Aer Lingus Reviews

However, there was then another delay, resulting in a 3+ hour delay. We were patiently waiting at our gate when our names were called over the loudspeaker to report to a different gate immediately. We left the current gate right away and got to the new one as quickly as we could (there were other folks that were called to go there as well – some of which ran there). When we arrived, we were ALL told that it was too late and the bus left for the flight already.

After speaking with the desk agent, they were calling to add us to a different flight to Glasgow, not our original flight, but since the bus left it was too late to be added on to that flight. So, we then had to go back to our original gate to wait for our original flight. It was then time to load our bus for our flight. When we arrive to the plane on the tarmac I saw our luggage out on the tarmac to be loaded onto the plane and pointed it out to my mom saying ‘Yay, our bags made it!’. After boarding the flight, my mom could see from her window that our luggage wasn’t being loaded onto the plane and then the baggage carrier loaded our bags back onto his car to drive away.

My mom brought this to my attention and the flight attendant's attention. Others on the plane then noticed the same thing was happening to their bags. We asked the flight attendant to do something about this but neither did and the male flight attendant was rather rude in his response to us. We continued to ask if there was something they could do before he drove off with our bags – they had clear identifiers on them so we were 100% sure they were ours. The male flight attendant was then visibly mad and spoke to us in a very aggressive manner that there was nothing he could do. He then did open the front door and asked the man on the ground loading the bags if all bags for passengers were on loaded on the plane, he said yes. Obviously, the baggage carrier on the ground wouldn’t think he missed bags to load. This was all either flight attendant did to help prevent our bags from not making it to our final destination.

We then arrived in Glasgow, without our luggage. We were 2 of 8 passengers whose luggage were not loaded onto that flight. We then filed the claim at the desk. I explained to the representative that my mom and I were on a guided tour trip and we would be moving from one hotel to the next each day – we would not be at the same hotel for the first 3 or 4 days of our trip. I called to speak to a representative later that day to see if our bags made it on one of the multiple other flights out of Dublin to Glasgow that day.

The person I spoke with could not answer this. I asked for a supervisor and was told they needed to call me back. Conversations like this went over for an additional 2 days. I had explained to just about every single person I spoke with the severity of our situation and urgency in which we needed to get our luggage. I got the run around from every customer service representative and supervisor from the lost baggage team. I could never get a clear answer on what was happening, where my bags were or when they would arrive. No one truly seemed to care, at all. It was an awful experience and feeling. My mother and I were in a foreign country, with no vehicle of our own, trying to have an enjoyable time on our trip and could not because we didn’t have our belongings and couldn’t be provided with updates on what was happening.

I finally saw by checking the online form that our bags were picked up (no email to notify me there was an update on our luggage or call). They were picked up by Aviation Operations on 5/27. They were not delivered that day. I called Aer Lingus’s baggage customer service again and could not get an answer as to why they were not delivered or when they would be. So I reached out to Aviation Operations myself on 5/28 to check into things. They initially informed me that they would be delivered the next day, 5/29, which would then put us at a different location, again.

After back and forth email communication with them, they were able to tell me that having my request upgraded to ‘express’ could get them there the same day, on 5/28. I was appalled to hear that after everything I had communication to the customer service front line and supervisors that NO ONE had marked this as express already. I then had to call AGAIN to request for my claim to be upgraded to express. Which again, I could not get clear answers without having to pull teeth to ensure that it would be upgraded. I then heard back from Aviation Operations (not Aer Lingus’s baggage customer service) that my luggage would be delivered that evening around 9 pm. Our bags did then arrive as promised that night.

Now that we are home, I finally was able to file a claim for this and request reimbursement. I submitting this on 6/14, I heard back on 6/19 that our baggage file reference number was needed (if this is a required item to process claims, the form should have a required section on it to fill out at the start). I finally heard a final decision on my claim today (6/25) and am ONLY being reimbursed for the clothes I had to purchase and not the expense for international phone calls on my phone bill, taxis to purchase said clothes and no compensation for the great disruption and stressed this caused for my mother and I. It is all extremely disappointing, I can't say I will ever fly this airline again.