Flying from Barcelona to Rome

We have a FF mile ticket from the USA to Barcelona. Now we have decided to change plans and will pick up the cruise ship in Rome. Since we still want to spend time in Barcelona what air line would be the best for us to take to get to Rome. We will have luggage plus a carry on. I have found a couple of options just wondering what others think - Iberia or Vueling. Iberia is considerably less. Our ship leaves on Monday and I was thinking about Sat or Sun. flight to get to Rome.

Thanks for any advice.

We have a FF mile ticket from the USA to Barcelona. Now we have decided to change plans and will pick up the cruise ship in Rome. Since we still want to spend time in Barcelona what air line would be the best for us to take to get to Rome. We will have luggage plus a carry on. I have found a couple of options just wondering what others think - Iberia or Vueling. Iberia is considerably less. Our ship leaves on Monday and I was thinking about Sat or Sun. flight to get to Rome.

 

Thanks for any advice.

Alitalia would also be an option. Other legacy airlines will likely connect in their associated hubs or code-share on eith Alitalia or one of the two you are already looking at. Sorry I avoid the discount airlines in Europe others may have more insight into those.

Watch out with Vueling. Yes, they have low fares, but are also short on aircraft and onboard crew, resulting in horrendous delays. And those delays due to lack of equipment or staff are almost a daily thing.

Believe me, the company I work for handles Vueling flights and we average at least 1 big delay (+3hrs) a day because of this!

Iberia might be just fine, but if there tickets are around the same price as the Vueling tickets, you'll most likely end up on Vueling metal as IB & VY have codeshares. In fact, VY has codeshare agreements with Aer Lingus, British Airways, Iberia and Qatar Airways. So always check the fine print when buying a ticket and look for the words "Operated by". That's your golden ticket to avoid any nasty surprises. (also where to go for check-in, etc.)

I will avoid VY at all cost, even if that means I'm paying some more to do so. Especially this summer because they have quite some planes that need a big scheduled maintenance and they're already short of planes. Or try your luck and save some money because I have to admit they sometimes have some ridiculously low prices ;-)

Good luck :)

Iberia might be just fine, but if there tickets are around the same price as the Vueling tickets, you'll most likely end up on Vueling metal as IB & VY have codeshares. In fact, VY has codeshare agreements with Aer Lingus, British Airways, Iberia and Qatar Airways. So always check the fine print when buying a ticket and look for the words "Operated by". That's your golden ticket to avoid any nasty surprises. (also where to go for check-in, etc.)

This is NOT, repeat NOT, an absolute. However, one giveaway can be the flight number. If you find it to be four digits and over 3000, the odds are quite good that it's a code-share, operated by either a contract carrier or a "partner". Now, with very large carriers this is less likely to happen. But you won't find that flight #10 is a code-share, but #8247 quite likely is.

Again, this is nothing more than a VERY ROUGH tip for you to look out for. Keep it in the back of your head, but remember - as noted, read the fine print and NEVER ASSUME anything.

Iberia might be just fine, but if there tickets are around the same price as the Vueling tickets, you'll most likely end up on Vueling metal as IB & VY have codeshares. In fact, VY has codeshare agreements with Aer Lingus, British Airways, Iberia and Qatar Airways. So always check the fine print when buying a ticket and look for the words "Operated by". That's your golden ticket to avoid any nasty surprises. (also where to go for check-in, etc.)

This is NOT, repeat NOT, an absolute. However, one giveaway can be the flight number. If you find it to be four digits and over 3000, the odds are quite good that it's a code-share, operated by either a contract carrier or a "partner". Now, with very large carriers this is less likely to happen. But you won't find that flight #10 is a code-share, but #8247 quite likely is.

 

Again, this is nothing more than a VERY ROUGH tip for you to look out for. Keep it in the back of your head, but remember - as noted, read the fine print and NEVER ASSUME anything.

The booking site will say, though, as headhunterke rightly points out.

Hi,Ryanair fly from Barcelona to Rome.We use them many times from Stanstead to Lamezia and never had a delay or cancelation,worth considering,cheers,Brian.

How about ferry? Grimaldi has sailings between Barcelona and Civitavecchia. It'd save you transport from FCO or CIA.... Takes 20 hours.

We are doing the reverse, getting off the ship in Rome and flying back to Barcelona. Alitalia had seats for about $150 per person one way back when we booked about 4 months ago....

Check out the majors. They are often cost competitive when you include all the fees that some of the discount lines charge.

We have flown Vueling a number of times. Always very good service, great prices. Last time was Palermo-Rome for $30. USD all in. We also found that TAP had some very good fares within Europe.

Thanks every one for your suggestions and help. After reading some of your thoughts we are going to play it safe and fly Alitalia. Our ship departs Rome on a Monday. We were thinking about leaving BCN on Sunday. Is that cutting it too short? I know it is impossible to predict but is Alitalia pretty reliable, as in not having strikes or delays?

Thanks again.

Sylvia

It is not just the airline strikes that should concern you. For instance there is a scheduled airport worker strike in Italy on July 23. Flying in the night before your cruise will give you some wiggle room.