BOS to BCN thru Dublin Aer Lingus - 80 min layover enough?

[Jezbel716]

I posted this on the board specifically for Ireland, but figured the Spain board might make more sense....

 

I am looking at flights from Boston to Barcelona on Aer Lingus that connect through Dublin but there is only an 80 minute layover on the way over (and 1 hr 40 on the return). Is that enough time for Dublin's airport to change planes? and will we be clearing customs there? This flight is about $300 cheaper per person than the British Air flight through Heathrow that has a longer layover (3hrs). With gas prices rising, I need to book ASAP but am worried about missing connections. Thanks for any advice

[kazu]

I posted this on the board specifically for Ireland, but figured the Spain board might make more sense....

 

I am looking at flights from Boston to Barcelona on Aer Lingus that connect through Dublin but there is only an 80 minute layover on the way over (and 1 hr 40 on the return). Is that enough time for Dublin's airport to change planes? and will we be clearing customs there? This flight is about $300 cheaper per person than the British Air flight through Heathrow that has a longer layover (3hrs). With gas prices rising, I need to book ASAP but am worried about missing connections. Thanks for any advice

 

A short connection time always makes me nervous. If this is all through Aer lingus, they know you are connecting - there should be some expedited procedures to get you through.....but.....if the plane is late due to delays, winds, whatever you could risk missing your flight. Just my best guess.

 

I haven't gone through Dublin, but in other connections i have done, we didn't have to go through customs until we arrived at our final destination.

[4774Papa]

A short connection time always makes me nervous. If this is all through Aer lingus, they know you are connecting - there should be some expedited procedures to get you through.....but.....if the plane is late due to delays, winds, whatever you could risk missing your flight. Just my best guess.

 

I haven't gone through Dublin, but in other connections i have done, we didn't have to go through customs until we arrived at our final destination.

 

I agree with kazu. I am not familiar with Dublin, but that is generally not enough time. I would not allow such a short time flying from a US airport to Europe, but you would already be in Europe, and connecting to another European city might work. Check out the airline for later flights to Barcelona, in case you don't make the connection, and they have to put you on a later flight.

[hubofhockey]

The biggest risk with the quick turnaround is not missing the connecting flight. It's your luggage missing it and that is not something I would gamble on at the start of your cruise.

 

We flew back from Barcelona to Boston with the stop in Dublin last summer with the same 90-minute layover. Because of strikes over some airspace, our flight was delayed. They held the connecting flight and we made it home on it. Our luggage made it home the next day. It didn't bother us because we were home from vacation. It would be much more hectic to start your vacation that way.

 

As I posted on your other thread, if you want to save a lot of money, take the Icelandair flight from Boston to Barcelona with the long layover in Iceland. We are taking advantage of the long layover to go to the Blue Lagoon. The flights were $420 and less for my under 12 son. They are probably more now with the recent uptick in oil prices. But Icelandair is an option you may want to consider.

[Hlitner]

We are familiar with Aer Lingus and the Dublin airport and that is enough time if your flight is on time. On the other hand, if your flight is delayed you would have a real problem. To be blunt, when we did the same thing (although we used an originating flight from Dulles) we simply did a several day stop-over in Dublin. Aer Lingus allows stop-overs for up to 2 weeks with no additional charge (this used to be the policy...not positive it is still the policy) so we always take advantage of the opportunity to spend some time in Ireland. From the Dublin airport there is a pretty reasonable airport bus that runs into town to many of the hotels which makes the stop-over not too difficult.

 

Hank

[Bet & Peg]

Last July we flew Aer Lingus JFK to Amsterdam via Dublin - it was hectic and we had a four-hour layover going and 75minutes coming home!! We made both flight - although it was a made rush coming home!

 

Last year - don't know if airport arrangement has changed - we landed and had to walk a long distance, through the baggage arrival area, through security again, to get into the departure area. Then a long distance to the short-distance flights which were boarded via the tarmac - had to carry our carry-on luggage up the stairs.

 

Leaving we arrived and almost ran through the corridors to the customs - lots of people - and then ran to find our gate with the plane already boarding - it worked but.....

 

Dublin looked like a nice airport IF there were no time consideration!

 

Good Luck!!