Review: What does Aer Lingus AerSpace offer you on short haul?

This is an overview of the Aer Lingus AerSpace product, which is the nearest that Aer Lingus gets to business class on short haul flights.

Heading over to Dublin for a conference this week, I thought I would try AerSpace. Because Aer Lingus uses long haul aircraft for a handful of its short haul flights, I could relax in a flat bed for the short hop to Dublin and get some good content out of it.

Fat chance.

A few days before the trip, Aer Lingus cancelled my flight. I was pushed back to the next service which was a bog-standard A320neo. As you can see from the image above, there were no flat beds in sight.

I could have accepted a refund of the £169 I paid, but by this point it would have cost me roughly the same to book an economy seat on BA. I was stuck with the ‘standard’ AerSpace product.

Let’s be fair to Aer Lingus. AerSpace is comparable to British Airways Club Europe and £169 one way is not a terrible deal if you need the bells and whistles (lounge access etc), especially as your ticket is fully refundable.

Where is AerSpace offered?

From the UK, you can book it on:

• Heathrow to Dublin, Cork, Shannon, Knock
• Birmingham to Dublin
• Manchester to Dublin

What does AerSpace get you?

AerSpace takes up just ONE ROW on Aer Lingus short haul aircraft, Row 1.

This means there are just four seats with the two middle seats left empty.

Don’t think this makes it uber-exclusive though, because it isn’t!

This is what else you get:

• Fast Track Security – this is always good to have, even if Heathrow Terminal 2 wasn’t too busy around 10am (although had my original flight not been cancelled, I would have been there in the morning peak)

• Lounge access – this a real boon at Heathrow, because the Aer Lingus lounge in Terminal 2 is great. After its recent facelift it finally has an acceptable food offering, although I admit it wasn’t as good as the new No1 Lounge which I popped into first. It was substantially quieter than the No1 Lounge though, and has crazy amounts of natural light. Both the No1 and Plaza Premium lounges in Terminal 2 are windowless. Here’s our review of the refurbished Aer Lingus lounge at Heathrow.

• Priority Boarding – this worked well because very few people on my flight had it. It was nothing like the typical British Airways ‘Groups 1-3’ line.

• Private overhead storage – this was good. Despite AerSpace only taking one row of the aircraft, the first two (possibly three, I forget) blocks of lockers had big ‘AerSpace only’ stickers on them. You obviously need the cabin crew to police this.

• Complimentary drink and snack – I will return to this

• Automatic standby for earlier flights

• Free changes and refunds

Whilst Aer Lingus doesn’t mention it, you are also – obviously – guaranteed a Row 1 seat which is ideal if you want the extra legroom and no seat in front of you.

You can see all of the benefits on the Aer Lingus website here.

Food and drink in AerSpace

Aer Lingus has ‘buy on board’ catering. The deal for AerSpace customers is:

“one drink (hot/cold/alcoholic) and one item of food (snack or sandwich/wrap)”

Unfortunately no menus were provided in Row 1 so I had no idea what was available. The crew were unhelpful, basically expecting me to name random food items to which they would reply ‘yes’ or ‘no’ without pro-actively suggesting anything.

After a period of this I managed to tease out the information that toasted ham and cheese sandwiches were available.

I took one of these as my free item. I wasn’t offered anything extra with it (biscuits, crisps, chocolate) and looking at the small print above it seems I wasn’t due anything else either.

To be fair, whilst it doesn’t look like much (see image above) it did the job and a British Airways Club Europe lunch on such a short flight isn’t up to much either. Although BA would have given me some champagne on top ….

Conclusion

If you usually book British Airways Club Europe for short haul travel, Aer Lingus AerSpace is an acceptable alternative from Heathrow.

The highlight is the ability to use the Aer Lingus lounge, although as a British Airways Gold cardholder I would have been able to access this even with an economy ticket.

It’s also worth noting that AerSpace tickets are fully refundable which means, compared to the cost of fully flexible Club Europe tickets, the fare looks competitive. You’re also guaranteed a Row 1 seat, which requires Gold status to reserve on British Airways.

Whilst you can book Aer Lingus flights with Avios, you cannot book AerSpace. Because it is technically an economy ticket with added bells and whistles, there isn’t any way of offering it. The only economy tickets available for Avios are standard ones.

If you are booking this between Heathrow and Dublin then please make an effort to book the services with flat beds and a proper business class cabin – and hope it isn’t cancelled at the last minute.

You can see more about AerSpace on the Aer Lingus website here.