Some unlucky Taylor Swift fans have been badly affected by the Aer Lingus strike, and have been forced to sell their tickets to her highly-anticipated Eras Tour gigs in Dublin.
Thousands of passengers have been thwarted by the work-to-rule action and an eight-hour strike by Irish Airline Pilots’ Association (Ialpa) pilots planned for Saturday – including many heartbroken Swifties.
Chrissy, 26, who was planning to travel from Germany with a friend, had to sell her tickets to Taylor’s sold-out concert at the Aviva Stadium on Saturday after her flight was rescheduled.
She told the Irish Independent: “We got a new flight for June 28 at the same time. Our problem is that we are working on this day until 4pm and we can’t get a day off this close to the event. We also would have needed to pay another night for the hotel.
“My friend and I searched for many other options like flying from Denmark or another city in northern Germany but the flights were either also fully booked or way too expensive, especially because we would’ve needed extra money for accommodation and trains or other flights to get to the other airports.
“So, there’s no option for us to fly in for the Eras Tour.
“We had to face the fact that it won’t be possible, so I sold the tickets via Ticketmaster. And started crying like a child because it made me so sad but also super mad that they can just simply do that,” she said.
Nicole Dunn, 37, travelling from Washington DC to see Taylor in Dublin, is another Swiftie who has been affected by the strike.
“I’ve booked Airbnbs, rented cars, made reservations and booked tours, not to mention spent countless hours making friendship bracelets and rhinestoning my concert outfit, so when I started to hear whisperings of industrial action over the past few weeks my concern was immediate,” she told the newspaper.
“On a personal level, it’s been incredibly stressful to weigh out my options and just cycling through all the what-ifs.
“Question marks about whether or not your flight will be cancelled when you have 48 hours to make your dream concert isn’t ideal.”
In the end, Nicole ended up spending an additional $700 on alternative flights in case her original flights got cancelled, and said: “It sucks but missing out on any of my trip would suck more.”
She added that it was “incredibly disheartening” to see how Aer Lingus has dealt with the issue.
“Pay your employees or you have no business, it’s plain and simple,” Nicole said.
“All in all, this has been stressful, but I am grateful I have the luxury of being able to take time off work, to see Taylor Swift and to experience Ireland.”
