OK AIR PEOPLE....Question please

[Lois R]

Hi, I haven't needed air help in a long time but the question now exists LOL

I will be cruising on a TA crossing in April....and then will be taking a river

cruise too. (RETIREMENT celebration)

 

Once we get to Barcelona I will need to fly to Lisbon.

Looking on line, it looks quite cheap and about a 2 hour flight.

 

Would anyone be able to give me some advice on which airline would

be recommended.  TAP? Vueling? Both offer good timing and pretty cheap!

I have not needed to fly within Europe before....just either there, or home LOL

 

Thank you to all who would be willing to help.

 

 

 

[fbgd]

Both are meh, IMO.

 

TAP are certainly on the low end in terms of European legacy airlines and Vueling are a low cost carrier. That said you're looking at a short intra-Europe flight. As it sounds like you're looking at economy no airline is going to be particularly exciting. 

[Lois R]

Hi, who would you recommend????

I am looking to get from Barcelona to Lisbon...…...

[waterbug123]

To go between Barcelona and Lisbon, without backtracking to connect somewhere else in Europe, I would imagine you'd be limited to either TAP (Portuguese airline) or Air Europa (Spanish airline), unless one of the European low cost carriers flies between the two.  I haven't flown on either so can't recommend one over the other.  If you don't mind connecting and spending more time in the air, then who knows what kind of deal you might find?! 

[brian1]

For just a 2hr flight,I'd just go for the cheapest and most convenient for you.It seems BA do this route also,but operated by Vuelling.

[iancal]

We have done TAP, Vueling, etc numerous times.   Always been satisfied.  For discount airlines in Europe and Asia we usually start looking on skyscanner.com.   We avoid the Ryanairs and  Easyjet.

 

One thing though is that the price is often not the price depending on the airline.  Many add charges...admin charges, charges for usuing credit cards, and charges for baggage.  We travel with an international size carry on and keep the weight below 8KG.  Some discounter really police this both at the check in and at the boarding area.  So, if you do compare prices, compare your bottom line price.....not the banner price.    You will often find competing fares at good prices on the majors.  Shop around.

[iancal]

You might be surprised at some of the large differences in pricing.   Last time we flew from Porto to Rome TAP was by a very wide margin much less expensive than any other option, including a few discount airlines.  As I recall it was less than half the price of the discounters.  Net, including bags.  Same for our last minute Palermo to Rome flight.  Not only was Vueling much lower than the competition., it was less expensive than taking the train. 

 

 We found the same last month when flying within Greece, to Cyprus, and to London.  We expected the discount airlines to be less after all they are discount airlines. .  Not so. We had seven flight segments.  Aegean had the best prices and the best schedules.  The discounters were off the page on price and sched.   Sometimes by a wide margin.

Edited October 30, 2019 by iancal

[swixpat]

I've been on both airlines and they are ok for the trip you are looking for. Vueling and Iberia sometimes code share, and then it can be advantageous to book Iberia as their price includes a 23kg bag in the hold. It is really the luggage policy and pricing that makes the difference. And make sure that you understand their in-flight price model. You may want to get a bottle of water after security and before gate to avoid high prices for drinks during the flight.

[Lois R]

Thank you all for the replies. I appreciate the input.

[slidergirl]

I did Vueling from Barcelona to Pisa a few years ago.  It was fine.  Just be sure you read their baggage and carry on rules to be sure you aren't scrambling at the airport.  Also used Easyjet from Pisa to Paris- I was OK with it.  The LCCs are OK for intra-Europe flights. Just like in the US, the "majors" have their regionals - Vueling, Air Europa, Agean, CityHopper, etc.   I avoid Ryanair. 

[iancal]

I believe that we have done three Vuelings and at least four or five TAP flights.   They were all fine.  Not particularly memorable but what does one expect from a short LCC flight.  The only memorable on the last Vueling was that is was $37 from Palermo to Rome booked about three days prior to the flight (we scored a last minute Med cruise to Barcelona with excellent cruise air home).  And the airport bus stop was just outside the door of our B&B.

[bennybear]

We have found easy jet fine and Ryanair if you choose carefully what is included, but only with more legroom seats.

[wowzz]

11 hours ago, brian1 said:

For just a 2hr flight,I'd just go for the cheapest and most convenient for you.It seems BA do this route also,but operated by Vuelling.

This is a code share flight, flown by Vueling,  which of course, is part of IAG, as is BA, Iberia and Aer Lingus. 

[wowzz]

11 hours ago, iancal said:

We avoid the Ryanairs and  Easyjet.

I can understand why you might want to avoid Ryanair, but there is absolutely no reason to avoid Easyjet - one of the best loco operators around.

[brian1]

6 hours ago, wowzz said:

This is a code share flight, flown by Vueling,  which of course, is part of IAG, as is BA, Iberia and Aer Lingus. 

That's what I said in the latter part of my post.

[brian1]

We use Ryanair on a regular basis,they are mainly reliable and good value.The seat backs are fixed so everyone gets the same legroom,which isn't the worse I've experienced.Yes, they are the Kings of nickle and diming but so are EasyJet.O'Leary doesn't do the company any favours with his tongue in cheek rants.

[wowzz]

1 hour ago, brian1 said:

Yes, they are the Kings of nickle and diming but so are EasyJet

Sorry to disagree Brian, bit imho Ryanair are far worse than Essyjet in this regard. Ryanair also have a terrible reputation for lack of customer service in the event of flight cancellations. 

[FionaMG]

TAP is Star Alliance so if you have United miles there is a good chance you can use them for a flight with TAP. As I understand it (mostly from reading posts on "points-type" websites) TAP is one of the easier airlines to get award seats on.

 

TAP will "feed" you at no extra cost, although the snack or meal (depends on the time of day) is always hit or miss and can range from surprisingly good to utterly inedible.

 

Watch out for the hand baggage rules on TAP. Strictly speaking you have 10 kg but that is, in theory, split into an 8 kg piece and a 2 kg personal item. While this is mostly just on paper, I have, on occasion, seen them enforce this rule on busy flights by weighing hand luggage at the gate.

 

They have also started rolling out a sort of premium economy service on their European flights, which they call Xtra (or something like that). This involves paying a bit extra to get a seat with a bit more leg room and which reclines. The cheapest of the cheap seats have minimal leg room and do not recline. However, this is a very recent development  and I don't know if it would apply to the flight you may be considering.

 

Vueling belongs to Iberia, which is a One World partner. That means you may be able to use American miles to snag an award seat.

 

Otherwise, I'd second what @brian1 said and just book whichever is cheaper and/or best fits in with your time scale.

 

 

[brian1]

4 hours ago, wowzz said:

Sorry to disagree Brian, bit imho Ryanair are far worse than Essyjet in this regard. Ryanair also have a terrible reputation for lack of customer service in the event of flight cancellations. 

No worries,I guess we've been lucky in the 10 years of our route,STN-SUF.The other alternatives are EasyJet and Alitalia with layovers and we're only 35 miles from STN.

[Zach1213]

14 hours ago, wowzz said:

I can understand why you might want to avoid Ryanair, but there is absolutely no reason to avoid Easyjet - one of the best loco operators around.

 

I have had some really good experiences with Easyjet, including a very good handling of an EU compensation case. I haven't flown Ryanair in years, but in my experience if you know what to expect and what your additional charges may be, they're a fine airline for short intra-European flights. 

[Lois R]

Thanks to all for the replies....no miles so will just pay with a cc..I appreciate all the comments!  As for

luggage.…….one checked bag and 1 carry on. 

 

 

[Suzanne123]

I was on TAP from Barcelona to the US with a change of planes in Lisbon in September. My only problem was finding their check in desk at the Barcelona airport. (I must have walked past it three times. It’s tucked back in a corner, I think #514 or thereabouts.) Other than that, the flight to Lisbon was fine - no worse than American or United for a couple hours.

[Budget Queen]

On 10/30/2019 at 12:01 AM, Lois R said:

Hi, I haven't needed air help in a long time but the question now exists LOL

I will be cruising on a TA crossing in April....and then will be taking a river

cruise too. (RETIREMENT celebration)

 

Once we get to Barcelona I will need to fly to Lisbon.

Looking on line, it looks quite cheap and about a 2 hour flight.

 

Would anyone be able to give me some advice on which airline would

be recommended.  TAP? Vueling? Both offer good timing and pretty cheap!

I have not needed to fly within Europe before....just either there, or home LOL

 

Thank you to all who would be willing to help.

 

 

 

I just took another Vueling flight yesterday.   I’m not picky so was perfectly fine.  Last month another on Ryanair.       I’ve also flown Easyjet.     Biggest suggestion-   Be sure to fully comply with the written restrictions for baggage-  ALL baggage.    Yesterday there were all kinds of additional fees charged (line backed up right in front of the ticket agents.   Overweight checked and carry on luggage.  And oversized bags and luggage.   Include handles and wheels.    The supervisor had smoke coming out of his shoes.  I didn’t see any exceptions.   Credit cards were passing over the desk.  

[wowzz]

3 hours ago, Budget Queen said:

I just took another Vueling flight yesterday.   I’m not picky so was perfectly fine.  Last month another on Ryanair.       I’ve also flown Easyjet.     Biggest suggestion-   Be sure to fully comply with the written restrictions for baggage-  ALL baggage.    Yesterday there were all kinds of additional fees charged (line backed up right in front of the ticket agents.   Overweight checked and carry on luggage.  And oversized bags and luggage.   Include handles and wheels.    The supervisor had smoke coming out of his shoes.  I didn’t see any exceptions.   Credit cards were passing over the desk.  

A good observation and recommendation.  Having flown on US and European carriers, I have always been amazed how lenient US carriers are about cabin luggage. 

In Europe, the rules are much more tightly enforced.

[iancal]

Absolutely.  We travel with carry on only. We switched to international size carry on because the US size is too large.

 

More that once we have removed heavier items from our carry on and put them in our jacket pockets in order to get down to 8KG.  We can make 10kg but 8 can be a stretch for DW.

 

We find the luggage checking really varies by country of departure.  No issues flying in Italy, Greece or Cyprus.  We had seven flight segments this past fall.   We had one bag weighed once.  Another time we checked one because of size of aircraft.