Review: Vueling A320 (BCN-LGW)

In July 2024 I had the chance to visit southern Spain for a day trip. We flew to Reus, Spain onboard TUI’s 737, and on the way back I flew Vueling’s A320 from Barcelona to London Gatwick. I’ve been wanting to find the best ultra-low cost carrier flying within Europe, and a Vueling review seemed apt for this purpose.

Vueling is everything that flying in the “good old days” wasn’t – the seats are uncomfortable, the 29″ seat pitch is rough, but there’s power ports, USB, and WiFi. Funnily enough, I’d consider the tech available to be industry leading, though they certainly do not have a hard product to match.

Here’s my review of the Vueling experience, including the booking and ground experience at Barcelona, boarding, as well as the onboard experience.

Booking My Vueling Flight

I booked a one-way flight from Barcelona to London Gatwick, which cost €44.99 (£38.5/HK$397). I then decided to shell out an extra €27 (£23/HK$238) to pay for a Space Plus seat. This wasn’t because I think a €27 fee for seat selection is worth it by any stretch of the imagination (especially for 1″ more seat pitch), though Space Plus seats came with two pieces of cabin baggage and priority boarding. I wasn’t actually taking any baggage, though priority boarding was worth it for the review.

Here’s the itinerary that I ended up booking:

06/07 VY7820 Barcelona – London Gatwick dep. 19:05 arr. 20:25 [Standard Class]

Booking on the website was quite easy, and I was even able to use Apple Pay to pay for my flight.

Check-in and Boarding at Barcelona Airport

Unfortunately Vueling only allows certain nationalities to check-in online, and Hong Kong wasn’t on the list. This meant that I had to go to Barcelona Airport a little earlier in order to check-in and receive a boarding pass, despite not having any bags.

I arrived around 90 minutes before my flight at 5:30 PM and saw a longer queue, mostly with people trying to check-in bags. However, I learned that despite online check-in not being allowed for those holding Hong Kong passports, I was able to check-in and receive a boarding pass using a self-service kiosk. I appreciated this, and went merrily on my way with my boarding pass and backpack (Vueling’s app had clocked that I’d checked in at the airport, and also generated me a mobile boarding pass).

Line for Vueling check-in at Barcelona Airport

Barcelona Airport is fair busy most of the time, and this was especially true ahead of my evening flight to Gatwick. Neither security nor immigration was particularly fun to navigate, and the experience felt chaotic, despite only taking a cumulative 30 minutes. I was glad to find myself in the non-Schengen area waiting for my flight to London to board at gate E80.

Vueling Gate Area at Barcelona Airport

We weren’t looking at a particularly punctual boarding process, as our inbound aircraft pulled in from Billund at 6:06 PM, nine minutes before our scheduled boarding time.

This aircraft was EC-MXG, a six-year-old aircraft at the time of flying that had been with Vueling since manufacture.

Vueling A320 at Barcelona Airport

We were scanned into the jetbridge 25 minutes after our gate appeared, and 10 minutes after our scheduled boarding time, at 6:30 PM. From there it was another 10-minute wait at the jetbridge. I was first through, and the ground staff asked me to “wait” before disappearing, leading to a few confused and slightly annoyed passengers behind me thinking that I was deliberately holding up the queue.

Boarding our Vueling A320 at Barcelona Airport

There was a wheelchair passenger invited to board first, then we were invited onto the aircraft at 6:40 PM.

Vueling Flight VY7820
Saturday, July 6, 2024
Origin: Barcelona (BCN) T: 1 Gate: E80 Dep: 19:05 (19:15)
Destination: London Gatwick (LGW) T: S Gate: 1 Arr: 20:25 (20:15)
Duration: 2 h 20 min (2 h)
Aircraft: Airbus A320 Reg: EC-MXG
Seat: 4F (Standard Class)

Vueling A320 Cabin and Seat

Vueling’s A320s are fairly standard, featuring 186 seats in a one-class configuration.

Vueling A320 Cabin

I’d assigned myself 4F, a Space Plus seat, which set me back an extra €27 (I mainly chose this seat to get priority boarding so I could get good photos of the cabin for this review). Space Plus seats feature an extra couple inches of seat pitch (31″ instead of 29″), and come with various perks, including priority boarding and two pieces of cabin baggage.

Vueling A320 Cabin Space Plus

Legroom was nothing to complain about, though the padding and seat cushion structure on these seats was the worst of any low-cost airline I’ve flown, including easyJet (which uses the same seat “bones”) and Ryanair.

Vueling A320 Space Plus Seat Legroom

I briefly tested out the aisle seat in the row behind me, which had a similar padding issue. I didn’t find the legroom to be significantly worse or unbearable by any means, though, perhaps because these seats were properly slimline.

Vueling A320 Regular Seat Legroom

At my seat I found a small tray table. Vueling uses seats from ?, which have some of the smallest tray tables I’ve seen on an airline.

Vueling A320 Seat Tray Table

I was appreciative of the fact that Vueling had both 110V and USB charging between seats – the airline does lead the pack in that regard, even if the chargers are shared. Not many low-cost airlines within Europe offer in-seat power – in fact, many full-service airlines have skimped on the feature.

Vueling A320 Seat Power Ports

It was a nice day in Barcelona, and from my window seat I could see a Turkish Airlines A330 in the background.

Vueling A320 View from Seat 4F

Takeoff from Barcelona Airport

Our flight was slated to depart at 7:05 PM, and despite the late boarding time, boarding was complete in a short 20 minutes, wrapping up by 6:55 PM. The flight was mostly full as far as I could tell, and both seats next to mine were occupied.

Vueling A320 Cabin with Door Closed

The captain came onto the PA to give us our flight time of 1h 59m, which was followed by a manual safety demonstration.

At 7:05 PM, the captain came back onto the PA. He explained that while we were ready to take off, we would hold for a short while due to air traffic congestion at Barcelona. We did eventually push back at 7:15 PM, getting ready to make the flight over to London Gatwick.

Taxiing at Barcelona Airport

It was a short taxi to runway 06R, and we took off at 7:25 PM.

Taxiing at Barcelona Airport

The views out of the south coast are always spectacular, and I’ll let the below pictures speak for themselves.

Takeoff from Barcelona Airport

Vueling A320 WiFi

One of the neat things about Vueling flights is that they feature WiFi. On a ultra-low-cost carrier with no frills, it blows my mind that not more airlines offer WiFi – it’s not only a competitive advantage, but also a huge revenue stream. Pricing varies based on route and demand – on my flight, WiFi cost €3.99 for a Messaging package and €7.99 for a Browse&Stream package, neither of which featured data caps. WiFi was an extremely solid 1.36 Mbps down and 1.38 Mbps up.

This can make a huge difference on a short to medium-haul flight, in my opinion. Even if I’m not looking to be productive on an uncomfortable 3-hour flight, I’d still want the option to pass the time doomscrolling, staying connected with friends and family, or figuring out what to do at my destination. This really gives Vueling a competitive advantage for me.

Vueling A320 Buy-On-Board Meal

Vueling offers a buy-on-board meal service, though you can’t pre-order. As fitting for a Spanish airline, the menu features Spanish influence, including tapas (olives and jamon galore) and cocktails. You can find the full menu here.

The buy-on-board meal service was executed about 50 minutes into the flight. As a foodie that loves trying different signature dishes, I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to try the airline’s signature Travelling Omelette, which set me back €6.95. There was even an entire page dedicated to this tortilla on the menu. The omelette was improperly microwaved and quite a firm texture, though not inedible. I also ordered a coffee for €2.95, which was served with some nuts.

Vueling Buy-On-Board Meal

So yeah, I appreciate the Spanish flair, but I’m not sure if I’ll eat on my next Vueling flight.

Landing into Gatwick Airport

At around 7:50 PM local time, an automated announcement was played, asking us to prepare the cabin for landing – I found it curious that it also asked us to put our seatbacks upright, given that Vueling’s seats don’t recline.

Weather in London was also stunning – once again, I’ll let the views speak for themselves.

Landing into Gatwick Airport

We landed onto Gatwick Airport’s runway 26L at 8:10 PM, and were told “it’s an absolute pleasure to have [us] onboard today”. From there, it was a 5-minute taxi to gate 1, which was conveniently very close to immigration.

Landing into Gatwick Airport

For some reason disembarkation was done row by row, which seems like a remnant of a COVID-19 policy. The first 5 rows (including me) were asked to alight the plane, and everyone else was asked to stay seated, which I hadn’t experienced in a while. I have no idea how long the full process took, since I was one of the first people off the plane.

I had another event to go to that evening, so had pre-purchased priority immigration access at Gatwick Airport for £20. This ended up being extremely convenient, as an Emirates flight had just arrived, meaning that immigration was quite crowded. If only you could do this at Heathrow…

Conclusion: My Flight on Vueling

I enjoyed my flight on Vueling. Despite the seat comfort being the worst of any ultra-low-cost carrier I’ve flown so far (worse than Ryanair, easyJet, and multiple other airlines that I’ve flown, having a power port and WiFi makes me a really happy camper, and I’d wish this was offered on more low-cost airlines.

These aren’t super long flights, so I can’t see myself paying a significant premium flying Vueling over a competitor despite the industry-leading tech scene. I also can’t in good conscience rate the product more than 4 stars, given that the seats are quite uncomfortable. However, it certainly makes a short flight more bearable, and compensates for the lack of seat comfort.

Have you flown Vueling before? What was your experience like?