Introduction
Since the start of Vueling in 2004, the airline has known a steady growth. The low cost airline has its HQ at BCN and presently operates a sizeable fleet of 95 Airbii, mainly A320's. BRU has been a Vueling destination since the very beginning and in May 2014 the airport has entered the airline's hall of fame so to speak and became a hub. A flock of new destinations has been added since, including FCO, LIS, OPO, VLC, BIO, IBZ,... Lots of interesting places for sure and bookable at very competitive fares if booked well in advance.
My little experience with Vueling wasn't the best to be honest... In the past I've flown BCN-BRU once and AGP-BCN once as well and those flights can be described as mediocre at best, with indifferent crews and - worst of all - virtually no onboard comfort in the regular seats. With this said, I vowed to myself that if I ever had to take a Vueling flight again, I'd book me an exit row seat.
So after a hiatus of a few years and me in need of a flight from OPO to BRU, Vueling caught my eye again. With a base fare of € 29 and an XL seat of € 17 and some other charges I ended up paying € 48 for a oneway flight from OPO to BRU - hand luggage only. That's good enough value, at least in my books.
The simple route for this flight looks as follows (courtesy of Great Circle Mapper):
OPO
I just stepped of an easyJet flight, coming in from GVA. A full flight it was, as is usual the case in my experience with easyJet. Connecting flights in OPO is straightfoward and fast but beware that you have to pass a security screening and you have to have a boarding pass for your next flight.
OPO is nice and airy airside (pun intended
), with good apron views but sadly not much interesting traffic besides an occasional TAP, SATA or TAAG widebody. Gate 31 is assigned for my flight and having not too much connecting time, I'm glad to make it to the gate in time as boarding has already started.
OPO to BRU
VY 8963
Airbus A320-214 EC-KFI
STD-STA 13:45-17:05
seat 12F
On board flight VY 8963
Two female FA's are at the door greeting the incoming pax in a nice way. So far so good! Boarding is completed fast with a load in the end around 70%. Surprisingly I have the whole row of 6 seats to myself. After the usual announcements and a safety demo, the plane is pushed a few minutes ahead of schedule. The taxi to runway 35 is only a few metres and we do a rolling takeoff towards the sunny Porto skies - yay!
Once on cruise, I pop in my headphones and listen to some music. Also I have a read in the 'Ling' inflight magazine but I don't find the contents much appealing. After half an hour or so, the cart passes by my seat and I lure myself in buying a caramel muffin and an ice tea for € 4,5.
During the flight, the crew works hard iso just disappearing in the galley. They respond promptly to call bells and do a second round with the trolley too :thumbup:
After flying around for a little over 2h, 'el commandante' mumbles something about our arrival in Spanish - those are the only words from the cockpit during the whole flight. What is said is done and we land on runway 25R on time. The taxi to the gate is a circuitous one, as apparently the folks upfront miss the gate the first time so we taxi another circle before arriving at the designated parking spot. So far for getting a shortcut via the runway 25R landing
Anyway, disembarkation is swift and as we are parked right next to the entrance of terminal A, the long walk landside is reduced to a medium-long one.
Conclusion
Well, Vueling really positively surprised me this time. Of course I knew the legroom would be good but the most welcoming and hardworking crew really made this flight an enjoyable one. Will, I fly Vueling again? Sure I will, if the price is right! And no doubt in an exit row seat
So, without further ado, you can watch the full coverage here:
TheFlyingSultan
