Warning for anyone connecting out of Dublin to fly to USA, don't be me!

[MorrisZapp]

I'm a broken human and it's all Aer Lingus's fault. Business trip yesterday Edinburgh to JFK, connecting through Dublin.

Due to weather, my Edinburgh flight was delayed and we landed late in Dublin. Still in time for connection but all travellers to the USA have to go through US Homeland Security in Dublin, and there is no fast track option for late incoming connections.

It took well over an hour to clear US customs, the queues were horrendous and there are four levels of security to clear.

I think ten different people beeped my boarding pass but this means nothing as US security exists to protect the USA, not to help people catch flights.

After a horrific race to the furthest gate in the terminal, I arrived to a closed gate and the staff clearing up. They were kind and sympathetic but I was absolutely not getting on the plane. My bags had been taken off. Other people were in the same situation.

We could not approach Aer Lingus ticketing until to got landside, and we couldn't get landside until we had our bags back, which took an hour. Once we arrived at the ticketing desk there was a queue of desperate and upset travellers ahead of us, all trying to get to the USA. There were further flights out but we couldn't get them because going through homeland security again would have taken too long, and many flights were full anyway.

All they could offer was overnight accommodation with onward travel the next day. This didn't work for me as I'd missed my meeting anyway so I had to get a flight home instead. Edinburgh was full so I took a teatime flight to Glasgow. I got home at 10pm having been in transit from 6am.

I can't explain what it feels like to miss a transatlantic flight, I'm still processing it now. Seeing that closed gate was like the most stressful scene in a film, but it was real and actually happening to me.

Catching connections works until it doesn't. How the fuck Aer Lingus thought I could negotiate their huge, multi level airport and the whole of US security in the time allowed even had my incoming flight been on time was baffling to me. Why they haven't set up support airside for all the people held up like this is a mystery for the ages. Entire families were crying, the staff were helpful but there weren't nearly enough of them and they can't offer solutions that don't exist.

People who don't live near hub airports have no choice but to use connections. I've learned my lesson. I've informed my company that my next journey to the USA will require me to catch a train to London the day before (early, in case of train shenanigans) a night in a Heathrow hotel and a flight out of Heathrow next day.

Don't be me. Don't trust airline's own itineraries for connecting flights, and never fly Dublin to USA unless you are able to arrive at Dublin many hours in advance.

And an extra fuck you to the last US security guy I dealt with. Your utter nastiness made one of the most stressful experiences of my half century on this earth even worse and for what, sir? If you want your country to be safe then ban gun ownership and be civil to middle aged ladies who obey every rule and command asked of them.

Last moan, a pint in Dublin Airport costs seven pounds thirty. Most needed pint of my life. Just.... don't be me.

I was offered two choices. Use the JFK sector to cover my Glasgow flight, and get no refund. Or pay out of pocket for Glasgow and seek a refund for the JFK (using the somewhat suspicious looking phone number printed on some old fashioned computer paper). I figured the JFK refund would be worth more so I paid Glasgow out of pocket (company credit card).

Further complicated by fact I wasn't booked to be returning with AL and the whole booking was made through a third party site. As always, it's great until it goes awry.

I'm Scottish. There would be scenes 🤣

We had booked the same route (Edinburgh to JFK via Dublin) this summer and the Dub-JFK part was cancelled - whilst we were standing waiting to check-in in Edinburgh. Aerlingus were pretty useless. All could offer was a flight the next day - ED to Dub to Boston to JFK. We were going on holiday so had hotel and trips booked. We booked the flights and hotel through BA holidays. So they were able to move us on a direct Delta Flight from Edinburgh to JFK. We don’t usually book flights and hotel as a package but we definitely will in the future for that sort of trip. And it only took us 45 mins to clear immigration in JFK.

I totally get it, OP. It would have been less stressful for you if it had been clear that you were never going to make that connection once you landed in Dublin. Instead, you had all of that running around, snaking queues, stressing and sweating.

I resolved to take my next flight to the US via Dublin because I absolutely hate going through immigration at JFK, where they treat "aliens" like shit. Now I have been warned - I'm scrapping the Dublin plan.

I have actually flown many states out of my way to avoid immigration at JFK. Dulles has been the most consistently efficient. Then I get a connecting flight to finish the journey. Worth it, though not very "green".

Thank you pal. Also I literally agreed with that rather rude poster - preclearance is great if you have time for it. Cutting off the second half of my very reasonable statement is the work of an agitator. I nearly wrote alligator.

Yip, those package tourers we all laughed at knew what they were doing. Self booking and using third party websites looks great and I've done it successfully so many times but if it goes wrong, you're fucked. Sorry gran. You were right x

The nights must fly by round at yours.

crikey, it's pissing down!

• that is rain Harold, not urine. Kindly stick to facts.

I sympathise missing a flight is awful,
However I found the Dublin USA security so much better than in the USA. I travelled with colleagues who set off hours before and spent 3 hours queuing in USA. I go there before them even walking from the domestic Boston terminal to International to meet them. If I were going to USA again I would definitely go through Ireland.

1.5 hours is not usually acceptable for a transfer though and Dublin airport is huge

As other posters have mentioned, Schipol is the worst I have experienced for this. I have missed numerous connections here as the 45 min KLM think is enough is absolutely not if you plane is a bit delayed, you have to wait before de-embarking, etc. My top tip if booking with KLM, is not to book the flight suggested with the 45 minute connection suggested on their site, but rather one with a longer wait in Schipol. The airport itself is okay to wait in, and you won't miss your flight!

No honestly, stick to Dublin. Just make sure you have loads of time. Only one guy was rude and I only cared about that because I was already stressed to the max. It was fine, just time consuming.

Oh god yes, I’m surprised they’re offering the flights with that turn around if it leads to off loading luggage, which is time consuming and must be a paper work ball ache and cost them. Maybe it’s very rare it works out like this. But as a work travelling veteran I would never do this kind of connection - the stress would kill me 😂, whereas DH does it all the time, reasoning it’s their fault, they’ll sort it 🤷‍♀️. I always felt I have to stress for both of us as he doesn’t stress at all, ever, about anything.
Got to love MN though, you’re now an ENTITLED MOANER Morris, it’s official 😂😂

That's a badge to wear with pride 😂

Poor you. That's really rotten. Rude staff are so upsetting. Prices in my homeland - Ireland- are expensive. I hope that you feel better soon. What a rotten story. Anyone who doesn't sympathise is just mean!

We always go the day before if we are catching a flight to the states. It stops me being super anxious, airport hotel is about £50, well worth it.

As an Irish person, one wants to say ‘Look, shit for brains, dial down the tone, because you’re actually standing in my country bristling with guns and aggression’.

I’m sorry it was stressful — when I lived in the UK, I often flew to the US via Dublin and never missed some fairly tight connections, but it’s crap when it happens. I think my most stressful one was in a huge storm at Johannesburg airport where our incoming flight had been delayed by weather, and those of us connecting to a UK flight had to sprint through the terminal. Older people were put in one of those golf cart things, but the rest of us were running flat out after a very athletic airport employee carrying laptop bags, with lightning flashing all over…

Try not to feel bad. Many Americans will have missed flights, both domestic and international, through no fault of their own.

There were a lot of Americans flying back to the US on my flight, and they were flabbergasted at the brusqueness of the agents, and the way everyone was given a hard look up and down.

For people with connecting flights from their US arrival point, weather can be a huge spamner in the works too, with similar slow progress if they have to go through USCIS in the US because they are depending on staffing levels, number of flights, and level of risk on the day of arrival.

That's why many people prefer to get through that stumbling block in Dublin, so they feel they have a fighting chance of making their onward connection. I flew with people heading to Seattle who had less than an hour to deplane, find their bearings, switch terminals, and get to their next gate - in the sweltering heat when they were already very tired.

Which airport hotel in Dublin is 50 pounds?! All the ones I have ever looked at have been at hugely inflated prices!

@TheCrenchinglyMcQuaffenBrothers

Oh god yes, I’m surprised they’re offering the flights with that turn around if it leads to off loading luggage, which is time consuming and must be a paper work ball ache and cost them

If the airline know they have passengers on tight connections it’s possible they will hold the relevant bags at the aircraft side until the owners are on, rather than load them and then have to offload them if the passenger doesn’t make it.

I'm inviting every single one of you to my wedding. Not to a man or anything, just a piss up with people who have truly mastered the art of skewering bullshit. Truly, you are the tonic to my gin. Cheers x

The lady in front of me was from Michigan, she had six adult kids all of whom have five or six kids of their own. You meet all sorts! She was lovely.

And then hold them back for badness to keep the miscreants trapped airside with only a vending machine to sustain life 🤣

So I take it that your appointment would have been the next day and that you would have stayed in a hotel the night before? Did the lawyer (or whomever needed you there) arrange the travel?

Yip, that was the plan. The arrangements were made by me, the idiot. Multiple lessons learned!

Mostly around 167 quid tonight, I had a nosy google. Some of them are walking distance to the terminals.

I know OP what does it means to have your gate shut, happened to me not on the plane but a train a week ago!
Me and my little girl missed our return train home from trip to London as the Tube line had some emergencies, we got to the gate in the very last minute after a huge gush through the station only to find the gate cordoned off and the train leaving..
It was like in the dramatic movies.