Frustration with Aer Lingus

M

mystified

Registered User
Messages
4
Hello All,
We spent over 1000 euro for flights to the States last year with Aer lingus. Unfortunately due to a unforeseen illness my wife couldn't fly when the time came. I Contacted our travel insurance company and provided doctor certicates etc. they also require writen confirmation from aer lingus that we didn't fly and that we were not compensated which is fair enough. However I have been trying since last November to get this confirmation off aer lingus without any success. I keep getting replies from them stating they will be back in contact. Has anybody any suggestions how I can move this forward or is it typical that you have to wait this long?
Thanks
 
GSheehy said:
They're now up there with the Eircom's and Sky's of this World when it comes to customer service
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I would suggest "down there" like all the other semi-state "jobs for the boys and girls" outfits, HSE at the butt end of course..
 
Thanks everyone for the input, the first two email addresses I have used without success I must give the @lynne.embleton a go. If no success with that I'll try the regulator.
 
What is it about companies and lack of communication when it's really needed.
I'd say more people will be complaining about Aer Lingus. We were flying home today Saturday from our holiday which had no problems but we're talking to others who should have been flying home yesterday. They got the whole way to the boarding gate , which was quick enough, and waited as usual but then an announcement came that their flight was cancelled .
They had to get their belongings and go to a hotel overnight and start the process again today. Their main problem was the bad communication.
 
Aer Lingus generally take months to resolve any issue. They force you to use the online system and throw you to the back of the queue if you have the cheek to request a status update a month later.
 
I've come to really dislike Aer Lingus since they became a British company (with a veneer of internationalism at IAG but it's majority British owned and run from and headquartered in London). I thought they always had notions about being a high service airline while just being another budget airline but that's got significantly worse in recent years. More legroom than Ryan Air but that's about it.
 
I submitted a complaint to Aer Lingus re the price charged for changing a booked flight out of Malaga in mid Oct last year. Despite numerous emails saying that they are looking at my case……still no answer, 6 months later. I rang their complaints number, and was talking to an individual in Bulgaria (could you believe it). That was no help. I also used their Digital Assistant- Erin (sic) - but that was worse than useless.
Service, or lack of, is a complete joke.
 
I'm one of a group of people who were stuck in Berlin for 2 extra days last October due to storm Ashley.
6 months on, only 4 of us have received partial refunds from Aer Lingus for the accommodation and food costs we incurred. The group organiser is not receiving replies to emails and the customer service staff have hung up on him more than once.

He has written to the IAA, Aer Lingus complaints, and Conor Pope.
 
I had to take a claim to the IAA a couple of years ago, when AL refused compensation for cancelled flights due to staff shortages. Aer Lingus had refused the compensation claim. It took over a year after submission to the IAA to get sorted out, but I did eventually get paid 18 months after the original flight.
 
Think about it, managers are sitting down and deciding to deny, stall, frustrate customers in the hope that they'll give up and go away so that the company can add a few bob to the bottom line to satiate shareholders and increase their own remuneration. It's like a deliberate tactic based on a numbers game ie. what percentage are going to follow through.

Not exclusive to AL. But it's akin to company policy and CEOs must be aware of it.
 
Not defending Aer Lingus here but there is hardly a major company in Ireland that does not have a contact centre overseas, partially on grounds of cost and partially because they simply can't get people to work in them in Ireland on a long term basis. Ring Virgin or Bank of Ireland for example and it's quite possible you will be routed to India.
 
Peanuts20 said:
because they simply can't get people to work in them in Ireland on a long term basis
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..because the management won't allocate the necessary resources to treat those people at the coal face properly? The days of competing with better products/services/propositions/innovations/creativity/vision seems to be over and management teams just take the lazy option of gutting customer service to make more money for themselves and shareholders.
 
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