Random flight question

[Hotter Otter 1,211]

I'm planning my next US flight and I'm sick of the four hour trip to LHR and having to allow extra time for traffic etc so thinking of flying Bristol - Dublin - Boston or Exeter - Amsterdam - Boston. It's about the same price. I've heard someone say before that if you fly via Ireland you can go through US passport control in Ireland so you don't need to go through it at the other end? Or is that just Irish and American citizens?

[Jessicacallum 14]

If you fly from Dublin yes.

[srvman 38]

Dublin is great. And yes POE is in Dublin. So if, and that is a big IF, you have any issues, you find out in dublin, instead of at the end of a 6 or 7 hour flight.

Not to mention Dublin is usually cheaper ( I think they pay less airport tax)

[h13rma 35]

Boston is one of the airports where you can't pre-clear for

http://www.dublinairport.com/gns/at-the-airport/US-Preclearance.aspx

I find the problem with the Dublin flight is the arrival time one gets in at 4:15pm the other at 11:05, and at the moment the tunnel to the airport from the north end is shut, so its a pain to get to the city depending where your join of course. The Amsterdam flight with Delta DL 230 gets in at 1:30pm and is usually the only flight in the international terminal at that time so is really quick immigration. I use this flight 6-8 times a year, and use Paris or London the rest of the time. I don't use Air Lingus because of the lack of a major airline frequent flyer program, sky team or star alliance.

[rhirhi 35]

I had the same problem with being sick of the journey to Heathrow. I now only fly Aer Lingus Cardiff-Dublin-Boston. It's easy to transfer onto your next flight, your luggage is checked through as are you. They DID stop preclearence at Dublin for the Boston flights but restarted it in October. I've been through twice and it's an absolute breeze because people go through it in their own time rather than like when a plane lands in Boston, every single person on that plane has to go through immigration in one go so it takes ages. It's also great getting off the plane, grabbing your luggage and leaving the airport rather than fussing with immigration once you get to your destination.

If you've been saving up airmailed with BA/AA etc you can enter your BA/AA loyalty number during the booking with Aer Lingus and collect some airmiles. You can also use BA/AA airmiles on Aer Lingus flights which is handy if you HAVE to visit but are a bit strapped for cash.

[Hotter Otter 1,211]

Thanks for the replies I love how helpful people are on this site. Skipping the queues at Boston POE is a huge plus as although last time I had no problems the time before they were short staffed and I waited nearly two hours!

If you've been saving up airmailed with BA/AA etc you can enter your BA/AA loyalty number during the booking with Aer Lingus and collect some airmiles. You can also use BA/AA airmiles on Aer Lingus flights which is handy if you HAVE to visit but are a bit strapped for cash.

Thanks for the tip, I'm a BA frequent flier so that will be really handy :-)

[h13rma 35]

I had the same problem with being sick of the journey to Heathrow. I now only fly Aer Lingus Cardiff-Dublin-Boston. It's easy to transfer onto your next flight, your luggage is checked through as are you. They DID stop preclearence at Dublin for the Boston flights but restarted it in October. I've been through twice and it's an absolute breeze because people go through it in their own time rather than like when a plane lands in Boston, every single person on that plane has to go through immigration in one go so it takes ages. It's also great getting off the plane, grabbing your luggage and leaving the airport rather than fussing with immigration once you get to your destination.

If you've been saving up airmailed with BA/AA etc you can enter your BA/AA loyalty number during the booking with Aer Lingus and collect some airmiles. You can also use BA/AA airmiles on Aer Lingus flights which is handy if you HAVE to visit but are a bit strapped for cash.

Good to know that they are doing it again Dublin airport website still says no. In the end to avoid the line in Boston Immigration I ended up paying the $100 for global entry which is so much faster.

[rhirhi 35]

Good to know that they are doing it again Dublin airport website still says no. In the end to avoid the line in Boston Immigration I ended up paying the $100 for global entry which is so much faster.

Ugh those lines can be hideous. I started flying with Aer Lingus before they restarted preclearance, the last time I had to clear immigration in Boston it was the end of May, boiling hot and it took 3 hours to get through. Horrible! I've done immigration in boston twice once I walked straight up to the officer, the last time there was a bit of a queue but apart from "is this your bag?" I was asked no questions at all so I breezed through.

I should state that if anyone was thinking of using avios etc on aer lingus you have to ring up BA to book the flights. It's 25000 return I believe from Dublin to Boston plus about £70 in taxes which is amazing. Only downside is I've never been able to book the Cardiff-dublin segment using airmiles so I've had to book that on a different ticket. Sometimes the airport check in staff check you and your bags through to Boston, sometimes they don't, so it's a case of weighing up whether you'd have a long enough layover to check in again in Dublin if the worst came to the worst. I've always made it through ok

Edited January 22, 2014 by rhirhi

[h13rma 35]

Ugh those lines can be hideous. I started flying with Aer Lingus before they restarted preclearance, the last time I had to clear immigration in Boston it was the end of May, boiling hot and it took 3 hours to get through. Horrible! I've done immigration in boston twice once I walked straight up to the officer, the last time there was a bit of a queue but apart from "is this your bag?" I was asked no questions at all so I breezed through.

I should state that if anyone was thinking of using avios etc on aer lingus you have to ring up BA to book the flights. It's 25000 return I believe from Dublin to Boston plus about £70 in taxes which is amazing. Only downside is I've never been able to book the Cardiff-dublin segment using airmiles so I've had to book that on a different ticket. Sometimes the airport check in staff check you and your bags through to Boston, sometimes they don't, so it's a case of weighing up whether you'd have a long enough layover to check in again in Dublin if the worst came to the worst. I've always made it through ok

Thats a really cheap air mile ticket, we used BA miles to fly to Edinburgh last year and the taxes were still about $700 a ticket. We usually use all my miles in the US where a free ticket is still largely that.

I don't like flying BA but sometimes don't get a choice my next trip is with them but I still have a lounge card so its not to bad. I haven't been in Dublin Airport for couple of years so may give it a go on one of our trips to the UK my wife wants to see Dublin so its an excuse for a layover of a couple of days.

[Hotter Otter 1,211]

That's what got me about airmiles, I have loads and looked it up and most of the bloody fare was still to pay as taxes! I quite like BA and Virgin, flew American Airlines once and was not impressed at all, the cabin crew seemed to regard the passengers as an unwanted nuisance and the entertainment was from the 80's.

[h13rma 35]

That's what got me about airmiles, I have loads and looked it up and most of the bloody fare was still to pay as taxes! I quite like BA and Virgin, flew American Airlines once and was not impressed at all, the cabin crew seemed to regard the passengers as an unwanted nuisance and the entertainment was from the 80's.

I always try to fly Delta, but most of my travel is booked by the company so it tends to be Air France or KLM, when i go to visit family in the UK i try and always fly Delta 231/230 through Amsterdam its usually Boston crew and they recognise me now. I fell out with BA a couple of years ago and won't give them any of my cash, but sometimes the company puts me on with them. Virgin are okay and now you get sky team miles with them. Also virgin don't charge an extra fee for unacompanied minors so my kids fly them all the time.