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Vueling expands sharply at London Gatwick, adding five new Spanish routes

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Vueling, a sister airline of British Airways and Iberia inside the IAG stable, has announced a sharp expansion of operations at London Gatwick for Summer 2022.

Whilst not publicly stated, we can assume that this will use some of the spare slots at the airport which British Airways does not require. BA has already leased some Gatwick slots to easyJet on a temporary basis.

Vueling expands sharply at London Gatwick

Vueling will base three aircraft at Gatwick. This is the first time that Vueling has used Gatwick as a base – all of its previous routes involved aircraft from other bases flying into Gatwick and then returning home.

The new aircraft will be used to launch five new routes, all to Spain:

  • Granada
  • La Coruna
  • Malaga
  • Menorca
  • Seville

The existing seven Vueling routes from London Gatwick will continue, served by aircraft based at other Vueling bases:

  • Barcelona
  • Bilbao
  • Paris
  • Pisa
  • Rome
  • Santiago
  • Valencia

The new routes will start from 1st April. Frequencies vary – see vueling.com for details.

Do you get British Airways status benefits on Vueling?

As Vueling is not a member of the oneworld alliance, British Airways Executive Club members do not receive any status benefits on Vueling.

There is one exception when flying from London Gatwick, once Vueling and British Airways are both back in the South Terminal.

If your Vueling flight is a BA codeshare, and you book it via the British Airways website with a BA flight number on your ticket, a British Airways Executive Club Gold member can use the Gatwick lounges. No guests are allowed.

A BA Gold does not get lounge access at Gatwick if they booked on the Vueling or Iberia websites and their Vueling flight ticket does not show a BA flight number.

A BA Silver member does not, in any circumstances, get lounge access at Gatwick when flying Vueling.

Earning and redeeming Avios on Vueling

The options for earning and spending Avios are very confusing even by HfP standards, so heaven knows how members of the public are meant to cope.

To put it simply:

  • You earn Avios on Vueling flights based on your ticket price – unless you buy it at iberia.com as a codeshare, in which case you earn based on the distance flown
  • You cannot earn Avios in a British Airways Executive Club account. You need a Vueling Club (or Aer Lingus AerClub) account starting 3081, or an Iberia Plus account. Once your points have credited, you can move them into British Airways via ‘Combine My Avios’ which we explain here.
  • You can redeem Avios on Vueling purely on a ‘money off’ basis – unless you redeem via Iberia Plus, in which case you pay a fixed amount plus taxes based on the trip distance. 

There is a long HfP article which explains in detail how to earn and spend Avios on Vueling. Since that article was published, the earning rate on ‘Basic’ fares has been cut from three to two Avios per €1 spent.


How to earn Avios from UK credit cards

How to earn Avios from UK credit cards (October 2024)

As a reminder, there are various ways of earning Avios points from UK credit cards.  Many cards also have generous sign-up bonuses!

In February 2022, Barclaycard launched two exciting new Barclaycard Avios Mastercard cards with a bonus of up to 25,000 Avios. You can apply here.

You qualify for the bonus on these cards even if you have a British Airways American Express card:

Barclaycard Avios Plus card

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Barclaycard Avios card

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There are two official British Airways American Express cards with attractive sign-up bonuses:

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British Airways American Express

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You can also get generous sign-up bonuses by applying for American Express cards which earn Membership Rewards points. These points convert at 1:1 into Avios.

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold

Your best beginner’s card – 20,000 points, FREE for a year & four airport lounge passes Read our full review

The Platinum Card from American Express

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Run your own business?

We recommend Capital on Tap for limited companies. You earn 1 Avios per £1 which is impressive for a Visa card, along with a sign-up bonus worth 10,500 Avios.

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There is also a British Airways American Express card for small businesses:

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There are also generous bonuses on the two American Express Business cards, with the points converting at 1:1 into Avios. These cards are open to sole traders as well as limited companies.

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American Express Business Gold

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Click here to read our detailed summary of all UK credit cards which earn Avios. This includes both personal and small business cards.

Comments (27)

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

  • SunGuy says:

    Suggest a reword?

    If your Vueling flight is a BA codeshare, and you book it via the British Airways website with a BA flight number on your ticket, a British Airways Executive Club member with gold or higher status can use the Gatwick lounges.

    • Rob says:

      Tidied it up a bit

    • Jonathan says:

      There is BAEC level Premier, but it is very rare to find someone with this status, so there is a status higher than Gold within BAEC

  • Isherwood says:

    I think this has been discussed elsewhere but with regards to the concept of ‘Combine My Avios’, I also hit a brick wall trying to send avios from my Iberia account. Going to the relevant Iberia web page gave me a message informing me that it’s was not available. But happily I found I could make the transfer by making a request from my BA account. So in my case the ‘combining’ does work but only if I start at the BA end and add in my Iberia details.

  • Nick says:

    How are VY going to base aircraft at Gatwick? Have they applied for a UK AOC?

  • Rob says:

    Any guess on dates this will load onto BA website for booking? Currently not bookable..

    • Rob says:

      I don’t know how tricky it is to set BA codeshares on new routes, to be honest. I think historically all London Vueling flights were codeshared though.

      That said, vueling.com is likely to be cheaper than ba.com. You can book now on vueling.com.

      • Nick says:

        It’s not difficult but setting codeshares is an entirely manual process, so it will depend on when the team in rev man can get around to it. This is also why it takes a while for codeshare flights to be updated following schedule updates. ba.com could sell under the VY code immediately, but I’m not sure why they don’t. Presumably because it’ll be too complicated to determine lounge eligibility/reward points.

  • Matty says:

    Just to point out, if you do book via the BA route you’ll be last in the pecking order to board – Group 5 or something. You will more than likely find that all the overhead bins are full. In addition, tickets will be more expensive on BA.com than Vueling. You will need to factor that into your decision.

    Similarly, lounge staff are a bit hit and miss when granting access to the lounge. The default position, seems to be, that you’re not allowed access.

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

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