Internal flights within Europe - who?

can anyone recommend airlines to go with for internal flights within europe? i've heard vueling is pretty bad, and also easyjet (not sure how good or bad they are)

recommendations? i'll also look at high speed train (madrid to barcelona)

 

Flew with Vueling from Rome to Barcelona recently and they were fine - it was the only internal flight I did in Europe because the alternative via train would be a nightmare.

For Barcelona to Madrid I just took one of the Renfe AVE high speed trains, only booked 5 days in advance so it cost 75EUR.

 

how long did this train ride take? i'm looking at going from Madrid to Barcelona (so the other way lol compared to you)

 

Return flights can be up to ~90% cheaper than one way, just don't use the return ticket.

 

2hr 45min. You can book online at renfe.com, alternatively if you're already in Spain it's pretty easy to just buy tickets at a machine at any of the main stations.

Buena suerte!

 

I've done maybe 20 internal euro flights with vueling and never had a cancellation or reschedule...depends on your expectations really

 

They're all fine, in my experience. I've flown:
Norwegian
Berlin
Easyjet
Veuling
Wizz
Ryanair

Ranked from best to not so great. Even ryanair are fine as long as you pay attention. For the trains book ahead, as advised. I prefer taking the train in many cases, for many reasons. That Madrid - Barcelona train is just phwoar!

 

+1 for slEasyJet

 

In my experience from worst to best of those discussed RyanAir > Vueling > EasyJet.

Honestly, all the discount carriers are painful to fly, but RyanAir is so bad I've stopped flying with them and pay the extra few euros for the next one up. The only really annoying thing about EasyJet is they make you go to the gate before the last load of people are even off the plane which means you hang around for ages, other than that they are pretty good. RyanAir staff must be treated really poorly as they hate the world, they are also Nazis on baggage, whereas the others are *as* bad.

Another vote for the train, gets you to the centre of town, not the random airport in the middle of the countryside that the discount carriers fly to, its much more pleasant and no airport security! Book early enough in advance and it is usually comparable price wise to the plane once you factor in airport transfers.

 

Air Berlin and Wizz Air are quite good in my opinion. Depends where you are though because everyone is focusing on different regions with different hubs.

http://www.airberlin.com/

http://wizzair.com/

 

We took the renfe train from Madrid to Barcelona on the 30th December 2013 (2 adults 2 kids) and were very happy - we'd do it again. Took less than 3 hours. Train, including the toilets, were very clean. Food and drinks are sold on the train. They also gave free headsets if you wish to watch movie (overhead TVs).

We flew from London to Madrid with RyanAir and again from Barcelona to London. As we were with kids we were given priority boarding. Seats were no different to any economy class seat on non-budget airlines except you cannot recline the seats. For short flights, we thought it was good. Both flights left and arrived on time, in fact the London to Madrid arrived ahead of schedule.

We enjoyed Barcelona than Madrid. We spent a day at Montserrat and had good fun.

 

I'm currently planning a Euro trip and my google searches come out with Lufthansa on top. Any real life experiences anyone?

 

for spain train.. renfe is the carrier.. their site used to be horrible.. dunno now.
i booked with petrabax.com accepted au credit cards and allowed you to book renfe sale fares (good). train themselves are high quality and good speed/service.. comparable to french i would say. i went barcelona to san sebastian and san sebastian to madrid.

airlines. i travelled with ryanair, easyjet, lufthansa and BA.
cheap ones you need to follow their rules to the letter and you should be fine (barring catastrophe).

i spend a year travelling over europe in a good level of comfort. if you have any other questions/itineraries let me know (and in your other thread).