Is Vueling that bad?

The reviews may be based in real experience, but around here, Vueling doesn't have a bad name. I would guess that they're more equivalent to EasyJet than RyanAir, but they also are connected with Iberia and British Airways. If you're not connecting and/or not checking a bag on this leg, some of those concerns won't apply to you.

I flew Vueling from Rome to Palermo and the Catania to Rome. No problems with the flight but checking in at the airport in Catania was an absolute zoo. Not enough clerks and crazy busy lines for check in and for security. I’d fly them again but would get to the airport in Catania earlier.

Last year Vueling changed the time of our flight leaving Seville by twelve and a half hours which made it impossible for us to use. They gave us our money back but we incurred penalties as we had to cancel a second international flight home and rebook it. .
Ryanair is rather pedestrian but they were on time and sent us many emails prior to our departure day explaining how they operate. No issues with them at all.

They are owned by same company that owns your go to British Airways. There are a lot of drama queen or king passengers out there that do not read airline rules before they spend their money so I do not and did not read reviews before taking them on routes Florence to Paris, Rome to Paris. I did not experience anything bad. I carried my bag on and let the system select my seats given my flights were under 2 hours.

A few years ago I was traveling on Vueling Barcelona-Florence, and they simple did not load our baggage in Barcelona. Not one. Pieces of luggage arrived at variable times, from one to four days past the flight day.

The same year, my brother and his daughter were flying Florence-Paris on Vueling at Xmas time. There was bad weather so passengers were first told that in order to keep the airplane light the airline would not load baggages. After half an hour, the airline decided that only the first 80 persons out of 100 at check-in would fly, still to keep the plane light. The interesting thing is that no alternatives were given to persons that had already checked and would be bumped.

Flying Vueling is particularly risky to/from Florence as the runway is short and the danger of being bumped to keep the airplane light and running is present. But bad customer assistance can't be excused.

My husband flew from Naples to Dubrovnik last August and did not have any problems at all.

I've been reading the forums here for nearly 3 years. I remember a slew of complaints about Vueling rather early in that period. I think they were primarily baggage-related. I have had no experience with the airline, myself.

I’ve flown them once from Bilbao to London. I had a ticket on British Airways, but my flight was canceled due to a system-wide computer problem that grounded all BA flights. BA customer service that day was absolutely atrocious. When BA finally decided to officially cancel the flight (after we had waited at the airport for 6 hours), I went to the Vueling counter and bought a ticket to London less than 40 minutes before the flight was due to depart. My last minute ticket was cheaper than my original BA flight (even including a checked bag). The flight was fine and my luggage arrived with me. I would certainly choose a non-stop flight on Vueling over a connecting flight on BA.

We've used them 3-4 times now , no issues at all . Yeah it's not a luxury flight but flights within Europe are all pretty short .

People usually only write bad reviews .

My friend works for a major airline here , and she worked in the luggage complaint department for a year before transferring to counter service . Luggage issues are the bane of most airlines and what folks don't seem to realize is that many times it's not the airline that loses your bag but the ground crew employed by the airport that makes the mistakes .

We flew Vueling once, and had no problems. The seats were small and cramped, but the flight was short so we didn't care. They do charge extra for everything, as I recall, so caveat emptor.

I have flown Vueling only once and the experience wasn't as bad as the stories and web sight posted here but it was enough for me to decide never again.

I was flying from CDG to Rome with a layover in Barcelona. My flight was to leave CDG around noon, arrive in Barcelona around 2:00PM, leave Barcelona around 400PM and arrive in Rome at 6:00PM. There was a slow, slow boarding line at CDG, I finally got boarded after the scheduled take off time. Once I was boarded, we waited for quite some time before taking off. In Barcelona at 4:00 when we were scheduled to leave there was a notice "Flight Delayed One Hour" but no explanation given. At 5:00 a new sign was posted "Flight Delayed One Hour" but again no explanation. At 6:00 and again at 7:00 the same was repeated. Finally at 8:00PM the plane arrived. Boarding was by way of a bus hauling us out on the tarmac somewhere to the plane. On my bus the driver drove around for awhile trying to locate the place. Finally he drove back to the terminal to find out where the plane was. On boarding I asked the flight attendant why we were so late. Her respond was "Because the plane just arrived". Daaah. Once we were boarded and it appeared ready to take off, an announcement came over the speaker saying there were too many bags loaded (??0 and they would have to have remove all bags to check which would take an hour. We finally arrived in Rome after 11:00PM. Luckily my bag did arrive with me on the flight.

I have flown on Easyjet so many times I can"t remember the number and always found it a satisfactory exp experience.

Lola,

I've travelled with Vueling in the past, and the flight was very pleasant and uneventful, so no complaints. It seemed much the same as other budget airlines. No frills but it got me to my destination.

Thanks, everyone, this is helpful.

Since it is a direct flight I think we are less likely to encounter some of the problems mentioned. We will be careful with luggage size and plan to arrive at the Catania airport early!