Vueling Airlines

There's been some recent postings about this, including one started by me as I tried to decide between Ryanair and Vueling for a Barcelona to Venice trip. In the end, I decided there was an enormous pattern of really bad reviews of Vueling and I opted to fly with Ryanair. There's also plenty of bad Ryanair reviews, but my research showed that Ryanair is improving, especially on its customer service, whereas Vueling seems to be on the way down to rock bottom. I, too, do not care about amenities on those short flights...Vueling seems to struggle with something more crucial: they cancel a lot of flights. There's also an almost unbelievable number of lost baggage stories. Here's a link to an enlightening review thread: http://forum.airlines-inform.com/Vueling_Airlines/15.html.

Steven, We took Vueling two summers ago from Barcelona to Bologna without incident. It's only one experience and purely anecdotal.

It is part of IAG, which also contains Iberia and British Airways.

I have flown several budget airlines in Europe including Vueling. In June I took a flight from Paris to Lisbon on Vueling. It basically "worked" but wasn't a great experience. They moved the flight time about 15 minutes and I did not get any type of e-mail notification (which I do with major carriers.) When I got to the airport in Paris, several hours early, and tried to check in the Vueling personnel said I could not check in until 1 hour before the flight...... but they acted like it was a lot of trouble to tell me that (they were talking amongst themselves and didn't want to stop to tell me I couldn't check in.) When they started to check in, it was about 40 minutes before the flight, not an hour. Once on board, the cabin attendants again pretty much kept to themselves and talked in the front of the plane. However, given the new schedule, I did get to Lisbon on time and fairly cheaply.

steven,

I've used Vueling in the past and no problems at all with either flight departure timing or service. Vueling seems to get somewhat "mixed" reviews on THIS website but some are very positive. Budget airlines don't usually provide any "amenities" so you'll have to pay for each item of food and each beverage, and tolerate cramped seating (in seats that don't always recline).

Thanks to everyone for your responses , the information provided has been a great help in getting this sorted ! My best wishes for a wonderful holiday season , Steve

Good experience flying from BCN to Nice in May. Tickets were cheap and we arrived early. My only issue, and it wasn't huge, was the flight times. I had a choice of very early in the morning or evening and would have liked to have something more mid-day.