An intra-Europe flight is nothing to ever get too excited about, and while this busy August weekend gave us an opportunity to provide another Aer Lingus flight review, it was a little mixed – with a relatively indifferent crew on the outbound, and a pretty negative impression of Rome FCO’s handling company on the whole.

As I’ve said many times before, Dublin Airport is overall a pleasant if somewhat space-constrained airport to fly out of.

As AerClub members we were all entitled to use fast track security in Terminal 2, though for some reason the staff member decided to remind me that I was only entitled by myself, even though all three of us were individually eligible – as opposed to just glancing at all the boarding cards. I’m not sure if this is a new attempt to crack down on airline-facilitated abuse of the fast track queue or what, but it wasn’t very much appreciated.

In the years since Terminal 2 was constructed, they've realised the mistake of not routing the post-security flow directly through the duty free and that commercial oopsie has since been rectified such that all passengers are immediately funnelled into the expansive duty free.

I’ve discussed the lounge many times before and won’t do so again, other than to remind readers, once again, that Gate 335 is actually a few minutes drive from the terminal and is basically a not especially pleasant holding area for about 5 gates. I don’t know what the long-term plan is here, but I’d love for this area to be banished – it’s such a low-grade impression for passengers of the national carrier.

Boarding started hastily, with a new boarding procedure – AerClub members first (and not Advantage fares, etc. as before), followed by all others. Across the tarmac, and onto the plane and we were seated in row 1 A, B & C for our flight, EI405, to Rome FCO. Boarding was wrapped up promptly, and we were quickly airborne.

There’s not really much to say that I haven’t previously said about these short intra-Europe Aer Lingus flights; there is no in-flight entertainment, Row 1 generally offers only a modest amount of legroom due to the full-height partition, and there’s definitely no ‘business class’ to speak of.

There was however food & beverage service, which we happily partook in. This is where things got a bit strange – despite the nearly 3-hour flight sector, the crew weren’t really seen again, all staying down the back despite our use of the call bell to get a second round in much later. When we finally did manage to track down another 3 glasses of wine (towards the latter stages of the flight), we were told the call bell doesn’t work in the back – which seems like something most passengers wouldn’t know or be aware of.

All that said however, and it was a relatively pleasant flight overall. Rome’s FCO Airport was a slightly different story – after standing around for about 40 minutes, along with our fellow passengers, there was a near-stampede to the handling agent desk when our flight disappeared from the baggage carousel monitors.

We were quickly told that the bags had indeed been offloaded, but they didn’t know where they were since then – perhaps on another belt, and that it’d be worth our time looking, but who could really say for sure.

After 5 clueless minutes of many of us standing at the handling company’s desk, word quickly spread (among the passengers, the agent still had no idea) that bags were finally showing up. All very strange, and a bit disjointed.

Our return demonstrated the haphazard operation – once again – of the local Rome FCO handling company. Despite arranging three check-in desks for, in order, baggage drop, check-in, and AerClub; all three desks were fed by one single queue, meaning it didn’t matter if you were an AerClub member, or had already done online check-in and just had a bag to drop; we were all one.

As a result, the queue moved glacially and – when we finally arrived to the top of the queue – there was more bad news as the agent printed me off the boarding passes and sent us on our merry way, only for me to quickly discover that our – paid – seat selection had become lost in the wash, and given away to other passengers (for which I have a refund application in, and waiting…).

Similarly, despite being AerClub members, there wasn't mention to be had whatsoever about the – what would turn out to be very impressive – lounge, on offer. After a late gate change, we departed from gate E02, a bus gate that took us out across the apron to our waiting craft stood out by itself in the middle of nowhere.

Once again, another very standard flight – although with far more proactive second offers of food/drinks long before landing. But to my great, and slightly disappointed, surprise, this plane came with no seatback pockets and a very tacky plastic holder for the folded-up safety card. I haven’t actually seen this before on Aer Lingus, and thought it to be a bit of a cheap touch. I’m assuming this is an elderly exception and not some sign of things to come.

After a very scenic take-off out over the coast and later across the Alps (see below), it wasn’t long before landing time back in Dublin – after, as usual, a pleasant and uneventful set of short-haul Aer Lingus flights on both EI405 and EI406.