Vueling Airlines

We booked a Vueling Airlines flight via a French portal (govoyage). Flight would have been on a Saturday from Bruxelles to Bilbao in the early afternoon, arriving in Bilbao at about 5pm. One Day after accepting my booking and confirming the flight details by email and after charging the price to my credit card, Vueling sent an eMail announcing that the flight was canceled. Their counter proposal was a flight on Saturday night from Bruxelles to Barcelona, arriving at Barcelona at about 11pm and continuing to Bilbao next morning at 9am. So losing one night at the airport. I accepted the possibility to cancel the flight, but to get the money back was (and is) a nightmare. People at the hotline were more than unfriendly. Vueling no way, never again.

London to Rome with Vueling - the first and last time I will fly with this airline. The queue to board took ages, the flight was severely delayed and they made many of us check in our hand luggage just as we were boarding saying that the plane was full. When we got on there was plenty of space in the luggage compartments. I fly a lot and this was one of the worst experiences I've had. I am going to change my return flight as I'm not prepared to suffer this again.

Messy boarding: There was no space to queue at the gate and there were no lanes or barriers or anything else putting some order in the queueing crowd. Another airplane was disembarking at the same counter while we were boarding - the bus to the aircraft had not yet arrived and people were piling up at the end of the staircase. Then after getting on the plane, passengers blocked the aisle and the crew stood by idle - in total we took slightly over 30 minutes to fully board an A320. The very expensive (close to 500€) one way ticket I had did not afford any amenities - seat spacing was far below average even for an LCC. I'm fairly tall and used to my knees touching the seat in front. On this flight, they were jammed into it. Food and drink selection was fairly poor and expensive - the Club sandwich was the only choice that looked halfway edible (albeit drowned in mayonnaise). I paid 6,50€ for that. Also it took roughly 45 minutes from the start of food service until they reached me in row 15. The flight itself fortunately was mostly uneventful and arrived only 10 minutes late. A fairly rude flight attendant folded down the middle seat armrest for descent while I was just putting my shoes back on, slamming it right into my back. No apology was offered and she also didn't seem to care about my seat neighbor's seatbelt not being closed and several window shades being down. Armrests were a top priority though. No wifi, connectivity or entertainment was offered on this flight of almost 4 hours.

The Vueling Airlines flight from Florence to London Gatwick was 30min early, which was the only good thing about this airline. Around €60 for the one way ticket is not cheap for a low budget airline. Ground staff at check in were rude, despite the fact that they arrived at checkin desk late. (One staff arrived 10min late, and the other was 25min late). Almost all the passengers who needed to do bag drops arrived there 2hrs before the flight departure, waiting for the checkin staff to arrive. At the Swiss and Lufthansa counters next to Vueling, each of the airlines had 3-4 staffs. No online checkin available for non-EU/EEA passport holders, so that's why I had to deal with the ground staff. Seats were very tight, the smallest I've seen. It's not good for value at all. I should have just taken the train to Pisa and took easyjet back to London. I will never ever take vueling again.https://www.airlinequality.com/wp-admin/post.php?post=383226&action=edit#edit_timestamp

Vueling Airlines from Gatwick to Rome, Cramped seats, no room to sit comfortably (I am 6ft but the person next to me is 5ft 5 and they couldn't fit their legs in comfortably). Flight delayed by over 3 hours, meaning final landing time in Rome was after 3am. No customer service, inaccurate information given throughout about timing. Flight was over £200.00 return, so not cheap.

Gatwick to Bilbao and I enjoyed the flight. Staff excellent. Flight was on time and comfortable. Was kept imformed at all times. First time flying with Vueling Airlines. Had a problem with name on ticket, rang them and changed it without any problem.

Traveling with 2 persons and 2 cats from Saint Petersburg to Santiago de Compostela in Spain for 590 Euro. The Vueling aircraft to depart at 6 am broke down at arrival in our departure aiport Saint petersburg in Russia. Staff had us leav main terminal area to hide us in back room terminal area at unused gate first. Then half an hour later we had to go all the way back an leave gate area altogether to check in counters, where we were told that plane would only depart at 4 pm, so 1 hours later, as a replacement crew and plane was being sent all the way from Spain. No food and beverage coupons were issued thn. People like us who stayd at private addresses in LED were told to travel back at pur own expense to those homes (1.5 hour away) and wait for a call to come back to airport later. Taxi costs would be reimbursed. Vueling offered fake alternative to cancel flight, but would only refund money two weeks later, which was useless at that moment of course. Despite requests to tell what woudl happen with connecting flights no staff member wanted to commit to anything but told us they would take care of them. Upon picking up luggage (complex operation) which was already in other area checked in and driving back far way to house, we got a call shortly after to return that flight would leave 3 hours earlier. Upon arrival at LED airport restaurant vouchers were issued but useless as flight would leave in less than an hour and restaurants were all booked. So we had no food since coupons can only be spent in restaurants. Plane still left half an hour late so in total 7.5 hour late and they were selling drinks and food on the plane instead of providing passengers with them for free for the inconvenience. No sense of redemption. Upon arrival in Barcelona the information given for where the counter for transits would be was wrong. Eventually we found the counter ad they confirmed the problem of getting cnecting flights and referred us to another counter with a waiting line. At that counter they told us there was no more connecting flight to SCQ (Santiago) , which any dim wit would know, so no news. They could only offer us a flight to an airport 1 1/2 hour away from Santiago (plus same distance from our home) plus bus transportation to Santiago or stay overnight in Barcelona (imagine, with 2 cats) in hotel and fly the next day direct. A restaurant coupon was given again, again useless as the flight would leave very soon. So we still had no food. We took the flight to the other city and on arrival there was no one to welcome us for the transfer to a cab or bus to Santiago, plus it was already very late. So we had to rent at our own expense an expensive car and had to cancel with costs our own prepaid 5 day rental in Santiago and drive our rental home instead of to Santiago. It all cost us 100s of Euros extra and of course the stress of an extra travel time of 11 hours, plus the extra time spent on returning a car rental the next days in a different far away town. Upon contacting Vueling about paying our costs, they refused to pay taxi costs and took zero responsibility saying they were not obliged to pay us anything (despite the laws saying opposite). We escalated it to a few passenger claim services. It seems we may succeed with one out of 3 of those to get what is due, but it will take a while. Never again with Vueling.

Gatwick to Ibiza via Barcelona with Vueling. After arriving in Ibiza both my hold bags did not appear. I reported this to the agent and received the necessary information to contact the airline. On contacting the airline I was told I could buy emergency items and would be reimbursed provided I supplied the receipts. 48 hours later 1 of my bags was delivered to my hotel. At the end of my stay the other bag was still missing. On my return to the UK I sent receipts for items I purchased because of the delayed baggage for which they reimbursed me. After several emails I sent to Vueling regarding the lost baggage I was informed that they had paid for the loss. I tried to explain to them that the payment they made was for the delayed baggage emergency items purchased not the lost baggage. They did not accept that the bag was lost until well after they paid for delayed baggage so they could not have paid for the loss. I requested a telephone number so I could contact them to try to sort the matter out but received no answer. I have now had to use my travel insurer to sort the problem. I cannot believe the attitude of the airline towards me and would definitely not recommend them to anyone. They have very poor customer service skills.

Malaga to Copenhagen. This route is used heavily for people going on vacation, so being booked on it for business made me a bit worried, especially as it was my first time with Vueling. For very little cost I managed to select my seat in the front of the aircraft, and I was double lucky as I got the whole row for myself! Seats were fine, food (for pay) was a decent selection, and the whole trip went very well. Will select again!

A couple of years back, Vueling were streets ahead of Ryanair in just about every aspect of customer satisfaction. As Ryanair have improved in that regard, so too have Vueling gone down, so much so that, these days, there's not much to choose between them. Boarding for both flights from Barcelona to La Palma was rather chaotic, and, ex BCN involved a bus ride to the plane. Despite the fact that there were loads of empty seats in the first 7 rows, when I asked, politely in Spanish, after take off, if we could spread out and get a bit more space, I was rudely told by a haughty cabin crew member that if I wanted to sit there I should have paid more. When I asked what the cost of an upgrade was, he just shrugged. On all the Vueling flights I take, it seems to take ages before the crew can be bothered to go round with the drink/food service. This flight was in one of the new planes with the lightweight (aka uncomfortable) seats. Perhaps these are OK for a short 90 min hop, but not for a 3.5 hour trip to the Canaries. Return from La Palma was a little better, on an older plane with proper seats. Also it was a little less crowded, so space was not an issue. Plus points were that both flights arrived on time. Overall, however, it's a shame to see standards drop month on month on Vueling flights.