Has anyone figured out an effecient way to get from Dallas (DFW) to Barcelona? The logistics look terrible!
 

Well, my dreams of a spring break to Barcelona are dimming as I look at flights. Gee, we could fly from Dallas to La Guardia and get ourselves from there to JFK in two hours, then fly to Madrid, then BCN. Or we could fly from DFW to Gatwick, then get ourselves to Heathrow, then to BCN. Or we could change planes in Chicago and Frankfurt. Oh, there are any number of choices and airlines, all with way too many stops. Given that it's spring break, we only have a week and the two weekends. I really don't want to spend 22 hours getting there and 22 hours getting back. Has anyone figured out the best route from Dallas?

Lufthansa to Frankfurt and then to BCN - total 12.5 hours - or BA through Heathrow 13 hours AA or Continental through Newark just over 13 hours - Lots of options. Go to Expedia and find the one that works best

Did you do a internet search at all?...I just looked and there are flights that range in 12 - 17 hours of travel from DFW to BCN. Go to expedia and look.

DFW is an AA hub -- I thought they had flights through Zurich to BCN (one stop)? Unless there's a new routing, I don't think a n/s is available.

I envy your trip to BCN -- one of my best trips ever!

Isn't there a nonstop from Atlanta to Barcelona on Delta, too? Leaves around 8pm, I think. Keep hunting; you'll find something good.

I'm fairly certain AA still flies a non-stop DFW to Gatwick, and onward from there on BA. Don't think this should be too terrible.

I do see a airport transfers (JFK to LG) but there are definitely options that are less than 22 hours.

Yes; I'm from Dallas and AA flies to Gatwick and then you could book through Iberia (an AA partner) to BCN ... but from Heathrow. We flew BCN to Heathrow, had a driver to Gatwick, spent the night there and left the next morning to DFW nonstop.

I searched travelocity and had about 50 some options. For some reason, Expedia won't search on my computer anymore.

Every AA flight seems to require an LGA to JFK connection. (They also stop in Madrid, then BCN.) Don't want an LGA to JFK connection on a Friday night. I also don't want to do a Gatwick to Heathrow connection.

Zurich isn't coming up as an option on AA. The same thing happened when I was trying to get to Rome. Day after day, every possibility from DFW to Rome involved an LGA to JFK connection. Then, one day in early March, a DFW to Zurich to Rome option was offered. I jumped on it. It lasted about 18 hours.

DFW to Atlanta to anywhere has become a nightmare to be avoided at all costs, since Delta gave up almost all of their gates at DFW.

I'll try to find the DFW to Frankfurt to BCN flight.

Hi missypie

My advice is to keep checking. When I went to Barcelona this past May, I was in a similar situation.

I checked for a couple of months to find a flight that didn't have me flying to multiple airports. Finally one showed up on Delta that went from Pensacola-ATL-BCN. I'm glad I held out for that.

You will love Barcelona by the way! It's a wonderful city.

Good luck,
Johanna

OK, just checked AA and there are 2 direct flights per day DFW to LGW, flight 50 at 5:05pm and flight 78 at 6:55, each takes about 9 hours non-stop. BA is also bookable in the OneWorld Alliance and does fly LGW to BCN. Goodluck!

missypie,

make sure you're checking off "all partners and oneworld alliance" or "all carriers" if you're searching on aa.com -- same thing for other airline specific sites...

I'm PLT on AA and so I usually check here first, and I missed a good fare once because I forgot to do this.

Well, I finally got Expedia to search for me through a very back-door way. It had options that travelocity didn't. Interesting that Expedia shows a DFW-Zurich-BCN flight on AA, while AA.com is just showing DFW-LGA-JFK-Madrid-BCN (for $30 more!) I'm not quite ready to buy the tickets yet, but at least seeing that flight through Zurich gives me some hope.

Yeah, the flights from DFW to Gatwick to BCN have you arriving pretty late in the evening (rather than morning or mid-day.)

Try going to the staralliance site - you should be able to see the lufthansa options

The DFW-Zurich-BCN flight is coming up on www.aa.com -- try selecting "one connection or less" and "all carriers" or "oneworld partners" (if you're flying for AA status or miles) and then select by schedule rather than fare. You can then choose flights by time (15 hrs and less) and price them out. good luck!

Funny - the only thing that came up for me on AA.com about 7 minutes ago with the "all carriers" option were flights where you flew into Gatwick and arrived in BCN at about 8 pm, then on the return arrived at Gatwick at about 10 pm then left for Dallas at about 10 am the next day. Looking for flights can make one crazy!

I don't get how the staralliance website works. I can find the flights - but then do you just book them through the airline? (The flight from DFW to Frankfurt to BCN gives you 45 minutes to make the connection. Yikes!)

Thanks for your help, everyone. I guess if I just check all the websites every 4 minutes for a few days, I'll find a decent option!

Barcelona & it's nearby airports of Girona & Reus are popular low costs airline destinations. So consider getting a flight to any of the destination airports in the following links. Just don't take any connection that involves a change of airport especially if the airline involved is Ryanair.

www.whichbudget.com/en/cheapflights.php?from=BCN
www.whichbudget.com/en/cheapflights.php?from=GRO
http://www.whichbudget.com/en/cheapflights.php?from=REU

Okay, so I finally searched "all carriers" on aa.com by schedule and told it to give me 50 options. I found a great, convenient option....$1800 per person! Now I do know that decent flights exist...I'll just have to get the ticket price down by about $1000 each! (note that the horrible times on BA were less than $600 per ticket...surprise!)

The staralliance website gives you the routes - you go to the carrier website to book

when is Spring break?

OK...how early can you arrive at Gatwick?

EasyJet has FOUR flights per day from LGW N/S to BCN (not Girona)

Sorry..should have asked if a flight to LGW is even an option for you.

Y'all are so incredibly helpful!!! However, I learned two years ago not to book flights before school starts, so I'll have to come back to our hints in a couple of weeks. (My son had to miss a very cool class trip because we had already booked a vacation that conflicted; jeez, I'm sure the school didn't realize that some nutty moms booked trips 10 months in advance!)

misseypie-

If you go to AA.com and click "AA & OneWorld" option, and also "1-stop or less" option, you should be able to get the DFW-LGW-BCN flights.

If you pick "AA and all carriers" option, you'll get more convenient flights, but since the other carriers are usually un-related to AA, you get slapped with a much more expensive ticket and no miles on AA.

Good luck. I'd love to fly to BCN some day from DFW, but have been hesitant because of your same concerns (takes too long to get there and too expensive)!

I know it isn't during Spring Break (April?) but the EasyJet flights in March '07 are running about 20 Euros (before taxes).

We're actually looking at departing March 9 and returning March 18th.

Orbitz shows an AA/Swiss combo for $796.

Depart DFW, on Saturday at 3:05 p.m. on AA flight 38, arrive at ZRH at 6:50 a.m. the next morning, then take Swiss Air flight 4756 (operated by Spanair) at 9:30 a.m. and arrive BCN at 11:10 a.m.

The return leg on Sunday is Swiss Air 4757 (operated by Spanair) departing BCN at 7:10, arriving ZRH at 8:50 a.m., then connecting with AA flight 37, departing 11:10 a.m. and arriving at DFW at 3:35 p.m.

The same itinerary at the same price is available for a Friday through Sunday trip if you can get to the airport after lunch on Friday.

To check these out, use the DFW/BCN search on Orbitz, then click on the 1 stop option for American. You'll have to scroll down four or five selections before you find this one because it is $2 more than AA's cheapest one stop option, but it does show up.

missypie-

By punching your dates on AA.com (and limiting to OneWorld partners and 1-stop itin), I got DFW-LGW-BCN on AA then BA. However, on the return flight, all the options require you to fly back to London the night before, then take the morning flight out of London back to DFW. The price I got (economy) is $942.60 all-in, per person.

Quick look at Expedia and it look slike you can get that for around $820 per ticket

missypie - without having read through all the responses (I'm too lazy, right now!)I found on aa.com DFW - JFK on American, then JFK - BCN on Delta and back again with great times. The round trip price was $1089. That's not too bad for spring break. Just a thought....hope it helps

Well, I see you specified dates after I posted, and I was actually looking one week later. Nonetheless, it looks like you can do that same deal on the dates you were looking at, although there is a discrepancy on the time between flights on the DFW-ZRH-BCN leg (for some reason, it shows one hour less, for only 1 hr 40 min) on these dates, rather than 2 hr 40 for the next week.

twk's $796 routing looks like the best although that seems a bit high for a spring fare. I recall $500 (all in)last year for that market but probably with poor flight times.

I guess we're all hot and bored? missypie has a whole team of travel agents at her disposal as long as it's 100 F and we can't leave the house!

Easyjet
Gatwick to Barcelona 10th March : £26.37
Barcelona to Gatwick 18th March : £31.37

BA
Dallas to Gatwick 9th-March to 18th March £360

Total is equivalent to 785USD including all taxes & other charges

Unless I did something wrong, I found a $760 fare through Frankfurt on United/Luth.on orbitz.com for your dates.

Only 32 in my neck of the woods - in C of course!

Have just read back on the thread and it is so funny - here we are googling and expediaing away!

After another look, the best deal on orbitz appears to be $796 on Swiss/AA. The United fare involves a "sleep over" in Germany.

O.K. everyone -- let's stay on track --she's looking for short, convenient routings, only one stop.

The routing I found was 1 stop with a couple of hours layover - only a nonstop would be better.

Sounds like a a lot of frustration checking schedules on the internet.
CALL Lufthansa AND American Airlines AND possible British Airways....
From Dallas it is easy and I believe you would only have two flights to Barcelona. Just make sure they are at the same airport in Europe.. It would be for sure in Frankfurt, not sure about the others. Those agents are there to help you with these questions. There are Certainly several non stops to Europe from Dallas!
(if there is a non stop Continental Newark to Barcelona, make sure it is not a 757...way to tight for that long!)

Check out seatguru for seating plans!


You are right it is too hot - but I think the temp should lower tonight in my neck of the woods