Review: the Aer Lingus lounge in Dublin Airport Terminal 2

This is my review of the Aer Lingus lounge at Dublin Airport.

This is the last part of my Boston trip reviews.  The main article – if you only have time to read one part of this series – is my Aer Lingus Business class flight review here.  My Ames Boston Hotel review (part of Hilton’s Curio Collection) is here and the other three lounge reviews from the trip are here, here and here.

The Aer Lingus lounge in Dublin was lounge number 4 on this trip.

According to my boarding pass I only had 20 minutes to check out the lounge in between my Boston – Dublin and Dublin – Heathrow flights. Due to a delay I had about an hour in the end, but I didn’t find out about the delay until I was standing at the gate and when I got back to the lounge I only had a further 20 minutes.  If I had known about the delay when I got to the lounge I could have taken my first ever lounge-shower 🙂

Where is the Aer Lingus lounge in Dublin’s Terminal 2?

Aer Lingus only operates three lounges directly – at London Heathrow, which I reviewed as part of this series, at New York JFK Terminal 5 and this one, in Dublin Terminal 2.  Full details are on the Aer Lingus website here.  It is worth noting that you can pay day passes for all three lounges as long as you are flying Aer Lingus.

The Aer Lingus lounge is located in Terminal 2 about a 3 minute walk from the stairs that lead down to pre-clearance.

(It is worth noting that, if you are flying from Dublin to the USA, Aer Lingus no longer lets you use this lounge and the airport-operated ’51st and Green’ pre-clearance lounge on the same trip.  I would suggest you get pre-clearance out of the way ASAP and use ’51st and Green’ as you can then go straight to the gate from the lounge.)

I showed my Dublin – Heathrow ticket at the desk which didn’t indicate that I had arrived in Business Class.  I was told it wasn’t valid, but when I told her I had arrived in Business Class on the Boston flight she waved me through without asking to see a boarding pass.

The lounge wasn’t too busy and had various seating areas.

As you walked in you found yourself in a spacious area with armchairs and coffee tables.

This area also had a ‘business centre’ – or rather desks with plugs and print facilities – as well as flight screens.

The split-level lounge was very bright with floor to ceiling windows and even a plane suspended from the ceiling.

Underneath the mezzanine level was the breakfast buffet with pastries, rolls and cheese. There was also fresh orange juice and most importantly at this time of day a coffee machine – and the coffee was good.

At the far end of the lounge was a further smaller sitting area.

In front of that sitting area was the staircase to the mezzanine level.

Upstairs was another coffee and drinks station with snacks,

…. more seating and the toilets and shower rooms.

As mentioned earlier I would have loved to take a shower but as I didn’t know about my flight delay when I entered the lounge, I gave it a miss.

There were only two ladies toilets and even though the lounge wasn’t too busy, there was always a line. I assume it can get quite bad during busier times.

Conclusion

The Aer Lingus lounge is very well lit and inviting thanks to the floor to ceiling windows. More breakfast items would have been great, especially if you’re used to the breakfast options in the British Airways Galleries lounges in London, but overall the lounge is a good place to spend some time in transit or before a flight.

And that is the end of this trip report.  Thank you for sticking with it if you have read every part.  If you missed any of it, the links are in the first paragraph.

If you want to know more about redeeming your Avios for long-haul flights to North America on Aer Lingus, this HfP article is a good overview of how to do it. The process is tricky because of the different options available via avios.com and ba.com.

For Summer 2018 they will be flying to

• Miami (3 per week)
• New York (21 per week)
• Boston (14 per week)
• Chicago (14 per week)
• San Francisco (7 per week)
• Orlando (4 per week)
• Philadelphia (4 per week)
• Seattle (4 per week)
• Toronto (7 per week)
• Washington (7 per week)
• Los Angeles (7 per week)
• Hartford (7 per week)

…… so there are plenty of options.  Thanks to Paula and Eileen at Aer Lingus for their help in putting the trip together.

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How to earn Avios from UK credit cards (April 2024)

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In February 2022, Barclaycard launched two exciting new Barclaycard Avios Mastercard cards with a bonus of up to 25,000 Avios. You can apply here.

You qualify for the bonus on these cards even if you have a British Airways American Express card:

There are two official British Airways American Express cards with attractive sign-up bonuses:

You can also get generous sign-up bonuses by applying for American Express cards which earn Membership Rewards points. These points convert at 1:1 into Avios.

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You should also consider the British Airways Accelerating Business credit card. This is open to sole traders as well as limited companies and has a 30,000 Avios sign-up bonus.

There are also generous bonuses on the two American Express Business cards, with the points converting at 1:1 into Avios. These cards are open to sole traders as well as limited companies.

Click here to read our detailed summary of all UK credit cards which earn Avios. This includes both personal and small business cards.