Flying to Barcelona from the US

[daisydog2]

Hi Everyone! Trying to book our flights for Med cruise in May. Any suggestions on who to look at. We cannot afford business or first class( wish we could). We live in Albuquerque, but we think leaving from Phoenix will be our best bet. Let me know who you used and what you thought. Thank you all so much!

 

[Marc D]

To find the best routing, with tools to find better options, I always check on Google Flights. It will allow you to add multiple filters. At first glance, you seem correct in thinking that Phoenix will provide more 1-stop options than Albuquerque.

 

[o&smom]

Hi Everyone! Trying to book our flights for Med cruise in May. Any suggestions on who to look at. We cannot afford business or first class( wish we could). We live in Albuquerque, but we think leaving from Phoenix will be our best bet. Let me know who you used and what you thought. Thank you all so much!

We live in Oregon, and have found using Dallas as a hub the last few times to Europe has been helpful. The last time we flew to Madrid and spent a couple of days there before taking the train to Barcelona.

 

[Joel0917]

Explore two separate round trips. Like Phoenix to Atlanta or another hub and then Barcelona to that hub. We saved money doing a sep flight for us we also saved $2000 by flying to Paris and staying the night in Paris and flying out back to the states the next morning.
So it takes work and effort. With Phoenix u could do direct to Detroit and explore direct flights from det. Or phx to Atlanta, Dallas, jfk or even Philadelphia and look at direct flights to Barcelona from there by flying to that hub the day before. I would suggest spend 2-3 days in Barcelona’s. It’s doe way to walk and tour. The food is amazing. We loved Barcelona as the best part of our cruise

 

[msmama]

My experience with Barcelona...

I was flying OUT of Barcelona (after b2b TA & Med), but I was honestly surprised how few flights there were to the US from Barcelona - and I was flying to NY!! TAP seemed to have the most, but they had a layover in Lisbon (which I was trying to avoid). And I think TAP is a budget airline so watch out for extra fees. I debated flights with layovers in Istanbul or Casablanca, but since this was at the end of our trip, I didn't think my son would go for it. It was hard not to add time to the vacation to experience one of those places but we'd already been away for so long.

In the end, we ended up flying Iberia nonstop but I will say, that flight was released WAAAY later than the others and I was a bit uncomfortable at how long I waited to book the flight. If you can get somewhere else in Europe first, I think you'll have better luck.

Good luck!

 

[anricat]

We found that flying into London, spending a day there and then booking a cheaper flight from London to Barcelona was a better option (we used EasyJet). We decided to take advantage of some time in London beforehand and stayed a couple of nights. So you might try looking at different cities in Europe and see if it's cheaper to fly in somewhere else.

Also, we just recently booked our airfare to Europe for next summer and we have a repositioning cruise. Not sure if yours is returning back to Barcelona, but we found that, at least on British Airways, it was incredibly expensive to book two one-way tickets. Instead, we used the option for multiple legs or multiple cities or something like that. It's usually for three or more trips, but when I just put in the two legs we needed, it priced it similar to a round-trip and was much less expensive than two one-way trips.

 

[DCLMP]

Hi Everyone! Trying to book our flights for Med cruise in May. Any suggestions on who to look at. We cannot afford business or first class( wish we could). We live in Albuquerque, but we think leaving from Phoenix will be our best bet. Let me know who you used and what you thought. Thank you all so much!

Which airline?

 

[skierrob]

My experience is it can be a LOT cheaper to take a cheap flight to a major international airport with LOTS of flights to the US first, and then a different flight to the USA. Think Barcelona to London on RyanAir or another budget airline, followed by a cheap London to USA flight. This also gives you the option to spend a night or two in London before flying home.
For the London to Phoenix leg, also consider looking for a flight to Vegas or LAX -- and then hopping on Southwest or similar to your hometown airport.

 

[DCLMP]

I would look at DFW on AA. That is probably the biggest international hub closest to New Mexico. Phoenix has a couple of non-stops to LHR one on AA and one on BA, but those are the only non-stop flights to Europe from Phx. Whatever airline you choose you are going to be connecting on the East coast if you go directly to BCN. Almost all the airlines have non-stop flights to LHR from their hubs and they are plentiful. As someone suggested I would consider that option too.

 

[daisydog1201]

Thank you all!!!

 

[PrincessShmoo]

Hi Everyone! Trying to book our flights for Med cruise in May. Any suggestions on who to look at. We cannot afford business or first class( wish we could). We live in Albuquerque, but we think leaving from Phoenix will be our best bet. Let me know who you used and what you thought. Thank you all so much!

The only cruse we flew to Barcelona beforehand, we used DCL flights. At the time there were lots of massive delays due to grounded planes (for maintenance issues) and the cost difference between what we could find and what it cost through DCL was only about $100 per person. We felt the assurance that DCL would help us, if we missed the ship, was worth the extra cost.

 

[auntlynne]

I would look at getting a flight to NYC. Then a flight to Barcelona. It doesn’t have to be the same carrier. Price it from Chicago, DC, Detroit, Boston. Since this is just a transfer point, you can select based on price and schedule.

Choose carriers you know / trust. Watch the news and see who is reported as having travel delays and cancellations (not based on weather or big holidays).

While a stop in London is nice (I did that), Immigration lines can be very long. There are also issues of industrial action (strikes) that pop up - usually with some advance notice.

On my return from Barcelona in 2010, the Icelandic volcano grounded many flights, so we scrambled and found a flight on Air Berlin from Barcelona to Düsseldorf, then to Ft Meyers FL (and then a 14-hour drive home). The carrier was actually decent, with full meals and a very happy crowd of Europeans.

* If you change carriers, you will have to exit secure area to collect your luggage, then check-in and go through luggage drop and security again.

(I’m old enough now that I would pay the extra money and fly one carrier all the way - and it would be Delta, my usual carrier).

 

[Flossbolna]

I would be very careful about booking with two tickets from deprecate carriers. If anything goes wrong with your first flight, the next carrier will just treat you as a no show. Meaning you lose your ticket. They might help you out of courtesy, but I would never count on that. I don’t think the savings would be worth the risk.

 

[MM1102]

We're in Orlando and connecting through Miami on the way to Barcelona and through Philadelphia on the way back. AA both ways.

 

[Littled7287]

We did American Airlines last May and it went great! Had a layover at JFK both ways, we live in Virginia though so being on the east coast already definitely helps. No issues flying in/out of Barcelona and that was with all the CoVID protocols still in place. Looking at United into Heathrow for our British Isles trip this year.

 

[holula]

I would be very careful about booking with two tickets from deprecate carriers. If anything goes wrong with your first flight, the next carrier will just treat you as a no show. Meaning you lose your ticket. They might help you out of courtesy, but I would never count on that. I don’t think the savings would be worth the risk.

I agree, I’d only do this if I planned to spend some time in the other destination.

Normally when I do a transatlantic flight I do Delta, and then my second choice would be KLM.

 

[kaseyC]

Don't rule out your local airport. We just recently moved from the Chicago area to NC and were truly spoiled with variety of International flights out ORD for the past 20 yrs we lived in the area. We are doing another Med cruise in April and I found flights to Barcelona out of our local airport RDU on American connecting through JFK for less than it would've cost to book the non-stop portion from JFK to BCN on its own.

 

[NEGeekymama]

Get the cheapest flight you can find to London, then book London to Barcelona on one of their low-cost/no-frills airlines. We did this back in 2008 (so prices are obviously different) and managed to get round trip airfare for 3 people to Barcelona for under $300.

More recently (in summer 2019) we flew to London, then London to Dublin on Ryan Air for $230 for 4 people, then from Dublin to Edinburgh (also Ryan Air) for $284, then Edinburgh to London on EasyJet for $288. This was also during high peak travel season in the UK, so prices were higher than usual.

Just know that the low-cost/no-frill airlines across the pond are very low-cost/no-frills. You'll have to pay extra for a lot of things. And the baggage size limits are different, too, so be sure to look those up.