Aer Lingus Review: Long Haul Economy Experience (Dublin to New York JFK)

Rating: 4/5 (Old seats, otherwise good value)

Route: DUB-JFK (EI105)

Price (Per Person): 21,500 British Airways Avios + $230 in taxes and fees

For my way back from my summer Croatia trip, I flew from Split to New York via Dublin. I didn’t review my midnight flight from Split to Dublin, nor was in physical capacity to do so, but after a few hours of rest in the not-so-nice T2 lounge at Dublin Airport, I was ready to fly back home to New York.

Today, I was aboard St. Aoife, one of Aer Lingus’ A330-300s that frequently services the popular Dublin – NYC corridor.

Now, I do want to call out this is definitely not the most aspirational use of miles, but in the moment, it seemed like a fair points – for – cash tradeoff. Flights back from Split to NYC were running around $600, so paying 21,500 miles + $230 seemed like a reasonable deal (~1.7 cents per point for British Airways for the net amount). $230 is pretty steep though for award fees on an economy ticket, but hey, what else should I expect from Avios?

The airport in Dublin is interesting for US-bound flights, in that you clear US customs in Dublin, so you arrive in the US and can walk straight out, just like a domestic flight. They even have a global entry registration office, in case you’re flying through and need to do your interview. I doubt there’s a wait there…

Anyways, on to the aircraft. Aer Lingus’ economy section is structured in a 2-4-2 configuration. For today’s flight, I was assigned seat 16C. I was able to snag a free aisle seat assignment by messaging Aer Lingus on WhatsApp a few months ahead of my flight (dedication!). The website wasn’t letting me choose since I booked through British Airways, but just a data point in case you end up booking Aer Lingus via BA and want to select seats.

Luckily, today’s flight wasn’t too full (kind of surprising for the first week of September). I was able to switch to the unoccupied Aisle seat next to me, which had an open seat next to that. Poor man’s first class?

I’m 6’2 and economy is definitely tight, but having an open seat next to me was super nice to spread out.

The IFE on Aer Lingus’ A330 was quite dated, and kept freezing every 30 seconds when playing any TV show or movie for all screens. Nonetheless, I powered through Fall Guy (thought it was great tbh).

And last but not least, the food. I got the meat pasta dish, and I thought it was quite good. To be fair, I hadn’t had a proper meal in around 24 hours since sleeping on a random table in Dublin Airport, so I would’ve eaten anything.

But they had good Irish custard to accompany it and a decent mini salad as well.

All-in-all, I had a positive experience flying back from Dublin to NYC on Aer Lingus. While not the nicest economy class in the world, it was pretty good value and they had decent food, so no complaints. And to be honest, was my only reasonably-priced points redemption option heading back from Split. For a seven hour flight, they were totally decent and would fly them again, but wouldn’t go out of my way to do so.