Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:She was already told she will get a refund for the missed flight since AL denied her boarding . They probably denied her boarding because it was oversold and she has the 3rd party booking. She’s having more trouble getting customer service for the refund because she has to go through the 3rd party. It’s a bad situation but each part of it goes back to 3rd party bookings are a terrible idea . I don’t judge her, we’ve all been burnt which is why we don’t use them anymore, but the core of how this worked out for her is the 3rd party ticket.

No, it's fraud by the airline: they sold tickets they did not have. If they can't manage third party bookings they should not participate.

Overselling is perfectly allowed and not “fraud.” There are involuntarily denied boarding rules they must follow. Are you new to air travel?

Absolutely depends on the time of year for how much time to allow in Dublin. 3hours + is my go-to for summer and Christmas (I travel to Ireland at least twice a year) and you need every minute of those 3 hours. Other times, you'll sail through and maybe only need 2 hours max with lots of time to spare but it really depends. Last October, I shopped/ate/hung out for like 1.5 in duty free before preclearance and boarding. I learned my lesson years ago in August when I had my 3 small kids with me solo and had about a minute to grab them bottles of water before boarding so now I always do 3 hours regardless of time of year to avoid that stress.

I'll use third party sites to get an idea of flight times and prices but I always book through the airline directly.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:2.5 hours is a totally reasonable time to show up at the airport. I would also swear off an airline that did this to me.

Not for a flight that does preclearance to the US, like Ireland or Abu Dhabi. Then you need to add the usual 2.5 -3 hours and add at least an hour for the US passport and customs control.

I am AMAZED at the comments here. NO. People have connecting flights and often don't even get there in time to do this. And op had a ticket. Do you all work for Aer Lingus? I have also flown with them and pre-clearance occurs at the end and is very fast. It would be after security so irrelevant to op's issue at the ticket counter. If they closed the flight that early, they are in the wrong no matter how op booked her flight.

Pp you’re responding to. I fly often through Abu Dhabi, another pre clearance site, and they usually announce “boarding / go to gate” a good 3 or 4 hours before flight departure time for passengers to go through the US customs. The usual recommendation of 3 hours for international flights is for check in and departure country security. Add to that a full overbooked flight during peak travel time, and going through US customs, I won’t be surprised if others were there a good 4 hours early.

My only experience with Aer Lingus was excellent. We were flying Aer Lingus from Faro, Portugal to the US via Dublin and it only took us 20 minutes to exit the plane, preclear US customs and then get to our gate. I always book direct with an airline because I don’t trust third party websites in case there is a problem.

Anonymous wrote:She was already told she will get a refund for the missed flight since AL denied her boarding . They probably denied her boarding because it was oversold and she has the 3rd party booking. She’s having more trouble getting customer service for the refund because she has to go through the 3rd party. It’s a bad situation but each part of it goes back to 3rd party bookings are a terrible idea . I don’t judge her, we’ve all been burnt which is why we don’t use them anymore, but the core of how this worked out for her is the 3rd party ticket.

No, it's fraud by the airline: they sold tickets they did not have. If they can't manage third party bookings they should not participate.

She was already told she will get a refund for the missed flight since AL denied her boarding . They probably denied her boarding because it was oversold and she has the 3rd party booking. She’s having more trouble getting customer service for the refund because she has to go through the 3rd party. It’s a bad situation but each part of it goes back to 3rd party bookings are a terrible idea . I don’t judge her, we’ve all been burnt which is why we don’t use them anymore, but the core of how this worked out for her is the 3rd party ticket.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:2.5 hours is a totally reasonable time to show up at the airport. I would also swear off an airline that did this to me.

Not for a flight that does preclearance to the US, like Ireland or Abu Dhabi. Then you need to add the usual 2.5 -3 hours and add at least an hour for the US passport and customs control.

I am AMAZED at the comments here. NO. People have connecting flights and often don't even get there in time to do this. And op had a ticket. Do you all work for Aer Lingus? I have also flown with them and pre-clearance occurs at the end and is very fast. It would be after security so irrelevant to op's issue at the ticket counter. If they closed the flight that early, they are in the wrong no matter how op booked her flight.

This- I think people have missed this. OP was at the ticket counter in plenty of time and they didn't even let her check in and claimed the flight was closed. They overbooked. They lied to her face. She should seek restitution. Is there any way to get proof of TRYING to check in at a certain timestamp?

So you are out double the fare? Wow

We spend a lot of time waiting in airports because I don’t want airport delays to cause me to miss my flights. At least 2.5 hours before boarding is schedule to begin for domestic flights. At least 4 hours for international.

We don’t have precheck. Even with the above we have on a few occasions be close enough to missing our flights that I started to worry (ie we got to the gate after boarding had started but a good 15-20 minutes before the gate closed).

Anonymous wrote:When we flew out of Dublin for a 6:30 am flight they said at the hotel 1000% get there 3.5 hours early. I'm like, for a 6:30 am flight?? We need to get there at 3:00 am? They said trust me, get there at 3:00 am.

We needed every minute.

We had that experience with Norse at Gatwick. We got there four hours early and almost missed our flight. We would have missed it had we listened to their ticket agents with a fake smile telling us to stand in a different line for "later planes". After 2 hours, We looked at each other and just snuck in the front line (at the end, not in front of people!). They were still calmly lying to people's faces as we left and sprinted (it was about 2 miles, literally) to the gate. Some people didn't make it. I hate how airlines cut budgets, understaff and treat people so horribly these days.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Dublin preclearance has been there since mid 1990s. Shannon had a weird one even before that where your passport was cleared but you still had your bags checked by the beagle brigade in US.

Shannon also had the first duty free ever and was the hub for Aeroflot. Now you want to talk about an airline with cheap flights and no customer service-- Aeroflot trying to make it in to the US market via the west of Ireland by putting in a duty free!

Clearly I am old and Irish.

I’ve flown Aeroflot. Making it to your destination was a bonus. The most barebones airline ever.

Unsafe plane fleet.

Do not use them!!

Anonymous wrote:OP here. I was doing 3 different legs. Was easier to use one website.
Don’t lots of people use Travelocity, Expedia, smart fares etc?

Of the three you mention, have never hear of Smartfares??

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Your issue isn’t Aer Lingus, it’s booking 3rd party. Don’t do THAT again.

I booked with them directly.

Sorry, I thought this was my post, which had the same headline…and I had booked on Aer Lingus directly. My problems were in May and still no compensation!

Anonymous wrote:Your issue isn’t Aer Lingus, it’s booking 3rd party. Don’t do THAT again.

I booked with them directly.