Flight-Fight! Back to Dublin Airport

Flight-Fight! Back to Dublin Airport

• 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
• Back to Dublin Airport
• Round 3: Ryanair FR666 Dublin to Birmingham Airport
• Quickie ride home
• And the knockout blow goes to…

Editors note: Apologies for the delay in continuing this trip report. Things at Economy Class and Beyond towers have been… what’s the polite term? Interesting.

Yes. Interesting is the term I’m going to use, and I’m going to stick with it.

Well, more like navigating the political wills in the office has made me pause writing this, and concentrate on writing news and interest stories. But if I don’t get this out, I would deprive you of a Ryanair trip report. So… off we go again

Back to Dublin Airport

After my ride dropped me off, I was in the confines of the old Terminal 1 – home of many adventure that I’ve had in the past.

Today would be no different – as I would be back aboard Ryanair…. who have their home in T1.

Let’s go in!

 

Terminal 1

I checked my flight to hell was operating… and the screens said yes…

Flight 666 to Birmingham: Check.

With no formalities to complete as I had my boarding pass on my phone, it was time to head to departures.

To security and the gates

With my electronic boarding pass armed, I headed to the secure area. I blipped the scanner with my iPhone. I was let through to the security area – which was sparsely populated for 5pm in the afternoon.

None the less, I was screened and cleared in under 10 minutes flat. That’s what I call excellent time to be cleared.

With a few minutes to gather myself after being screened – I realised I had the best part of 3 hours before my flight, and no lounge access.

Yes, I could had paid DAA €19.95 to use the lounge, but I couldn’t be bothered. Rather, I headed off to the central area, aimlessly looking for some seating.

From there, it was time to explore the shopping complex this airport appears to be turning into.

Terminal 1

Because 747s are best served fluffy (side-note – Aer Lingus haven’t flown a 747 in anger since 1986. It shows how much we marry the 747 with flying…).

On the way, I discovered something that would make any #avgeek squee slightly – Kinder Eggs with Airbus A330-300 models inside them.

I liked them so much – I bought a set and gave them away.

There was another challenge I had to complete. Allow me to explain. There are various traditions that I have when I travel – be it buying a large bottle of Dasani water when leaving the USA, buying the tattiest snow-globe for my parents… the list goes on.

Going through Dublin Airport, there was one thing I was after.

For me – there was an objective. A New Guinness Mug. This seems to be more important since some… person (that’s the polite term isn’t it… I’m not meant to use terms that are rude and sweary) stole my old Guinness Mug from the office.

Black, white, red or Green?

In the end, I got one.

It was a red one of course.

With that done, I found a Boots, and grabbed a meal deal… and waited until for where my flight would be going from.

Eventually, (and as expected), the flight was booked to depart from the 100 gates (the low-cost carrier pier).

With that knowledge, I headed towards the gate – mainly as I knew there would be a boarding scrum.

Off to the 100 gates.

The 100 gates – land of the boarding scrum.

And even Mr Tayto was running out of stock in the 100 gates.

Arriving at the gate area, there was no plane…. So I headed to the small room to do important things. When I came back, a plane had magically turned up.

Ooh. A Ryanair Boeing 737-800!

And with a plane turning up, the ordered boarding scrum kicked in. There was a small line for the priority boarding, and an ever building queue for the non priority queue.

Erm… better queue up.

Rather than risk having no space for my bag, I joined the queue.

Boarding commenced promptly, and after making my way through the queue, my boarding pass was beeped, and I was allowed to board.

Next: FR666 Dublin to Birmingham

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