There actually aren't a lot of airline choices for a quick getaway to Bilbao. It's pretty much Vueling, which flies to both Gatwick and Heathrow, or Wizzair to Luton. They're both low-cost airlines, although I can pay a premium to buy a BA codeshare flying on Vueling metal since they're both part of the IAG family.
I was surprised Vueling offered cheap fares for a last minute trip out of Heathrow, which is a mid-afternoon departure arriving in Bilbao around the dinner hour. For the return trip though, I preferred a later departure so I can have most of the day in Bilbao given I've lost an entire day flying in already. So I picked the last Gatwick flight of the day just after 6pm.
In typical low-cost fashion, any add-ons to the are minimum get costly very quickly, so this short trip is going to be just a backpack, I'm afraid.
This was a last minute trip, by the time I paid for the flight, it was under 24 hours to departure and I could do online check-in. Vueling's website is quite easy to use but their back-end systems do have limitations. For example, using a Hong Kong passport to check in, an error pops up saying this passport is not eligible for online check-in even though we enjoy visa-free access into the EU.
Seat selection is expectedly not free, with a graduated pricing that decreases the further back you go. With a good weather forecast, I decided to pay an extra 9 euros to grab a left window seat at the back, the cheapest price available. If I didn't, I would press the allocate button, which could automatically send me to a bad seat elsewhere.
Recalling my Ryanair days long long ago, I searched through Vueling's website to see if there are any peculiar tricks they could pull to extract money from me before I can board, such as a printed boarding pass. Surprisingly, this airline isn't sneaky, with a short blurb on the website offering a free printed boarding pass at the airport for no extra charge just in case your mobile runs out of power.
Vueling flies out of Terminal 4, a place I don't remember the last time I visited even though I'm a fairly regular Heathrow user. My bus had dropped off at the main bus terminal between Terminals 2 and 3, so my only good option was to take the Elizabeth Line 1 stop to Terminal 4. Had I chosen the Tube, I would need to head to Hatton Cross to change trains, and the next arrival for a Terminal 4 Tube train was quite a long while away.
Terminal 4 is a warehouse, and luckily the check-in area was not busy so it was just a short wait for an agent to print a boarding pass. Surprisingly, for a low cost airline, they use good coloured cardboard paper which is far better than BA's supermarket receipt.
Security was a breeze with no lines whatsoever so I walked straight up to the trays. I was air-side in no time. This section is one long corridor with many shops, but sections of big windows do pop up here and there and I was surprised plane spotting was really decent here with a good variety of airlines operating out of Terminal 4.
I was surprised to find a sign towards an observation deck. I didn't know Heathrow has any sort of observation deck so I curiously walked up the stairs. There is an indoor glass dome facing the end of the south runway where planes were starting to do their take-off roll. In the distance, I could even see Central London's skyline!
Very satisfied with the great plane spotting, I headed back downstairs where it was almost time to board. It started at around 3pm and I was in group 3. As expected, we bunched up at the bridge for a bit but managed to complete boarding at 3:24pm, shortly before our 3:30pm departure time.
The seat was a little tight with limited legroom and there were food crumbs on the floor. I suppose it just came in and there's no time to do a proper cleaning.
IAG-owned, Vueling is a Spanish airline with crew announcements speaking Spanish first followed by English.
Then we waited ... and waited ... until the captain made an announcement we would be delayed due to airport control, and to expect push back a little over 40 minutes after our departure time.
By the time we pushed back at 4:13pm, the runways have changed with the southern runway becoming arrivals while departures would be further away on the north runway. We taxied across and slowly edged our way to position. There were many, many planes lined up to depart today.
The weather was good except a patch of clouds shortly after take-off, but things cleared out as we neared the English coast, where I could spot Portsmouth and the Isle of Wight.
After we left the English coast, I turned my attention to the wifi, which could not load. It would eventually work when I tried again near the end of the flight with a cheap flight pass and 15 minutes free if I watch an ad, but the ad was never able to load. However, the interface did show some entertainment options I could stream, a pleasant surprise.
As I enjoyed the beautiful scenery off the French coast, the crew came by with a cart for paid service.
The flight time is only a little over 90 minutes and an hour after departing London, I felt the descent begin, and soon I spotted the Spanish coast.
We landed at 7:02pm, about 30 minutes late, and pulled into the only available gate left. It's not a big airport but there is a big variety of low-cost airlines and not a single Iberia jet in sight.
Once we parked, the crew told us to stay seated until our row is called, as they were disembarking 5 rows at a time, so I had to wait a bit for the back to be called. I've never had this sort of disembarkation, but that made retrieving luggage a bit easier from the overhead and people don't need to jostle over each other for the mad dash out.
We were the only arriving flight at that hour and the immigration line wasn't too bad. For non-EU citizens, we were first directed to the machines, where I scanned my passport but didn't need to take a photo or fingerprints. The machine told me to go straight to the e-gate.
However, the e-gate kept asking for my visa, but a Hong Kong passport doesn't need a visa to enter the EU. I flagged a staff who seems aware of this system issue and directed me to a manned counter instead, which only had 3 people in front of me.
Exiting land-side, I headed to the right looking for the buses and there was a counter selling Barik cards, which costed 3 euros and I loaded 7 more for the trip. An A3247 Bizkaibus service was already waiting outside and it was a quick 15 minute ride to the city centre in good traffic.
Overall, it was a good flight and this low-cost experience wasn't bad at all. I didn't feel it was that much different than flying BA short-haul, besides no free drink and a snack.
