Aer Lingus Flight Change to return date

We booked flights Cork to Rome return at the begining of March for flights in October I got an email from Aer Lingus 7th April saying the Monday 12th Oct flight is now changed to Sunday 11th - I've accommodation booked so not only are we missing out on a day in Rome but I'm paying for accommodation I don't need - do we have any recourse with the airline or is it just tough!!

once they've changed your flight by more than 3 hours you are entitled to a refund, have you checked to see if there's a flight available on the tuesday? you could get a refund and use another airline instead or get a refund for the return flight and book a one-way return from another airline. i don't think you'll have any chance of a refund from them for the accommodation if you come back a day early.
i thought (when this happened to me) that the email notification mentioned something along the lines of if this doesn't suit please contact us?
just checked aer lingus site and while there's no flight back to cork until the wednesday there is a flight to dublin on the monday - not ideal but it's an option.

Thanks dereko but Dublin is no good to me really I'd have to get a flight to Cork - I've emailed them just to see what the reply is - probably a waste of time but just for the crack would like to see what they say. It's really a bummer we are going for a wedding and a good number of the wedding party are in the same situation as ourselves. It's very very disappointing to miss out on a day - it just seems like a lot of retailers just don't give a stuff about their consumer!!

i'd ring them to be honest, i found them quite helpful the last time it happened to me, suppose it depends on who you get though.

This is also happening to my parents. I booked them a flight for Rome in May and it was originally coming back on a Monday night, but now its coming back Monday morning. I know its not as bad as losing a day but they are fuming that they are losing a good 10 hours. They tried ringing Aer Lingus but to no avail as all you get are automated options where you can't speak to anyone, so they went to the airport but were just told that the flight is changed and thats that, no refund was offered.

This is the reply from Aer Lingus - Customer Service - where are you??
Thank you for contacting aerlingus.com

I have retrived your booking and can see that you have been changed due to a schudale change. I do understand your frustration in this matter however the changes made are premitted under the terms and conditions of your booking which were accepted at the time of booking.
In other words - get stuffed - and they talk about Ryan Air!!!

Maybe you should think about cancelling Sunday nights accomadation, most places don't appear to charge for cancellations if made in sufficient time.

It's a sad reality that airlines -and anyone connected with travel and tourism - is losing a fortune. Aer Lingus's losses are gigantic and accumulating every day. There is an increasing possibility that Aer Lingus will not be trading in six months.

At the very least Aer Lingus will merge or be taken over by another bigger airline (Ryanlingus?) -but whatever happens flights and package holiday destinations to everywhere will be greatly reduced over the next few months.

People just ain't booking travel; that's why airlines,tour operators and travel agents are going bust across the world.
And the swine flu with -the help of the media- is another nail in the coffin.

So, TLC , whatever change you now make on your Rome booking now will probably be changed again, though Rome is a surer destination than some that will disappear off the Irish aviation/holiday scene (along with Azores, Sardinia, Rhodes, Kos and approx 20 others that were available from dublin last Summer but no longer)