No frills

Aer Lingus cuts back

Aer Lingus cuts back

Free drinks: Not for much longer. Aer Lingus is to introduce a "pay-bar", ending the free alcoholic drinks offered during flights at the moment.

Hot meals: Apart from breakfast, hot meals during the day in premier class and economy have been replaced with a "deli" bag consisting of a cold sandwich.

On-board duty-free sales: the service ended last Monday.

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Booking: Business class books of 10 tickets can only be reserved online. According to one regular premier class businessman, they are "less flexible and more expensive".

Customer Service: prepare for a long wait on the phone before you get to say hello to a live voice.

Airline's view We've reduced prices

A spokeswoman says: "Business class tickets are cheaper than this time last year . . . Willie Walsh [Aer Lingus Chief Executive] made a commitment to pass on any saving to the customers. All cost reductions have been passed on to customers in the form of reduced air-fares since January 2002. We have achieved two goals of reducing fares considerably and responding to the demands of passengers by increasing our network of routes from Ireland."