The lead-up to the flight was a bit problematic. I had bought this itinerary as an open jaw from British Airways, flying into Belfast on their metal and leaving from Dublin on Aer Lingus. Thinking these 2 airlines are friends and family, I expected seamless online check-in, but it was not. With the BA reference code, I was given an error that online check-in was not possible after going through the first few steps successfully. The error message noted to do it at the airport. It also gave an Aer Lingus reference code, although using that to check in also yielded the same error. Dublin's airport is not far from the city centre but all these years, there has not been a rail connection, a rarity among larger European cities. On my first visit some 20 years ago, I recall taking the 747 bus. This time, I took the 16 bus from near the GPO. Dublin has a lot of newer buses but an old one pulled into the stop and it looked quite full. There are luggage racks near the middle section but this bus is intended to serve residents living along the route instead of a tourist service.
With late afternoon traffic, it was a slow and painful ride through congested and narrow streets to reach Terminal 2 about 50 minutes later. Dublin Express and Aircoach offer faster and more expensive options, but with a Leap Card on hand, the 16 bus only costed 2 euros with a 90 minute transfer window with other buses and the tram, a bargain and commensurate with the pain and suffering for being cheap. Terminal 2 is new and Aer Lingus occupies an entire half of the building. Similar to BA, the first step is to go to a kiosk to print your boarding pass and bag tag, then head to the bag drop machines. With the Aer Lingus reference code, I got yet another error that check-in was not possible and to see an agent. This is getting annoying. Was I being bumped off the flight - the last one of the day to Heathrow? I then headed to the manual counters, which had 2 staff on hand and a long line snaking out. For a hub airport, it's a fairly sparse presence. The line did move steadily and I was able to get a boarding pass for the flight with an upfront seat for free. Security is up a long escalator and it was only a short wait to get through. They have the smart machines where laptops can stay in the bags so processing was a lot more efficient. Scanning the departure boards, there were a lot of flights heading to Heathrow in the early evening, but the previous 2 flights were delayed - not a good sign. At this point, I still had about 2 more hours to go before departure and I didn't get any notification about delays. After a quick dinner in the food court upstairs, I explored the shops air-side. There are a few famous Irish brands here so I would recommend saving your shopping until you get here, such as for Jameson whiskey, Butlers chocolates, or Guinness products. They even had packs of draught beer cans for sale! Behind the shopping mall, the walkway leads to the downstairs gate area which is far more modest, but there weren't too many flights leaving so many gates had rows of empty seats. Spotting is pretty much Aer Lingus everywhere at this terminal, but it's a new airline for me so I was excited to explore around. A unique feature here is the US pre-clearance facility. While I'm used to seeing this at Canadian airports, it's not a common thing overseas. I suppose there are enough US-bound flights to support this but perhaps Aer Lingus is paying out a lot of money to maintain their presence. The previous flight to London was boarding at the next gate when I noticed a plane pull into my gate and passengers disembarking. By now, it was almost the flight closing time on my boarding pass - less than half hour to go. I was expecting a slight delay but surprisingly, we were able to board not long after and everything finished right on the dot at 8:15pm, the departure time, and the full flight pushed back 4 minutes later. The cockpit announcement noted a 45-50 minute journey time and we took off towards the east at 8:35pm. My seat at the front section of the plane did not have extra legroom and there was no Business Class. For such a short flight, it's comfortable enough and I didn't need additional amenities such as IFE. I tried to spot Dublin's city centre from my right window as we reached for the skies. The crew came by to serve drinks and snacks for purchase and there was nothing free distributed. Checking out the paid food selection, prices are not too bad and in-line with other airlines. The weather was good and it was a smooth and uneventful flight. We got the announcement at 9pm that we started our descent, landing at 9:24pm from the west. While we didn't loop around London, we didn't need to hold on approach either. Flying within Europe on a traditional carrier isn't so much different than a low-cost airline, although the choice of airports might be better. For Dublin, it makes no difference as Ryanair also uses the main airport. Nevertheless, the fare was reasonable at about 140 pounds roundtrip (with the inbound into Belfast), which included 1 checked bag, and the flight arrived on time. BA had offered a small bottle of water and a snack for free, so is a notch better although it's a slight divergence given the 2 airlines are part of the same IAG family.