Key Post Tips for minimising impact of chaos at Dublin Airport

S

Sunny

Registered User
Messages
4,555
Moved from another thread to highlight it - Brendan


I have travelled four times in the past two months. Twice to London. Once to Boston and once to Milan. All with Aer Lingus. I had one occasion where I needed more than 1.5 hours to get through security and that was an early morning London flight. Got the same flight a week later and no issues whatsoever.

My observations:

-If you are travelling, give yourself the 2.5/3 hours for short haul. Give yourself 3.5/4 hours for long haul. Chances are you won't need it but I would rather be sitting there than running through an airport. Lounge Access is a good extra at certain times but last time I was in there for early morning flight, it was packed

-Do not check in bags if it can be avoided. (People have copped on to this and paid for carry on case so on the last couple of AL flights, bags had to be taken off people and put in hold due to no space in cabin). Something to bear in mind if you like me, you like to board last.

-Do not get onboard aircraft hungry thinking you can buy food. Aer Lingus are really struggling with catering at the moment.

-Do not book a flight to the States on the Aer Lingus NEO aircraft. It is single aisle and it is no way suitable for long haul travel. I have no idea how cabin crew work in it.

-Leaving is only one part. Arriving is just as bad. I had a colleague come in from San Francisco last week. Over a hour on the tarmac because they had no stand and then no ground crew to meet the aircraft.

- Airport has been absolutely filthy on at least three occasions that I have been there. Bins overflowing and I have seen better toilets in third world Countries...

- The taxi rank at the airport is a disgrace with the length of time it is taking for people to get a taxi

- Book parking as early as expensive. Last time I parked in long term car park for four days, it cost over €100

Travelling is just unpleasant at the moment. Not taking a holiday until later in the year and my company has also agreed that all non-essential travel can be put on hold until the Summer is over. There are horror stories from airports/airlines in Europe and the US. It is just not worth it if it can be avoided.

But if you do go, just accept it might be bad and then you might be just be lucky and be pleasantly surprised. Otherwise the stress alone will send even the most sane person over the edge!!
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Just with regards Sunny's point about arriving, relatives of ours were waiting over 3 hours for their luggage to arrive at the carousel having got off a flight from the US at 0530! Then one of those a week later arrived to airport to find out at the boarding gate that their flight to Amsterdam had been cancelled three hours earlier without any notification (that was a Schipol issue but the communications were an Aer Lingus/KLM issue).
Finally on a positive note I didn't have to wait on a Taxi Friday week ago after arriving at 1130pm and my luggage actually was waiting for me on the carousel even though the queue for passport control was less than 5 minutes.
 
At the moment you can't buy Fast Track through Dublin airport site, only through your airline. Aer Lingus do not offer it.

Friday - Sunday appear to be the busiest days.

Early morning appears to be the busiest time.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
It is hard to know what to do.

If you are going early in the morning e.g. 7 am, arrive 2 1/2 hours before the flight i.e. 4.30.

If you are going during the daytime, e.g. 3 pm, 1 1/2 hours is probably plenty.

But I don't mind going 2 1/2 hours early in the afternoon. Getting up at 3.30 for a 7 am flight is terrible.

Brendan
 
As askaboutmoney's resident taxi driver,if the queue at the airport taxi ranks is long or not moving(quite a lot of the time),request a taxi on Freenow,Uber or Bolt.
You meet the driver at zone 18 which is the small surface car park just past the pedestrian crossing leaving T2.
From T1,cross over to the building with the green ticket machines,go through that building cross over the 4-5 zebra crossings and turn right into the glass walkway.
You rarely wait more than 5 minutes.
(If you don't know how DAA 'organises' its taxi service,they gave out permits for life to a select few,and are not issuing any more to saloon taxi or small wheelchair taxis,which make up the vast bulk of the fleet)
 
DazedInPontoon said:
Personally I've avoided booking early morning flights, early afternoon has been fine for me.
Click to expand...
You will pay a lot extra for these but in my opinion, worth it. However lots of routes do not offer mid day flights, only early morning or late evening.
 
I am glad that I have no flights booked at the moment as there is so much uncertainty. Is it only through Dublin that the problems are or is it happening in Cork and Shannon also ? It seems to be a UK problem also.
 
joer said:
I am glad that I have no flights booked at the moment as there is so much uncertainty. Is it only through Dublin that the problems are or is it happening in Cork and Shannon also ? It seems to be a UK problem also.
Click to expand...
Not an issue in Cork \ Shannon so if you are able to fly from there especially for a weekend / early morning flight it would be worth paying for.
 
Has anyone travelled on the Monday morning 05.45am flight to Paphos with Ryanair recently? Would arrive at 02.45 be ok time wise bearing in mind we will need to check in luggage and will be travelling with an 7 year old and 5 month old.
 
odyssey06 said:
Not an issue in Cork \ Shannon so if you are able to fly from there especially for a weekend / early morning flight it would be worth paying for.
Click to expand...
Good for people to know that. Of the Aer Lingus flights that have been cancelled recently are any of these flights from any other Airport other than Dublin , do you happen to know.
 
joer said:
Good for people to know that. Of the Aer Lingus flights that have been cancelled recently are any of these flights from any other Airport other than Dublin , do you happen to know.
Click to expand...

They cancelled a Boston/Shannon flight in the last few days as far I know. Shannon is crewed from Dublin since they closed the base. Any crewing issues in Dublin will eventually feed into Shannon if they are severe enough.
 
Pugmister said:
Has anyone travelled on the Monday morning 05.45am flight to Paphos with Ryanair recently? Would arrive at 02.45 be ok time wise bearing in mind we will need to check in luggage and will be travelling with an 7 year old and 5 month old.
Click to expand...
I haven't but security gates at T1 which is Ryanair are open 24 hours now according to the website. You are following their advice by arriving 3 hours so I would say it should be OK. If you could, I would have one person check in the luggage and the other wait at the security queue and if the security start backing up outside of the boarding pass scanning join it. Once inside the scanning area you should get thru' in 30 minutes or less.
Edited to Add: Ryanair open the baggage/checkin area 4 hours prior to departure. Keep an eye on the DAA website
 
Last edited:
You can buy Fast-Track through the Ryanair App, we did this a few weeks ago whilst in the "normal" queue. Reckon it saved us about 30 minutes at least.
 
I was flying out of terminal 2 early on Monday morning.

I checked in and dropped my luggage on Sunday evening. There were only a handful of people around me and only 2 desks opened. It was all very quick.

The following morning the queues to check in were enormous. Security was a breeze.

The extra trip was well worth it.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top