Iberia Airlines Iberia Plus - First time on Iberia... is this the norm in spain?

First time flying Iberia. Flew from BCN to MAD.

1) they changed gate without even notifying us. There was an Iberia personnel at next gate working, but never looked at us, or mentioned anything to us. No one came to get us, and only after waiting until 15 min before departure, we ventured out to her and asked, only to be told that gate change occurred, and in fact it was pretty far down. Luckily plane was delayed for about half an hour...


2) I was seated in back end of the plane, and half way into servicing beverages, they just stopped and packed things up. We were still 30 minutes away from MAD, so i wondered if they were ordered to cancel in-flight service or what?

3) after plane landed and people were de-boarding, two flight attendants were sitting in first row playing with their phones, without bothering to look at us. No good bye, no thank yous?

Is this how it is in Spain / Iberia airline? someone told me before the trip to be prepared for worst, but i didni't expect this.

Sounds absolutely normal! After all, all IB are contracted to do is get you from A to B.

Is this how it is in Spain / Iberia airline? someone told me before the trip to be prepared for worst, but i didni't expect this.

Personally, I believe it's a problem with Iberia Airlines. Recently there was very public spat between staff and management (similar to CO staff and UA mgmt).

It's surprising they don't hire some replacement workers since Spain's unemployment rate is at 24.4%!!

First time fl? someone told me before the trip to be prepared for worst, but i didni't expect this.

This is very normal all around the world and not particulary to Spain!!!!:eek:
* The passenger responsability is to check the gate on the monitors
* You must be at the gate, which can change at any time not later than indicated on your BP
* Airlines are not chasing passengers and escort them through the airport
* The agents at the gates are there to board the plane and to deal with irregularities on that flight NOT giving information about 1000 different flights, they are not doctors, bankers, waiters.... to give you all sort of info
* You should use INFORMATION which is clearly marked all around the airport
* All flights MAD BCN MAD on IB are feeder flights that means that several flight numbers are joint together into one flight. That means ORD, JFK, MIA.. are doing stop in MAD with flight change but the ticket shows only MIA BCN so you have up to 6 different flight numbers on the same flight.
* There is an option to fly First class where you have your personal buttler who will take your hand and escort you through the customs, to the toilet and to the designated gate...This service is not available on Iberia until they do not re-start First class in the near future.

Good luck!

My Iberia rundown:
At the gate- You will take forever to load the aircraft, since they have trouble with using 'groups'. You will leave late.

In the air - In general (and ESPECIALLY in coach) you will get mediocre service from cold flight attendants that know nothing about weather patterns in Madrid (stay with me, I'll explain). You will wait a long time to get food, but the food is particularly bad so you don't mind the wait.

Arrival- surely you are late. Maybe your bag made it, maybe it didn't....

Ok, so you get the idea and I am being overly dramatic. I've flown on Iberia a LOT as Mrs. joneSi is from Spain. They are reliable for being unreliable. I am only a 'Gold' AA flyer, and while I think the experience has gone very far downhill in F and J on AA, I'd have to say it hasn't changed THAT much on Iberia. Their J intercontinental are 'Business Plus' seats and are fold flat (first ones I was ever on!). Those are pretty good, and even the food is edible. The FAs are better but not excellent, again 'cold' is how I would describe them.

As for not knowing the weather patterns in Madrid. I lived a HELL DAY with Iberia in x-mas of 2k9. I noticed we were circling over MAD, after leaving ORD 1.5 hours late, it had snowed in Madrid. I acted surprised when I asked the FA and she said snow in Madrid was 'normal'. I've been to Madrid many many many times. I can count on 1 hand the number of times I've seen 2+ inches of snow. It is a BIG deal. And it closed the airport. OK, so they can't be at fault for the weather. NBD. We diverted and sat on the plane for 3.5 hours. Refueled the plane and back to MAD. When asking how we would rebook our flights from there, at one info counter we were all told to go inside and and check in the the Iberia help desk. We had no idea we were like lambs to the slaughter.....

I waited in that line 9 hours.

All the while trying to call AA in the US, Iberia in the US...showing up at gates going to VLC to try to get on...and to make sense of a 'handout' they gave out that was so poorly written in English AND Spanish I could make out very little of the intent of sending it out.

In the end we got up to the front of the line, and they told us to 'run' to a particular gate.

I got yelled at for taking pictures of the line, which was incredible (the line, not getting yelled at, I fully expected that :)).

And this is only one of a few horror stories I have with them (one of my other famous ones involves a broken IB747 at Miami...). I'm not as seasoned as some of the travelers on here with airlines, but BA is, IMO, the best of the best. Hopefully they rub off on IB. I've had minor go arounds with AA, United, Delta, etc...but none so far as bad as Iberia. I fly IB maybe 10% of the time, AA 65% and DL+UA the rest. Not good odds for IB.

All of this said...I STILL fly on Iberia. Keep the bar low, and you won't be disappointed. And they are the only game in town for direct flights to MAD from ORD or a few other places (and I go from ORD...). I'll continue to fly on IB as well. I know that anything can and will happen.

Man I hate to sound like a complainer....sorry if this comes off like that. It is just...Iberia.

j

My Iberia rundown:
At the gate- You will take forever to load the aircraft, since they have trouble with using 'groups'. You will leave late.
Ok, so you
j

Hi there
Nice post, however I think you exagerate

* IB staff is not among the best, but they are OK compared to other airlines
* Younger staff are better and speak better
* Short haul (up to 2,5 hours) is crap, with packed aircrafts and no space between rows...but as everybody wants to fly cheap...that is what you ve got
* Since IB merged with BA there have been quite a lot issues to deal with especially as BA wants to be the boss!
* IB Business is among the best in Europe far ahead of Alitalia, Lufthansa, Air France or Brussels airlines...
* The food is quite good with nice presentation and prepared by a 2 star Michellin chef Paco Roncero
* Lounges are great especially T4S where you can have a preflight dinner
* AA and other Us carriers are far back!!!
* There have been a lot of snow over the last two winters. They were not prepared as normally in Madrid doesnt snow
* all the rest what you say is a normal procedure and can happen anywhere on other airlines

*

Not too surprising in my experience with Iberia. FAs somewhat arrogant and indifferent, GA at CMN confrontational and arrogant.

The airline didn't have flight times correct on the day of daylight savings time switch, gave conflicting info, so I had to arrive an extra hour early to make sure they hadn't screwed things up.

It was impossible to pick seats on the Iberia website because CMN was not listed as one of their airports, so you couldn't access the flight.

The airline had offered a free hotel with forced layover but after an hour on the phone kept coming up with a multitude of new, different, and changing reasons why they couldn't honor their promise.

The pitch on their domestic planes is so tight your knees hit the seat in front of you.


Overall experience with Iberia? :td::td: Thank God the rest of my flights were on BA.


P.S. Oh, and did I mention they charge for WATER on domestic flights? Don't forget to bring your own.

Hi there
Nice post, however I think you exagerate

* IB staff is not among the best, but they are OK compared to other airlines
* Younger staff are better and speak better
* Short haul (up to 2,5 hours) is crap, with packed aircrafts and no space between rows...but as everybody wants to fly cheap...that is what you ve got
* Since IB merged with BA there have been quite a lot issues to deal with especially as BA wants to be the boss!
* IB Business is among the best in Europe far ahead of Alitalia, Lufthansa, Air France or Brussels airlines...
* The food is quite good with nice presentation and prepared by a 2 star Michellin chef Paco Roncero
* Lounges are great especially T4S where you can have a preflight dinner
* AA and other Us carriers are far back!!!
* There have been a lot of snow over the last two winters. They were not prepared as normally in Madrid doesnt snow
* all the rest what you say is a normal procedure and can happen anywhere on other airlines

*

I'll agree on most of this minus a few points.

1) Yeah, I'm trying to be funny my experience. I've flown a lot across the Atlantic Ocean to go to Spain.

2) Business seats on Iberia were some of the FIRST to go FULLY FLAT (no 'tilted' seats here!) and they are excellent...not sure they compare to the CW seats now, but they do not need replacing yet either. I'd put those up against anything I've been in...for J or F.

3) The food in J is some of the best I've had onboard ANY carrier. Excellent wine selection too. The worst food I have ever had was in Y class on 6275 7 years ago. I'll eat almost anything on an airplane. I wasn't even sure they served me real food.

4) The lounge in Madrid T4S is second to none. LHR,MIA,DFW,ORD,CDG,ATL ...I can go on...the Iberia lounge is far and above anything I've seen anywhere.

5) Short haul is crap. Hot and cramped. Bleh. We do want cheap, but the seat pitch is unbelievably close.

I disagree on 'normal airline stuff'.

1) Spaniards love a good queue. Like Americans like a good baseball cap, or can't say no the the 3lb cheeseburger. Spaniards are patient (for the most part), and as such want to board an A340 like southwest does their boarding. Americans, not wanting to be left off the airplane (or not within arms reach of their 'stuff') jump in line with them.

I'm a stats guy, and I'd venture to the point to say it takes a statistically significant amount of time LONGER to board an Iberia transatlantic (or other) than other carriers that enforce group boarding. They simply let the coach pax line up and get on to whatever side or wherever on the airplane.

2) The 'snow'. Yeah, snow at DFW or ATL is a MESS. MAD/IB took it to a new level for me. 9 hours in line? AA wouldn't help as I was on an IB ticket, and IB didn't have a clue, an 800 number, a website...ANYTHING of any value for myself and other stranded pax to try to get to our final destination. I was even trying to find out if I could just rent a car and drive to VLC without having them cancel my return flight. I couldn't even get through to anyone at IB (in the US or Spain..tried all sorts of numbers). The frustrating part was really the FA who acted like I was crazy for not having seen snow in Madrid before. When we got on the ground and saw just how much had been plowed out (very little), I felt vindicated.

A new one I just remembered....IBERIA TURN THE AIR ON WHEN SITTING AT THE GATES IN THE SUMMER...PLEASE!!!! Man, I've been on the ground at MIA in July and they didn't have the air on.

Again, I still fly with them. I just know what I am in for prior to the flight.

* IB staff is not among the best, but they are OK compared to other airlines

I've only had bad experiences with IB staff compared to other European or Asian airlines that serve TATL/TPAC. I personally rank them the worst.

3) after plane landed and people were de-boarding, two flight attendants were sitting in first row playing with their phones, without bothering to look at us. No good bye, no thank yous?



I forgot to comment here. Yeah, this is common...I don't even realize it anymore when on the short flights. On the long haul, this would never 'fly' (pardon the horrible pun).

j

This is very normal all around the world and not particulary to Spain!!!!:eek:
* The passenger responsability is to check the gate on the monitors
* You must be at the gate, which can change at any time not later than indicated on your BP
* Airlines are not chasing passengers and escort them through the airport
* The agents at the gates are there to board the plane and to deal with irregularities on that flight NOT giving information about 1000 different flights, they are not doctors, bankers, waiters.... to give you all sort of info
* You should use INFORMATION which is clearly marked all around the airport
* All flights MAD BCN MAD on IB are feeder flights that means that several flight numbers are joint together into one flight. That means ORD, JFK, MIA.. are doing stop in MAD with flight change but the ticket shows only MIA BCN so you have up to 6 different flight numbers on the same flight.
* There is an option to fly First class where you have your personal buttler who will take your hand and escort you through the customs, to the toilet and to the designated gate...This service is not available on Iberia until they do not re-start First class in the near future.

Good luck!


you are absolutely right. It's just when you have been used to something extra-ordinary for a while, you expect THAT to be norm (try ICN and all of the things u have mentioned above comes free. gate changes are announced for the ones that changed within 1 hr of departure, and they do spoon-feed you even without being a first class passenger.).

As others mentioned, i will continue to fly Iberia (not like i have a choice. I already booked with them for 3 more flights - no refund), but i will be mindful of what you have said. Among the budget airlines, at least with Iberia, i can bank miles on my AA account, and i hope being a part of alliance will ensure their quality is of decent standard.

** ( who am i kidding? after experiencing LAN.. being a part of alliance means nothing X_X )