Question for the world travelers on here, what's your top choice for route and carrier from TX to Barcelona (BCN)? We plan on booking business class fares and can fly out of AUS or IAH. This would be in April if that changes your opinion.

Other than one trip on IcelandAir, all my experience is with domestic carries so I'm curious how you guys like to get to Spain.

We just went last month and Air France through CDG was a very pleasant experience.

I fly to Spain often and prefer Lufthansa from IAH to Frankfurt.

It used to be a 380 but now a 747. Just did it last week in Business Class.

Good service and big planes make for nice smooth rides.

We did AUS-IAD-BCN on United due to schedule. IAD is a dump but at least you have a short jump over to BCN. This is really only a decent route if flying economy or premium economy.

If flying business I would try to find the latest evening flight you can that will take you to Europe then the short hop down to BCN to maximize your best seat.

AA is starting direct flights from DFW next summer using their 777s, which have a nice business product.

NM, just saw that you are going in April. When we went to Barcelona for a cruise we did DFW-MAD on AA, spent a few days there and took the train to Barcelona, flew home BCN-PHL-DFW, trip was fine.

AF IAH to CDG is usually super reliable. I'm an AF fan but also acknowledge that all bets are off on connecting flights at CDG. I'd look at DL IAH to ATL to BCN as an alternative.

ETA: we're looking at a Virgin cruise out of BCN next summer, and the train from BCN to CDG will actually get us there earlier than taking a flight. If you have time I really enjoy seeing the countryside in Europe by train.

KLM via Amsterdam

Thanks for all the responses. I like the idea of getting the long one out right away going out of IAH vs going to the East Coast first. We'll probably make that the plan.

My first instinct was something out of Dulles. I'm there every couple months for work and that's where we passed through going to Reykjavik earlier this year. Not the nicest by any stretch, but how can you not like the people movers?

KLM and Air France - two good options. Of course you will have very long flights, so having a comfortable seat is definitely a must. You might be interested in reading SeatGeek reviews and see how it helped people to make the best seat choice. All you need to use SeatGeek is to know is the airplane model

Avoid CDG. Missed a connection there years ago because of immigration. Had 2 people working passports on a Saturday morning in June with the overnight flights coming in by the hundreds.

Couldn't get us to Munich until the following day and did not cover our hotel for the night. Trash Air France. KLM is good but a long ways to get to Barcelona.

Fly AA direct to Madrid and then figure it out from there. Small cheap euro flight to BCN? Stay in Madrid for a few days then fly to BCN? Rent car and drive?

On our most recent flight through CDG in August the SkyPriority line at customs took less than five minutes to get through, and getting through security took less time than precheck at IAH. As long as you pack your liquids appropriately and fly premium economy or better CDG is a breeze.

Same room once you get off the buses? When we were there, no priority lanes existed. Maybe we came through a crappier terminal.

I wish all the large euro airports were immigration controlled for connections.

Last time I went to Scotland, I flew KLM through Schipol. It was like flying domestic. Off the plane, walk to next gate, board next flight to Edinburgh. Did immigration there.

Do the long flight first. Get to Europe then figure it out.

We landed in 2G and passed a checkpoint on our way to whatever terminal our connection was in. They had all connections to Schengen countries go through this checkpoint. Scotland isn't a Schengen country, so it makes sense you wouldn't go through in AMS.

Ummm, trains?

That's a long train but yeah. Maybe an overnight train.

jh0400 said:

---

We landed in 2G and passed a checkpoint on our way to whatever terminal our connection was in. They had all connections to Schengen countries go through this checkpoint. Scotland isn't a Schengen country, so it makes sense you wouldn't go through in AMS.

---

That makes sense. Could've just been a bad day but I'm not the first person on this board or blogs to suggest avoiding CDG.

LHR isn't bad as well, if you have OneWorld status.

I'm the opposite. LHR is in my avoid at all costs list. My preference for getting to Europe is CDG, then AMS, then FRA. I haven't done Eastern Europe through IST yet, but coworkers that have seem to have had good experiences.

jh0400 said:

---

On our most recent flight through CDG in August the SkyPriority line at customs took less than five minutes to get through, and getting through security took less time than precheck at IAH. As long as you pack your liquids appropriately and fly premium economy or better CDG is a breeze.

---

We had the same. Premium economy gave us SkyPriority (which is nice because I have no Delta status), and we skipped what looked like at least an hour long line thanks to their dedicated line.

We stood in that for 2+ hours and missed what was going to be an easy connection

CDG uses a base 13 Cyrillic Roman numeral system for their gates. After you land, learn French, then try to decipher where your next flight is.