As part of the upgrade of the transatlantic Business Class product, Aer Lingus opened an arrivals lounge at their home base, dubbing it the ‘Revival Lounge’. The lounge has been open for around a year and is the only arrivals lounge at Dublin Airport. Eligible guests are passengers arriving from North America in Business Class only.
I had arrived overnight from Boston in Business Class (detailed in this post) and I was looking forward to trying out the lounge as I had never used an arrivals lounge before. This is due to the fact I usually connect through London Heathrow on the way back to Dublin.
Once I collected my bag, I easily found the entrance in the baggage hall beside carousel number six. The design cues are taken directly from the other Aer Lingus lounges, so it looked quite familiar.
Once inside, you are presented with the reception desk. Everything comes across as very calm, which is what you want after a long haul flight. The clean lines of the wood along with the dark tiles go together very nicely.
The lounge attendant took my boarding pass and checked my name off a list of the passengers flying in Business Class who were eligible to use the lounge.
You are offered the option of immediately going to a Revival Room for a shower, or to have some refreshments first. These are very similar to the offering in the Aer Lingus lounges. In this case, breakfast pastries, tea and drinks. There is also a coffee machine.
There is a small seating area that seats 6 people and a television on the wall.
Of course, the reason for visiting here is to have a shower before heading off to work (or home in my case). The corridor to the Revival Rooms is brightly lit, clean and welcoming.
A unique selling point of the Aer Lingus Revival lounge is that you can choose to have your clothes steam pressed while you’re getting ready. You place your clothes on a hanger, press a button, the staff take them away and then return them all ready to wear. The notice below also hints that you should be finished in the room within 20 minutes.
You can see the setup for the clothes retrieval below. They can be taken away without any prying eyes spying on you while you’re in the shower.
There is of course a toilet, basin and large mirror which gives the room quite a decent sense of space.
The shower is spacious and modern featuring a rain shower which is de rigueur for airline lounges nowadays.
Beside the shower is a bench with the towels and so on, along with a hair dryer.
The hand wash and moisturiser are from Irish company VOYA which are based in Co. Sligo.
The other products are branded The Haven and are provided by an Irish company in Rathcoole, Co. Dublin. You can buy 300 for €85.00 which makes them worth €0.28 each retail. I had always wondered what kind of price these things went for!
They do look pretty good though!
Overall Thoughts
Overall, the Revival Lounge is an excellent addition to the Aer Lingus product. I was on the shortest transatlantic sector from Boston to Dublin however I think it would be a real godsend on the long routes from San Francisco and Los Angeles. Nothing is more refreshing than a shower after a long haul flight and for those going straight to work it is a necessity. Nice work, Aer Lingus!
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