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.

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

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

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

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.

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

Related: Inflight food report for Aer Lingus

>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! 

–Chris McGinnis

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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