DO NOT FLY AER LINGUS UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES!!!!!!

Take a look at a recent situation that happened to us as well as the response, or lack there of from Aer Lingus. Aer Lingus has absolutely the worst customer service I have ever experienced and you would be wise to avoid flying with them as well as NEVER booking any travel through Aer Lingus Vacations.

March 25, 2009

Aer Lingus USA Customer Care

300 Jericho Quadrangle, Suite 130

Jericho, NY 11753

To Whom It May Concern,

On October 8th, 2008 I purchased a travel package totaling $1,639.86 (reservation number XXXXXXX) from Aer Lingus Vacations under the names of XXXX and XXXX for travel to Ireland March 15th, 2009 through March 20th, 2009, (itinerary enclosed). I should mention the original advertised price was $499.00 per person including air, hotel and transfers. An option to opt out on travel insurance was never offered, which cost an additional $107.28. Aer Lingus Vacations mailed our itinerary to XXXX XXXX, Dallas, TX. XXXX. All flights for these packages departed from either the East Coast or the West Coast of the United States. At no point in time has anyone ever mentioned to me the necessity of having a "through ticket" for travel. Nor did Aer Lingus Vacations ever stress this point or offer this as a flight option, knowing we lived in Dallas, Texas, yet departed from Boston Logan Airport.

Being that we are frequent fliers of American Airlines, we booked our round trip flights from DFW to BOS with American Airlines for $760.40. (Itinerary enclosed).

The trip to Ireland was great, however, the trip home was absolutely the worst travel experience I have ever encountered. I have NEVER been treated so poorly in my life by every single business I am addressing this letter to, with the exception of The Aviation Consumer Protection Division.

On March 20th, 2009, we arrived early for our Aer Lingus flight 0137 from Dublin, Ireland to Boston Logan Airport. The flight was suppose to depart at 2:00 pm, however, the flight was delayed in Shannon, Ireland for "regularly scheduled maintenance," and we did not even board the plane until 4:00 pm. We had purposely booked our flight from Boston to DFW to allow 3 hours to get through customs, pick up our luggage, check our luggage, get our boarding passes and go back through security. When we finally got through customs at Boston Logan Airport we had 25 minutes to catch a bus from terminal E to terminal B and perform all the previously listed requirements to catch our American Airlines flight 1333 that departed at 8:15 pm. Before departing terminal E an Aer Lingus employee was helping all other individuals who had missed their connecting flights. We explained our situation and she stated "you can still make it," and offered no other assistance. When we got to terminal B all of the American Airline's ticket counters were completely shut down with the lights off. We proceeded to go down stairs where there were two baggage employees and they claimed American would not be opening up again until the morning. We then hopped back on the shuttle bus and returned to terminal E to get help from Aer Lingus. The woman at the counter was blatantly rude and proceeded to dismiss us at every opportunity over the ensuing 19 hour ordeal. We had to ask numerous times to speak with her supervisor, Des Farren, which she at first refused stating "he is going to tell you the same thing I am telling you." The excuse we were given is that we didn't have a "through ticket," therefore, Aer Lingus is not responsible. So even though I paid the same amount of money, if not more than other Aer Lingus passenegers, because our names were not on some list, Aer Lingus was not required to help us? They did file a form (enclosed) booking a flight for us on American Airlines departing at 8:50 am the next morning. At no time were we told we would have to pay for this flight, so felt relief that even though it was the next day, we could at least get home. By now it was 10:00 at night, luckily we had the means to pay out of pocket for food, beverage and a hotel at the airport. Since this incident several people have stated they would not have had the means and would still be stuck in Boston. To add insult to injury, we ran into three women that were on our same Aer Lingus flight and Aer Lingus had paid them each $25.00 for dinner, $15.00 for breakfast and offered to put them up in INDIVIDUAL rooms at The Hilton, even though they were traveling together. Yet we, same paying customers, who were just as inconvenienced got offered nothing, not even an apology! When we arrived at the American Airline's ticket counter in terminal B for our scheduled flight to depart at 8:50 am, again we were treated horribly this time by the American Airlines ticket agent! First she informed us that Aer Lingus did not fill out the reservation form properly and that we would have to go clear back to terminal E to have them straighten it out. This, of course, would cause us to miss our flight. Our only alternative offered by American Airlines was to pay over $1,800.00 and we could take the flight "booked" by Aer Lingus. The only other option was to be put on a 5:00 pm flight that we would have to pay $1,000.00 for. The American Airline's agent then had the audacity to accuse us of being no shows on our originally scheduled flight and stated that there was nothing else she could do to help us! I'm sorry, but how are we suppose to inform American Airlines we would be missing our originally scheduled flight due to Aer Lingus being delayed over two hours, while we were in the air? Not only that, but I am a frequent business flyer on all airlines and there are always delays, missed flights and cancellations and every single airline rebooks me on the next available flight for a nominal fee. The American Airlines agent also informed us that all flights were booked solid until 5:00 that night. She also stated that Aer Lingus would not open until 11:30 am, which was not correct, they did not open until 2:00 pm, and she neglected to inform us that they just had a flight leave at 8:20 am so that we could possibly catch someone and straighten this out. At no time did this agent offer to call Aer Lingus to get a ticket number so we could fly, nor did she ever offer a nominal fee, knowing we could not pay $1,800.00 to get home. Instead American Airlines flight 1333 left with two empty seats, lost us as future American Airlines customers, and forced me to write this very time consuming letter all because you stated you are not responsible and don't have to do anything for us. This is exactly why our economy and specifically the airline industry is failing!

We then went back to our hotel, even though we had already checked out, to use the phone and internet to try and get help from someone, somewhere, being that no one wanted to help us in person. We called Aer Lingus Vacations, who claimed they could not help us because their "terminals" were down and suggested I call back on Monday! We then called Travel Insured International and were informed we could submit a claim once we got home, which was again incorrect information. We called the Aer Lingus customer service line, and for the first time were given the impression we were going to get some help. We were told they would call asupervisor ahead of time and that we were to go back to terminal E to the Aer Lingus ticket counter, that they were expecting us and everything would be straightened out. We waited until 2:00 pm, when they opened and shockingly were treated even more poorly with absolutely no offer of help, what-so-ever or even an apology for booking our missed flight incorrectly! At this point in time we called American Airlines customer service in Dallas/Fort Worth and the agent stated "flights are missed all the time" and we should have been helped much better than we were being treated. He instructed us to go back to terminal B and ask to speak with a supervisor at the American Airline's ticket counter. Out of this whole ordeal, the only decent contact we had was with Mr. Diaz, the American Airline's Supervisor. I feel he truly did try to help us get home. We were told if we paid $300.00 for both of us we could get on flight 1827 that was delayed and leaving at 3:00 pm. This was great to finally get the help we deserved all along, however, I checked my debit card statement and American charged us $265.00 EACH on 3/23/09. The ultimate insult to injury is when we arrived at DFW our luggage did not! I had needed medication out of that bag and we waited the entire next day for delivery of our bag.

In closing, we blame Aer Lingus Airlines first and foremost for the absolutely rude behavior exhibited by all of your employees at Boston Logan Airport, as well as the inability to communicate correct information making the entire situation escalate. You had already allotted paying customers, just like us, to pay for meals and put them up for the night as well as assuring a flight home due to your inexcuseable regularly scheduled maintenance delay. If it was regularly scheduled, shouldn't you have had a back up plane or informed your passengers it would be delayed so we could make other arrangements beforehand? This supposed through ticket list that our names were not on is not justification to treat us like criminals and does not justify your inability to help us in some way. As far as Aer Lingus Vacation, you have a responsibility of informing customers what a through ticket is and offering to book us airfare from Dallas to our departing destination and explaining the possible risks if this is not done. Furthermore, when customers pay that much money to your business, you have a responsibility to help them out of the stranded situation we were in, not to tell us we have to call back on Monday. Even though American Airlines helped us the most, I am extremely disappointed in the lack of help after a 19 hour ordeal that was no fault of our own, only to be told we would be paying one price, but charged another and to have our luggage lost through it all. Our missing of our originally scheduled flight was no fault of our own and we should not have had to pay for anything, and should have been allowed on an earlier flight. We do not want compenasation in the way of vouchers by any of you, who are all at fault and negligent, as we will never use any of your "services" ever again. We are now out what should have been unnecessary additional costs in the way of food, hotel, air fare, additional airport parking fees and additional dog care fees. You can all hash it out amongst yourselves at who should be responsible for what, as this has been a total waste of my time and by far the worst customer service and travel experience I have ever had to encounter. Shame on each and every one of you. The next time you ask yourself why our economies (yours included Ireland) are in such bad shape, maybe this situation will give you some insight.

These companies had no problem accepting our money, and once they had it, felt no need for customer service to the point of actually treating us like criminals! You would think during these hard economic times they would be interested in working with the customers who are paying their salaries. The following are the absolute inadequate responses we received from Aer Lingus and Aer Lingus Vacations;