December 2007 Archives
So, we arrived in San Francisco yesterday after a hell of flight. I have a recommendation that needs to be put up on TouristR, but here it is. Don't fly with Aer Lingus, on long haul destinations. It is a joke. The in-flight entertainment is ridiculous. I have never come across anything more antiquated in my life. There is one screen per 10-15 people. This is further compounded by the fact that the movies and various programs being shown where awful. Only one out of the three movies shown could have been described as palatable.
Being fair to Aer Lingus I have been told that Delta, Continental etc... are also as bad, but that is still no reason for mediocrity. We are an Irish group traveling to San Francisco trying to represent our country, and therefore chose the national Irish carrier to haul our bodies over on. As a result of this semi-patriotic act, most in the group were climbing the walls.
As a way of giving an example of better service on a long haul route, I give you Ethihad. They are national airline of the UAE. I had the absolute pleasure of using Ethihad on a recent long haul flight to Thailand. They are an exceptional airline. Their staff are wonderful like the Aer Lingus staff, however where this is the crowning achievement with Aer Lingus it is only the start for Ethihad. Each customer whether economy or higher has a personal entertainment system on the sit in front of them. This gives you access to about 100 new movies of your choice, many well known TV shows from around the world, and a collection of about 50 music albums that you can listen to on demand. They also score higher on the food side of things, but there is a negligible difference in this area.
One last thing on Aer Lingus, where did you get the ridiculous early 80's "Walkman" headphones?
Hopefully I will continue to blog on this trip. Fingers crossed I will have some exciting things to report on.
