It takes a lot to shock Pricewatch, but the ordeal Aer Lingus put a family through as they were coming – or trying to come – home from Florida early this year left us shocked.
And the manner in which the family were ignored by the airline when they all did manage to get home left us appalled.
On September 14th a reader called Brian bought return tickets for two adults and two (or one) children flying to Miami on December 22nd and home to Ireland on January 3rd. The purpose of the trip was to visit family in the US and spend the Christmas period with them.
“These flights were booked online and as my son was still 1 year old on 22 December 2024 (he turned 2 the following day), when booking online we were only provided with the option of an infant ticket where he would not be given his own seat,” Brian writes.
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“After booking the flights, my wife phoned Aer Lingus to inquire as to whether it might be possible for us to book a seat for [our son] as he is large for his age and we anticipated that it would be very uncomfortable to undertake such a long flight holding him in our lap.”
She was told that this was not possible as children under the age of two must share a seat with a parent/guardian.
She then asked if the family could book their son his own seat for the return leg of the journey “as by that time he would have turned two years old and would no longer be considered an infant for the purpose of travel. Again, we were informed that this could not be done, but that there would be no issue with travelling and if we were to explain the situation upon checking in at Miami the staff might be able to arrange for us to be seated near an empty seat”.
Obviously the family accepted this arrangement “even though we would have preferred to purchase him his own seat and were more than willing to pay for this option”.
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When leaving Dublin just before Christmas – and the day before their son’s second birthday – they explained the situation at the check-in desk “and the Aer Lingus employee at the counter very helpfully sat [my wife] beside an empty seat so that our son could have his own space. No mention was made of the return leg, and we assumed (as we had been explicitly led to believe), that we might be able to make a similar arrangement for the return leg or failing that, we would simply sit him on our lap for the duration of the flight”.
They had their Christmas in Miami and arrived at the airport for their homeward journey three hours before the flight was due to depart “so that we could check in in good time, having travelled by car for two hours and returning our rental car to the airport”.
This is where things started to go very wrong.
“After presenting our passports, the agent at the desk informed us that as our son was now two years old, he would require his own seat. I informed him that we had attempted to purchase him his own seat when booking the tickets, but were informed by the airline that because he was an infant for the first leg of the journey, this would not be possible.”
Brian says he made “multiple attempts to explain the situation to the agent but he did not appear to listen/care or offer a solution other than ‘he needs his own ticket’”.
It sounds to us like a terrible case of ‘computer says no’, but the story gets worse.
“He coldly informed us that our son would not be permitted on the plane without his own ticket. He then asked us to leave the vicinity of the check-in area so that other passengers could be facilitated. At this stage we were slightly panicked and asked to speak to a supervisor.
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“A supervisor approached us to the side of the check-in area and reiterated what her colleague had told us. When pressed for a solution, all she could offer was for us to purchase a ticket for our son.”
Brian stressed that they had tried to do just that but had been told by the airline that it would not be possible.
“I made it clear that I would be willing to buy a ticket there and then but she simply told me that ‘we are not ticket agents’. I asked if there was a ticket agent in the airport we could buy a ticket from and was simply told ‘No’.
There is no excuse for the rude and antagonistic manner in which we were treated at Miami Airport and I have never experienced in my life such a bewildering coldness as we were subjected to that day, despite remaining calm and polite in our dealings with the staff
— 'Brian'
“I asked how we could obtain a ticket given that the flight was due to leave within probably two hours at this stage and the check-in area would be closing soon. The supervisor told me ‘call the airline’. I asked her if she worked for the airline and she responded that she did. I asked if, given the urgency of the situation, she could make a call to someone who could assist us from the check-in desk and she told me that she could not. I then asked if she could give me a phone number that I could call and she told me to ‘Google it’.”
Now we don’t know about you, but when we got to this point in Brian’s mail there was steam coming out of our ears and we can only imagine how stressful this must have been for them.
We don’t have to imagine it, though.
“At this stage my family was quite distressed and I pleaded with her to give me a direct line of somebody we could call to try and fix the situation. She then googled Aer Lingus on her phone and I took down a freephone number which I called. Again we were instructed to leave the vicinity of the check-in area so that other passengers could be assisted,” he writes.
He says he “was completely shocked by the heartlessness and lack of empathy shown by the Aer Lingus agents at the check-in desk towards me and my family. At no point did they seek to remedy the situation and refused to even look us in the eye before asking us to move away, despite the fact that we were clearly becoming distressed by a situation that was occurring solely due to poor communication on the part of Aer Lingus.
“I have worked many customer service jobs in my life and keenly understand how demanding and stressful they can be, particularly in a location like an airport where tensions can easily simmer. There is no excuse for the rude and antagonistic manner in which we were treated at Miami Airport and I have never experienced in my life such a bewildering coldness as we were subjected to that day, despite remaining calm and polite in our dealings with the staff.”
So, Brian rang the freephone number provided by the agent at 4:22pm and was placed on hold.
“I remained on hold for approximately 40 minutes, all while the check-in line was dwindling and preparing to close. Eventually somebody answered my call and I hurriedly tried to explain the situation while emphasising the urgency of the situation. The person I spoke to stepped away from the phone on perhaps two or three occasions and I was left in silence not knowing whether or not they would be in a position to help. I was told that she was working to remedy the situation when the call was disconnected after 51 minutes.”
With a degree of understatement, Brian says this was “a very distressing development as we knew at this point that we would not have enough time to call again and sort something out before check-in would close.
“My wife was in tears at this stage and we again approached the check-in desk and begged them to find a solution. Once again, we were met with a cold and unhelpful shrug of the shoulders.”
In desperation, Brian tried to reach someone in Aer Lingus using a WhatsApp number he found on the Aer Lingus website.
He got through to a chat bot and “was informed that I would be connected with a team member and that it would take a couple of minutes, but I was never contacted by anyone”.
They tried to book a ticket for their son online “but it was showing as sold out – even though the supervisor at the check-in desk told me that there were six available seats on the plane. Knowing that we would have to make alternative arrangements and that it would require a huge expense, we took the heartbreaking decision that I would check into the flight with my daughter while my wife and two-year-old son would remain at the airport in the USA and try to make other arrangements.
“This was obviously very upsetting for my six-year-old daughter who could not understand why her mother and little brother were not allowed to come with us on the plane. Although I explained the situation to her she was convinced that they would not be allowed to return to Ireland and was completely distraught.”
It goes without saying that his wife was “extremely devastated by this turn of events. We were already anxious at the thought of making the long-haul flight with a child who had just turned 2, and now she was faced with the uncertain prospect of how/when she could get home, and the fact that she would have to make this trip alone without my assistance with our son who had recently suffered an ear infection and would be very irritable on the flight.”
The one bright spot was that she was able to arrange to stay with family that night, and was spared the dilemma of trying to secure costly accommodation at short notice.
It did, however, require another two-hour drive back from the airport after being rejected at the check-in desk.
The story – if you can believe it – actually gets worse.
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“After myself and my daughter had gone through the security gates and my distraught wife was left alone with our son in the airport, she attempted to make several more calls to Aer Lingus to try to secure immediate return to Ireland. However, nobody she spoke to was of any assistance and one airline representative went so far as to laugh at her predicament.
“She was eventually able to book a flight for herself and our son the following day from Orlando, and I was astonished to learn that she had been charged $1,398.30 to book this, rather than it being provided free of charge. Not only did this leave us in a position where we have had to borrow money to pay for this flight and to pay for our mortgage/bills at home this month, it also required her to obtain transportation to Orlando the following day which took several hours with a small child.”
She did make it home and “since nobody had been of any assistance to us at the airport, via telephone or via WhatsApp, both myself and my wife sent a number of tweets via Twitter/X to Aer Lingus in the hope that this may get someone’s attention. I also sent multiple DMs on Twitter/X which did not provide any assistance. The only responses we received to our tweets from Aer Lingus asked us to send information via DM, which I explained I had already done and we received no further dialogue from Aer Lingus.
“Our tweets did, however, attract the attention of scammers, one of whom telephoned my wife and instructed her to download an app which they said would enable her to obtain a refund if she provided bank details. She was suspicious of this and when I mentioned it to one of the Aer Lingus telephone agents, they confirmed that Aer Lingus would never ask a customer to do this. Had my wife been less discerning, this again could have resulted in the loss of thousands of euros.”
Perhaps what I feel most let down by in all this is the complete lack of dialogue and correspondence from Aer Lingus at every stage of this ordeal. We have been loyal customers for many years and the flippant nature in which this situation has been brushed aside at every stage is so disheartening
— 'Brian'
Brian finishes by saying that perhaps the only good customer service he received during this ordeal “was from the flight crew themselves, who I approached at the gate, explained the situation to, and asked if they would perhaps have the direct number of somebody I could actually discuss this with who could help. While they were unable to provide this, I did appreciate the fact that they took the time to listen to what had happened to us and showed genuine human sympathy for our situation. Once we boarded the plane, they were excellent in looking after myself and my daughter.
“One of the flight attendants also told me that the captain had been informed of this situation and extended his apology for what had happened to us, which while not offering any tangible benefit did at least provide some comfort.
“The same flight attendant took details from me and told me he would log a report and upon landing in Dublin I should go to the customer service desk where the report should be live and we could discuss with one of the representatives from the airline. However, when I went to the desk in Dublin, I was told by the staff member there that no such report had yet been logged, and gave me a phone number to contact to follow up. Again, this was another disappointing development.”
A day later – as his wife and son were slowly making their way home via Orlando – he called and was put through to an agent who was not based in Dublin.
“After I explained the situation at length for the umpteenth time, I was told by the agent that although they were not in an immediate position to do anything for me, they would log a complaint and my wife would receive an email confirmation of this within 24 hours. At the time of writing, no email confirmation of a complaint has been received.
“Perhaps what I feel most let down by in all this is the complete lack of dialogue and correspondence from Aer Lingus at every stage of this ordeal. We have been loyal customers for many years and the flippant nature in which this situation has been brushed aside at every stage is so disheartening.”
He wrote a lengthy letter to the airline – which was ignored – and it was at that point that he contacted us.
And then we contacted the airline.
We received the following statement.
“Aer Lingus is liaising directly with this customer regarding their recent experience travelling with us and we have offered to refund part of their trip and vouched permissible expenses incurred.
“Aer Lingus adheres to industry safety regulations which require children from the age of 2 to travel in their own seat. To support customers, an advisory for travel with infants during the booking process outlines the requirements, including information and guidance on booking a journey where an infant will turn two after departure and before the return trip. Unfortunately we were unable to identify any communication with our customer care team prior to the customer’s departure based on information they provided or through an extensive review of call logs and records relating to their booking.
“Notwithstanding this, we sincerely regret that our ground handling agents in Miami were unable to resolve the customer’s issue when the booking error was identified at check-in. We are reviewing our processes to identify how we can improve our service to better support customers in these instances where new bookings are required close to a flight’s departure.
“We have also extended our apologies to the customer for the delay in our customer care response time in January, due to unusually high demand for services in light of disruption by various weather events.”
