We are planning a trip in Spain where we will be leaving from Santiago de Compostelo and end in Bilbao. Has anyone made this trip? And is it easy to book the trip on the internet or should we contact a travel agent? We have booked flights before on the internet and flown European airlines before and it has worked well for us, except for the time our airline lost its space in Cantabria, Sicily. And we had to fly into Rome and change planes to get to Bari. So it took us 5 or 6 hours to get across Italy instead of an hour.
Posted by
Rick Steves' Europe
16895 posts
I have not taken the direct flight offer by Iberia (and operated by Air Nostrum). At $200 in May, I note that it's not as cheap as we often find for intra-European flights. But it should be perfectly normal and easy to buy online.
Your US credit card issuer may balk at international air purchases (I know Capital One always questions them), but just be in touch with the bank to confirm your purchase.
Posted by
OP
Dallas, TX, usa
323 posts
When I check they have a flight on Iberia for $90.00, with a stop over in Madrid.
Posted by
New York, NY, USA
11294 posts
If you mean flying from Santiago de Compostela to Bilbao, there's no need to use a travel agent for this flight. It's like booking any other online flight. Do check the prices on both the US Iberia Airlines website and the Spain Iberia Airlines website (sometimes they're different, sometimes not). If you do book on the Spanish website, remember the following:
1) It will be a foreign transaction, so it will be subject to foreign transaction fees.
2) It will be processed in a foreign country, so it may be blocked if you don't contact your credit card first. And which country the transaction is processed in can vary. My brother was headed to the Netherlands and Belgium, so he cleared his card for use in these two countries. But his Anne Frank House reservation ticket purchase was blocked. It turned out that (at least two years ago), the Anne Frank House website processed the transactions in France!
Do check if you can get a nonstop; changing in Madrid or Barcelona will mean this trip will take many more hours, like your flight to Bari. Again, though, a travel agent cannot make flights appear that don't exist, so they can't help with this.
Or did you mean flying from the US into Santiago and out of Bilbao? That you can also do on your own, directly on Iberia's US website. I flew into Biarritz and out of Bilbao on Iberia last year, and the only issues were:
1) I had to pay extra (about $35) to select seats on the trans-Atlantic flights in advance. If you're willing to wait until 24 hours before flight time, you can select your seats for free.
2) For my flight from Madrid to Biarritz, while it was a jet, it was so small that only personal items were allowed in the cabin. All other carry-ons had to be gate checked. It was very efficient: while we were in the boarding area, Iberia personnel went around and tagged all carry-ons that were going to have to be checked. As we walked out on the tarmac to the plane, there was a rack to put these bags. When we landed, the bags were on the tarmac waiting for us. But it does mean that you should be ready to have anything valuable, irreplaceable, or necessary (medications, electronics) in a bag you can put under your seat, in case you have to surrender the bag you were putting overhead.
Note that the flight from Bilbao to Madrid was on a larger jet and I could take both my carry on and my personal item with me into the cabin with no problems. I have no idea what size planes they use into Santiago.
One last warning: Iberia flies to Santiago, Chile and Santiago de Compostela, Spain. Make sure you book to the correct Santiago! (you want airport code SCQ).
Posted by
OP
Dallas, TX, usa
323 posts
Thanks for the responses. We will fly into Madrid with an hour layover and leave from the same terminal. So we hope it will be easy, and the flight was a total of $252 and we got to pick our seats and will be able to carry on baggage and if need be check two bags. We will hope it works out. If not...well things don't always work out, but we do try to take it as a learning experience.
Thanks again for advice.
Posted by
75 posts
If you have an hour layover you may have a problem with your checked bags making the next flight.
Back in September my flight from Seville to Madrid and Madrid to Bayonne on Iberia had a 1 hour lay over and my bag didnt make it , since I almost missed the flight. I would only do it with a carry on to be on th esafe side. In my case the flight left 15 minutes late from Seville to Madrid.
Liam
Posted by
Washington DC
28085 posts
I'm confused about what you're trying to do.
Are you flying into Madrid from the US or Canada and planning to buy a separate ticket to northern Spain that leaves only an hour after your flight is due to land in Madrid? I would not do that. If the entire journey is on one ticket, that's different; if your inbound flight is late and you miss the connection, the airline will have to get you to your destination at no additional cost to you.