Two Aer Lingus crew members checking out the new furniture (Photo: Chris McGinnis)
Aer Lingus says that the return of non-stop flights between San Francisco and Dublin last year (after a five year hiatus) counts as the most successful launch in the Irish airline’s history.
It’s so pleased with the success of the route that it’s bumping up Airbus A330-200 frequencies to daily (from 4x per week) starting May 4.
The new business class seat in partial recline (Photo: Chris McGinnis)
Plus, the San Francisco-Dublin route (the longest flight in its network) is the first to get Aer Lingus’ new lie-flat business class seat. At 6.5 feet long and nearly two feet wide, the Irish-made seats are some of the most spacious in the sky. In addition to all that sleeping space, Aer Lingus offers business class passengers free wi-fi, and a whole new menu.
The first planes with the newly outfitted cabin arrived at SFO this week.
Aer Lingus new business class seat in fully flat position (Photo: Chris McGinnis)
This week the airline threw a shindig at the Four Season’s hotel in Palo Alto to celebrate its success in the Bay Area and to show off the new business class seats. Why Palo Alto and not San Francisco? Because most of Aer Lingus’ business class passengers work and live in Silicon Valley.
Current fares for Spring roundtrips between SFO and Dublin are in the $1000 range for economy, and around $4500 in business. Aer Lingus does not offer first class.
Plenty of in seat storage space for laptops and like for techie travelers (Photo Chris McGinnis)
Here are some more photos from that fete!
Samples of preflight beverages and Irish-American camaraderie (Photo: Chris McGinnis)
Irish butter. Mmmm. (Photo: Chris McGinnis)
It’s not just passengers on Aer Lingus flights- freight like dairy, pharma and electronics, too. (Photo: Chris McGinnis)
>Aer Lingus is not a member of the Star Alliance, Oneworld or SkyTeam. However, it is a United code share partner. But the SFO-DUB route is not a route where the carriers share a code. Nonetheless, due to the partnership, United Mileage Plus members can earn miles on Aer Lingus flights… but there are limits based on fare paid. Business class fares earn 150% of base miles flown, but economy fares earn just 50%-75% of base miles. Many of the lowest fares do not earn miles at all. You can redeem 60,000 MileagePlus miles for economy round trips on Aer Lingus, or 140,000 for business class. Details here.
>One of the best things about flying Aer Lingus is that passengers pre-clear US customs and immigration in Dublin before boarding the plane. That means when you land at SFO, it’s just like a domestic flight… you can hit the ground running as soon as you touch down. Aer Lingus currently flies into the international terminal (Boarding Area G).
