Flight-fight! Aer Lingus vs Ryanair – Booking and Check In
- Flight-fight? Fight-FIGHT!
- Round 1: Booking and Check in
- Off to Birmingham Airport
- Round 2: Aer Lingus EI263 Birmingham to Dublin Airport
- Interlude: Spotting in Dublin
- Dublin Airport
- Interlude: Finding the perfect Guinness Mug.
- Round 3: Ryanair FR666 Dublin to Birmingham Airport
- Quickie ride home
- And the final knockout blow goes to…
Round 1: Booking and Check In.
Aer Lingus:
Booking was done online via the Aer Lingus booking engine through the web site. Follow the links, and boom. All done.
The site was usable enough to get the ticket I wanted.
Costs:
- Fare: £12.99
- Fees: £7.00
- Total: £19.99
Ryanair
Booking was done by the App. And it was easy as anything (actually easier than using the website if I’m honest).
Where the web page was offering flight FR666 for €26… the mobile App was offering the same flight for €9.99. And of course, I paid up the €2 for seat selection and a credit card fee that brought the entire flight to around… £9.95 (pre Brexit prices… now – it’s probably a small house to buy a Ryanair ticket).
Costs:
- Flight: €9.99
- Assigned seat: €2.00
- Credit Card Fee: €0.24
- Total paid €12.23
- Total GBP £9.95 (converted to GBP)
So in terms of cost – Ryanair take the first win (Unsurprisingly I would say). Although I was amazed I could get an Aer Lingus and Ryanair tickets at their promised lowest lead-in prices with less than 3 weeks before the flight.
The booking engines were equally usable (in terms of buying a ticket and buying any upgrades to the ticket). A score draw there.
Check in.
Aer Lingus
Check in opens with Aer Lingus in two ways – either you buy a seat and check in (up to 30 days in advance) or wait until the T-30 hour cut-off to check in and take your chances on the seats.
I took my chances on the seats – and got a reasonable selection.
A boarding pass was issued in-app (sadly, not exportable to Apple PassBook – although this is being addressed with an App Update. Considering how similar the Aer Lingus New app is to the British Airways App, expect it sooner rather than later.)
And in addition, you could pick up a classic paper boarding pass for free at the airport. Always nice to collect
Ryanair
Check in opens a full 30 days in advance. Note, once you buy a seat, you can’t change it – so be careful when you choose your seat!
Boarding pass was issued in-app, and also exportable to Apple Passbook – which makes things nice and convenient.
Along with the million other passes I have in Passbook.
If I wanted a traditional boarding pass, a re-print of one would had cost me €15/£15 for the privilege. So that was skipped.
Another win for Ryanair who have worked out integration improves the passenger experience. Aer Lingus are so close, but so far with their iPhone app. A few little polishes would had made another draw.
Right – enough of the theoretical stuff. Let’s get onto the actual trip!
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