intrusive and was very welcome in my opinion.  I waited for the announcement to proceed to the aircraft, which meant I boarded with the latter half of the Business Class cabin. 

I have actually flown Aer Lingus’ A330 business class previously on a flight from Dublin to London in 2021, but on short flights, the cabin is simply sold as “AerSpace” and has very minimal service.  That flight didn’t make it onto the blog, unfortunately.

Upon boarding, I turned left.

And then I made my way up to my seat for the next 11 hours: 2A.  When I flew this flight previously, I had one of the “throne seats”, which are on the starboard side of the cabin and alternate with a pair of seats in front and behind.  On my previous Aer Lingus A330 experience, I did not like those seats, so I wanted to try out these instead.  These are the same seats that Australian Michael had on his Malaysia Airlines flight last year. 

My main complaint about these seats, both this time and last time, was how the seat moved forward A LOT before it would recline.  I really hated that I moved forward (what felt like) a foot, then reclined into a cradle position, but if I wanted to recline more, I had to move forward (what felt like) an additional foot before I could go any deeper into the recline.

The reason why all this forward movement is necessary is because in the fully upright position, the seat is flush with the back of the shell:

And as the below picture shows, the console to my right did not extend out very far.  That meant that moving forward actively decreased my feeling of privacy in a way that felt extremely unnecessary and just bad design.

But at least it was a lie-flat seat and perfectly spacious.

Shortly after taking my seat, one of the flight attendants brought me a glass of welcome champagne.  She was delightful, and I was hopeful that she would set the tone for the rest of the onboard service.

Intercontinental flights like these are built with a fair bit of cushion time to help with connections on either side (and to make sure everyone gets through pre-clearance), so we actually pushed back “late” but were always showing on time.

We had a very powerful takeoff roll, and then about 20 minutes later, the initial service began.  Multiple flight attendants were working each aisle in Business Class, and some were very bubbly, others were extremely indifferent.  So, I’ll just summarize it as service was a mixed bag and move onto the actual offerings.

I opted to start with a cup of breakfast tea because that seemed appropriate given the region.  It was served with biscuits and chutney that I couldn’t eat.  But I assume were pretty good.

Here is the full menu:

I selected the smoked salmon as my starter.  It was served with a small salad and bread roll.  It was simple but excellent.  It didn’t try to be anything more than smoked salmon for breakfast and excelled at its goal.

Next, I ordered the chicken as my main.  It was, once again, excellent.  So far both dishes were way better than my outbound British Airways meal.  The chicken was very nicely cooked, and the sides it was served with nicely complemented it. I even liked the mashed potatoes (and I don’t normally like potatoes).

Finally, I ordered the lemon cream mousse dome for dessert, along with a Bailey’s, which also felt appropriate.  Once again a straight-forward, excellent experience.

After the meal service concluded, we still had over seven hours left on our flight, so I pulled out my laptop and worked for a while before eventually settling in for a nap.  I moved my seat all the way forward and then it finally went into lie-flat mode.  I got a couple-hour nap in, and shortly thereafter, it was time for the pre-arrival meal. 

Said meal was small, but that’s not uncommon on flights to the US.  They did have a selection of mid-flight snacks available, so I won’t fault them for this being a lighter meal, given the middle-of-the-day arrival.  I selected the Korean popcorn bbq chicken, which was excellent. They served it spicy enough to be interesting without being overly spicy for an airplane meal.

It was brought all on one tray, and I again opted for breakfast tea.  The caffeine was really keeping me going at this point.

We also got a gorgeous view of San Francisco on our approach:

Upon arrival, since the pre-arrival meal was small, and I knew that I’d have a while until my bag actually arrived at baggage claim (even though it was nominally a “domestic” arrival), I stopped in the Admirals Club for dinner:

In summary, this Aer Lingus flight was so close to being excellent. The 51st and Green Lounge was great, especially considering how many airlines use the lounge, but the check-in and transit experience was uninspiring (4/5). This seat is officially confirmed as my least favorite lie-flat seat. I probably even prefer the old-style BA Club World aisle seat (2/5). The service on the flight was 50% great and 50% extremely indifferent (4/5). I could understand if the flight attendants were embarrassed about their service offering (like sometimes happens on American Airlines), but the food was great (5/5), and the IFE selection (including free Wi-Fi) was excellent (5/5). Overall, the flight earns a 20/25, which is a good score, but is severely dragged down by how much I hate the seat’s movement.

I paid about $1 200 for this portion of a return ticket from Dublin to SF and back. I booked and credited the flight with American Airlines, so I earned miles and loyalty points based on the cost of the ticket, giving me about 9 300 miles. I paid for the flight on my Amex Platinum, which netted me an addition 6 000 points, for an overall return of around 18%, which is decent.