Taylor Swift performing at Wembley Stadium in England earlier this month. The pop star brings her Eras Tour to Dublin this weekend. Photograph: Gareth Cattermole/Getty Images
Taylor Swift fans from around the world planning on travelling to Ireland for this weekend’s gigs have been caught up in the Aer Lingus pilots’ dispute.
A total of 270 flights due to be operated by Aer Lingus from Wednesday, June 26th, to Tuesday, July 2nd, have been cancelled due to industrial action.
This falls on what may be the biggest weekend of the year in Dublin, with Swift’s three sold out shows in the Aviva Stadium and Dublin’s Pride Parade both falling within the scheduled action time.
Following the announcement of the planned strike, Swifties travelling from overseas to see the pop star took to social media to voice their frustration, with some calling on Swift herself to intervene.
Lynsey Van der Putten booked flights for her and her mother to Dublin from Belgium in February, after getting a ticket to the Eras Tour for this Saturday. She chose Aer Lingus instead of Ryanair because she was aware of the latter having had industrial action in recent years. The concert was due to be Van der Putten’s first time seeing the singer live.
“She only made it to my country once before, on the Speak Now tour in 2011, and I wasn’t yet a Swiftie back then,” Van der Putten said.
Some weeks ago, she received an email from Aer Lingus saying her flights may be impacted, but that she would have to wait for an update.
Then, last Friday, Van der Putten received a text message and email informing her of her new itinerary. The flight to Dublin remained the same, but the flight back was changed from Sunday evening to Monday morning.
“I panicked a little because it meant that I would have to find a hotel to stay at for the extra evening, preferably close to the airport as it is an early flight. On Saturday morning I booked the hotel and also checked into the new flight, I even paid extra to be sure my mum and I would have seats on the plane home,” Van der Putten said.
“Right after all of that was in order, I got a new email stating that the flight to Dublin was cancelled. I then messaged customer service asking if there were any other flights still on that day so I could make it to the concert that evening.
“To this day, I still have not got a response. On Saturday evening I got a new text message and email saying that I, once again, got a new itinerary and that the flight to Dublin was changed to Sunday morning – which means that as of right now I will not be able to make it to the concert.”
Ultimately, on Friday, Van der Putten decided to sell her ticket for Saturday night’s show. She cancelled her hotels and asked for a refund from Aer Lingus, she said.
“As I was quite emotional I decided to wait until this morning to sell the ticket,” she said.
“It was a difficult decision as I wish I could have helped out all of them and I truly hope they manage to make it to one of the shows. I had a Zoom call with a girl who lives in Dublin so we could see each other as we were both quite nervous because there are sadly a lot of scammers out there.
“It made me genuinely happy to see how happy and excited she was once the transfer was completed – especially once I showed her that she would have a perfect view over the entire stage from her seat.”
Van der Putten also has tickets for Swift’s second round of concerts in London’s Wembley Stadium in August, but still feels sad over the situation she now faces, as she come to terms with having sold her ticket for Dublin.
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Leonie Bruendl’s flight back home to Munich in Germany was cancelled and rescheduled twice, she said.
“So I’ll have to book an expensive flight home with another airline. It’s still all so uncertain and at this point, I don’t even know if I will make it to Dublin. I hope my flight there will not be cancelled and for everyone to not miss important events,” Bruendl said.
“With the Eras Tour on Saturday, which my friend and I have planned for nearly a year now, this trip was super important to us, as she’s from the US and I’m from Germany and we don’t get to see each other often! We actually met on Twitter because we’re both really big Swifties! She’s one of my closest friends now.”
Bruendl originally booked with Aer Lingus to fly to Dublin on Friday, and fly back home on Sunday. At the time of writing, her flight to Dublin has been unaffected, but she has heard of people’s flights being cancelled at the gate, and is “super nervous and stressed about that”.
Bruendl said she has called and messaged Aer Lingus multiple times in the last week, but not received a response, and will likely book a flight with a different airline for Saturday’s concert.
Ellen O'Donoghue is an Irish Times journalist
© 2024 The Irish Times DAC
© 2024 The Irish Times DAC
