Simon Schus

I just had an awful Iberia Plus booking experience.

I tried to purchased a flight for my girlfriend from MAD to the US using my Avios, and entered her details as the passengers (date of birth, etc). Total cost was around $250 which is good for a peak, one-way summer booking.

The confirmation email comes through stating my name as the passenger rather than her name. I can absolutely 100% confirm that I entered the my girlfriend's name as I was checking it and asked her to check it too. As I had made the booking less then 3 minutes earlier, I thought I'd phone Iberia up to clarify if this was an error or that was the ticketed name.

After an hour on hold to resolve the situation, I speak to the Iberia Plus representatives on the telephone who tell me that they have to charge a $30 fee (I think it was $30) to cancel the booking as the incorrect name had been ticketed. I was going to be flying). This seemed ridiculous and they told me that their computer system changed her name to my name because she was not a beneficiary on my account. That seemed very strange because I've never heard of such a rule. In addition, the website clearly states:

[https://www.iberia.com/gb/iberiaplus/questions/]

Given the above, they still tried to charge the $30 fee. I was passed from representative to representative who refused to consider removing the $30 fee. After another hour of talking and getting nowhere, I eventually got to a supervisor who visited the webpage, saw the line, and was very surprised by it. He was under the impression that this was incorrect (as were all of his staff) but that he would ask for a full refund without any $30 deducted. It took an hour on hold, and an hour to get to the stage where somebody would even state that the Iberia Plus error wouldn't cost me. However, as soon as he confirmed that he would be refunding in full... we got cut off.

So I am now on hold again as I want to confirm that this has been processed. Regardless of that, the Iberia reward seat I wanted has now disappeared (must have been 1 reward seat left for booking). Hopefully this will come back up after the refund has been processed. But, this has been a rubbish experience.

I wouldn't want any of you to think that there is anything that I"m not telling you about this story either. I've told you everything and it isn't one of those cases of "there must be more that he isn't saying". I'm fly fairly regularly with British Airways, American, US Airways and Aer Lingus so I haven't dealt with Iberia Plus very often to know how they operate. I'm a British Airways OneWorld Sapphire cardholder but I thought I'd book with my Iberia Plus Avios to avoid BA's fuel surcharge. In my opinion, the customer service both online and on the telephone from Iberia Plus were dreadful.

Nonetheless, I telephoned Iberia Plus within 5 minutes of booking. I would have also thought that Iberia would have cancelled for free within 24 hours due to the flight involving a US city, and presumably being under their Department of Transport's 24 hour booking window. However, they refused and said that they could not cancel without the $30 fee. I was less sure about whether I was was right/wrong on this because I'm not too familiar with the Department of Transport's policy when the flight is with an EU-airline which originates outside the US but with a destination in the US (BOS, if you're interested). However, I couldn't find any option for making a 24-hold on the Iberia Plus website.

Anyway. That's a little rant over. I hope I'm not being unreasonable to expect a full refund when the Iberia Plus website changed my partner's passenger details to my own without prompting or warning, when I phoned up immediately. I was fairly disappointed in Iberia Plus' flexibility.

Do you think that I'm being unreasonable?

Simon.

Yllanes

Sounds like one of the many IB IT problems...

I believe the actual rule is that you can only book for someone who is not a beneficiary if you are also flying. The Spanish website seems to confirm this, although I have never tried it myself. Indeed, if I try to do a dummy booking now, it doesn' teven let me book for a person who's not in my list (I cannot type their name, it gets deleted and just offers me the option of picking one beneficiary or adding a new one to the list).

By the way, $ 250 seems high for the fees of a MAD-BOS redemption (I think it should be € 109).

Let's hope you get the refund and the seat becomes available again. For future reference, IB lets you hold a booking for 24 h for free (or for 5 € for 72 h, which get deducted if you go ahead with the reservation).

Simon Schus

Yes, I reduced the number of Avios that I paid by increasing the cash paid. I paid $210 and about 8500 Avios for an offpeak ticket in September (the cash component was $110.00 for the lower Avios and a $110.21 for the taxes). Sorry, I didn't think that was necessary detail to go into in my original post! The reduced Avios at a higher cash price seemed fine as my girlfriend was paying the cash part and I was using the Avios to subsidise the cost for her a little as it was a ridiculous price as a one-way revenue fare.

I have been on the phone or on hold for five hours now trying to get this sorted. After being cut off the first time, I have not had any representative willing to pass me to a manager to discuss the issue again. In addition, I keep getting quick beeps when phoning the Iberia telephone line and going through the automated system - as if to indicate that the line is busy. This is a ridiculous set of events. The length of time that I have spent trying to contact Iberia and get this resolved is almost the same length of time that she will be on the flight! Most of my posts on FT are frankly very positive, however this IB experience is pushing me to the limit.

In addition, one telephone representative I have spoken to had no record of my conversation with the earlier manager - they tried to transfer me to a supervisor and cut me off in the process. So... after I got through a second time, I asked to speak to a manager to sort the issue out and eventually they tried to put me through again... they transferred me to a manager/supervisor, they transfer me over to the Iberia Gold line who won't take my call and instead transfer me back to the Iberia Classic/Classica line (my IB account is Clasica as I don't put any flights through there, instead crediting to BAEC which is OWS. I only credit some Le Club Accor hotel stays to activate it for redemptions and keep it open). I tried again, and the same thing happened, getting transferred to the Gold line again when they won't take my call. That was three phone calls (each time with 45 minutes on hold) just to get cut off. Honestly, it is ridiculous. I cannot see how there is anything positive in this experience. I'm going to have cancel with the fee and call up again tomorrow to get the fee waived.

craigthemif

Does the Iberia Plus system suck? Yes.
Are there sometimes matters lost in translation between Spanish and English? Yes.
Are IB+ at fault in this case? No.

In order to use Avios when the account holder is not traveling on the same booking, you need to set them up as a beneficiary first.

http://www.iberia.com/ve/iberiaplus/beneficiaries/

In fact, the OP's quote itself clearly states "whoever you wish to accompany you". That is a different matter to booking a flight for somebody else on their own because in no way are they accompanying the account holder.

Could this be made clearer? Undoubtedly. But rules are rules. I would be pissed if anybody could hack my account and book a flight for somebody who wasn't a beneficiary...

irishguy28

The full text on the page you linked to states:

That would appear to indicate that, for solo travel, the person has to be a named beneficiary; if, however, you are travelling with a companion, your presence overrides the requirement that they be named as a beneficiary.