Aer Lingus Manchester Cancellations

Alan_Bowen

I am not sure they have formally cancelled the flights for June yet, they have taken them off sale as they are considering their future but unless they have already made an offer to transfer the booking, you may have to wait until the decision is confirmed.

Virgin are of course dancing with joy at the thought of their competition disappearing and will undoubtedly increase their fares as a result making it even less likely Aer Lingus will want to rebook you with them. There is also the reality that Virgin are not going to have enough remaining seats to rebook the 300 odd passengers from Aer Lingus each day so it may be a choice of via Dublin, via London with BA or full refund. 

I would endorse the view that via Dublin and their pre clearance procedure is the way to go, the last time we flew to New York, we were in a car 15 minutes after landing at JFK, and the US staff in Ireland seem a lot friendlier than those in the US!

astroparis

Hello I am in the same boat. Flying April 30th 
Im a solo parent with 3 children and I'm struggling coming to terms with a stop over. But they haven't offered me anything yet. So what are my rights. 
Flights are over double now direct with virgin. I can't afford. I have booked my flights and hotel separately 

la531983

astroparis said:

Hello I am in the same boat. Flying April 30th 
Im a solo parent with 3 children and I'm struggling coming to terms with a stop over. But they haven't offered me anything yet. So what are my rights. 
Flights are over double now direct with virgin. I can't afford. I have booked my flights and hotel separately 

Not sure why. There have been reports of queues at immigration for HOURS at Orlando, which with children in tow wont be fun either.
If they offer you a change at Dublin (MAN-DUB flights with Aer Lingus are continuing) you go through US preclearance at Dublin, and land in Orlando as a DOMESTIC passenger so avoid the immigration queues totally on landing.

One option may in essence be the exact same as the other in terms of time

Caz3121

agree, going via Dublin is great, I have in the past done this over a direct flight as it is great arriving, picking up baggage and heading off....my last 2 non-pre cleared flight (MIA not MCO) have been between 3 and 3.5 hours in queues, when tired from a long haul flight this is no fun...I would choose indirect via Dublin every time

eskbanker

This does raise an interesting question of how a judge might interpret the regulations in the event that Aer Lingus declined to rebook passengers on competing direct flights - the regulations are undoubtedly normally concerned with gate-to-gate timescales when comparing timescales, but in this case the airline could potentially claim that the increase in gate-to-gate duration is likely to be at least partially offset by the US entry formalities, and assert that the actual full landside-to-landside time is comparable?

Their website would support such a position:

We’re delighted to be able to offer you the ultimate time-saving service - U.S. pre-clearance facilities at Dublin and Shannon airports. This means that if you’re flying to the U.S., you can clear not only U.S. immigration, but also full U.S. customs and agriculture controls.

The benefit of pre-clearing is that you can land as a local! You simply collect your baggage at your U.S. arrival airport and get on with your day. So not a second of your trip is wasted!

https://www.aerlingus.com/prepare/airport-information/us-immigration/

buckolfc

Update from my end is that I have now requested a refund and booked flights with Virgin Atlantic.

VA currently have a sale on until tomorrow with the cost was pretty much the same and seeing how that is pretty much what I would be arguing for it makes the most sense. 

I still feel Aer Lingus have acted poorly only offering passengers two options hoping they won’t be challenged. I will raise a complaint with the CAA. Not sure what good it will do but really annoyed with the way they went about this.

On the point of clearing immigration in Dublin, which was a point a few made, I still don’t think this is a time saver in the grand scheme of things. Still have to connect on the return. I have been to the US 15 times and the worst I have experienced is about an hour wait. Definitely cursed myself now as well so 100% be a 4 hour wait this time 🫠

thanks for the replies and hope everyone gets sorted! 

clairebear374

How long did it take for you to be contacted, i recieved my email on 8th January with options for either a refund or to ask to be reacommodated. I have asked for Reaccomodation but its been 5 days and i havent heard from them. I have a Villa booked and car hire etc i need to know what is happening have contacted them but they say just to wait what can i do?

Ayr_Rage

clairebear374 said:

How long did it take for you to be contacted, i recieved my email on 8th January with options for either a refund or to ask to be reacommodated. I have asked for Reaccomodation but its been 5 days and i havent heard from them. I have a Villa booked and car hire etc i need to know what is happening have contacted them but they say just to wait what can i do?

You'll just have to wait until they crunch the numbers, such as how many passengers they can fly on the ATR and if there are too many can they add extra ATR rotations or pinch an A320 from somewhere.

They may even have to offer you different dates.

Best of luck!

la531983

buckolfc said:

Update from my end is that I have now requested a refund and booked flights with Virgin Atlantic.

VA currently have a sale on until tomorrow 

Now trying to help a mate out with this, just to query the bit in bold. Their website says the sale is only on HOLIDAYS, not flight only. Did you book a full holiday with Virgin just now?

Save up to £300 extra on holidays ‘til Tuesday

The Virgin Atlantic Sale continues, with extra value on holidays until Tuesday. Book now and save up to £300 with code VAHSALE26 at checkout.Book by Tuesday 13th January, for holidays travelling between 12th January 2026 – 31st December 2026. T&C's apply. 

clairebear374

Can they offer for you to fly out from a different origin airport i.e liverpool to dublin rather than manchester if the manchester flights to dublin are ful?