Review of Vueling Airlines flight Paris → Barcelona in Economy

After some days in Paris, we head back to Barcelona. We arrive to the RER station, so it is a 5 minute walk to Terminal 3. Signs are in French, English and simplified Chinese characters.

We head towards the check-in area, and wait for the Vueling counters to open for the flight to Barcelona. The check-in agent has an issue with the fact that the person who booked the bags is not traveling, despite this being no problem in the previous flight. After many attempts to sell us another bag, they agreed to let us bring it into the cabin free of charge. However, this means that we'll have to get rid of some liquids that we were carrying.

After an uneventful (besides the discarded liquids) security check, we head into the gate area. There is a small duty free to the left and a café to the right. There is also a Relay inside the waiting area. Those are all the stores in Terminal 3. The restrooms are clean and there are more than enough seats; which feature USB, type-C and regular power outlets. Glass walls and some greenery makes the space nicer to stay in.

Registration: EC-MIQ (España)
Type: Airbus A319
Age: 16 years (June 2007)

A bus brings us from the gate to our A319, which is boarding from both the front and rear doors. Today I sit in 18D. The seats are comfortable enough for a short haul flight, and they feature USB chargers. The seats do not recline and have small advertisements in front of you. Overhead, there are individual reading lights and air vents.

We depart from 26R. This plane offers WiFi at a fee, though I'm more interested in the website that sells the service. It doubles as inflight information, showing the remaining flight time, weather at destination and altitude, speed and outside temperature.

Since we didn't have anything at the small terminal, we buy a meal onboard. I pay 19 € for both meals, which is expensive but in line with low cost carriers. I wanted a chicken curry, but they didn't have it in the cart. The flight attendant then signaled another crew member in the front, asking for chicken by moving his arms, imitating a chicken. In the end, they didn't have curry, so I settled for sweet and sour chicken. Perhaps because it's the last flight of the day?

The rice is atrocious. I can see that it's rice, and that it originally was a bunch of individual grains, but now they have formed a solid block. A bit more compressed and it would crystallize. I have to cut it to eat. The chicken is kind of dry, so the texture is not amazing on this side either. The sauce and vegetables are another story, though. I can taste a good variety of real vegetables, even including bamboo and pineapple, which make a tasty, aromatic sauce.

My brother had the pasta, which he says was just alright.

The lavatory is clean, which I appreciate, given that we're flying at night. The dispenser has no soap, which has been fixed with a sad soap bar.

The flight has been rather calm until the Pyrénées. As we descend towards Spain, it gets progressively bumpier. We head into the Mediterranean, as nighttime flights to BCN must land in runway 02 due to noise regulations. Approaching the Llobregat Delta, turbulence gets bad enough to distress some passengers, though touchdown is surprisingly smooth, and at 23:50 sharp.

I again arrive to near-midnight BCN, which means that there isn't much to do or see. We head through the mostly deserted T1 towards Departures, where we'll be picked up by car.