Aer Lingus passengers: ‘We’re really stressed. We’ve been planning a dream trip for the past year’

Aer Lingus passengers have expressed their anxiety and stress facing likely delays and disruptions from next week when pilots plan to begin industrial action in their campaign for a 24 per cent pay rise. The Irish Airline Pilots’ Association (Ialpa) notified Aer Lingus on Tuesday that members based in the Republic will, from a minute past midnight next Wednesday, June 26th, start an indefinite strict work-to-rule policy

We asked Irish Times readers to share if they were rethinking their travel plans due to planned industrial action at Aer Lingus. Here are a selection of their responses:

‘I’m disgusted but I’d still be loyal to Aer Lingus’

Paula Anderson, from Dublin,said she was worried as she is booked to fly to Gran Canaria on July 6th for 12 nights.

Anderson said she is loyal to flying with Aer Lingus and paid extra to fly with the airline on this holiday. She booked the holiday in early January and had been looking forward to it.

“I’m disgusted but I’d still be loyal to Aer Lingus. If workers feel hard done by I respect that,” she said. “I do agree with the workers just not on July 6th,” she said.

[ Aer Lingus passengers in line for up to €600 compensation if flights are cancelled or delayed ]

[ Bookings with Aer Lingus have flatlined since pilot vote, say travel agents ]

‘We will never consider Aer Lingus again’

Brian Patterson, from Michigan in the US, said he booked a “dream trip” to Ireland. He is due to fly out on June 26th and will stay for 10 days. It has been 54 years since he was last in Ireland.

“We’re really stressed. We’ve been planning a dream trip for the past year. Hotels and tours prepaid and booked. We expect to lose the thousands.

“We are angry and disgusted, this was to be the trip of a lifetime. We will never consider Aer Lingus again under any circumstances. If they were the last airline on earth, we’d travel by boat,” he said.

‘We feel very vulnerable. We need to get back to Melbourne’

Melanie Carroll said she moved home from Australia two years ago with her family to spend time with her parents in Co Limerick. She said her plan was to return to Australia in two weeks , where she has lived for 25 years and works as a teacher.

She is bookedto travel back to Melbourne on July 5th from Shannon Airport, where she will first fly to London with Aer Lingus to catch her connecting flight with Malaysia Airlines.

Carroll said her big concern is that she won’t get to London to get the connecting flight: “€600 won’t cover the cost of our tickets to Melbourne. It will be interesting to find out our rights. What happens if the Aer Lingus flight is cancelled due to the strike? We feel very vulnerable. We need to get back to Melbourne that weekend as we’re teachers and are back in school the following week.”

‘Our trip is to coincide with both of our granddaughters’ birthdays’

Rosalind, who is from England, is booked to fly to Dublin first before flying to Chicago on July 10th with Aer Lingus. She is flying to Chicago to visit her son.

“The trip is planned to coincide with both of our granddaughters’ birthdays. It has cost us a lot of money and now I’m stressed that we won’t get there,” she said.

‘We’ll find some way home’

Jimmy Quinn, from Co Louth, is flying to Tenerife on Wednesday afternoon. His flight to return home is on June 29th. Despite flying home after the agreed date that Aer Lingus may begin their strikes, he does not feel nervous about it. “We’ll find some way home,” he said.

‘I am hoping beyond hope they can work this out’

Angie Dalton Henderson’s children gifted her and her husband the trip to Dublin from Nebraska in the United States for her 65th birthday. She is due to fly from Denver to Dublin on June 30th and stay for a week.

“Airfare is only a piece of it. We have hotels booked in Dublin, the train to Cork, nights in Dingle and Cobh booked and a car reserved at Cork Airport,” she said.

“I am hoping beyond hope they can work this out.”