Review of Aer Lingus flight from London to Dublin in Economy

I've wanted to go to Ireland for a while, I've looked at it several times but it never worked out. This year, finally, with about one free week between two dates on which I needed to be in London, was the perfect opportunity.
Originally I had been looking at flying into Belfast but after looking at the driving for each day, Dublin worked out to be a little easier.
Another benefit was it let me get another flight on Aer Lingus (flying them, or rather Emerald Airlines, to Belfast would mean an unnecessarily long drive to Southampton). At the time of booking this I already had a Cork-Heathrow flight with them but even though I didn't have very high expectations based on their lack of complimentary service, I did prefer to get another flight with them as I don't expect to be visiting Ireland again anytime soon.
BA timings didn't work out too well - I wanted a morning flight  but not too early - and while Ryanair was an option, I didn't really want to fly them and after taking into consideration the cost of dropping a rental car at Stansted instead of Heathrow, they weren't significantly cheaper. The ticket cost £77, and a 20kg checked bag was £22.

When I got to the check-in area at Heathrow, the line for Aer Lingus was so long that they'd set up a separate line at a small area across from check-in, which was a line to get into the actual line.
Departures this morning:

The real line wasn't that long though, and some people were sent away as they were too early.
Bag drop was self service and didn't take too long. Aer Lingus has an interesting policy where they give a free 10kg check in and just a personal item to take on board, though you can pay to carry on that check in.

To get into the security area they had to take a biometric picture of me was I was going to Ireland.
Security was fast - though they scanned my shoes and water bottle - and there was of course no immigration.
The screen said the gate would be assigned at 6:50, it was only 6:30 but the boarding pass had said A21 and after getting there, that was clearly right.

St. Thomas / Tomás, or EI-NSA, the 4.3 year old A320neo flying over to Dublin this morning. It had come the night before from Shannon.

Royal Brunei and Kuwait Airways behind.
Air Canada, Emirates and American were among the airlines that passed by, with a JetBlue A321neo parked next door.

The gate seating filled quickly with nothing happening at the gate.

Boarding started just before 7 and was done by zone.

The line got long quite fast but also moved through fast, which also happened on the jetbridge. The lady checking passports sent me to the priority line for some reason, not that it made much of a difference.

There was a friendly welcome to a very bare cabin.

There was a tiny tray table, no headrest, and no recline. I wouldn't want to be in this cabin for a significantly longer flight, though to be fair, they don't use them for much over a couple of hours.

Personal lights and vents, at least.

And two sets of one USB-A and one USB-C ports per row of three.

Nice winglet, I like the Aer Lingus livery.

The seatback pocket had a safety card and buy on board catalogue for food and shopping.

This is the menu Aer Lingus offers.

There was a small food selection though prices were reasonable. They should really have at least free water and maybe tea/coffee to differentiate themselves from Ryanair.
Loganair passed us by.

And Riyadh Air a bit further away, first time I've seen one of their planes.

A few European airlines, JetBlue and Qantas.

Four United planes.

There's another with some intercontinental visitors.

Sorry, two more.

There were also at least seven AAs and a few Deltas too, plenty of more interesting planes but the sheer number of US flights is impressive.

And we're off.

Right after takeoff there was a very fast buy on board service and before it was over, the first officer announced we were flying over Wales and would soon be crossing the Irish Sea and beginning our descent.
About 25 minutes after takeoff we got to the sea.

Not five minutes later, the coast of Éire was in sight.

There was a great view coming in to land.

Welcome to the Republic of Ireland!

Ryanair was further down, with some airlines from the Continent.

Etihad 787, among a few North American widebodies.

Someone landing, I believe Ryanair from Málaga.

Etihad again with an Aer Lingus A330.

We finally parked next to an Aer Lingus A321XLR registered EI…XLX. Possibly the first A321XLR I've ever seen, actually.

Not long until deplaning started.

The immediate area we stepped out into wasn't great, though the rest of the terminal was more normal.

Last view of our plane.

It was a long walk from the gate to immigration, which I didn't expect to be there. There was someone directing EU passport holders into one line (where was no wait). With my UK passport I went to the regular line, but realized later that the "EU" one actually included the UK and Switzerland. Still, it only took a couple of minutes and the officer just glanced at the passport for a second, I guess checking if it was UK.
T2 arrivals:

It took some time until London bags actually started coming.

And with that, this report ends.

Thanks for reading.