Flights within Spain
 

I keep reading on different posts how travelling inside Spain from city to city (i.e. from Seville to Barcelona) is relatively inexpensive (for example, $70.00) However, when I go on line to find cost (i.e. expedia), the cost is more like $130.00. How do you book internal flights here in the U.S. at the hopefully cheaper cost, or do you do it once you are there?

I always book before I leave the U.S. and have had good luck with Orbitz. <BR>And for July I found a $70 one-way fare from Bilbao to Madrid (Air Europa) at Travelocity. Part persistence, part luck, I guess. I do check those fares continually at those 2 sites plus Expedia. <BR>The summer before I purchased a coupon for a $99 fare Madrid-Bilbao at www.europebyair.com, but when I checked Spanair directly, I had actually overpaid. Their web fare was slightly less.

Since there are just three companies operating flights within Spain, it would be advisable to check out their webpages before moving out there. Those are Spanair, Iberia ( Air Nostrum, Binter ) and Air Europa.

The cost of $130 for an internal flight sounds about right. Here's an option that might work for you: Spanair, one of the three internal carriers, offers non-Spain residents something called "Spainpass". If you are taking at least three internal flights, then the cost could be as little as $50 per segment. The catch is you have to fly the overseas roundtrip on Spanair, and buy the Spainpass before you leave. then the SpainPass is $150 for three segments plus around another $50 per additional segment. <BR> <BR>Other than that, I found that Air Europa sometimes offers cheaper prices on selected flights, but these fares are usually nonrefundable. Their website would be useful for that information. <BR> <BR>We just returned from Spain and used the Spain Pass, going from Madrid to Mallorca to Barcelona to Malaga. <BR> <BR>

You should try Spanair. they have a very cheap offer for domestic flights, but I don't know whether you can book them in the US.

It would probably be best to call Air Europa for their cheapest fares.

we flew british airways on our transatlantic flight, making us eligible for the "one world pass" on any "one world" airline. in spain, that is iberia. you have to take a minimum of 2 flights, and it costs about $120 a ticket. although we read all the horror stories about iberia, we thought their inter-europe flights on iberia had better service than british airways. plus, we were able to accumulate mileage on our "one world" account, which would not have been the case on air europe or spanair. <BR>good luck!

If you are interested in mileage credit on a US-based airline, the following may be of interest. <BR> <BR>If you have an United Mileage Plus account, then Spanair internal flights will get you 500 miles per segment, even on the SpainPass. Iberia can get you American AAdvantage miles. Don't think Air Europa participates in any US airline mileage programs. <BR> <BR>SpainPass flights not only can, but must be booked outside of Spain before you leave, and you must already have your Spanair transatlantic tickets. As I said in an earlier post the cost works out to only US$50 per segment but you have to have at least 3 segments. This is cheaper than any other option I investigated. Spanair does have a toll-free number in the US. All five Spanair internal flights I have taken in the last 2 years were fine experiences and all were on time.