Vueling Airlines - how reliable?
 

I am planning a trip on short notice to Spain for 12 nights. I posted another message about a possible itinerary that has us moving too quickly through our destinations, but trade offs are always part of our travel plans.

If we manage our itinerary correctly, we will have to fly from Barcelona to Granada on 1 November, a holiday. Vueling Airlines has a mid-day flight, which I may book. However, the purpose of our schedule would be to spend 2 November in Granada visiting the Alhambra (tickets are available for that date).

I am usually uncomfortable with the reliability of discount airlines. If Vueling were to cancel the flight, we will have scheduled our entire itinerary around visiting the Alhambra the next day. So perhaps our planned itinerary is too risky to follow, but I think it depends much on the reliability of Vueling Airlines. Can anyone report on their experiences?

My experience with Vueling was fine, I would not hesitate to use them again.

My one flight with them (Madrid-Barcelona) left on time, arrived on time and had a highly competent cabin crew. It was not at all like the descriptions I read of RyanAir, but much more like flying, say, Delta Express.

My only concern was that the checkin/boarding process began much closer to flight time than in the US or UK. There were no staff around the kiosk until perhaps ten or fifteen minutes before departure (and virtually no other passengers either). I wondered nervously if anyone would show up. They all came in a rush and once it started, things went very quickly.

Of course, things may have changed, but I would have no hesitation flying them again, even in a critical situation.

Look at the reviews at www.airlinequality.com/Forum/vueling.htm.

It would seem that Vueling are fine if all goes well, but may fall apart if there are problems. That is probably true of all airlines, and especially true of low-cost ones, which may not have back-up aircraft available, or their own staff at small airports.

For many routes in Europe, low cost airlines are the only ones available.

Have had nothing but success with Vueling and I can also say from recent experience with a flight here in the US which was cancelled due to a mechanical failure..if you think there may be a back-up aircraft..forget it!

I have flown Vueling many times to a number of destinations with no issues at all. The last flight was from Seville to A Coruña when A Coruña airport closed due to bad weather. We were flown to Santiago instead and buses took us to A Coruña. While we did arrive home very late, the airline kept us informed and did deliver us to the correct destination.

I loved Vueling when I flew it a few years ago. Wish we had as good an airline in the U.S.

Flew from Granada to Barcelona in Sep. My only flight on Vueling. I had trouble getting tickets on line from US, which seems a common problem, at least with Renfe, and a few other services in Spain. I booked with Expedia for only slightly more. There was no luggage charges. When I booked, I could not confirm a seat, and it took a day or two for Expedia to report "confirmed." so I was a little apprehensive, especially when Vueling and parent Iberia would not let me pick a seat.
We I arrived in Spain, I got on line at my first hotel and quickly picked our seats. No problem.
The flight itself was delayed by a torrential rainstorm that hit Granada about 1/2 hour before take off. We were delayed (in the terminal) about 2 hours, but after that, the flight was fine.
Only problem was that the luggage was apparently not totally protected from the rain, as one of our suitcases was pretty wet. At our hotel, we took everything out, hung it around,and aired out the suitcase. No harm done.
CAn't say much for the Granada airport. Once past security, there is nothing.

We flew Vueling a few years ago from Brussels to Barcelona and back, and had no problems. We liked the airline and would use them again if our travel plans included one of their destinations.

Our flight FCO to Orly was in time..I dont mind to fly this airline again.The ticket price was quite reasonable.