Aer LIngus - Business

murphy306

Anyone flown Aer Lingus and been upgraded to Business Class for free? Also was thinking of upgrading my flight to business class what are the pros and cons?

Is it better to wait to the day to ask for an upgrade and pay for it or is it easier to ask for it now? I mean will it be cheaper now or then?

Booked through a travel agent so no booking reference of my own to do it on their website.

littlereddevil

I doubt very much you will be upgraded for free. Why should you be ?
If you really want to go business class no point waiting until the day as they may be unavailable.
Even booking through a travel agent you should still have a reference number to go on the airline website, but you may have booked seats that are not suitable for upgrading. Why did you book through a travel agent?

murphy306

We booked the full holiday through the travel agent to New York. With regard a free bump up to business friends of mine have been upgraded on the day, nice hostess/seats available etc so I thought I might try it lol

littlereddevil

Well you never know.....

murphy306

Knowing my luck it will be a no go! On the Aer Lingus website it is not overly expensive to upgrade so will be interesting to see what travel agent comes back to me with for an upgrade figure. Just wondered might it be less on the day if the seats were not taken.

Alan_Bowen

There are only 24 seats in business on Aer Lingus and because they are much cheaper than other airlines, they don't have the flat beds for example, they normally are sold out well in advance. Aer Lingus are not known at all for free upgrades, they are run by a very efficient German who has turned them around and the transatlantic routes are their most profitable.

There is an obvious reason why free upgrades won't happen. If you fly with an airline on a weekly basis and achieve the highest level of their loyalty club, you might have a slightly higher chance but a once off passenger, particularly one booked through a travel agent probably on a very low fare, no chance at all.

Mr_Wang

Taken about 500 flights - Been upgraded once on Swiss.

bleepandbooster

We have just flown Aer Lingus for the first time from Brum to Dublin and onto JFK ...... Good choice of films decent food and very nice staff ! The US immigration bit in Dublin works well very little "standing in line" ! Bags go straight through and you use terminal 5 in JFK, which was easy !


All in all a very good experience, we will be using them later in the year to do Boston !


Cofion
David

murphy306

So priced Business Class with travel agent €1200 euro each way, not sure if I should take it or think about waiting until the day and upgrade then will it be a lot more expensive or cheaper if there are seats empty?

Alan_Bowen

There are not likely to be any seats to upgrade to. In March this year Aer Lingus began a 'make a bid' system which offers customers the opportunity to bid for upgrades where the airline expects to have spare business class seats. It is on offer only for those who book directly with the airline and states the minimum bid accepted. No offer is made if the flight is expected to be full but it does mean they no longer have any real need to offer upgrades on the day. If you want guarantee busienss class, buy it

murphy306

Good point, I might just bite the bullet and book it