Taylor Swift fans scrambling for Dublin flights left THOUSANDS out of pocket

TAYLOR Swift fans coming to Ireland on Aer Lingus have told how switching flights just in case the troubled carrier cancels last minute will end up costing them an extra $2,000.

American mum Justine Lasyer insists “I would swim across the Atlantic if I had to” with her daughters Alyson and Amanda and couldn’t risk a cancellation disaster.

She told the Irish Sun: “Part of me thinks Aer Lingus will just settle but I couldn’t stand the not knowing.”

Another American, 30-year-old Kaye Taylor and her three pals are coming from Des Moines in Iowa – where flight options to Dublin are limited.

She told us: “We’ve been planning and saving for about a year for this trip, we’re really looking forward to it, so a few days before the trip it’s pretty nerve wracking.”

Pennsylvania woman Justine, 54, Alyson, 27 and 25-year-old Amanda have been forced to spend more time in Ireland than she planned due to the strike threat, at a cost of $2,000.

She fumed: “I would never think a group of people represent an entire country, the thing that I hope is that they (the pilots and the union) didn’t decide to do this on this particular weekend because of what is happening, and it sounds likely maybe that is why, and that’s kind of sad if it is true.”

Thousands of Swifties are coming to Ireland this weekend after bagging a coveted code for gigs that could sell out ten times over.

Justine, whose daughters went to the same school as Swift, said: “We booked everything last July when we finally got tickets to go to Dublin, we booked the air B&B, booked flights, everything.

“And then I think it was last Thursday we got an email from Aer Lingus saying we should cancel our trip, change our trip, or try to get flights with a different airline and we thought well we aren’t going to cancel our trip, we had the tickets to see Taylor Swift, and we had tried to get tickets to every American show there was, and we never did, I said I was going to swim across the Atlantic if I had to.

“So we decided instead of going online to call someone from Aer Lingus because we actually wanted to talk to somebody and I think we were on hold for at least an hour and we did speak to somebody who was very, very, nice.

“And after being on the phone for about 45 minutes we rebooked our flights on different airlines, they booked it for us right on the phone, we had wanted direct flights, and we wanted to sit together, this is a mother daughter weekend, but we couldn’t get the flights we needed.

“Now we’re flying into Amsterdam and then to Dublin.

“So we had to leave a day earlier and then we booked our flight home and we actually had to extend the trip by a day. Then we fly to London and then to Philadelphia.

“We booked that and we were supposed to get a confirmation within 15 minutes.

“We waited four hours and we did not get confirmation, so then we called back and we were on hold for 90 minutes, then somebody who was very helpful told us the same thing, that we would get it in 15 minutes.

“We waited 15 minutes and it never came.

“We went to bed that night and still didn’t have a confirmation.

“Then we got confirmation of that on Saturday morning.

She added: “Then we started thinking about where we are we going to stay?

“So I messaged by air B&B host and he said he couldn’t accommodate us (the extra days) so I started looking, I said we’re going to be in Ireland longer, why not take advantage of that?

“So I looked on air B&B and they weren’t gouging for prices which was really nice but it still cost us $500 more.

“And now we have the two days of expenses – we’re trying to make the best of it, but it’s not really what we had planned – we had to take more time off work, there’s a lot of stuff that happened.

“But it’s resolved, and we didn’t have to pay any differences which was nice.

“It’s taken up a lot of time, with the re-planning and everything.

“At the end of the day it has cost us an additional $2,000.”

She added: “I do believe everything happens for a reason and so now we’re making the best of Ireland, we’re going to the Cliffs of Moher and Glendalough.

“The trip is costing us probably about $6,500, maybe $7,000, we’ve already paid for a lot of the stuff we’re doing.”

PLANS DASHED

For Kaye Taylor and pals, it all started so well.

She told us: “Myself and my three others friends are planning to come to Dublin on Friday.

“We booked through Aer Lingus six months ago, I have previously flown before in 2021 and had nothing but good experiences so I suggested this airline, because were coming straight into Dublin.

“Last Tuesday I woke up and scrolled through TikTok and a video popped up of Aer Lingus announcing the strike and announcing no overtime would be paid unless pilots and the union came to an agreement with the airline, and so flights were going to cancelled, disrupted, whatever it may be.

“I started to freak out a little bit because we’re supposed to leave internationally on Friday and I couldn’t get through to customer service, their website had crashed so you couldn’t log in to see the flight status, I stated tweeting and all these bots that said Aer Lingus customer service tweeted me saying follow me and we’ll get customer service involved.

“I stayed on hold with customer service for three hours they day we found out, simply trying to see if our flight had been cancelled.

“As of now it’s not but it’s still a day by day basis and if we don’t find out till a couple of days before it’s almost impossible to get another direct flight out that day.

“We’re flying out of Minneapolis Minnesota and there aren’t really aren’t a lot of options to fly to Ireland out of the Midwest and if there are it massively expensive, we got these tickets for relatively cheap which is honestly why we jumped on it immediately.

“It’s just the not knowing and our concert is June 30 so we’re flying out the 28, we’re supposed to land the 29 in the morning, we have a full day of activities already planned, we’re going to go to Guinness factory, and we have a bar crawl that night, and then we’re going to wake up and go to the Taylor concert.

“And we’re really excited, the reason we’re going is because one of my friends that we’re going with broke her leg last year and we couldn’t go to the Eras tour in America, we were very fortunate to get a code to the Dublin show.”

She added: “It’s something we check every day, my flight status right now is still on and we’re really hoping it stays this way, this could really hinder our two week trip that we’re planning to take to Ireland.

“We’re really excited to see the country, we’ve heard nothing but good things from our friends and family who have visited, and the number one thing we’ve been told is the Irish are so welcoming, they’re so nice to tourists, we were really looking forward to that hospitality and that culture, and getting to go to the Irish pubs and seeing live music that we’ve heard so much about.

“We’re really excited and have just decided to not worry until there’s something to worry about!

“I don’t really associate this with Ireland because it’s the corporate greed that’s causing this.

“We’re all very pro-union and want what’s best for the pilots.

“So we’re at a catch 22 of we want the union to win but we’re also at the mercy of it.

“If the flight I cancelled and we have to book with another airline last minute we’re looking at about a loss of $2,000 each which is a lot considering we’ve been working and budgeting for a two-week trip and this could cause some issues.”

An Aer Lingus spokesperson said: “Aer Lingus has automatically rebooked as many customers as possible onto alternative flights and is emailing all other customers informing them of the cancellations and advising them of their options: to change their flight for free, to request a refund or to request a voucher.

“Details of all cancelled flights between June 26 and June 30 are available on the Travel Advisory on the Aer Lingus website.”