For our last-of-the-summer-sun trip to Greece, we flew Dublin to Athens on Aer Lingus flight EI440 on the way over, and oddly, Aegean Airlines in business class on the return journey – I’ll post that one shortly, but needless to say you can’t really compare.

Dublin Airport experiences a wave of early morning mania owing to the wild first bank of departures, though perhaps expectedly in early September, check-in was relatively calm and fast track security calmer still, with no queue and nobody ahead of us even at the x-ray machines.

There was about 20 minutes available to pay our respects at the Aer Lingus lounge, which again, was busy but certainly not heaving – and to grab a double espresso, followed quickly by the swift consumption of an early morning glass of prosecco. As always, Aer Lingus could probably upgrade their food offering; there wasn’t much other than some croissants to get excited about.

Presumably because of the early morning first departure wave, we actually had to pack up from the lounge a little earlier in order to head to our gate, which was not really in Terminal 2, but actually next door in the 300 gates – back in old Terminal 1 where I worked as a college student in duty free (fun bit of trivia there, see it wasn’t always all business class flights and early morning prosecco’s!).

At the gate, boarding had commenced and – which is a good forewarning to anyone attempting to the bend the rules – the ‘Saver’ fare hand luggage police were out checking that nobody on Aer Lingus’ cheapest fares were trying to sneak a hand luggage on with them. I wondered why, because I’d never seen this activity take place before but I realised that a) they were having tremendous success with folks trying to take whole roll-aboards with them in spite of being on ‘Saver’ fare tickets, and that b) there was an incredible amount of US passengers who seemed entirely unaware of this fare type and its restrictions. I’ve no idea if this is a side-effect of the flights’ time that facilitates connections from the US, but it was quite something to behold.

Anyway, we were quickly admitted through the – thank you, Aer Lingus – AerClub priority line, which no longer caters to those on Advantage fares or with hand luggage.

An Aer Lingus short-haul plane is never anything to get overly excited about, but I did appreciate that they rostered a plane with foldable headrests at least, that we might have a chance to sleep and not end up landing on each other’s laps.

Fully aware that I would not be likely in the mood for anything but sleeping at the early morning hour, I booked us both into the emergency exit row, which offered sufficient space to get out even from the window and middle, without disturbing our incredibly cranky fellow passenger.

Meanwhile, our US passengers in front of us very loudly aired their disgust at not receiving any in-flight entertainment, before moving on to suggesting that the crew were being difficult in asking them to clear their belongings from the seat area – in an emergency exit row, which they’d presumably either booked or been aware they’d be seated at.

Overall, the mood on-board was oddly tense for a first-thing-am departure.

We were quickly on our way, and again, I’ve to give kudos to our Aer Lingus crew for stalling on dragging out the food & beverage service until about halfway through the flight, allowing the majority of us to catch at least an hour or two’s snooze without being distracted by the rustling of plastic and smell of reheated breakfasts.

Reviewing the state of the cabin, the lights were also left consciously dimmed for the most part throughout the flight and at the end of the day, what else could you ask for in an all-economy offering so early in the morning but as much comfort and silence as possible.

You wouldn’t think it, but I’ve actually little else to say about this flight – the crew did a great job at largely keeping discreet and quiet considering the early hour, and as a result I mostly snoozed on and off throughout the 4-hour journey; waking up in time to see Greece from our ever-decreasing height.

Before long, we were on the ground in Athens, bussed to a very empty non-Schengen immigration area and back landside within 30 minutes.

Overall, a very efficient, comfortable and peaceful flight – just what was needed for the early morning hour, despite the best efforts of our highly vocal fellow passengers on what they felt were the shortcomings on a short-haul intra-Europe flight.