Aer Lingus Flight 108 to Dublin on 09/15/2007

[shamrock838]

Greetings,

My wife and I are flying Aer Lingus Flight 108 to Dublin on 09/15/07 for an 11-day vacation to the south and west of Ireland via a CIE Tour.

I told our travel agent we wanted seats as far behind the wing as possible since I'm a photographer and want to capture our approach ... and departure ... from Ireland ... plus the North American seaboard when coming back.

She gave us seats 37H and 37K going over ... and 36H and 36K on Flight 111 coming back on 09/25/07. She assured us that our seats going over were one row forward of the very back of the economy section and that we were "well behind the wing with great visibility."

We'll be flying the Airbus A330 ... but is it the A300-200 or -300 config? And which config did the agent use for our seating?

A colleague who flew Aer Lingus Flight 104 earlier this spring said the economy passenger cabin had something like 48 rows! Was it the A330-300?

I've also heard that Aer Lingus will have phased out the last of their A330-200's by the time we go.

I checked Seating Guru, etc online but Aer Lingus is not listed.

So ... does anyone out there know what we can expect on Flights 108 and 111? Thanks.

Mike (shamrock838)

[Winglets747]

When you say you want to capture the approach, what exactly do you want a picture of? Just the landscape or landscape with wing? If you just want the landscape, you'll want be far behind the wing so none of it gets in your way.

On the 330-300 rows 36 and 37 are not that bad--they are in the third Y zone and there are still 10 rows until the end of the aircraft (the last row is 47). The plane doesn't switch to 2-3-2 until row 43. Those seats should be good if you just want to see the landscape, but if you also want to see the wing, I would try for seats in rows 29, 32, or 33 (30 is the last row in the second Y zone and those rows typically don't recline that much--plus people usually congregate around those seats since the lavs are nearby--and row 31 is an exit row, meaning you risk not being able to have your camera out during take-off and landing).

As you noted, Aer Lingus has removed seat maps from its website for some reason and none of the other sites have EI seat maps. The best way to look at the seat map is to do a dummy booking (it will give you a link to the seat map when it displays your total).

Regarding the 330-200 and -300, usually the -300 serves JFK, but if you are on a -200, the economy configuration is not that much different. Row 30 is still the last row of an economy zone and row 31 is an exit row and begins the next zone. So rows 29, 32, or 33 should still be good. (To see the -200 seat map, do a dummy booking for LAX since LAX typically gets the -200). If you can, try to get row 29--that section, IMHO, is much quieter than the rear section.

What's your source on the -200s leaving the fleet? EI is strapped for international capacity and I can't see them giving the -200s away anytime soon.

I took EI two summers ago and the flight was okay. It was no BA or AF, but it was a step above US carriers. Food is so-so (bring your own just in case), alcohol isn't free (if that matters to you), only one plane has IFE, FAs can be rather unhelpful and rude, and there can be lots of little kids on the flights (hopefully September will not be too bad). The outbound flight should be a piece of cake, but you may be glad when the inbound flight is over.

Edit: Changed 2-3-3 to 2-3-2.

[stuart schechter]

I was on an LH A330 a few months ago and I was in 36A. Last row ni the plane. Hiss, you may be thinking of an LH config

[Iberia A340-600]

I can assure you that Aer Lingus is not getting rid of their A330-200s. With their new plan of international expansion they are going to need all of the long-haul aircraft they can get and plus they just took delivery of a new A330-200, EI-DOU.

[shamrock838]

When you say you want to capture the approach, what exactly do you want a picture of? Just the landscape or landscape with wing? If you just want the landscape, you'll want be far behind the wing so none of it gets in your way.

On the 330-300 rows 36 and 37 are not that bad--they are in the third Y zone and there are still 10 rows until the end of the aircraft (the last row is 47). The plane doesn't switch to 2-3-2 until row 43. Those seats should be good if you just want to see the landscape, but if you also want to see the wing, I would try for seats in rows 29, 32, or 33 (30 is the last row in the second Y zone and those rows typically don't recline that much--plus people usually congregate around those seats since the lavs are nearby--and row 31 is an exit row, meaning you risk not being able to have your camera out during take-off and landing).

As you noted, Aer Lingus has removed seat maps from its website for some reason and none of the other sites have EI seat maps. The best way to look at the seat map is to do a dummy booking (it will give you a link to the seat map when it displays your total).

Regarding the 330-200 and -300, usually the -300 serves JFK, but if you are on a -200, the economy configuration is not that much different. Row 30 is still the last row of an economy zone and row 31 is an exit row and begins the next zone. So rows 29, 32, or 33 should still be good. (To see the -200 seat map, do a dummy booking for LAX since LAX typically gets the -200). If you can, try to get row 29--that section, IMHO, is much quieter than the rear section.

What's your source on the -200s leaving the fleet? EI is strapped for international capacity and I can't see them giving the -200s away anytime soon.

I took EI two summers ago and the flight was okay. It was no BA or AF, but it was a step above US carriers. Food is so-so (bring your own just in case), alcohol isn't free (if that matters to you), only one plane has IFE, FAs can be rather unhelpful and rude, and there can be lots of little kids on the flights (hopefully September will not be too bad). The outbound flight should be a piece of cake, but you may be glad when the inbound flight is over.

Winglets 747 ...

Thanks for the detailed reply. Looks like our seats will be OK both ways. Could you elab on the differences of these seats in the A330-200 and -300 configurations? It's OK if I get a tiny part of wing in my pictures but I'll prefer as much landscape ... cloudscape ... even seascape in my images as possible.

Will our seats be in the 2-4-2 section of the economy cabin? Re the acronyms you used ... does IFE = inflight entertainment ... FA = flight attendent ... LAX = Los Angeles ... BA = British Air ... AF = Air France ... EI = Aer Lingus ... yes?

Lastly ... what are Y-zones, please ... and what are the differences between 1st ... 2nd ... and 3rd Y-zones in terms of comfort ... service ... and ... whatever else may be affected? In another part of this thread I saw "LH" ... ? Thanks again.

Mike (shamrock838)

[stuart schechter]

LH=Lufthansa
Y-zones=Coach Class Zones

Zones are split up between bulkheads. Coach class zones are no different than any other coach zone.