After looking for last minute holidays and hotels in Barcelona, we booked our first Jet2 CityBreak staying at the Hilton Diagonal Mar Barcelona with flights from Birmingham airport.
Flying with Jet2holidays to Barcelona was a smooth and enjoyable experience, offering a convenient way to explore one of Spain’s most vibrant cities during the October half-term. We’ve previously flown with Jet2 Holidays to Reus, and this time around, we chose Barcelona for our city break. With my husband and daughter both being huge fans of Barcelona FC, this trip held extra excitement for us.
There are direct flights to Barcelona with Jet2 from Birmingham Airport twice a week and overall, we were really impressed with the flight and the levels of customer service provided by the airline. Jet2holidays are growing quickly and is now the UK’s third largest airline, flying from 12 regional airports across the UK to over 70 destinations across Europe, the Mediterranean and the Canary Islands.
One regional airport that I really hope Jet2 expand into is our local airport, Cardiff – there is such a huge void here for travellers from Wales and I’m really hoping that as the airline grows they will continue their expansion into Wales, so we can enjoy summer holidays and city breaks from our local airport.
Check-in and luggage allowance
You can check-in online or via the Jet2 app for your flight up to 28 days before departure and seats can be pre-booked for a fee if you want to guarantee that you will be sitting together. We checked in online a few days before our flight to Barcelona and downloaded our boarding passes to our Apple wallet from the Jet2 app, so no printed boarding passes are necessary, although I would still recommend printing these out in case there are any issues with your phones.
When you book a city break to Barcelona through Jet 2 CityBreaks each passenger has a generous 22kg luggage allowance and a 10kg cabin bag allowance, so there was no need to worry about paying for hold or cabin luggage like you now often have to do with budget carriers.
We stayed the night at the Crowne Plaza Birmingham NEC at Resorts World, taking advantage of their stay, park, and fly package so we took advantage of the Jet2 twilight check-in service.
We have used the Jet2 twilight check-in service on a previous trip from Bristol which made our trip so much easier and stress free, so we were glad to see that Jet2 also offer their twilight check-in from Birmingham airport. If you are using the twilight service, there is a dedicated car park literally across the road from departures called ‘premium set down’ parking which meant that it was less than a 5 minute walk from parking our car to the terminal building.
There is a reduced cost for parking if you are using this service which was £4 for the first hour, all we needed to do was present our luggage receipt at the customer service cabin, pay the parking charge and the automated pay system worked seamlessly with number plate recognition, making the process simple and quick.
Jet2 have a huge dedicated check-in area at Birmingham and you can’t miss it with their iconic bright red colour scheme. This service allows travellers with flights departing before noon to check in their luggage between 4:30 p.m. and 9:00 p.m. the day prior, at no additional cost.
This saved us precious time on the morning of our early 7 a.m. departure to Barcelona, as we could bypass the long lines at check-in and go straight through security and start enjoying our holiday. The process was straightforward and easy to navigate—definitely worth considering if you’re local or staying nearby.
Jet2 staff were friendly, approachable, and available to help with any questions. Despite our last-minute booking, which left us with scattered seats because of a busy flight, a helpful staff member rearranged our seats so we could sit together. If you’re ever in a similar situation, it’s worth asking if this option is available when you check-in.
On our return flight back from Barcelona to Birmingham, which happened to be on Halloween, was just as enjoyable. The Jet2 team added a fun touch, dressing up in costumes, handing out sweets to children, and offering fun selfie boards for passengers to use, which made the travel experience much more fun and memorable.
Boarding
The boarding process for our flights to Barcelona with Jet2 holidays was really efficient. At the gate, we were pleased to see that Jet2 had a clear and well-organised boarding process, instead of the often typical hectic scramble to get on-board.
Boarding took place by boarding group which was dependent on your seat row number which was shown on our boarding pass. This made it easy for us to know when it was our turn to board and prevented any confusion or congestion in the aircraft cabin.
We boarded the plane via steps which always provides the perfect opportunity to get that pre-travel photo before we boarded the Jet2 plane.
Seats and Cabin
Jet2 aircraft are one of my personal favourites out of the short haul airlines – mainly because of their modern fleet of aircraft. We flew out on one of their Boeing Next Generation 737-800 aircraft, with the seats in a 3-3 configuration which is similar to what you would expect on most short haul routes.
The Jet2 colour scheme really adds their personality to the cabin environment along with the destinations that Jet2 fly to listed across the overhead bins. The overhead bins were spacious with plenty of room for our hand luggage and I liked the fact that they had a net across the front to ensure that luggage is secured safely.
There is no business class cabin on Jet2 but I find that on Jet2 there is always more than enough legroom on their seats for my husband who is 6ft 1. This is down to the clever design of their seats so that the 30” of legroom in their standard seats seemed far more spacious than it actually was, providing better than average legroom compared to other airlines for our short haul flight.
One of my pet peeves on flights is having seats recline in economy cabins, so I really like the fact that on Jet2 all seats are non-reclining so space is not intruded by a reclining seat. Like on previous flights with Jet2 we find that the legroom feels far more generous than what we have experienced with other airlines on short haul routes, this is because of the 31 inch seat pitch and 17 inch seat width providing more space and legroom compared to Easyjet and TUI.
Onboard Service
The flight itself was on-time and a pleasant two-hour journey to Barcelona, and the in-flight service provided by the Jet2 cabin crew was excellent. Staff were friendly and attentive and made sure we were well taken care of and comfortable throughout the flight. The flight deck also provided regular updates on the flight status and weather conditions, keeping us informed throughout the journey – one of my favourites was when they highlighted that we were flying over the Pyrenees which provided us with some incredible photos of the snow capped mountains below.
Whilst there is no in flight entertainment or wifi onboard to keep you entertained which is pretty standard across all of the short haul airlines, we ensured that our devices were pre-filled with downloaded films and TV series from our favourite streaming sites to watch during the flight. A welcome addition to the onboard service would be the introduction of in-seat power sockets to charge devices and wifi similar to what is now standard on trains in the UK – this would really enhance the onboard experience.
Jet2 did provide a complimentary in-flight magazine ’Jet Away’, which was an informative read with a range of articles on travel, lifestyle, and more. The additional inflight shopping magazine selling the usual range of perfumes, gifts etc was also provided, with some great offers on board such as an additional 20% off discount but with a shopping trip to Barcelona lined up we managed to resist.
Food and Drink
There is no complementary food and drink service onboard Jet2 but like most other short haul airlines there was a large range of food and drink options to purchase onboard, including hot and cold meals that can either be pre-ordered online before your flight through the Jet2 app or you could purchase a range of light meals, snacks, and beverages onboard.
We typically skip food on short haul flights but we did have drinks and snacks and I really liked the design touch of a cup holder on the back of the seat – such a cool design addition.
Arrival into Barcelona
We arrived into Barcelona on time and were impressed by the efficiency of the airport. With Jet2 you fly into Terminal 2 and didn’t need to wait long for our bags after going through passport control. What I really like about flying with Jet2 is that you always deal with Jet2 staff throughout your airport journey from check-in staff to baggage reclaim and not airport handling agents that most airlines typically use these days, it makes a huge difference and adds that real sense of customer service.
We didn’t book any pre-arranged transfers from the airport into Barcelona – you don’t really need them as there is a huge taxi rank at the airport which was easy to find. The taxi to our hotel for the next few days in Barcelona, the gorgeous Hilton Diagonal Mar Barcelona was around a 30 minute drive away and costs will range from 30-50 euro each way dependent on the time of day and traffic.
Overall
Overall, our in-flight experience with Jet2 was excellent. What makes jet2 stand out is the great customer service that you receive from their staff from the check-in desk to picking up your bags at the destination airport.
This is why Jet2 is one of our favourite airlines to fly with and one company that I would highly recommend.
*Disclosure: This was a press trip organised by Jet2 Holidays but all opinions are entirely my own.