Ryanair flies between about 50 locations around Europe and Warsaw Modlin Airport WMI. Currently Ryanair is the only airline flying out of Modlin, a secondary airport 25 miles north of Warsaw.
After my cheap $209 United special flight San Francisco to Barcelona one-way nonstop, the reason I did not stay in Barcelona is hotel prices were too high and Barcelona was not a good place for picking up cheap Aegean Airlines flights.
The primary purpose for planning this trip is to reach Aegean Miles+Bonus Gold elite by flying four flight segments before my membership qualifying year ends in June 2019. All the other elite status miles I need for reaching 24,000 Aegean Miles+Bonus Tier Points to move from Miles+Bonus Silver to Gold elite are through United Airlines and SAS Scandinavian Airlines flights.
My planning involved locating any airport I could fly to from Barcelona that would allow me to ticket a cheap four segment flight on Aegean Airlines. Warsaw ended up being the best departure location. Belgrade, Serbia was one of my preferred destinations, however, I made the decision to focus on visiting one of Greece’s island destinations. I have flown to Athens three times in the past two years and only left the airport once to travel by train to Athens and walk around the city for two hours on a four hour layover in October 2017 while flying between Nice, France and Sofia, Bulgaria. I decided this trip I needed an experience that justifies stating I have been to Greece.
After checking out a lot of island destinations, Chania, Crete became my choice when I found a $136 round trip 4-segment ticket for WAW-ATH-CHQ-ATH-WAW flying Aegean and Olympic Airlines.
Ryanair Barcelona BCN to Warsaw WMIÂ $51.79 one way (Priority Boarding)
Ryanair Priority Boarding allows the passenger to take two carry-on bags on the plane with one 10kg bag and one under seat bag. I normally travel with a small roll aboard bag and backpack.
The cost was $12.50 for Priority Boarding. The other benefit of Priority Boarding is sometimes it means actually getting on the plane before most passengers, so there is space in the overhead bins. Some of my Ryanair flights have used a shuttle bus from the airport gate to the aircraft with Priority Boarding passengers combined with regular passengers and the only priority boarding advantage being first on the bus.
The Ryanair flight to Warsaw departed 6 hours after my United Airlines flight arrival. My plan was hang out in a Barcelona airport lounge a few hours to pass the time.
United Airlines arrived at Terminal 1 and Ryanair departed from Terminal 2. After passing through passport control, I headed out to ground transportation for the airport shuttle bus to Terminal 2.
Barcelona Terminal 2 undergoing major renovation
After passing through security in Terminal 2, I looked for the B gates where the Sala VIP lounge is located. Most of the shops and restaurants were closed in Terminal 2.
If I had checked LoungeBuddy.com, I would have seen the Terminal 2 lounge is also closed for renovation.
There were a couple of open restaurants. The airport had good free wifi reception. There were several counters in places across the terminal offering outlets and USB ports for computer work and charging devices. Most of these counters were placed adjacent to large windows with the sun shining directly in for a bright and warm temperature location. Not the best choice for a seat or viewing a computer monitor. Temperatures in the terminal were already around 70F without sitting by a window with the sun shining on me.
No place I saw to even recline with metal armrests on all the seats and a polished hard floor space across the terminal.
After the flight from San Francisco and a restaurant beer, my mind was not focused for writing. I wandered back and forth across the terminal to stay awake.
Eventually I sat down at one of the computer work counters and listened to YouTube music videos to pass the hours.
When it came time to board, it looked like more than half the passengers had Priority Boarding. All the overhead bins filled up with probably still 50 passengers left to board. Bags were shifted here and there. Large winter coats were taking up quite a bit of space. I did not see an empty seat on the plane. Fortunately I won again on free seat roulette and was assigned an aisle seat at online check-in.
I rarely pay for a self-selected airline seat when flying. I get a window or aisle about 80% of the time.
This flight is hot
My main complaint about the Ryanair flight to Warsaw is it was the hottest cabin temperature I experienced in years. Since I generally feel hot at lower temperatures than most people, I did not think to complain. About 2 hours into the 3 hour flight a woman a few rows in front of me complained about the heat. The flight attendant responded immediately to lower the cabin temperature to one that even made me comfortable.
We had on time departure and arrival.
The most interesting aspect of the flight was upon arrival at Warsaw Modlin Airport we exited the aircraft and had to walk to the terminal. The temperature on the plane forced me to strip down to my t-shirt. Outside the aircraft, the temperature was about 35 degrees with a stiff breeze. I put my long sleeve shirt and sweater back on for the long walk. We had to walk outside for several hundred meters from the aircraft to the end of the terminal to enter the door at Modlin Airport.
