I had an Iberia flight from GRU - MAD booked for early December that was affected by the strike. I had a change in business plans and needed to fly 3 days later, but IB had no flights available. They told me that due to the strike, I would be able to get a refund or change the reservation to a later date at no cost.

Since then, I have made more than 50 calls to Iberia Brazil with no success. 80% of the time, nobody answers the 11-3218-7130/40 reservation numbers and calling the customer relations 0800 number results in a busy tone as soon as you pick an option that routes you to a live person. As far as I can tell IB Brazil offices seem to close for every single city, state and federal holiday for Sao Paulo and Madrid -- frequently. If there are any problems with Iberia in Madrid (strikes, bombs, etc) IB Brazil just seems to unplug the phones for a few days. Unfortunately, sometimes travel plans change and I can't wait days to get someone in Brazil on the phone.

I've been able to get thru to Iberia Brazil a handful of times when I am told either 1) the system is down, please call tomorrow 2) they need to check with a supervisor who is out, please call later 3) drive out to the GRU airport and handle it in person or 4) they put me on hold for a long time and finally disconnect the call.

Calling IB in the US or Spain is useless as they say they can't help and just direct back to the numbers in Brazil.

Has anyone in Brazil had success with Iberia? I'm wondering if service would be better if I used a web proxy to purchase my Brazil flights from the US site.