[superchris]

Ive seen the need to travel on Vueling from Bham quite a few times in the last 12 months or so, on the now pulled route to Orly and a number of times to Barcelona. Their online feedback and reviews online are appalling but I have to say that that their service, approach, and pricing structure rather works for me:

• Their ‘Space plus’ package which includes both forward seating, priority boarding and 2 pieces of handluggage
• The ability to book a spare seat at the time of booking (other airlines offer this at the last minute only if they think the flight would be empty anyway). Additionally…
• Reasonable F&B offering
• Incredible ontime performance
• Air bridges more often than not (helpful when you have two pieces of luggage)
• They are owned by IAG but not in oneworld so you cant access lounges (I typically spend the £30 or so I would otherwise pay in a lounge on a higher end dining at the airport if the timing requires
• You do get Avios in a separate Vueling account (although I have no idea how to merge these with my BA avios or even if that’s possible / worthwhile?)
Coupled with paying for fastrack at BHX (currently £5) you can build a reasonable quality offering which is perfectly tolerable for a couple of hours.
Of course the true measure of an airline is how they handle things when they go wrong and Ive been very fortunate not to need to witness that. Or are they better than most at not getting it wrong?

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DavidSmith2, AndrewinHK, Johnnyg

[Hktbound]

They also offer a very useful flex option and for very little money – last time I paid 9 euros when purchased at the time of booking the ticket can be cancelled right up to 24 hours before travel and a future flight voucher for the ticket purchase is issued by return.
This is really a useful benefit for those preferring flexibility at low cost

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superchris

[AndrewinHK]

I like Vueling, I have never had an issue with them. I like the branding and the customizable features of the tickets as mentioned above. I would pick Vueling over the other locos.

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superchris

[cwoodward]

Thanks both -I must give them a try -never have.

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superchris

[transtraxman]

Take note of the spelling:…..

…..it is VUELING….
This helps in the correct pronunciation.

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superchris

[summerfly]

It’s pleasant enough as long as nothing goes wrong. I’ve flown with them many times without issues or delays, though friends were re-routed from Gatwick via Barcelona after the aircraft which was meant to take them from Cardiff to Malaga had technical problems.

[DavidSmith2]

Good to hear positive feedback. I have just booked Vueling for a flight from Gatwick to Gran Canaria in June (one way). Any experiences of Vueling check-in etc at Gatwick would be much appreciated. I assume that my BA gold/silver status will be of limited use.

[AlanOrton1]

I fear you will find your BA card of less than limited use. No OW perks or benefits when flying Vueling.
That said, I’d echo some of the posts above – they were excellent when I flew them for the first time last year. (Boarded in good time, left on time, landed early and great with their extra assistance service).

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DavidSmith2

[CheerUp]

Unless you book on the BA flight numbers, which are normally vastly more and outweigh any potential benefits you’d receive – no.
I’ve always had a positive experience of Vueling to/from BCN.

[philsquares]

Sorry, but I am going to take a very contrary position on Vueling.

Moved to Spain in 2017 and back to the UK in 2021, long story! But, we used, or tried to use Vueling for the first time just as Covid hit. We went through the 261 process and that was rejected. Approached our Spanish bank, wrong move, on doing a chargeback. The first response from the bank was what was a chargeback! Finally, after 2 years, the bank issued a chargeback for the purchase. Shortly after that, Vueling acknowledged its responsibility under 261.

Vueling (pronounced Welling) does not have a great reputation in Spain. Caveat Emptor!!

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superchris

[JayLibove]

Like Ryanair, Vueling – if you carefully read and follow their rules – usually works well enough. Like Ryanair and Easyjet, when things go badly, a Vueling experience can be terrible. If one of these supposedly low-cost carries is the only thing flying non-stop on a route, I’ll consider them, but my preference even for a bit more money and sometimes even with a change of plans at an intermediate hub airport is to stick with the Lufthansa group or AF/DL/KLM, so that when things go south, the airline is more likely to have the gear and the people (and the good intentions) to try to fix it well and quickly.
Issues I’ve had with Vueling:
Barcelona to Sevilla – full flight, running a bit late, the airline chose to not board some baggage in order to get the plane out closer to on-time. They did pay out the various delay and “lost baggage” coverages, but I’d far rather have arrived another 15 minutes later and had my bags with me instead of having to go shopping late at night for underwear.
Barcelona <-> London – the Vueling counters at London airports only open for bag drop 2,5 hours before scheduled flight departure time (this was pre-pandemic when lots of flights were regularly, reliably flying); makes airport lounge access pretty f***ing useless. (BA flights on the same route and comparable schedule allowed bag drop much earlier).

[ASK1945]

JayLibove wrote: “the Vueling counters at London airports only open for bag drop 2,5 hours before scheduled flight departure time”.

My experience with several airlines is that this is standard with many airlines, including full-service ones (eg BA) at airports away from their home base.

[JayLibove]

@ASK1945 Yes, but this was at London (I forget whether Gatwick or Heathrow), hardly far away from Vueling (IB/BA group) home base.

[ASK1945]

From Wikipaedia: “Vueling S.A.is a Spanish low-cost airline based at Viladecans in Greater Barcelona with hubs at Barcelona–El Prat Airport (main), Paris-Orly Airport in Paris, France, Amsterdam Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam, The Netherlands and Leonardo da Vinci–Fiumicino Airport in Rome, Italy (secondary)”.

I know that Wiki is not a totally reliable sauce, but presumably this would have been correct by now if inaccurate.

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cwoodward

[JayLibove]

The Vueling and BA/IB check-in counters were either shared or adjacent. This was a business choice – a bad one – not an operational exigency.

[Author]

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