Ok - we've decided to alter our travel plans to spain in march and include 3 days in barcelona at the end of the trip. Our original flight going home leaves from Madrid to Frankfurt and back to the states. Now, we have a couple of options - fly BCN to FRA and home using Air Berlin to FRA or fly Iberia from BCN to Madrid and just move the original flights back a few days. The BCN to MAD to FRA to home is more convoluted but cheaper. One way flights from BCN to FRA are really expensive. Our original flights are non-refundable so we can't just do a complete rebook without huge penalties. Any other thoughts??

Girona to Frankfurt/Hahn with Ryan Air?

The BCN to Madrid route is served by two competing airlines, Iberia and Spanair so the costs are low and the flights on both are hourly between these two cities. You can check prices and book online at both airline sites:
www.spanair.com and www.iberia.com

If you fly directly to FRA you'll definitely have to notify the carrier since NOT boarding in Madrid subjects your entire reservation to cancellation.

I would certainly not recommend Air Berlin for your itinerary, as you would have to change planes in Mallorca - so even more convoluted than you thought initially.

As mentioned by Intrepid1, your flight from FRA to the US will be cancelled should you not show up for the previous MAD-FRA segment without rebooking - and according to your post, making any changes to your transatlantic ticket would be very expensive.

So just book a cheap BCN-MAD ticket on either Iberia or Spanair (with at least a 4 hour gap or preferably an overnight layover in MAD befo

Oops - hit the post button too early...

So just book a cheap BCN-MAD ticket on either Iberia, Spanair or Air Europa (with at least a 4 hour gap or preferably an overnight layover in MAD before your onward flights, since they are on a separate ticket).

www.iberia.es
www.spanair.com
www.aireuropa.com

Hope this helps,
Andre

I've found iberia flights between BCN and MAD for 46e/person which is a lot cheaper not to mention faster than a train which was one other thought. We will still have to pay a change fee on the original itinerary but that's ok; the flight from MAD to FRA leaves at 6am so we would have had an overnight in MAD anyway.