I saw a recent blurb about new service to Spain from NYC JFK, via AirPlus. Their website is airplususa.com. Apparently, it is a European line in business for a decade or so, I think. In any event, summer high season fares to Spain are about half what I am being quoted from other carriers. Under $500 to Barcelona, roundtrip. A little less to Madrid. They connect to a number of other Capitals. Has anyone ever used them before?

It appears they may be using 747s for the flight. Great - as long as they aren't from 1977 vintage and don't have 600 plus seats per plane.

Your thoughts are appreciated. Thanks.

i rarely advise against things on fodors, but i must say try delta or iberia. airplus is a bare bones operation. believe me, the money is worth it. i went on one when a flight was cancelled once. they only had one cabin, served food (i won't even comment further) on styrofoam, the had 1 movie screen, etc...just look elseware. enjoy!

I have no personal experience with the airline. At the same time I always believed in "you get what you pay for". I would not expect much comfort or great food. I would expect decent service on-board.

But here are the possible problems with new start ups.

They only fly to JFK once a week, on Fridays. If there are any mechanicals and the plane doesn't show up or is grounded in NY, you will not be walked to a different airline. They do not have any agreements with other airlines. The passengers have only 2 choices. Wait for your flight, hours or even overnight or buy a new ticket with a different airline (very expensive propostion).

Having only 1 flight a week does not allow the airline to staff the ground crew with it's own people. They hire an airport service company to do the check in at JFK. That almost always means a big confusion and a total mess during check-in. I would prepare myself for that possibility and not expect anything better. If the check in went smoothly, then all the better, but if it didn't I would not get too upset, because I would expect it to begin with.

That's just my humble opinion. When it goes wrong with these airlines, it usually goes totally wrong. OTOH, everything may go just right and you saved yourself a nice chunk of money.

Decisions, decisions......

Good luck!

Thanks.
I've recently had sufficient experience with interminably delayed flights out of JFK (Varig to Brazil, one flight per night, one plane only).

I will look elsewhere.

I think that's the same as Air Plus Comet. Looking at the fleet registration numbers, their 3 747s are:

EC-IPN 747-212B Line number (LN) 436, delivered 4/10/80.

EC-IZL 747-287B LN 532, dlv'd 8/26/81.

EC-JDH 747-287B LN 403, dlv'd 10/11/79.

So, there are not 1977 vintage, but not too far off.

I think rkkwan is right and this is Air Plus Comet which is used by many Spain tour operators and has been around for awhile. The companies that use them tend to push the Thursday night flights. In the past you couldn't book directly through them, you had to use a tour operator. It appears now they will let you book online.