London-Barcelona:Which Airline?
 

My sister and I have decided to fly into London (cheap fares) and then take a plane from London to Barcelona where we will spend a week before returning to London for a brief visit then fly home. Which airline is cheapest for the London-Barcelona connection? Thanks in advance for your help!

I suggest you use www.opodo.com and find out there..unless you'd rather have an opinion instead of "the" answer.

If you're North Americans you can't ticket through Opodo because they won't accept credit cards issued outside the EU. Bummer.

Go to http://www.whichbudget.com/ and you can link to various cheapo airlines that fly to BCN - looks like EasyJet is the most likely, and they'll take your NA credit card if that applies.

Contrary to popular opinion, Easyjet are more expensive overall. Use BA or Iberia, however, they are "Oneworld Alliance" partners so flying Iberia you could end up on a BA flight. Scheduled, usually more of less on time.

I always fly BA in Europe.

I am taking easy jet when I go in May, and the fares looked pretty good (about 17 pounds going before taxes, about 24 going back from Madrid). I didn't check Iberia or BA yet, but since I'm flying back out of someplace different, it sounded pretty good to me. Haven't booked yet, but I plan to as soon as I get a decent flight to London for May. It's so expensive!!! And I'm flying out of NYC!

Hi Donna,

The two most prominent low-fare airlines travelling this route are easyJet (www.easyjet.com) &
Ryanair (www.ryanair.com).

Bear in mind, however, that when easyJet & Ryanair say "London" what they really mean is "Luton" & "Stansted" respectively.

Similarly, whilst easyJet does fly into Barcelona's main city airport (about a 20/30 minute transfer to the city)Ryanair actually fly to Girona & there is then a bus transfer of around an hour & 10 minutes.

If you have a look at their websites you can get full details & you can then weigh up what's more important to you - price or convenience.

Hope this helps,

Jim

M_K

"Contrary to popular opinion, Easyjet are more expensive overall."

What do you mean?

If you buy your ticket on easyJet when there is little demand it is cheaper than BA. If you buy at the last minute or need some form of flexibility it is normally cheaper to fly BA.

Also M_K, companies are singular so you should write "easyJet is...." Sloppy spelling and poor grammar by a pernickerty person such as yourself is
simply unacceptable.

I was not aware that Opodo.com does the same thing, but BA.COM will not accept any CC other then ones registered in the country of departure. It really sucks. This is from their site:

At the present time, ba.com can only accept credit cards which are issued and billed from the country of your departure.
Please note that we are currently working towards expanding this capability.

If you would like to make a booking that departs from a city outside the country in which you currently live, and/or where your credit card has been issued, you will need to telephone your local British Airways office to find out if your booking can be made over the phone or in person at a British Airways Travel Shop or Airport ticket desk.

Payment online using a Switch card is not yet possible.

In some cases it may not be possible to make your booking over the phone or on ba.com.

AAFF - that's because Opodo is owned in part by BA, like Orbitz is owned by AA et al.

Until recently I hadn't booked on BA for long haul flights for some time. (SAS has equivalent service from where we live and how would you choose between Kastrup and Heathrow?). So I hadn't tried on-line booking with BA until a few months ago. What an incredible pain! How do you pawn yourselves off as a global carrier, serving all the pink bits on the map and more blah blah, and only take GB-issued credit cards? How is it that you can't join their FF club without purchasing <i>full fare</i> economy-or-better seats? Oh, evolve!

The capper was when I went on line to price some seats originating in London to the Middle East and back. Saw a good price in Sterling, tried to book it. No, can't do it - wrong credit card. Went to Opodo. Same deal. Went to a couple of bucket shops I found through johnnyjet.com. All the way to the confirm screen. Nope.

So then I phoned BA/USA, after finding the FAQ you did. The rate they quoted me for the same flights sounded a little high. I did the math. They were quoting Sterling at &pound;1 = US$2.00! Well hell, mystery solved. It's not their credit card verification system. It's their yield management software. Why sell at one price to everyone, when you can rip off foreign pax to the tune of 20% of the ticket price and blame it on credit card exchange fluctuations? So I had to pay the higher price, no choice.

So next time it's back to SAS for us.

Well as we are living in the US, Opodo won't work for us. Also, we would be flying into Gatwick, so the other airlines mentioned won't work either. I am still trying to get a cheap airfare from US to Spain, so I guess I will keep gambling that they will open their Spring/Early Summer fares in a few weeks and I may be able to get something under $600. The waiting is driving me crazy! I usually get my airfare first, then set up the rest of the trip. This time, due to my sister's time share I did it the other way. Never again!

Re: Easyjet v. BA

Flying to Barcelona, from London 17th July-22nd July:

EASYJET - 100.99GBP , however, only from London Luton, Gatwick or Stansted, not Heathrow which is the most accessible airport.

BA - 101.90 from Heathrow, and this fare included schedule, not charter flights plus food and drink.

for the sake of 1GBP you can travel from an airport which is easier to reach, have a lower chance of delays, and free bar service and a meal during your time in the air. Point made?

easyJet flight 3621 departs London Stansted at 06:20, arrives Prague at 09:15 and costs &pound;11.99. easyJet flight 3628 departs Prague at 21:25, arrives London Stansted at 22:25 and costs &pound;11.99. With taxes of &pound;11 on both legs the total for a return from London to Prague is &pound;45.98.

Meanwhile, BA flight 2852 departs London Gatwick at 11:55, arrives Prague at 14:50. BA flight 0857 departs Prague at 18:55, arrives London at 19:55. The return ticket costs &pound;110.50.

So M_K, BA is over twice the price on this journey, in fact a whopping &pound;64.62 more. With that saving you could get a taxi from central London to Stanstead. Meanwhile you are going to pay an additional &pound;25 to take the Heathrow Express to LHR! And how handy is LHR if you don't live in west London, like most Londoners do not?

Donna,

Gatwick will work. Easyjet has a few flights a day from Gatwick to Barcelona. Check it out on easyjet.com.

Good luck! When are you going?

a) I was referring to a flight to Barcelona, not Prague, sorry if that wasn't clear enough in my explanation.

b) Most Londoners do not live in Luton, somewhere in Surrey - Gatwick, or outisde the M25 - Stansted. Heathrow is the airport nearest to the centre of London, except of course City airport, but this is not an option.

So as before, if you are flying to Barcelona fly BA from Heathrow - convenient airport and a full service flight.

Donna - Sorry for misleading you over the easyJet flights &amp; Rachele - thanks for correcting me.

I made the mistake of forgetting that easyJet did operate some &quot;London&quot; flights away from its normal Luton hub.

Jim

We need a flight out of Atlanta traveling to Barcelona about May 13 or 14. We will be returning on May 23. I keep thinking that the Airlines will run another fare after their current April 4th cutoff, but I am starting to worry. I can go now for $746. That's hard to swollow when I went to Paris at Christmas for around $400 (with a weekend stopover in London).

I just got back from Spain and travelled the same way. We went NY to London and London to Madrid. Travel via Iberia. We were scheduled to fly British Air and ok it was Christmas day and there was a lot going on but the BA people were horrible. The Iberia people were so very helpful and I think they are pretty cheap, although if you are not flying in a blackout people you may be able to go on Iberia direct from the US. Barcelona was great by the way.

M_K

Cathcing the first easyJet flight from LGW to Barcelona on 27 April, 2004, and returning on the last flight on 29 April, 2004, costs &pound;50.89 including all taxes (but in any case all flights on both of these days cost the same on easyJet - &pound;16.99 for the outward leg and &pound;18.49 for the return).

Meanwhile, to fly to Barcelona on BA on these dates would cost &pound;33 in each direction, making the trip cost in total a whopping &pound;88.90 when taxes are added.

Also, some BA flghts cost &pound;48 (some of the early ones on the 27th and some of the later ones on the 29th and this could feasibly increase the price to a staggering &pound;118.90).

There are advantages to BA: since it is a scheduled airline if you miss your return flight they will most likely put you on their next available flight without charge. Meanwhile easyJet will either charge you to change the ticket or make you buy a new one.

But to say that you should not even consider easyJet like M_K does is to potentially squander money. easyJet operates flights to Barcelona from Luton, Stanstead and Gatwick and so it is likely that one of these airports will be accessible as not everyone lives close to Heathrow.