A wide variety of seat types in the new Aer Lingus business class cabin- see the shamrock on the bulkhead? (Photo: Chris McGinnis)
Last week I had the opportunity of a lifetime: Fly to Ireland in Aer Lingus’s new lie-flat business class and not just watch, but be part of Dublin’s huge St Patrick’s Day Parade. My cup runneth over!
So let’s jump right in and take a look inside that big green plane.
Last month Aer Lingus deployed its new business class product on the lucrative San Francisco-Dublin route– the longest flight in its system at around 10-11 hours. While the airline has yet to confirm this, I’ve heard that New York-Dublin is the next route to get the new seats. There are currently four updated aircraft in operation. There should be a total of eight flying by May 13. A spokesperson told TravelSkills: “San Francisco is the only route at the moment that has the new business class exclusively. The other aircraft are rotated amongst the gateways, so it varies.”
Aer Lingus left SFO-DUB during the dark days of the 2009 recession, but came back last spring at the urging of the many Bay Area businesses that run European operations out of Dublin– such as Facebook, Google, LinkedIn, and Salesforce. The companies were well represented by all the logos I saw on briefcases and backpacks in the business class section.
Wi-fi is free for business class passengers on Aer Lingus- just enter the code on the back of this card (Photo: Chris McGinnis)
There are three things that stand out as remarkable on these A330 flights: First is the fast, easy and FREE wi-fi system. I was amazed at how easy and reliable this system was– if any of you follow me on Twitter or Facebook, you will have already seen many of the photos below because I was able to upload large files with relative ease. I could even watch short videos from up there.
Second, I was very impressed with the inflight dining. A diverse menu was beautifully presented in hefty portions and service was spot on. We’ll present that in a future post. Stay tuned.
Third, the new business class section is one of the most unusual staggered layouts I’ve seen, which means there are both winners and losers when it comes to seats. Keep reading and I’ll show you how to choose a winner.
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I was a guest of Aer Lingus on this flight but had I paid, business class would have run from a low of about $4,500 to a high of around $7,000 round trip depending on time of year and advance purchase. The lowest economy class round trips run at around $1,000.
As we boarded, flight attendants greeted us with an enthusiastic “Welcome to our new business class!” It was clear that they are as excited about the new product as passengers are– later in the flight, one told me that this was her first time in the new cabin.
My first impression of the cabin is that it looks a lot like JetBlue’s new Mint class cabin— and that should be no surprise because both use seats made by Thompson Aero in Ireland. One of the first things I noticed were a couple of those lone “Captain Kirk” seats that everyone covets in JetBlue Mint class.
Related: Inflight food report for Aer Lingus
Note the unusual staggered layout and the seat consoles (Photo: Chris McGinnis)
Let’s look at the unusual layout of the A330-200 business class cabin. (A330-300 includes a 1A.)
|2A |D G H||K
3A| D G| | K |
|4A |D G H||K
5A| D G| | K |
|6A |D G H||K
The | symbol represents a nice wide console for storage and protection from aisle activity
Best: 3K, 5K (These are the Captain Kirk seats)
Second best: 3A, 5A (Windows/centers with console on aisle side)
Best for companions 2HK, 4HK, 6HK (but less storage space)
Exposed to aisle, limited storage: 2AG, 3D, 4AG, 5D, 6AG
This is the Captain Kirk seat 3K– one of the two best seats in biz class (Photo: Chris McGinnis)
Captain Kirk seat 3K from the back (Photo: Chris McGinnis)
Note the staggered layout of the A seats- some protected from aisle by console, some not (Photo: Chris McGinnis)
Note how passenger is exposed to aisle without console in 4G (Photo: Chris McGinnis)
What else did I notice about the seat and cabin? First off, everyone was in a great mood— happy to be in the new biz class and thrilled to be headed to Dublin on the Friday before St Patrick’s Day.
Flight attendants passing champagne, water and juice in turquoise and green uniforms seem as excited and festive as passengers. (I’ll cover the inflight food & drink service in another post… stay tuned) Related: Inflight food report for Aer Lingus
Plenty of overhead bin space in business class (Chris McGinnis)
The new seat offers big (16″) and bright HD entertainment screens from Panasonic with touch screen controls. However, the choice of movies and TV shows was rather thin. Unusual: When taking off from San Francisco, the inflight moving map showed traffic on terrestrial freeways.
Freeway traffic monitored on inflight maps (Photo: Chris McGinnis)
For sleeping the seat was excellent and I dozed off for a few hours during the over night SFO>DUB flight.
The seat is nice and long, fitting my 6′ frame, but felt a little bit narrow. Plus, the space for legs and feet is tight once the seat is fully horizontal.
The pillow provided is too small, but the big cozy dark blue quilted duvet felt nice and cozy.
Best of all (and unlike other Euro carriers), flight attendants kept the cabin at a cool 68 degrees throughout the flight, which made it easy to bed down under that duvet without sweating through the night.
Tray tables are gigantic- large enough for a meal and a laptop, plus they swivel for easy access in and out of seat.
Related: Inflight food report for Aer Lingus
Center seat in full recline (Photo: Chris McGinnis)
Now that’s a flat seat! (Photo: Chris McGinnis)
Foot and leg space in full recline in the Captain Kirk seat (Photo: Chris McGinnis)
The console provides plenty of storage space both above and below- enough space for laptop and contents of pack or case (Chris McGinnis)
In seat power (Chris McGinnis)
Easy to use seat controller– note the massage function, which was nice (Photo: Chris McGinnis)
A special lighted nook for water bottles, and a reading light (Chris McGinnis)
Contents of the inflight amenity kit laid out on the giant, sturdy tray table (Chris McGinnis)
Plenty of room on the tray table. Stay tuned for a future post about inflight food and drink! (Chris McGinnis)
Related: Inflight food report for Aer Lingus
Economy class seats on Aer Lingus A330 are arranged 2-4-2 (Chris McGinnis)
Economy class passengers can order business class meals onboard- flight attendants told me about 20 passengers per flight choose this
In economy class on Aer Lingus’ A330, seat pitch is 31-32 inches. (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).
Related: Inflight food report for Aer Lingus
Here’s a video report from the Irish Independent about the new business class:
Have you flown Aer Lingus yet? Please leave your comments below!
Disclosure: Aer Lingus covered the cost of my round trip fare between San Francisco and Dublin.
No time to read Saturday and Sunday’s Weekend Edition? No probs! Here ya go:
Uber NYC + Feds watching you + New LAX lounge + Best airport + Airport parking
Biz class discounts + Ryanair reversal + Delta/United Apple watch + Hotel shower fee?
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Hey Chris, Did you ever do the report on the inflight food? I can’t seem to find it on your site. If so, please post the link. I appreciate it.
On a slightly different subject – I am travelling with my wife to JFK in a few weeks. What are the best seats together? D&G or H&K. D&G appear to have more space. Thoughts?
Hey Chris – Thank you for your reply – I was in a new cabin seated in row 1A (seat and boarding card). In hindsight there was only 23 seats on board. This was the first week of service I understand (end of February). Perhaps there was a ticketing/seat number discrepancy.
Hi Chris, thanks for the great report. I’ll be calling to change my seat to one of the Captian Kirks tomorrow. Were you able to find out anything about an arrivals lounge in DUB? I’m flying late May and can’t seem to get any confirmation about an arrivals lounge.
I fly often on the Shannon to Boston route it would be nice to see a premium economy class that is a bit more affordable than having to pay €4000 a lot of money when there is 2 travelling together give your regulars a chance of a bit of comfort as Virgin does on there flights from London to Boston and affordable
Problem is the sell out the 6G seats almost every flight.
Thanks for your comment and clarification on the -200/-300 aircraft issue! Stay tuned for our next post about inflight service. I was impressed with the food, but did think the breakfast offering was a bit light. A third meal service would have been too many IMHO. –Chris
Any thoughts Chris on the lack of mid-flight service in J Class?
Feels even longer in Y as their meals are smaller.
Unfortunately EI used to have 3 inflight services when they last served the Bay area, this time around its with 1 less crew member and 1 less meal/snack service.
The single seats alternate with console location. 1A on the left, 2A on the right, etc.
Chris flew on an A330-200 which does not have a “row 1”, it starts at row 2. EI also have larger J cabins in the A330-300, these have row 1.
Chris looks really good but again not to harp on it, it’s a big difference between $1,000 for coach and $7,000 for Business. One day these airlines will get smart and figure out that the sweet spot is around $3,000 for something close to that. So they should go and figure out how they can do a section to appease folks that don’t want to fly coach but can’t affort the $6,000 increase over coach.
Of course because the airlines have gotten so crappy they are now getting more folks that are willing to pay the high premium, but I will always look elsewhere or in most cases just pay the $1,000 on United and then pay to upgrade (unusually around $550 each way plus $20,000 miles) to business class.
Hey Julian: Were you flying on an A330 with the new business class? From what I can tell, there is no seat 1A– or a row 1 for that matter. Were you seated in 2A? (In an earlier iteration of this page, I had mistakenly included seat 1A but it has since been removed)– chris
Hi Chris, A question/comment on the seating layout. I flew in 1A DUB-ORD recently. The single seat had the storage console by the window and not by the isle as you have observed. Is there different variations of this on the 24 seat layout?
have flown in Aer Lingus Business class… it was on a one way award from American in 2011. The boarding experience was not great–a cattle call in JFK in an older terminal. The service was good, but it was not the fully flat seats at that time. Terminating in Dublin saved the extra fees one would pay at London, plus it’s a much smaller and more navigable airport. It’s great to have the nonstop from SFO to Dublin– a nice alternative to United to London or Frankfurt/Paris. Pity there’s not a premium economy option, which would make the overnight leg more bearable without the $4-5K expense!
A couple points of interest. Was that pepsident tooth paste? Didn’t even know it was around. You also made an interesting observation that they are not affiliated with any alliance. I’ve posted in the past about a possible 4 (more classy) alliance. Aer Lingus, Jet Blu, maybe a few of the asian and European quality carriers the Big 3 have kicked to the curb. Real interesting.
Chris, great report. I love the idea of being able to order business class meal in economy. That’s brilliant. Now if you could also order their wine it would be a no brainer.
I’ve been looking forward to reading this!
I’m working up my thoughts about economy (I flew on the 18th) and it’s interesting to see how they compare. Do agree with you about the thin entertainment selection. The upshot is that I got really into a great book on the way home. Very interesting that the extra meal option is the same as business class. I think that having option kind of negatively affects the regular economy meal service, but I’m eagerly awaiting your comments on service to see if my cause/effect thoughts are correct or if their pace of service is just different from what I’m used to altogether.
Thanks for the great review – look forward to flying them soon