Finding alternative ways to Barcelona

One way to do it is find out which cities are usually cheap from your home airport to Europe and fly there, then catch a cheap intra-Europe flight on easyJet or RyanAir (or train) once you land. See https://www.hopper.com/articles/2301/the-five-cheapest-direct-flights-from-washington-d-c-to-europe for example.

One tactic is to find the European city to which you can fly most inexpensively from your home airport that has inexpensive, direct intra-European flights to Barcelona. Another is to check flights from different U.S. airports. Also check flying to Madrid; I believe there's now a fast train from there to Barcelona.

Edit: Great minds posting at the same time!

LOL @ Janet! :)

I have found that from my home airport of Atlanta, for example, it's usually cheapest to fly to Zurich or Brussels if paying cash. For points availability on Delta, London, Rome, Manchester, Milan, Paris, and ironically Barcelona are the cheapest for points (e.g. 25K each way in coach).

Others have reported very expensive fares from Dulles IAD to Europe. You could fly nonstop from IAD to Dublin (Aer Lingus) or Paris (Air France) for around $800 and then book separate flights to/from Barcelona. This type of itinerary may involve staying overnight at an airport hotel on the way home. You could also find a way to get to JFK, which offers lower price options to Barcelona.

For our upcoming trip to Italy, we found a very cheap round trip flight from Boston to Paris, then booked a separate flight five hours later from Paris to Venice.

On the way home, we are flying from Milan to Paris, staying overnight at a Paris airport hotel, then flying home the next day.

Bev, what are your travel dates? Were you wishing to fly back from Barcelona as well, or from some other airport? With more precise information, maybe someone will come up with a clever idea.

I got a very good fare (under $600) into Madrid in early April and out of London in late August, but I bought that ticket at least two months ago, and the last time I looked the fare was over $1000.

We will be leaving end of May and returning end of June. I know this is bordering or is high season for Spain.

Thanks for all the suggestions! We will check out flying into and out of alternative airports.