#18 out of 22 Low-cost airlines A minimum of 10 flight-reports within the past two years is required to appear in the rankings.
197 reviews
As I was nearing completion of my linecheck with the my new employer and the current aircraft I was on was AOG, the company asked me whether I was willing to relocate to Ostend and to extend my duty by a few days to complete my linecheck, which I agreed to do so. A few minutes later I received a booking from the office with a Vueling flight from Barcelona to Brussels Airport and to continue onwards to Ostend by Train.
My day started in Girona and the company booked me on a train ride from Girona to Barcelona Sants, which takes about 45 minutes or so. In Sants I decided to grab a ride on Barcelona's underground to Terminal 1 of Barcelona El Prat, which adds to another 40 minutes or so. Though not the cheapest option, it usually is for me the most reliable one to be used.
Vueling's check-in counter was busy, though Vueling offers plenty of check-in possibilities and it does not take long before you're good to go for your flight. The check-in system however was pretty slow to operate and every click I've made took about a minute to continue to the next page. Perhaps Vueling may give a thought to actually update their software as it was quite tedious to use.
Security was busy, yet again plenty of stations being opened and it took no more than 10 minutes to clear. You'll end up in a large hall with the usual shops, which most of the travellers do not even bother about to use.
I decided to grab a bite with one of the many food stalls in the terminal as I didn't have lunch nor would I have the chance to grab a bite for dinner given the lateness of my arrival. My gate was only announced about 30 minutes prior to my flight and for today's flight it would be Gate B50, which is roughly in the aft of the B pier.
Even though the aircraft landed about 25 minutes ago, it didn't even begin disembarking as of now, which already indicated to me that we would be delayed for our flight to Brussels…… Though the sheeps were already in line for a flight that was still full with passengers from the previous flight… I really can't understand why someone would wait in line knowing the fact that the aircraft would not board anytime soon.
Boarding was eventually called about 25 minutes past our scheduled departure time. This also meant that I'm pretty sure I would miss my train connection and would need to wait another 95 minutes in Brussels or so to catch the last train to Ostend. Upon enterring the aircraft, no flight attendant was to be seen at the entry of the door to welcome us on board….
The aircraft of today's flight would be EC-LVO. A 10.1 year old Airbus A320, which joined the fleet of Vueling as a new bird in April 2013. It was leased to Flyadeal for a few months in 2019 before returning to Vueling in 2020.
Legroom is limited and became even more limited when I saw the passenger next to me drop all of his Vueling's literature into my seatpocket. When seated, I kindly asked him whether he was able to put his share back in his seat pocket, which he declined to do so and kept acting like it wasn't him who put it there while I clearly saw him do so….. I wasn't really in the mood for a heated argument and left it be as it was for just two hours..
A few minutes later I saw another flight attendant being in a heated argument with another passenger as he was sitting with his legs in the aisle blocking most of the pathway. The passenger being taller than 2m said that he did not have the space to sit into his seat properly. The flight attendant claimed that he should have booked an extra legroom seat knowing this with his length, which he declined as he was not willing to pay for the extra. The flight attendant went around to some of the passengers with the seats with more legroom, but neither of them was willing to swap the seats. The 2m long passenger however would interrupt most of the services given by the two flight attendants in the front of the cabin as he was refusing to cooporate with them by letting them pass with trolleys or so in flight…… great start of the flight.
Pushback was eventually 1 hour and 15 minutes past our scheduled departure time, which was according to the captain due to slots in the French Airspace…. I, however, had some doubts that the blame was not only with the French airspace in this delay. Luckily enough Runway 06R would be used for departure, which meant a short ride to the active runway.
An Airbus A320 of Austrian preparing for it's flight to Vienna, while the Airbus A319 of Croatia Airlines was unloading it's load from Zagreb.
The coastal view departing out of El Prat.
A quick view of the cabin in the climb-out to cruise level with some of the headrests reporting about wifi and plugs…. Plugs were installed, but not working and wifi was non-existing.
Upon reaching our safe altitude, the flight attendants came by to start their Buy-on-Board service, which today was really lacking as I asked for three different drinks and neither of them were in stock anymore….. Departing out of Vueling's homebase, yet many products out of stock is something I find unacceptable.
They continued further down the row until they reached that 2m tall guy I previously talked about as he wasn't letting them through. They just canceled their round and informed the flight attendants in the backrow to continue till they reach that guy…. It was also the last time we saw those flight attendants until 25 minutes to landing as they were more busy with themselves in the front of the cabin.
Given the length of the flight, I'm sure a second round of B.o.B. service could have happened and to gain some extra revenue, but I guess it wasn't on their plan today.
Next to that there wasn't really something else to report about as the flight would be unable to gain some of the lost time.
After disembarking, the most distant baggage belt was being used, though my luggage was already on the belt when I approached it, which for Brussels is quite surprising to be fair.
I also made my way to Brussel's train station to catch a train to Brussels North to grab the last train to Ostend.
So far this has been my worst Vueling experience with an uninterested crew, low products in stock departing out of an homebase. An annoying passenger limiting my legroom even more than it was suppose to be and for the price the company paid well below standards.
2 Comments
Yikes, legroom on VY is already notoriously bad as it is. I cannot believe he threw all the seatback items in your seatback pocket! And here I thought incivility onboard aircraft was mostly a North American problem...yeesh...guess not!
What a zoo! Vueling is largely to blame for the lack of legroom...shoving up to 186 seats in an A320 is just plain wrong. However, in this day and age, passengers are presented with the option for purchasing more legroom when buying a ticket, so if you're 2m tall, you can't expect to comfortably fit in a standard seat on a low-cost carrier. Yes, it's not fair that taller people should have to pay more, but the other option is pain for themselves and those around them as they inevitably "manspread" to try to fit in the seat space and then encroach on their seatmate's space (which is kind of what happened to you in a way).
Just an all-around clown show. I can see coming from an outstation, but not THE main VY hub!
If he was literally blocking the aisle that is a MAJOR safety violation. Sounds like FAs just didn't want to deal with it, but it is completely illegal to block the aisle and impede egress in an emergency situation. The vast majority of 2m+ tall people do not block the aisle, sounds like this guys was just being a selfish a**hole. It's amazing and sad that some people can't just respect others around them and behave for an hour or two!
All LCCs have tight legroom, but the extreme lack of space on VY is a recurring theme. Officially, they have 28" seat pitch, which should be pretty typical and in line with even full-service Iberia on narrowbody, BUT I suspect they actually have less room that that because they have several rows of extra legroom seats which always reduces pitch for standard Y rows at max pax capacity.
Thanks for sharing!
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Knowing your length and not willing to pay more, he should deal with the consequences for that if he is unwilling to pay. In my opinion he should have been denied boarding if he was not willing to pay for it.... Unfair to him, but it's also a matter of safety for him not fitting into a seat and blocking others from passing.
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Thanks for stopping by!
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