Edited for clarification:
Seeking advice from the seasoned travelers. I would love your opinions about which airline and aircraft to use or avoid.

I have a work trip coming up and need to book flights.
Outbound: BNA to CDG
Inbound: BCN to BNA

As a state employee, I have to use a preferred airline. Options are American, Delta, United, KLM, Virgin Atlantic, Air France. I also need to consider cost.

I am not super concerned about points, as I rarely fly internationally and domestically stick to Southwest when possible.

Thank you!

https://www.google.com/travel/flights

You can do a multi-city search and filter the results to only include the airlines you've listed.

Thanks for your reply. The state has travel software I will use to find and book flights. I am just looking for firsthand opinions/advice on which airline to use. I edited my original post to be more clear.

Might be looking at that Air France, all things considered.

I would just pick the best schedule, cost combination. Virgin Atlantic will require a change in the UK and likely a second stop as I doubt they fly to Nashville,but maybe I'm wrong.

Interesting flight combo....
From BNA the only direct international flight is BA/AA to London. So any flights will require at least 1 stop.
I know delta and Air France code share so that might work for your outgoing, just fly to ATL and get a direct to France.

I don't know what flights would be from BCN so just see what your travel software allows for the best schedule.

my general rule of thumb is that you should fly international carriers when you can. the service is just better. but coming from BNA your best option is probably to fly Delta/KLM/Air France, which simply means connecting through ATL on both legs of the journey.

Delta / Air France through ATL or United through Newark are probably your best bets.

What state do you work for?

I am a United person (but honestly have heard Delta is a better product). I was IAH-EWR-BCN and MAD-EWR-IAH this past week. I do like that at least in Newark the flight overseas is a little shorter than it would be out of Atlanta. Schedule and price would be my main priority I think.

And NO layover is too long. Had a 5 hour layover in Newark going to Barcelona and we STILL missed the darn flight (left Houston 3 hours delayed, then bad weather kept us from getting to Newark).

TN

Scruffy said:

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Interesting flight combo...

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College travel study. One faculty member and I are splitting up the trip (while 2 other faculty members are doing the whole trip). He's taking the first two weeks, covering a lot of France. I'm taking the last two weeks, finishing up France, walking a 41 mile portion of the Camino de Santiago, visiting Pamplona then finally Barcelona.

Rocky Top Aggie said:

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Scruffy said:

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Interesting flight combo...

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College travel study. One faculty member and I are splitting up the trip (while 2 other faculty members are doing the whole trip). He's taking the first two weeks, covering a lot of France. I'm taking the last two weeks, finishing up France, walking a 41 mile portion of the Camino de Santiago, visiting Pamplona then finally Barcelona.

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I'm planning on hiking the Camino with some family in the next couple of years, so would appreciate any insights when you're done!

If you have to travel coach, it's gonna suck regardless of airline.

One thing I learned from this site is to use flightconnections.com to figure out what the connections look like.

Options for Nashville to Paris
https://www.flightconnections.com/flights-from-bna-to-cdg

Options from Barcelona to Nashville
https://www.flightconnections.com/flights-from-bcn-to-bna

While it makes sense to take Air France to France, or Iberia to Spain, the problem is, you've got an open jaw itinerary so you're going to need to connect somewhere else to avoid two stops.

Flight Connections will also show you if the flights are available everyday, or if they're only available certain days of the week.

Ideally, you want one connection if you can get it.

Looks like your best flight options are going to be:

• United via Newark / Washington Dulles
• Delta via Atlanta / JFK
• British Airways via London Heathrow

And based on that, I would be doing everything I could to not layover in Heathrow.

this is less important but i've heard DTW is a great airport for connections. modern and easy to get around, much better than ATL. have a great trip!