Review: Aer Lingus 757 Business Class Shannon to Boston
A Mediterranean Cruise and Four Days in Ireland
Introduction
Planning
US Airways Business Class (Envoy) Philadelphia to Venice
Two Magical Days in Venice
Boscolo Venezia Hotel in Venice
Holland America Line’s Nieuw Amsterdam: Introduction, Itinerary, and the Pinnacle Suite
Holland America Line’s Nieuw Amsterdam: Katakolon and Athens
Holland America Line’s Nieuw Amsterdam: Istanbul, Mitilini, and Kusadasi
Holland America Line’s Nieuw Amsterdam: Santorini and Argostoli
Holland America Line’s Nieuw Amsterdam: Sailing into Venice
Holland America Line’s Nieuw Amsterdam: Cruise Review
Ryanair Economy Class Venice-Treviso to Dublin
Two Days in Dublin
The Aran Islands and Galway, Ireland
Driving the West Coast of County Clare, the Cliffs of Moher, and Bunratty Meadows B&B
Aer Lingus 757 Business Class Shannon to Boston
After a wonderful breakfast at the Bunratty Meadows Bed & Breakfast, we dropped our car off at the Budget Rental Car center at the Shannon Airport after topping off the tank at a nearby gas station. An Avis and Budget shuttle took us to the terminal, where we proceeded to Aer Lingus Business Class check-in. At this point, I revealed to my girlfriend that we were actually flying business class home. The entire trip, she was under the impression that we were flying economy back across the pond, since I kept that little detail to myself.
Check-in for business class actually seemed like it took a little longer than regular economy check-in, but we were in no hurry. After check-in, we proceeded through security and on to the pre-clearance inspection station for the United States Customs and Border Control. Shannon is one of the only airports in Europe (other than Dublin) to offer pre-clearance into the United States. Since one goes through US immigration and customs in Shannon, you don’t have to go through the long immigration queues upon arrival back in the States. Pre-clearance required us to undergo an additional security screening before getting in line for immigration and customs. After immigration, there were two Global Entry kiosks where my girlfriend and I went ahead and put in our details to avoid the lines. The only difference between Global Entry in Shannon and in the US is that in Shannon the customs agent asked me for my checked bag bar code, he scanned it, and then had me verify the picture of my bag on the computer. I knew that this type of security was used, but this was the first time I actually saw it in action.
After zipping through Global Entry, we made our way to the Rineanna Suite — the business class lounge for Aer Lingus passengers at Shannon. The lounge was nothing special, and actually quite barren with no exterior views. It did; however, have canned Guinness — one of which I drank as a farewell to Ireland. After fifteen minutes in the lounge, our flight to Boston was called for boarding.
Aer Lingus (EI) 135
Shannon (SNN) – Boston (BOS)
Aircraft: Boeing 757-200
Seat: 2C
Sunday, May 18
11:40AM – 1:25PM
Duration: 6:45
We boarded our Aer Lingus B757-200 and turned left to take our seats in row 2, seats A and C. The 757 is a newly acquired aircraft for Aer Lingus, as three of these airplanes were acquired from Air Contractors to facilitate year round service from Shannon to Boston and New York, as well as adding year round service between Dublin and Toronto. The flight is actually operated by Air Contractors, but everything was branded as Aer Lingus. I’m not really sure who the crew actually belonged to! Since the 757 features a newly installed interior, the business cabin does not feature the same seats that are on Aer Lingus’s A330 fleet.
The business cabin on the Aer Lingus 757 consists of 12 seats — three rows of four seats in a 2X2 configuration. The seat itself is pretty basic. There is one basic control to control the recline (up or down), as it reclines into an angled lie-flat seat. It does NOT lie completely 180-degrees flat. The leg rest needs to be extended manually in order to get the seat into a bed-like state, which I found odd. Another oddity is the location of the TV — it seems much lower than on other aircraft, but I suppose it worked fine. Overall, the seat was perfectly fine for lounging for 5-6 hours, but I don’t think I would have had the most comfortable sleep in it — it was simply not wide enough for me, and the angle was pretty severe when in “lie-flat” mode.
One we settled into our seats, the flight attendant offered us a pre-departure glass of champagne, which we gladly accepted. She then distributed basic amenity kits and menus. We pushed back on-time and took off from a rainy Shannon Airport, and ascended to the West over the green fields of Ireland. Once we hit 10,000 feet, the in-flight entertainment (IFE) systems were booted up, and I browsed the movie selections. The selections were pretty decent with a good range of recent movies to classics. I put on the movie Troy just prior to the start of lunch service.
To commence lunch service, I was brought a mediocre blended Scotch (Teachers) along with a selection of canapés from a cart. None was particularly memorable, but they included goat cheese on toast, a mushroom pate, and antipasti. The canapés were followed by the appetizer and salad. I chose the smoked chicken appetizer instead of the seafood plate, and it was basically sliced deli chicken, which paired reasonably well with the accompanying plum chutney. The salad was fresh enough, but didn’t really feature much lettuce. For the entrée, we had a choice of a fillet steak, chicken stuffed with blue cheese, sea bass, or penne with tomato and basil sauce. I ordered the fillet, and my girlfriend ordered the pasta, but we switched since the pasta appeared to be more pesto-based instead of basil. The pasta was pretty tasty, though I forgot to take a picture of it. I felt bad for my girlfriend because the steak was pretty awful — it was very dry and chewy. However, the au gratin potatoes were fantastic. I enjoyed a chocolate marble cake for dessert while my girlfriend enjoyed a cheese plate. Overall, the catering for lunch was mediocre at best. I’d heard some really good things about Aer Lingus catering, but this particular offering wasn’t all that impressive at all.
After lunch, I finished up my movie and pulled out the laptop to load up some pictures from the trip. That took longer than I expected, because when I finished with that, the flight attendant was coming around again for afternoon tea service. She brought out a cart filled with various open-faced sandwiches and some scones. I wasn’t too hungry, so I opted for a scone and some tea. Afternoon tea was a nice touch — I did enjoy it even though our flight was so short it seemed like lunch service had just ended.
Indeed, we were running ahead of schedule. As afternoon tea was wrapping up, we had already started our descent into Boston. Annoyingly, the IFE was shut off about thirty minutes before landing, so we just sat and commiserated how our vacation was coming to an end. We arrived into Boston over an hour ahead of time, at 12:15 after what was only a five-hour and 35 minute transatlantic flight. I’ve seriously had longer flights to California from the East Coast.
We pulled into our gate in Terminal A at Boston’s Logan International Airport and were at baggage claim in no time since we’d already pre-cleared immigration and customs. Our bags were the first ones off the conveyor, so we were able to quickly make our way to Terminal C for our short US Airways flight back home to Washington-National Airport later that afternoon. And just like that, our trip was over.
Overall, Aer Lingus was decent enough. I was somewhat disappointed in the seat on the 757, as well as the catering. The seat simply doesn’t compete with other business Transatlantic products out there, but it’s certainly much better than a domestic first class seat. The flight attendant in the business cabin was not the warmest character, but she provided adequate service. Whatever the case, it was perfectly comfortable for a daytime flight across the Atlantic, and it beats economy ANY day of the week! I consider Aer Lingus business class to be an incredible value if obtained with British Airways Avios (which I did) — so the price was right!
How I booked it…
As I just mentioned, I booked this flight using British Airways Avios. Since Shannon AND Dublin to Boston is less than 3,000 miles, it falls into an advantageous category on British Airways’ award chart where it only costs 25,000 Avios for a one-way business class ticket (or only 12,500 Avios for economy!) To put that in perspective, 25,000 miles for business class is LESS than most airlines charge for a one-way economy class ticket to Europe. It really is the best value for miles across the Atlantic out there — but more on that in a future post!
