Vueling Airlines

Being a no frills and budget airline and knowing how boarding can be chaotic from have flown many of this type of airline in the past, I made the decision to pay for Vueling Airlines priority boarding in advance to avoid the queues and for quick and easy ingress and egress for my sisters and myself. I did so as they only provide limited priority boarding unlike some airlines which allows everyone to book priority boarding resulting in no benefit. However, no priority boarding was given and the staff were not even aware that priority boarding had been booked by passengers. A formal complaint submitted to the airline who feels an apology was sufficient enough and refuses to commit to any refund of money for services not provided by them although paid for. The overall service throughout our travel experience was below par with the exception of the check-in clerk which I now have to question as maybe she was the one who was responsible for ensuring staff at the end should have been aware of priority boarding and failed to do her job. There is nothing that this airline offers that other no frills and budget airlines offer, not even online check-in. I will return to using the competitors who I know you are at least guaranteed a little bit of respect. Avoid Vueling Airlines if you don't wish to find yourself paying for services you won't be provided with.

Gatwick to Bilbao via Barcelona. Due to weather condition my flight was delayed - that is not problem when someone informs you, but the lady in the boarding gate was terrible, unfriendly and ignored all of us. Once onboard, the near 3 hours we were there without take off, they were very professional and friendly and the commander kept us informed all the time. Of course I missed my connection flight, once in Barcelona I tried to sort out the problem, once again no staff at any customer care desk. Finally Iberia sorted out my problem, but at the moment still not having my luggage.

Purchased two non refundable one way tickets online from Vueling Airlines two weeks before a flight from Barcelona to London. Nothing untoward about the process and no special conditions on the fare, other that a statement that this type of ticket did not allow checkin online. Arrived at the airport 50 minutes prior to departure to be told that it was a standby ticket? there were no seats on the flight, and that I would have to the gate to see whether there might be two seats available from no shows. On enquiry at the gate I was told that there were two steps to getting a seat on Vueling, one was checking online the other was getting a seat allocated, and despite being at the airport 50 minutes prior to departure they told me that every other passenger had checked in? So how did I have a ticket on that flight (which did not allow me to checkin online), and there was no seat? None of this makes any sense. Turns out there were 7 people in this circumstance, two of us and a family of five. It is a reasonable conclusion that the flight was oversold. We got on because there were only 3 seats left (apparently it was not full after all!) and the family did not want to separate. I will not fly Vueling Airlines again - this is what the US airlines did 15 years ago but at least they said they oversold and did not pretend otherwise.

Rome to Gatwick with Vueling Airlines, and utterly atrocious service. Completely misled at check-in desk where we were misinformed about fog-related delay to take-off. Zero interest afterwards from Vueling helpline - their advice was to leave the airport, even though I had explained that we'd checked in luggage, and buy another ticket for the following day!

My Vueling flight was delayed arriving in Rome by one hour. At 00:25am, Fiumicino airport was effectively closed, and we Vueling passengers were forgotten and stuck in the bridge connecting the plane with the terminal gate that was locked - surreal and it was 45 minutes before a few airport staff came to unlock the gate! At 1:30 am, it was a nightmare to find any transport from FCO into Rome, which in the end I had to pay 70 euros for a taxi. It is time Vueling starts remembering its passengers, let alone improving its service! Vueling cancelled my return leg. I tried to get a refund for this flight, but Vueling will refund only 10% of my outstanding paid ticket! VY has only one direct flight per day on the route, and refused to book me on another airline (cheap), so I am forced to take its flight the next day and have to pay hefty expenses to stay in Rome for one extra night and day. Vueling Customer Service was pretty hopeless in all this, so beware.

Outbound flight and inbound flights were about half an hour late. Surprising as the inbound was the 0700 from Barcelona which lands in Gatwick and returns. The seating is cramped. I am 5ft 11 inches tall. My knees were touching the seat in front even after having to seat with legs wide open. The Barcelona to Gatwick price was double the price of the Gatwick flight to Barcelona. Ok for 2 hour flight but would not use for longer flights.

I heard so many horrible stories about Vueling that my expectations were already low. We arrived at the airport close to 2 hours early. We had already checked in and had our tickets. Just to hand over our luggage, we had to wait for 50 minutes, not counting security etc afterwards. This was just for the Vueling counters which were horribly organized and I just can't imagine how this airline can survive being such a mess. It makes you wonder how badly they handle everything else, too. The flight was uneventful, bad service, seats are unbearably tight (I‘m 1´84 and can barely sit) but I had expected something like this.

The Vueling Airlines flight itself was fine. but then the drama started once landed in Brussels. Our luggage still appeared to be in Rome this is a common problem appeared at Vueling. I came back Friday night and still waiting for my luggage. Vueling will not contact us and though their numbers are not in use, or they make you wait an hour at the customer service, I need my suitcase. My tip not to fly with Vueling, the service is not good or customer friendly forget it.

Flight out from Cardiff to Malaga on 15th October and back on 20th October. Both on time and full. Provided you pay a small supplement to reserve your seats online you are able to print your e-tickets weeks in advance (otherwise its a mere 2 days). As you would expect, a Spanish airline employs Spanish flight crew so the loudspeaker announcements were always a guessing-game as to what was being said even when in English. Having said that they were cheerful and polite. The cabin crew going out was a bit slow with the trolley but the return crew were up and running. It may have been the same plane out and back, or merely 2 old A320's but it was clean and no more (un)comfortable than any other cheap (or not) flight carrier. You don't get much leg room for us 6 footers. The Vueling check-in desks at Malaga were a joy. 6 o'clock in the morning, but they had 6 desks in action. I doubt we waited more than 10 minutes. I only had one very small hand luggage but I noticed other passengers with sizeable bags which looked considerably bigger than other cut-price airlines. The worst thing I can say about the flights is they were uneventful.

The worst cabin crew service I have ever encountered The cabin crew would not let me sit back down in my seat for 25 minutes after I got up to use the facilities. They kept me standing in the aisle and told me I would have to wait. It was only after the other customers on the plane started to complain about my treatment that they let me sit back down. I am sure that this contravenes air safety regulations.