Boston-A Coruna flight info (Spain)
 

Sixteen year old daughter will be flying alone to visit friend in A Coruna, Spain. Will be flying on Iberia Boston-Madrid to someplace. The someplace is the question.

Friend said A coruna is small airport but to try to fly into there. Also said to try Santiago de Compostela. Airline webiste also lists Vigo as possibility at a much lower airfare than first 2.

I have never been to Spain and have no idea of geography (other than to look on a map).

Is A Coruna a decent sized airport - would flight likely be on at least a medium-sized plane? What about travel between there and either of other 2 airports.

We are limiting search to Iberia because they have no started non-stop service Boston-Madrid and that saves a connection either in Europe or US. Thanks.

The three cities are about an hours flight from Madrid. I flew Madrid-Corona and Santiago-Madrid (twice) on Iberia and each time it was a regular jet (Airbus 320). Vigo is about a 1 hour 40 mins drive from La Coruna, Santiago is less than an hour.

Have you tried this link and searching for "lowest fare" for your dates? Change the language to ENGLISH, but leave the country as SPAIN - fares are much cheaper on this site than on the US or UK version of the site:

http://www.iberia.com/OneToOne/v3/home.do

Regards Ger

Thanks - that is a help. We are emailing friend to see how far she/family is willing to drive to pick her up. For some reason flights to Vigo are almost $500 less expensive than into either other city.

do not expect someone to pick her up in VIGO. Like instead of chicago, (10 min. from your house).. your guest wants you to drive to milwaukee?

Thanks - that makes sense, except they offered to fly to Madrid to meet her if she did not feel she was able to make the connection alone. I will keep that in mind as we research fares - we still have some hope we can use the many American Airlines FF points we have on Iberia - I know it is late to book for the summer, but it is worth a try.

well... if they offered to fly to madrid to meet her.. i eat my words!!!

I imagine this family will tell you to judge accordingly.

Do they still offer "unaccompanied minor status" with iberia? i used to pay a fee to have some of my students transferred in the U.S when i had too many to deal with myself. (this was years ago).

And then maybe 8 years ago this service still existed on some airlines, because i sent two brothers home with "stewardess assistance" back from the USA.

Check it out. this will help reduce anxiety for all.

Hi,

I don't know whay you are getting a $500 difference by using Vigo. I just did several dates at random and got the exact price if my final destination is Vigo or if it is Coruña. Unless something big is happening in Coruña on your dates I don't know why you are getting such a discrepancy.

It is very strange that there is such a difference. I have used both Vigo and Santiago to fly to Madrid and the difference tend to be none or very little (10$ more or less). The same could be said about La Coruna.
Easyjet flies from Madrid to La Coruna, but I can't recommend this option, because it would involve to change from Terminal 4 (Iberia) to Terminal... 1 (or 2, I am not sure).
I suggest you to try it again, such a difference is possibly a mistake.

Thanks again - regarding unaccompanied minor, we think we are going to let her try it without that type of escort (although I will worry until I hear from her). She has traveled quite a bit with us and her Spanish language skills are excellent (not fluent, but good enough to deal with most situations).

Friend she is visiting was exchange student in our home in 2005 - I think her family feels they owe us, but I also don't want to take advantage of their genorosity.

Hi all:

La Coruña (or "A Coruña", if you say it in Galicia's own language) is a small but normal airport. I mean, it is a small airport since the city is not very huge, but it has daily regular flights to Madrid, Barcelona, Seville, London, Paris, etc. The main airline is Iberia and their regional airline (Air Nostrum). Clickair (Iberia's low cost airline also flies there, but not from Madrid). Other interesting airlines are Spanair, Air Europa, EasyJet... However, since you will enter Spain through Madrid’s Terminal Four (Iberia’s hub), it’s better to use Iberia to fly to any of the three Galician airports you mentioned, because otherwise your daughter would need to go to Terminal 1 or 2, and it could be a little bit difficult. In addition, if you buy a BOS – LCG ticket, Iberia will give you all the boarding passes you need until your final destination and your luggage will be directly sent to LCG as well.

Back to the topic, what you can expect from La Coruña airport is the classical facilities: check-in counters, cafeterias, some shops, public phones, airlines’ offices, rent-a-car firms, a post office, etc. jaja. Nothing strange at all. The airport is a safe place, so don’t worry if your friend is late: nobody will take your daughter.

Iberia is operating the route Madrid – La Coruña 7 times daily. They use, depending on the hours, the Airbus 320 family aircraft: A319, A320, and A321. The 319 is a “small” aircraft having 140 seats. The 320 has 170, and the 321 has 200 seats. In other routes they also use their 320s or their regional aircrafts (50 seats aircrafts made by Canadian firm “Bombardier”). Air Europa fly B737, Spanair their MDs or their Fokker 100, and EasyJet the Airbus 319.

Regarding the alternative airports, there is no reason to have huge differences in terms of fares. They are usually more or less the same, and the only reason to have expensive prices is the load factors (maybe in July or August the plane is already booked and only expensive fares are available). Try to purchase a flight to LCG, but if you can’t, don’t worry because the airports are connected through highways. However, I think it’s not necessary to try alternative cities.

Finally, Galicia is a quite strange region. I looks more like Scotland or England than Spain. Jajaja. Northern Spain is very rainy, cold, and humid. Nothing to do with sunny Spain and beaches that tourists have in mind. The most beautiful city there is Santiago de Compostela. Vigo and La Coruña don’t have much to see. I’d better try more cosmopolitan cities such as Madrid, Barcelona, Bilbao, Seville, …

If you need info about the flight, the transfer in Madrid, or anything else, you the email.

GatoVolador